And the latest...
Jul. 18th, 2022 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catherineldfThis has been, on the one hand, several weeks of some big accomplishments. It has also included getting carjacked at gunpoint on my block, which my friend whose car was stolen and I could have very much done without. We had gone to the Riverview to see Thor: Love and Thunder (it was okay, but definitely not as good as Ragnorak) and we were chatting in the car before I got when my friend looked over my shoulder and said, "Oh shit." I turned around to find a masked teenager with a gun pointed at us gesturing at me to roll the window down. His companion was on the other side of the car and they demanded our cash and our phones, (along with unlock codes). We turned those over and they had us get out out of the car, took my friend's keys and one sped off in the car and the other made a getaway through our back yard.
We waited until they were gone, then went inside to borrow my wife's phone to call the police. Despite all the dire predictions to the contrary, they showed up within ten minutes, burbled at the cats, were quite polite and set off in pursuit of where my friend's phone tracker suggested they had gone. We spent a jolly hour or so changing passwords and I had to wake J up repeatedly because I just could not remember her pictograph sign-in. Then we got to spend another hour and a half trying to get my friend back into their secure building without keys or an onsite resource. We did eventually succeed but I didn't get to bed until 1AM.
And, since I don't have vacation or sick time, went back into work the next morning for hell week. My friend's car was found, but he can't get it back until they're done processing it. I spent a week without a phone because my now former service provider, Credo Mobile, simply could not grok that I did not have handfuls of spare phones laying around and refuse to work with me unless I called. The 10 hour work days, plus no phone, plus the r/Fantasy AMA on Friday (which was fun, but I was really scattered because work did not let up) made that impossible, so on Saturday, I took myself off to the T-Mobile store in St. Paul and their nice staff made it all better. New phone, new plan and all.
So, exhausting and scary, but survived. And the AMA was lots of fun, as was West St. Paul Pride. This week's adventure will be our Thursday night reading at DreamHaven - do come by if you're up it and live in the area. I moved the Dancing Bear book/art table to August 14th because even I know I'm running on empty.
Otherwise:
We waited until they were gone, then went inside to borrow my wife's phone to call the police. Despite all the dire predictions to the contrary, they showed up within ten minutes, burbled at the cats, were quite polite and set off in pursuit of where my friend's phone tracker suggested they had gone. We spent a jolly hour or so changing passwords and I had to wake J up repeatedly because I just could not remember her pictograph sign-in. Then we got to spend another hour and a half trying to get my friend back into their secure building without keys or an onsite resource. We did eventually succeed but I didn't get to bed until 1AM.
And, since I don't have vacation or sick time, went back into work the next morning for hell week. My friend's car was found, but he can't get it back until they're done processing it. I spent a week without a phone because my now former service provider, Credo Mobile, simply could not grok that I did not have handfuls of spare phones laying around and refuse to work with me unless I called. The 10 hour work days, plus no phone, plus the r/Fantasy AMA on Friday (which was fun, but I was really scattered because work did not let up) made that impossible, so on Saturday, I took myself off to the T-Mobile store in St. Paul and their nice staff made it all better. New phone, new plan and all.
So, exhausting and scary, but survived. And the AMA was lots of fun, as was West St. Paul Pride. This week's adventure will be our Thursday night reading at DreamHaven - do come by if you're up it and live in the area. I moved the Dancing Bear book/art table to August 14th because even I know I'm running on empty.
Otherwise:
- Finished a new article for DreamFoundry
- Applied for Social Security for Jana and got the process rolling to cash in a small retirement before it vanishes into the ether.
- Did a bunch of stuff on my various accounts to consolidate and simplify.
- Did some writing, including a Patreon post about the Twin Cities street car system, which features prominently in Michael Merriam's Last Car to Annwn Station, which we released this month.
- Got in touch with an eldercare business and am starting the process for evaluations, etc.