Apr. 14th, 2013

kevin_standlee: (Hugo Sign)
James Nicoll questions whether there should be four written-fiction Hugos. Comments over there, please.

Home Again

Apr. 14th, 2013 11:19 pm
kevin_standlee: (Fernley)
Lisa surprised everyone by driving down to Sacramento and meeting me at the Westercon 66 staff meeting at the Sacramento Hilton today. She drove the Small Orange Pickup, so we had the idea that possibly I could tow her pickup back home behind my Chevrolet Astro minivan, which we figured would save a little fuel and also allow us to ride home together.

After the meeting, we hooked her pickup behind my van with the tow-bar she has for the pickup. I towed that pickup behind the large moving van we rented for the move from Oregon. My Astro has a theoretical 5,000-pound towing capacity, and her pickup doesn't weigh more than about 2/3 of that. Hitching things up went easily, and there seemed no problem with me starting and stopping with the pickup behind me. However, as soon as I got up to speed to enter the freeway, we had trouble. The pickup was trying to drive my van. We were starting to weave and would not stabilize.

Lisa said, "This isn't going to work." I took the next exit, found a quiet side street, and we decoupled the vehicles. We then got the 2m amateur and CB radios warmed up and started to convoy home instead.

The drive home was relatively uneventful. Snow was just starting to fall as we approached Donner Summit, but not enough to cause concern, and it turned back to rain at Truckee, then faded out completely as we continued east. We stopped in Sparks to have dinner and buy groceries, and then headed home. It took a while to unpack both vehicles: groceries from the pickup and my luggage and additional stuff from my van. Just as we got the last load into the house, a cold rain began to fall. The weather forecast for late Monday: 60% chance of snow. I'm glad we don't have to go anywhere tomorrow.
kevin_standlee: (Hugo Sign)
Apologies to [livejournal.com profile] james_nicoll for my grumpy aside before I responded with relevant facts on the discussion on his LJ. I decided that the best thing I could say when complained at for my grump — yes, I guess I am bit tender on the subject — was nothing at all. I appreciate those of you who came to my defense. It matters to me more than you may know to know that you noticed.

Update, 15 Apr 0930: The person who initially chided me has apologized after having plowed through the entire discussion that made me grumpy in the first place. Thank you.

May 2025

S M T W T F S
     1 2 3
4 5 6 78 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21222324
25262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 22nd, 2025 05:52 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios