Advice from a man who probably has no business giving advice: Remain grateful but beware contentment. There, that ought to cover Thanksgiving.
MBW, the HA, and I drove to the Oregon Coast Wednesday for an extended Thanksgiving weekend. The weather was appropriately Oregon Coast-ish: wet and windy, though we did enjoy occasional sun breaks.
Brew day! It has been a while. This is my first attempt at brewing entirely from mail order ingredients. I enjoy living out where I do, but to date I do not have access to a conveniently located home brewing supply store.
Last full weekend of July. And that means: The Oregon Brewers Festival. The family and I made the trek to the Portland waterfront. The HA frolicked in the fountain while wandered a few blocks away for a bit of frolicking of my own. The Festival has made a couple of changes that I did not care for. The organizers ditched the program booklet, substituting a single sheet. And they stopped providing a pen along with the tasting package. So I was forced to type in my notes on my phone with increasingly fumbly fingers. My notes follow a bit farther down.
MBW, the HA, and I returned from Mexico Friday night. Saturday we loaded up the car and drove south to Springfield, Oregon. At least the cat had one night to reunite with MBW before we abandoned her again.
Today is the is the wedding of one of my cousins. Other than the 90+ degree heat, it’s a fine day for it.
We reached Springfield around 1PM Saturday. We hit Plank Town Brewing for lunch. I like the space; open, brick and timber. The food was decent. The flights disappointed me: instead of picking from the available beers, there were three pre-selected options. I don’t object to an IPA only flight, but I’d prefer to able to sample a greater range of the offerings. The New England style IPA exceeded expectations, the other three…did not.
We still had time before we could check-in to our hotel. So we visited the Springfield museum. Springfield is, of course, the actual inspiration for the hometown of The Simpsons. I don’t care what else you may have heard, it just is. Springfield is located next to Eugene. Eugene is the college town, Springfield the blue collar town. An admirable pairing, if you ask me.
The wedding was a sprawling, family affair, the family now that much larger. Perfection would have required about a ten degree decrease in temperature. But why quibble. We had to leave relatively early during the post-ceremony festivities to make it home at a reasonable hour. Congrats to the newlyweds.
I hope that ends my travels for the near future. As much as I generally enjoy travelling, I need a break. Back to the office tomorrow.
MBW is on a business trip to Monterrey. Monterrey is a vast, sprawling metropolis in Northeastern Mexico. It’s grown even larger since my last visit, not long ago. MBW brought me along with her to entertain the HA. The Airbnb we rented boasts an impressive view (when smog and clouds allow), a gym, cafeteria, and — most importantly — a swimming pool. The HA and I have spent numerous hours in the pool and we’re only at the halfway mark of the trip. I expect many more.
Denver, I hardly knew thee. That’s because I spent most of the last four plus days in the Hyatt Regency. The hotel hosted Westercon 71, yet another convention foolish enough to invite me to sit on panels and pontificate. That required I stay inside most of the time, preventing my touring the city.
The weather has become suspiciously summer-like. You know what that means? Beach weekend.
Here follows a miscellany of personal doings and writing updates. Please control your excitement.
My goal for the year was, I believe, to have two books out this year. That — spoiler warning — will not happen. See, there is a novel — “Boss” — complete, ready to go, and under contract. But the publisher wants a series, and wants to release the books on a tighter schedule than “whenever Ken gets around to writing them.” So I’m busily working on two sequels with the goal of releasing them all next year. That may prevent me from diving into the second draft of the “Chale Thorson” novel for the foreseeable future. Thus, 2018 may not see much published from yours truly, but 2019 will be chock-a-block.
I celebrated yesterday with MBW and the HA. You know why? Of course you don’t. So I’ll tell you: Saturday, May the Fifth, I completed the first draft of Chale Thorson Book One: The Jade Dagger. (What do you think about the series title? I’m still considering it.)
So that’s NanoCon Mk. V done. What is NanoCon? It is a science fiction convention hosted by the science fiction club of Longview Community College in Longview Washington, a port town on the Columbia River about an hour from the Pacific. It isn’t big. I doubt two hundred people attended. Hence, I presume, “Nano.”
Still, as Gandalf probably reassured himself, size isn’t everything.