No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on January 28, 2018

Managed to have a nice day yesterday weather wise so I took down the holiday lights that were still on the house but not lit at night. Today has been very damp but considering that most years we have snow at this time, I’ll take the rain.

A neighbor put up “Valentine’s Day” lights to continue the holiday light theme.

Plumbing repaired and now I need to get things back in order and create new Meep-Morp (Art). I have a really wacky idea that I want to execute before Farpoint. I have most of the materials in place.

Caroline is embarking on her first solo costume and sketch for Farpoint with a friend of hers. I am so proud.

I have a rant that I have been debating about but an article I saw on-line makes it imperative that I say something. Beginnings of it are basically Intellectual is NOT a dirty word.

I am grateful for brick and mortar stores.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 26, 2018

Kitty politics can be interesting. It also can be destructive. Inky and Mewlan were either fighting or playing. We couldn’t quite tell. When Mewlan tried to go for the higher ground by jumping up the drapes that are old and very sun worn. I now have some holes to repair in the drapes or just chuck these and get new ones.

Other than the occasional spat, the three of them are getting along fine to the point that I have found them asleep in a pile. Mewlan is socializing with us more and is not flipping out when you touch her.

Two weeks to Farpoint which means that I have to start storing out things for the convention. I thought I had three weeks but that is not the case.

I still have to finish putting away from the last convention. Part of that was on hold until we had the plumber replace the upstairs toilet for which they had to get into a closet to make sure that everything was fine. Now that is done so we move onto the next thing.

I noticed something when I was bowling last night. When I could put the power behind my ball, I struck. If I didn’t, then my evil hook was there but I would get some very hard to pick up leaves. This morning my shoulder feels like it is on fire. I injured it this summer and babied it thinking it was getting better but the past couple of weeks has informed me that is not the case so off to the Doctor I go. I also did something to my elbow when I struck it on the edge of the couch. There was a lovely bruise but it is still tender after three weeks. I think my right arm is in rebellion.

This weekend is a busy one but around here rather than going off elsewhere. Caroline has activities related to her high school. There are errands that need to be run and cat boxes to clean.

In one of those happenstances where I find a bunch of articles on the same topic. Apparently the act of writing things down is better for the memory than typing or saying it into your electronic device. Each has its uses but the act of writing is important. If you can write in cursive, all the better.

Off to start on the first part of my current to-do list.

I am grateful for things that help me organize my thoughts.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 25, 2018

Bailey Holt had gone to school and was probably doing what most teenagers do at school. Her mother figured that her daughter was safe because she was at school.

Bailey Holt was shot and killed in her high school by a fellow student.

Her mother said that her daughter was a sweet soul.

Her classmates describe her as always having a smile and a kind word. She was, according to those who knew her, a very positive person you wanted to be around.

I am sure we will find out more about her in the days to come.

My prayers and sympathies are with the Holt family and all of Bailey’s friends who now have to deal with her senseless death.

Bailey Holt was 15 years old.

Do you know who else is 15 years old and currently in the middle of her first set of midterms in High School? Caroline.

I send her to school every day where she is thriving and learning. She had joined the model UN group. She is a mechanic for her High School Robotics Team. She spends time with her friends talking about their futures and what they want to do with their lives.

Caroline’s life in some ways is a bit more of an open book than most kids because of her father and I writing about her life. She tolerates this for the most part only occasionally asking us to NOT TALK ABOUT (fill in the blank).

The thought that I could send her into a massacre chills me to my very core. I am sure Bailey’s mom didn’t think about that possibility when she sent her daughter off to school that morning. I didn’t either but now it lurks in the back of my head.

Even scarier is that there have been ELEVEN school related shootings in 2018 and we are only on the 24th of January. That’s just school related.

Today I am driving Caroline to the high school for her living environment mid-term. She didn’t have the test until the afternoon and it seemed absurd for her to have to take her usual bus in then sit in the cafeteria until test time. Tomorrow the second half of her school year starts and Robotics goes into full build-mode

Today Bailey’s family has to plan her funeral.

I am so very grateful that I can hug my daughter.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 24, 2018

When I was young I read “A Wizard of Earthsea” and I loved it. So I did what I always did when I found a new author and tried to read everything that I could find by that author. “The Left Hand of Darkness” changed the way I perceived the world. Her work challenged me and made me question what I really did believe. She knew how to write and engage me as a reader.

I first met her when she came back to Emory, where she had been a secretary in the biology department, and did a talk. I told her how much her work had meant to me.

Fast forward a number of years and we ended up on a couple of panels together at various conventions and conferences. She made sure that everyone on the panel got to say something on the topic at hand. When she spoke we all listened very carefully.

We had a lot of friends in common and those friends are hurting today as we now have a hole in our universe that she fit in.

There are also all her fans and people she helped through her writing who are missing her.

We have lost a giant in the literary world.

<i>I talk about the gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth.</i>- Ursula K. Le Guin

I am grateful that I did get to tell her how much her work meant to me.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 18, 2018

I find it amazing that I am sitting in an airplane flying to Atlanta to get a car to drive to Chattanooga to go to ChattaCon and I have internet access at this height. I am on my iPad which has a keyboard that allows me to type this entry.

30 years ago none of these magical tablets existed. 40 years ago the personal computer was in its infancy. 50 years ago it would take two building to generate the capacity that the object I am typing on.

Science fiction becoming science fact.

I am watching a film that I want to watch on the screen in the back of the seat in front of me and it is not the film that the guy across the row or even a seat next to me is watching. I can choose my entertainment rather than have it chosen for me. I even have a plug that allows me to power my iPad so the battery will not run down if I choose.

It must be easier for the crew if the passengers are entertained while flying. There is not much else to do until we land.

Caroline can use her computer and drawing pad if she wishes. Currently she is doing what she usual does when flying. She is sound asleep on my shoulder. She will probably wake up about 20 minutes to landing like she usually does. She is a seasoned traveler.

I am grateful for on time departure.

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