kevin_standlee: Kevin after losing a lot of weight. He peaked at 330, but over the following years got it down to 220 and continues to lose weight. (Default)
2025-07-05 09:30 pm
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Wake Up, Kevin

I had to come out of hibernation this morning, because we concluded that due to needed to be at Westercon/BayCon through the end of the convention on Monday, we had to stay an extra day. Fortunately, I brought one of my work computers and was able to put the PTO request. I called the front desk and they told me that while they could extend my stay, I couldn't get the convention rate and it would cost more than $100 more per night. I winced but said yes. Then I had to go down and get our keys recoded because I'm the one with the ID. I then handed everything back over to Kayla.
kevin_standlee: (SMOF License)
2025-07-03 11:27 pm

On to Westercon

I got away from home at 5:30, but immediately had to stop for fuel because I forgot to refuel last night. I also stopped in Reno to grab a breakfast sandwich, Donner Summit for the rest area, Colfax for coffee and a restroom, Lodi Junction to refuel, Livermore for coffee, and Fremont to buy Kayla some nail polish remover because she forgot to pack some, before getting to the Marriott about 1:30 PM. That's really good time for me. I managed to miss Reno and Sacramento's rush hours, and when I reached the Bay Area, I was going against the holiday get-away traffic.

Moving In )

I am not sure if I'll post much about the convention while it's going on. Friday in particular is super-busy, with the Preliminary WSFS Business Meeting online at 9 AM, and the Opening Ceremony of BayCon/Westercon at 1 PM, followed by Site Selection opening at 2:30 PM. Furthermore, I personally am not going to be around the convention. I've delegated everything to Kayla. And I'm clearly not going to get enough sleep, which is bad.
kevin_standlee: Kevin beind the Worldcon 76 info table at Westercon 71 in Denver. (Con Table Kevin)
2025-07-02 06:18 pm
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Packing for Westercon

Because I'm driving to Westercon instead of flying, I can be more expansive in my packing and don't have to fit everything into one (or at most two) bags. That's both good and bad. The good part is not having to work so hard packing. The bad part is carrying way too much stuff. But I guess it's sort of good practice for Worldcon. I sprung for first class for the flight to Seattle, so I get two checked bags, and based on what I've been packing for Westercon, I think I'll need it. Mind you, I won't be taking an extra Banker's Box of Westercon gear with me to Seattle, which will help.

Tomorrow's plan is for me to get away from Fernley as early as possible. I typically am up around 3 or 3:30 AM on Thursdays anyway, so if I can make an early start, I should be able to get to the hotel and get moved in fairly early. I'm I'm lucky, I won't get tangled up in any of the commute-time traffic, save possibly the morning Sacramento commute. Wish me luck!
kevin_standlee: (Kuma Bear)
2025-06-30 05:11 am
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Traveling Bear

Kuma Bear has announced his travel plans for this summer. He and his Girl are going to Europe again, once again with a two-month first-class Eurail pass. (Fortunately, Bear doesn't need a separate pass.) Last year's trip was badly disrupted at the start due to my utter misunderstanding of how to read AirBnB listings. This year, we started planning far enough in advance that we could get Lisa and Bear into the same extended-stay hotel (essentially a studio apartment) for the full two months. (While it did not actually come to it, what we did last year was multiple reservations end-to-end, with the possibility that she would have to move from one room to another, or move out for one day into a hotel and then come back the next day, or similar disruptions, and that made planning almost impossible.)

Lisa now knows the area better, and she will be able to base herself out of Munich, made a lot of day trips from there to visit a bunch of places she has lined up, and also make some multi-day excursions where she can travel more lightly while leaving much of her stuff in the "home base" in Munich. We have some of those trips lined up already, and hope to get the rest of them booked by the time she leaves for Europe. Some of those plans may have to wait until she's already there, though. Fortunately, having that Eurail pass gives her a fair bit of travel flexibility, as she's not generally tied to any specific train.

While Kayla and I are at Westercon, Lisa and Kuma will be packing for their trip. I'm scheduled to take her to the airport in Reno on the Wednesday after Westercon.
kevin_standlee: The SERVICE ENGINE SOON indicator light on Kevin's Chevrolet Astro minivan. (Service Engine Soon)
2025-06-29 07:23 pm

Timezoned... And Recharging the Astro's AC

Kayla thought she had a meeting at 10 AM today, so off she went to breakfast and then did some errands. When she got home she discovered that that thanks to misreading a time (we're usually very good at this thanks to so many meetings we attend taking place in lots of different places online) the meeting was actually at 2 PM Pacific Time.

The issue here was that I had a $20 discount coupon from Jiffy Lube for air conditioning service, which the minivan needed, and it was good today only. The original plan was for Kayla to take her meeting and then I'd take the minivan to Sparks. Jiffy Lube is only open until 4 PM on Sunday, and an AC job takes a lot longer than an oil change, so if I was going to take advantage of this offer, it had to happen sooner, not later.

