No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on February 19, 2015

Personally I had always heard Year of the Ram so that’s the one I am going to stick with. Also if one dropped the ball on one’s New Years resolution, here is the second chance.

A lot going on here at Casa David right now along with a lot of waiting for the other shoes to drop.

We came home from Farpoint to no heat in the house. Got oil and no heat except in zone 1. Had the heating engineer over and rapidly discovered we had a leak from a broken pipe that was flooding Peter’s office. Had to quickly get stuff out of the area of the leak. Called a plumber to fix the leak but had to shut off the heat until the leak was fixed. Leak is fixed but one of the zones still isn’t working. We are trying to thaw it by heating up the rooms with space heaters carefully and listening for water dripping or seeing water dripping if we have another leak somewhere. Meanwhile the first floor looks like a bomb hit it.

So think really good thoughts for our heating system and Sunday, which will be the first day above freeze in almost a month.

I learned yesterday that the Apple store doesn’t service machines over 5 years old. Peter’s is 7 so you see where this is going. Peter’s hard drive on his computer has been slowly dying and is now kaput. To get it up and running, we have installed an external hard drive and used the last back-up to get his computer back to where it was. Since then I have backed up the laptop and all the iItems in the house. We get to see if this solves his problem as he launches into the next two things he must write.

If it does, then I have my laptop to work on a couple of different projects that I want/need to work on. If not then he goes back onto my laptop and we figure it out from there.

I think we skipped con crud this year. Someone did point something out that I didn’t even think about and that’s the bowls of communal munchies that are in the con suite. One infected hand goes in and a bunch of people can get ill. Makes me rethink noshing a bit.

So today is going to be about clearing up some space to put the stuff that had to come up from the basement and dealing with the room on the first floor that now has water damage.

If I get some free time then writing and puppets come into the picture but until I know the heat is working all through out the house, I am going to be on pins and needles waiting to see if I have to go into ‘save the stuff’ mode or not. Now pardon me as I go check the boiler pressure again.

I am grateful for the pipes that don’t break but thaw and allow heat back into the upstairs radiators.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 17, 2015

The main reason I haven’t updated until now is that the wifi on this side of the hotel does not exist. It becomes a whole thing to get onto the Internet in the hotel lobby.

That and Peter is finishing up his next Star Trek: New Frontier novel and so the computer is being used for that. He is at the point where he is really on a roll and heading for the end of the story. So any spare time he had is being spent writing.

Caroline has been having a blast. She has a number of friends who come to this convention and they run around in their little group just like Ariel did back in the day. I see her when she gets hungry and when she checks in with us.

I was not schedule for any panels this year so I have had some free time to talk to people. I have caught up with a number of friends and met new people as well.

Peter had been doing his usual convention stuff.

All in all a pretty quiet convention. The most excitement, if you can call it that, has been the weather which has been a bit nasty the past 24 hours. I think a lot of people have memories of Farpoint’s past where we got snowed in.

And for the first time in quite a while, I didn’t bring any puppets. Felt a little weird and I don’t think I’ll be doing that anytime soon. I got a crazy idea for DragonCon that I might have to do. Or it may turn into a puppet slam piece. I just have to figure out how to built top hats and derbies for my sized puppets. Or I might go for my first all female puppet display.

I have been given a writing challenge. Can’t say more than that but it should be interesting. I am going to give it a go and see if I can pull this off. I have to do some research along the way.

I did discover some more theater folk in my convention circle. They didn’t know my background nor I theirs but it sure gave us something to talk about. Someone asked me if I missed stage managing. I said there are parts that I miss and other parts that I am so glad I am not dealing with. I still know how to do it if called upon and it is interesting to see where that skill set has been useful.

I even got to talk puppets this weekend with a fellow puppeteer that I have talked to online for a number of years but we met face to face for the first time here.

It was nice to just have time to do what I wanted to do or what Peter needed me to do.

(the next day)
The drive to and from was not bad. A few spots of traffic and we avoided pothole repair both ways.

We got home and the cats were happy to see us since the heat had gone out. That problem is solved and they are much happier then they were.

So lots of fun. Next year I will be putting something in the art show and I might be on a panel or two.

I am grateful that Farpoint is the convention that it is.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 10, 2015

But first since this is my space on the Internet, I get to be a proud Mother. Caroline got her grades for the second marking period and continues with her straight A average. In fact her GPA went up a little. I am very very proud of all the effort she put into getting good grades and her schoolwork.

