![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogActually, I don't mind the bored part in the least right about now. In a hair or three over 24 hours, I've already traveled out of and/or into three states, already beating the firm of Yarrow Stookey & Travers LLP by going well over 500 miles before yet facing back toward home, and I've done it on roughly seven hours of sleep in three shifts none exceeding much more than three hours at a time. The grrls from near here have yet to check in, so I am chilling; there's a Netflix that the home front isn't particularly interested in (Matt Damon! as The Informant!), and am nowhere near hungry after a more lunch-than-breakfast of pancakes(!) at my obligatory diner stop du jour north of Albany
----
Getting this far hasn't been without its share of adventure. I mentioned logistics going boom earlier (foretold, perhaps, by the first side street off the Northway exit into Glens Falls being named Big Boom Road). Take a guess which of these fauxes pas I managed to accomplish after starting out on my way yesterday:
□ Came within a hair of depositing the vital last-minute funds into the wrong bank account, which would have bounced my rezzy for tonight and many checks on Monday;
□ Sailed out of range of the Wegman Empire without the one prescription which, if not taken for the 60-plus hours between my last pill and my arrival home tomorrow night, would have turned me into something almost as bad as any random character in the Twilight novels;
□ Despite passing last night's hotel and duly noting its location on the way past it early last night, somehow managed to lose it completely on the return trip from Points North and had to, literally at one point, drive in circles well past 1 a.m. to relocate it;
□ Lost my mobile after having it securely in the car before entering the hotel, failed to find it in either car or room, and only through random quick thinking discovered that I had, in fact, stuck it in the Bad Fast Food Bag From The Only Thing Open At 1 A.M. place and, in worse fact, had actually deposited said bag in the hotel room wastebasket.
Why, yes, I managed to do all of those things. Thanks for playing. Fortunately, all worked out. I caught the deposit error before leaving the branch, knowing damn well I NEVER have $10,000 in a single bank account for more than a day or so. The circles did ultimately go round and bring me back there, and I found and roundabouted through at least one more of them this morning on the way to a local Rite Aid that gave me a regular refill, for the regular co-pay even, simply by calling Wegmans in B-lo and getting my next refill transferred. As for the phone, well, it's fine other than some crumbs from my midnight chicken sammich bun; I was fortunate that housekeeping did not come to take it away (ha ha!) before I figured out that particular piece of stupid.
----
A few more cogent observations on last night's characters, where I was the one in search of authors.
Emma and Jon gave remarkable readings. Unlike many they, at least, have been to, this audience was fairly full and enthused about both the subject matters and the specifics of their written observations on them. Many times, one or the other of them got to a point before I was about to either ask about it or comment on it. Jon, for instance, spoke of the current controversy among dog professionals about the over-anthropomorphism of our canine "babies," and about how unfair it is to them to overdo that, since animal psychologists have concluded that dogs are basically programmed at the level of an autistic child that no amount of training or expectations can move them beyond. As soon as he mentioned the A-word in the dog context, I made a note to mention the work of Temple Grandin in the veterinary field; he got to it (and her) before I did. I likewise mentioned, but only after he'd largely broached the issue, the recent experiences we've discussed with our Friend (and current vet school student)![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ayrshire_of_elm about the importance of grief counseling for the human companions of pets. Jon's most recently published book begins its title with the names of two of his newer dogs, Izzy and Lenore.
While it's mostly about the former, a border collie, who has been a big part of the work Jon's begun doing bringing pet therapy into his home community's hospice program, that's Lenore on the cover. Apparently, his editor told him, border collies are out; labs are in. Hey. If they really want to sell the product, I suppose they could do their own version of the blasphemous Tom Lehrer song and call it "The Vatican Wag."
Emma also picked a great passage to highlight aloud in her first-ever public reading, and it was funny and, in many ways for some of the pedestrian Friday night bookstore crowd, a bit of a surprise;) We also got to talk a lot about other people she mentioned in the book, usually her bringing them up just as I was about to ask about them; and Miss Pearl, the yellow lab of the previous post, was a regal and furry addition to almost the entire evening when she wasn't just curled up in a corner someplace.
I now have an autographed edition of the baseball book (to me), and of Jon's dog book (to Tasha and Ebony), along with many fun memories of a night well spent.
