Today is the last day of my vacation; I return to full time work next Monday. Late this morning, Lisa and set off for Reno to return the U-Haul trailer, after which we had many more errands ( Read more... )

We deliberately scheduled one extra day in Tonopah after the move-out day for two reasons: (1) Leaving time in case there was some sort of post-con hitch that needed our attention, such as a complication in move-out, and (2) If the first did not apply, giving us a day when we could sleep without worrying about hotel check-out. Item 1 did not apply ( Read more... )

There have not been many people complaining directly to Westercon 74 about our vaccination-and-masking policy. What they don't seem to get is that the choice is not between holding the convention with our policy or holding it without such a policy. It is between holding the convention with our policy or not holding it at all because you can't run ( Read more... )

Lisa and I had plans for yesterday. However, inasmuch as both of us felt tired and achy, we called off all plans and took the day off. It probably is our reaction to the COVID-19 booster shots we had on Saturday. As I recall, we had somewhat similar reactions to the previous shots. It wasn't that bad, although I'm glad it timed out in such a way ( Read more... )

I noticed this morning that there were available appointments for COVID-19 shots starting at 11:30 AM at the same pharmacy in Sparks where we had received our first three shots. Lisa agreed that, now that people 50 and older are eligible for a second booster shot, there was no time like the present to get boosted. I made our appointments, printed ( Read more... )

Westercon 74 sent the following announcement to all of its members today (except for the ten members who don't have email but do have paper mail addresses: we sent a paper letter to each of them yesterday):

( COVID-19 Policy: Vaccination and Masks Required )

We once again did a grocery trip to Reno in the wee hours of Saturday morning. I got up two hours before my usual alarm time, and we managed to get to WinCo (the large 24-hour grocery store in Reno) about 3:30 AM. It was less busy than it had been last weekend when we did this two hours later or so. We were pleased to see that most of the staff ( Read more... )

We were fortunate that the first available taxi to take us from the Omni Shoreham to Washington Union Station was big enough to hold all of our luggage. It was a roundabout, fare-padding trip that also gave us a few glimpses of DC sights we didn't have a chance to see earlier before depositing us at Union Station. I was able to check our planned ( Read more... )

Unfortunately, we learned today that a member of the DisCon III staff has tested positive for COVID. From the way it was reported, it seems unlikely to me that we would have come into close contact with whoever it was, but out of caution, we took another COVID-19 test.

( All Clear, for Now )

This afternoon, Lisa and I went to Sparks for our COVID-19 Pfizer booster. As with the previous shots and our flu shots, all we have so far is minor pain from the shot itself. Neither of us have had significant reactions to our past vaccinations, so we are not expecting anything from this one. And with Loscon/Westercon followed by Worldcon in close ( Read more... )