The other day Peter received an invitation to write for an anthology. He looked at the page rate and politely declined. It wasn’t worth his time to write a story for that little amount of money. He knows what his writing minimums are for any project.

David Gerrold had a listing on his Facebook page looking for someone to write a 300 page graphic novel for $200 and the possibility of some money in the future if the idea takes off. I can tell you that I have gotten $100 a page for writing a comic book story.

An artist friend, yeah I have a couple of those, was approached by a midsized but growing company to create a logo/mascot for the company. She gave them her minimum and the restrictions on the use of the logo. They told her it would be good exposure for her and could she take less. The less was a third of what she quoted them and they wanted her to sign away all rights to her work to them. She said no thank you politely and walked away from the project. The new logo they are currently using looks very generic and not very interesting.

I was asked recently how much it would cost for me to create a puppet for an event. I gave them my fee which they balked at. They shopped around and found that my fee was lower than a lot of other people they talked to. Eventually they got an FAO Shwartz Muppet puppet and dressed it for what they wanted. Less than what I would have charged but that’s the business. I know how much my time is worth.

I think what I feel most annoyed about is that those in the creative side of the industry are taken for granted. The people who want to purchase from them don’t seem to understand that they are not getting just that story or puppet or logo, but all the work that went behind getting to the point that the object can be produced. All the practice that went into learning a craft. All the words that were written before finally being published. All the puppet parts that were failures. All the seams that had to be ripped out and re-sewn as one learns how to make it properly. All the paper and pens and doodles and drawing that has led to the ability to create some pretty kicking logos.

I haven’t heard anyone try to lowball a heart surgeon or a dentist or an accountant (OK I have heard one about an accountant but that was a weird tale and involved some shady people). Other professionals are not questioned about their fees or offered exposure to further their careers.

I may not sell as many puppets but those I do sell will be worth my time making them. And the buyer gets my 30 years of experience making them during which I have learned a little something about puppet building.

I am grateful when people pay a fair amount for the work I put into my art.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 6, 2015

We went from 3 days of snow with another possible foot of accumulation to rain into ice and less than an inch of snow. I am OK with that. I am figuring that we will get hit later in the season. If we don’t, I will not cry any tears because right now my back yard looks like a frozen lake and they would freeze to my face.

Today I had Caroline bundle up because it is 9 degrees F with a wind chill of -3. I don’t want any of her flesh exposed if I can avoid it.

I am fighting either allergies or a cold. I can’t tell which way it is going. I also have to go by the Doctor’s office to pick up a lab slip today because my measles vaccine might not be enough to keep me from getting measles since I was vaccinated back in the 60s. Unless I got a booster that I forgot. I can then make the lab appointment for both that and a thyroid test that is going to come back normal but they are just trying to cross their t’s and dot their i’s.

Right now the cats are having some spat. I think it might be territorial. Fig has been attacking both Millie and Inky. Inky is now big enough that she is fighting back. I have been picking claw chunks out of Millie’s fur. I will say that Inky’s fluffy tail has managed to dust some places I haven’t been able to get to easily.

Yes, I have had coffee but my brain still feels asleep.

Onto the rest of the day I guess.

I am grateful for a large storm giving us a miss.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 3, 2015

Yesterday we went from snow to ice to mix to rain to mix to sleet to ice to snow.

Even more hazardous was that we had a layer of water under the ice sheet which formed very rapidly when the temperature plummeted 10 degrees in an hour. There was very little (no) traction on the roads at that point.

Now everything is frozen solid and the land is a sheet of ice covering by a thin layer of snow.

Caroline’s school is on a two hour delay this morning but they are going to re-assess the situation to see if they can safely get the children to and from school. Again it is the side streets that will determine if they can do this.

We do still have the ability to make French toast and will have for another day or so. We are a little lean on fresh fruit and veg but we can live with that.

I am figuring that we aren’t going anywhere today either. Good thing we have plenty to do here.

And the forecast is calling for more snow again Sunday into Monday. I am hoping like this past storm that the south shore gets less and the east is better than the west end of the Island since we got it in the teeth last Monday.

Caroline is wearing her snow boots and taking her sneakers with her. I got flashbacks to Mom putting plastic bags over my shoes so I could slide them into rubber boots to keep my feet dry and warm. She is also taken a sweater to wear around the school to keep warm when she needs it.

Right now most of our lives seem to revolve around the weather. All I know is that we have used most of the built in snow days and we are going to start losing the extra days around some of the holidays like Memorial Day weekend. Not a big deal for us but I know a couple of families that had plans over that weekend that involved some travel.

I am grateful for things that keep us from slip sliding away.

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