----
Albany itself is a strange place. I've been there before, but rarely beyond a quick court appearance or pit stop at a place to eat on the way to Boston. With all our state budget michigas going on right now, I was more aware of just how much the sense of government employee entitlement is here. Just as Washington passes out miserly amounts of money for public transit to everyone but their own community, Albany and environs have far more of most public-worky things than us peons are used to. Thruway rest stops are bigger, more varied and ten miles apart in most places; west of the 518 area code, they are half-empty and spaced more like 30-40 miles apart. The highways are bigger, wider and almost entirely toll-free. Even the morning diner crowd was people yacking about the impact of the upcoming state budget on Them Them Them. And at least two signs on those big, wide, etc. free expressways pointed proudly to the Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, named for a State Senate Republican hack who, at last report, stood twice-convicted of federal corruption charges and narrowly escaped conviction on a third. I suppose they could change the name now, but what would be the point? Whoever they named it for next will probably be convicted of something worse:P
----
I may add pictures to this later, or do a picspam with all of the shots from the trip. For now, though, I'm off to listen to Matt Damon's confession;)
----
Getting this far hasn't been without its share of adventure. I mentioned logistics going boom earlier (foretold, perhaps, by the first side street off the Northway exit into Glens Falls being named Big Boom Road). Take a guess which of these fauxes pas I managed to accomplish after starting out on my way yesterday:
□ Came within a hair of depositing the vital last-minute funds into the wrong bank account, which would have bounced my rezzy for tonight and many checks on Monday;
□ Sailed out of range of the Wegman Empire without the one prescription which, if not taken for the 60-plus hours between my last pill and my arrival home tomorrow night, would have turned me into something almost as bad as any random character in the Twilight novels;
□ Despite passing last night's hotel and duly noting its location on the way past it early last night, somehow managed to lose it completely on the return trip from Points North and had to, literally at one point, drive in circles well past 1 a.m. to relocate it;
□ Lost my mobile after having it securely in the car before entering the hotel, failed to find it in either car or room, and only through random quick thinking discovered that I had, in fact, stuck it in the Bad Fast Food Bag From The Only Thing Open At 1 A.M. place and, in worse fact, had actually deposited said bag in the hotel room wastebasket.
Why, yes, I managed to do all of those things. Thanks for playing. Fortunately, all worked out. I caught the deposit error before leaving the branch, knowing damn well I NEVER have $10,000 in a single bank account for more than a day or so. The circles did ultimately go round and bring me back there, and I found and roundabouted through at least one more of them this morning on the way to a local Rite Aid that gave me a regular refill, for the regular co-pay even, simply by calling Wegmans in B-lo and getting my next refill transferred. As for the phone, well, it's fine other than some crumbs from my midnight chicken sammich bun; I was fortunate that housekeeping did not come to take it away (ha ha!) before I figured out that particular piece of stupid.
----
A few more cogent observations on last night's characters, where I was the one in search of authors.
Emma and Jon gave remarkable readings. Unlike many they, at least, have been to, this audience was fairly full and enthused about both the subject matters and the specifics of their written observations on them. Many times, one or the other of them got to a point before I was about to either ask about it or comment on it. Jon, for instance, spoke of the current controversy among dog professionals about the over-anthropomorphism of our canine "babies," and about how unfair it is to them to overdo that, since animal psychologists have concluded that dogs are basically programmed at the level of an autistic child that no amount of training or expectations can move them beyond. As soon as he mentioned the A-word in the dog context, I made a note to mention the work of Temple Grandin in the veterinary field; he got to it (and her) before I did. I likewise mentioned, but only after he'd largely broached the issue, the recent experiences we've discussed with our Friend (and current vet school student)
ayrshire_of_elm about the importance of grief counseling for the human companions of pets. Jon's most recently published book begins its title with the names of two of his newer dogs, Izzy and Lenore.While it's mostly about the former, a border collie, who has been a big part of the work Jon's begun doing bringing pet therapy into his home community's hospice program, that's Lenore on the cover. Apparently, his editor told him, border collies are out; labs are in. Hey. If they really want to sell the product, I suppose they could do their own version of the blasphemous Tom Lehrer song and call it "The Vatican Wag."
Emma also picked a great passage to highlight aloud in her first-ever public reading, and it was funny and, in many ways for some of the pedestrian Friday night bookstore crowd, a bit of a surprise;) We also got to talk a lot about other people she mentioned in the book, usually her bringing them up just as I was about to ask about them; and Miss Pearl, the yellow lab of the previous post, was a regal and furry addition to almost the entire evening when she wasn't just curled up in a corner someplace.
I now have an autographed edition of the baseball book (to me), and of Jon's dog book (to Tasha and Ebony), along with many fun memories of a night well spent.
----
Albany itself is a strange place. I've been there before, but rarely beyond a quick court appearance or pit stop at a place to eat on the way to Boston. With all our state budget michigas going on right now, I was more aware of just how much the sense of government employee entitlement is here. Just as Washington passes out miserly amounts of money for public transit to everyone but their own community, Albany and environs have far more of most public-worky things than us peons are used to. Thruway rest stops are bigger, more varied and ten miles apart in most places; west of the 518 area code, they are half-empty and spaced more like 30-40 miles apart. The highways are bigger, wider and almost entirely toll-free. Even the morning diner crowd was people yacking about the impact of the upcoming state budget on Them Them Them. And at least two signs on those big, wide, etc. free expressways pointed proudly to the Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, named for a State Senate Republican hack who, at last report, stood twice-convicted of federal corruption charges and narrowly escaped conviction on a third. I suppose they could change the name now, but what would be the point? Whoever they named it for next will probably be convicted of something worse:P
----
I may add pictures to this later, or do a picspam with all of the shots from the trip. For now, though, I'm off to listen to Matt Damon's confession;)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-28 12:24 am (UTC)OutIn kinda thing.Sabres have been distracting me, building a 5-0 lead which I don't think even they can lose, so I'm starting the film now.
Edit from 30 seconds later: Make that 6-0. All we need do now is vote Ottawa out of the league and I think we've got clear sailing;)
no subject
Date: 2010-03-28 01:37 am (UTC)Damon, Soderbergh and George Clooney were in on this project? Eep.
At least Bakula didn't make a complete imbecile out of HIMself, but he could leap or transport out at any second, so I decided not to count on that.