Today I waited around the house for my DSL connection to be hooked up because Qwest said that I had to be home between nine and five, which was a nice, narrow window. It was okay, because I also had to be here for the gutter guys to come give me an estimate, and to sign for my cell phone when it arrived.
The downside to this, was that I also had to go down to the Portland Spirit to do a video shoot as the Cinnamon Bear. I was getting ready to leave and–behold!–UPS arrives with the modem setup for my DSL. He rang the bell and just dropped it off; I didn’t have to be here at all. For that. But the gutter guys were still coming, so I wrote a note, apologizing for having to leave, and explaining my concerns about the roof. I taped it to the front door and biked off.
Slowly. We were having some Icelandic weather here. The wind was so strong that it was like biking up hill all the time, so it took me twice as long to get there as usual.
It took about three minutes to shoot the promotional spot (I have to say, that my bear suit is nicer, but it’s also more expensive so, there you go.) and then I got on the bike to head home again.
There was an estimate taped to the door. I’ll call them tomorrow.
No cell phone. So I call and discover that the order had not gone through. The guy tries to cancel it and redo the order. He’s very nice; we get everything sorted out. Then two minutes later he calls back to say that the first order went through after all. Oy. So two cell phones are coming here. I’m supposed to be able to send it back and get a full refund. He was really apologetic.
So after sorting all of that out, I talked to the window folks again and got that lined up. He’s dropping off the contract tomorrow.
Which just left me time to go down to the NaNoWriMo write-in downtown. It’s nice to sit around other people who are frantically typing. I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but the companionship was a nice change.
The really fun thing came on the bus ride home (remember the wind? Add rain to that and darkness. Not good biking conditions). I struck up a conversation with a fellow who makes his living betting on horse races. Fascinating. He said that he used to go with his dad when he was little, and has been betting for thirty years. The way he talks about it, it’s like a full-time job. He was just coming home from a track and was going home to go online to research the races for the next day. We had twenty minutes of conversation about a world that is completely alien to me. I loved it.
I’m amazed that you write at your get togethers. Mostly, the SLC ‘write ins’ are a social gathering with a few people writing and lots of people visiting.
I’ve been showing up (or coordinating) these get togethers for a while now and it is rather fun to see people who meet and become fast friends the rest of the year.
Now if we could only get Beth to show up to one… she is the other ML after all…
Yeah, I asked her how her novel was going and she shushed me.
At least you got a response! She just ignores me. Me!
You need to ask her about her birthday party – by all accounts a good time was had by all. According to the pictures, the most fun was with Skipper and Gilligan…
I asked her. Apparently for twenty bucks, she will do anything.
That’s good to know… I need my house painted!