It's been a quiet week in Mystery House, my home

[teddywolf]

For the most part the weather has been fairly predictable here, for July. Warm sunny days, cooler humid nights - those were the rule until this week. The last several days have been fairly cool, overcast days, sometimes with rain, and nights that have been cold enough to keep the house the equivalent of air conditioned all the way through. It got cold enough that I had to shut the window in the bedroom and crawl under a blanket to feel warm enough at night.

The fact that the window had been open in the bedroom at all is actually amazing. During the warmed days I wanted the window shut, as I figured the hot air would come in; but I wanted the window open at night to help cool the room, which was feeling quite warm and rather stuffy. Tigerlily, however, did not want the window open at all. 'Mold spores will come into the bedroom,' she said, 'and it will trigger my allergies.'

So, for weeks we had all of the windows shut. This was a problem. We did put two small fans in the room, one fast, the other not very, and turned them on as fast as they would go; but all they did was to blow warm air around the warm room. Late at night I would come into the bedroom, my body in Furnace Boy mode, and the room would get warmer by at least five degrees before the end of the night. Several times I ended up sleeping on the couch, where the air conditioning was running and where I wouldn't overheat Tigerlily.

Finally, a few weeks back we opened the window. We didn't open it much. Less than a handspan of clearence could be found between the windowsill and the window, but it was enough. The room stayed cooler on cooler nights and I got to spend more time sleeping next to my kitty. And it was good.

But recently it's been much cooler. I need to be warm enough to sleep well, and if it's particularly cold in a room I have a great deal of trouble getting to sleep. This has been true since I was a child. When I was little, my father would come upstairs after my sister and I had been put to bed for the night and, during the winter, turn down the thermostat for our heat zone in the house to sixty two degrees. The thermostat was centrally located in the heating zone, at least a foot higher than both my bed and my sister's, and nowehre near the aluminum-frame windows which developed frost on the inside during the winter.

I tried sleeping under a dozen thick blankets, trying to be Mount Teddypup, but it did nothing for the cold air in the room itself. It would not surprise me if at least some of the times my sister and I got sick when we were young could be directly attributed to Dad turning down the heat so low. As I got older I got rebellious. I was tired of freezing under twelve blankets and breathing cold air. So, many nights I would wait for our father to come upstairs and change the thermostat. After he finished and went to bed himself I would leave my bedroom, as quietly as I could manage, and turn the heat back up - sometimes as high as seventy two degrees. As that house had no soundproofing whatsoever, no carpeting, and the floorboards had an alarming tendency to creak a little bit with every step, it was an excellent school for the art of stealth. I have no doubt that the family currently living in that house are by now either highly-paid ninjas or accomplished xylophone-stair players.

Me, I'm both. IN fact, I've gotten so stealthy that sometimes people won't notice I'm there until several seconds after I've touched them.

This week the Democratic National Convention has been in town. Ayesha has fled for a week to the wilds of Kentucky, where she is at this moment playing with a baby named Grace. If the baby is anything like her mother she will exemplify that name within a couple of years at most. Her parents are readying themselves for a move to the vicinity of the District of Columbia, where her father will start at a law firm. The family is excited about the move. Back to civilization near their friends, they both think, back to socializing. The area where they live now is fairly civilized, mind - it has highways and an airport and Whole Foods and fast foods and museums and libraries and modern hospitals - but without friends in relatively easy reach it's not much like home.

While Ayesha is out Tigerlily is covering the front desk at work. This means it's harder for her to do her long term projects, as she will be interrupted more often, but the front desk must be covered and while she is there she is the one to do it. They still have a bit over a month before the students will return. Most of the prodding of parents and faculty to finish vital paperwork has been successful, but there are some recalcitrant holdouts who want to be poked with sharper sticks. It will all come together at the very end with a great deal of effort, and it will as usual be worth it; but this year it has a price.

This year the World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention is back in Boston. This is one of the biggest science fiction conventions of the year, completely fan run, where the most prestigious awards for science fiction and fantasy are awarded. The convention is considered the shining star of science fiction fandom and the hotel rooms are always expensive. This yeaar it's in our city, but Tigerlily is too overworked to go. Hopefully we can hold a small party at Mystery House so she can see some of the visitors who seldom come out here but will be in town for the convention.

Yesterday I felt like the Ugly Duckling. This was compounded by my current joblessness. Several people chatted with me for a while, and each person helped in their own way. And for this I am glad.
Right now I have only one request for the Almighty on helping my peace of mind: either let me land a job I like that will more than cover all expenses, or give me a Publisher's ClearingHouse grand prize. I promise I'll be happy enough with the former, but I admit I'll be much quieter in my complaints in Your direction if I get the latter. I ask you to do us both a favor here.

And that's the news from Mystery House, my home, where all the women are stong, all the men are good looking, and all the felines are above you.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Good luck in your bargaining with the Powers That Be. Who knows, you might even get option B -- reminding you to be careful of what you wish for :-)

I must respectfully disagree with you in one particular. The Hugo Awards are well respected, but are the second-most prestigious set of awards in SF/F, both in my opinion and those of a number of other folks'. Particularly, I know of some large number of professionals in the field who would vastly prefer to win a Nebula Award than a Hugo.

Then again, I know of some filmmakers who'd rather have the respect of their peers than a huge box office. Me, I would rather have both.

Maybe I should be careful what I wish for :-D

[gingicat]

It's not so much that I'm too overworked to go, as that's the week before classes start where I work and therefore if I take time to go to WorldCon, everyone *else* will be overworked. But I plan to spend Thursday evening and maybe Friday evening and perhaps some of Saturday at least visiting with friends there, even if I can't afford a day pass.

Prayers for money...

[http://users.livejournal.com/kai_/]

My dad tells this joke:

Hymie, a good little Jew, prays every week to God, "God please, just once, I would like to win the lottery." He prays this to God for 20 years. "Please, God, just once I would like to win the lottery."

One day, a booming voice from above says, "Hymie!"

Hymie says, "God, is that you?!"

God answers, "Yes, Hymie, this is God. I'd like to help you out, but you have to do me a favor!"

"Yes, God, anything You ask!"

"Buy a ticket."

Temperature in bedrooms

[feodora.livejournal.com]

That is a never ending story witb me and my boyfriend. I like it fresh with no more than 18 °C ( I think your temperure is mesured in a different unit) and he like it warm and humid.

The same with our holiday places. He likes South america in summer (south summer) I like australian or namibian desert in (south) spring or winter.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

>>>Ayesha has fled for a week to the wilds of Kentucky, where she is at this moment playing with a baby named Grace. If the baby is anything like her mother she will exemplify that name within a couple of years at most.<<<

*blush*

Thank you.

[catchild.livejournal.com]

was your interview on the 26th?

how did it go?

hugs

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

I had two interviews on the 26th, both went fairly well. Time will see what happens with them.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I also have a tendency to sneak up on people without meaning to... a few years ago a friend gave me a necklace with a bell in it to try and counteract that, but it doesn't usually chime when I move. :-)