I got to JL and after confirming that the Astro has had its AC upgraded to the modern coolant (that we did years ago up in Oregon), they said they could do it, but that it would take a little while. I wish I'd know just how long it would have taken, because had I known, I might have tried to get some lunch. Instead, as I typically do when going to that JL, I ordered a coffee from Starbucks, which was ready (albeit under Kayla's name, but nobody ever checks) by the time I walked across the shopping center parking lot. For an oil change, they often are done by the time I get back, but an AC recharge involves purging the system (sucking out all the coolant), which turned out to be harder than usual, they said, because the coolant was sort of goopy. That's odd because I had the system completely repaired last year, but okay. Fortunately for me, I had a new issue of Trains to read.

I had assumed that some of the coolant had leaked out of the system, but they said that the biggest problem was that there was too much coolant in it, which was part of why it took so long to purge. They also were concerned that even after recharging, it wasn't putting out as much cool air on Max AC, but I reassured them that this older vehicle and older system doesn't work that well at slow engine speeds. I rarely turn on Max AC except at freeway speeds because it needs more power to run the compressor than works at slower speeds.

After stopping to grab a sandwich and soda, I set out on I-80 east for home, and to my relief (in multiple ways, as it was pretty hot out there), I got the level of of air conditioning I would expect from a properly functioning system.

I wanted to get this done before Westercon because it is a long drive (around 500 km each way) from Fernley to Santa Clara, and much of it will be in hot places including the Central Valley of California. Here's hoping that this recharge holds for a while.
kevin_standlee: Round logo with text "Tonopah, Nevada - Westercon 74 - July 1-4, 2022 - A Bright Idea" (Tonopah Westercon)
2025-06-28 02:43 pm

Westercon Printing

Although I'm nominally the person coordinating Westercon 77's two official functions, I won't be around the convention that much. I'm doing the driving to Santa Clara on Thursday morning, but Kayla is in charge of Site Selection and at the moment, the plan is for her to drive us home on Monday. Martin Pyne is chairing the Westercon Business Meeting. Anyway, today I did my part by doing the printing of the site selection ballots and Westercon Business Meeting papers. It's appropriate that I was using the large printer that we bought for Westercon 74 because we had to be totally self-sufficient for our on-site printing, and that we also used to print the Program Book.

Lisa and I printed all of the program books, including collating and stapling them. It's hard to say whether that was cheaper than having it printed, but it did mean that we didn't have any wasted copies. Had we run out of program books on site, we could have printed more of them, and then post-con we printed what we needed to send publications to our non-attending members. We ran a huge part of that printer's service life off of it in a very short time, and, after consulting with the Westercon 77 treasurer, I personally bought the printer off of the convention at half what the convention paid for it, which seemed pretty reasonable to me.

Our printing needs for Westercon 77 in Santa Clara next weekend are much less than Tonopah's were, and the papers are now packed up with the stuff like the ballot box, cash box, and the Gavel of Westercon to take to BayCon/Westercon.
kevin_standlee: Kevin after losing a lot of weight. He peaked at 330, but over the following years got it down to 220 and continues to lose weight. (Default)
2025-06-27 09:01 pm
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Cut and Dyed

I had my hair trimmed today, and decided that they gray dye job I had last time did not look good, but that solid black is not good either, so they tried a darker brown-black this time.

Dye Job )

I still keep thinking about what it would take to restore all of the hair up top. Even if the HSA will cover it, I think I need to try and build up the account from all that I spent on the hernia surgery and the laser facial treatment.
kevin_standlee: Kevin after losing a lot of weight. He peaked at 330, but over the following years got it down to 220 and continues to lose weight. (Default)
2025-06-26 06:42 pm
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One Week to Go

One week from today, I (and/or Kayla) will be in Santa Clara moving in to the hotel for Westercon/BayCon. Mostly Kayla, to be honest, but someone with the credit cards and ID will have to check us into the hotel.
kevin_standlee: (Reno)
2025-06-25 07:18 pm
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Errands

Lisa and I went to Reno today for several errands that were of increasing urgency, as time is running short. While Lisa is not going to Westercon, she will be leaving on a trip for two months for which she leaves on the Wednesday after I get back from Westercon/Baycon on Monday the 7th. I hope we don't have to make any more Reno trips and that the next time I see Reno it will be on the morning of July 3 as I'm driving to Santa Clara.

We did get the things for which we were seeking: a new band for Lisa's watch (the old band broke), some additional socks for both of us as many of our socks were worn out, and a bit of material for Lisa to repair something. Fortunately, there is a good independent fabric store (Mill End Fabrics) that is not going the way of Jo-Ann or other fabric store chains.
kevin_standlee: (Wigwam)
2025-06-21 07:26 am
Entry tags:

Not Complaining

If you had told me that I would need to wear a jacket on the first full day of summer here in northern Nevada, I would have told you that you had gone crazy. But while most of the USA is suffering under an extreme heat wave, the big low-pressure system pushing that heat dome is coming through my part of the country and it's quite cool. After peaking at 35°C a couple of days ago, today's forecast high is a mere 18°, and it was about 9° at sunrise this morning when I walked to the Wigwam and huddled over my coffee, using it to put feeling back into my fingers.

Not that I'm complaining! Not at all. Lisa and I have errands in Reno today, and I will be happy to not swelter in the typical summer heat as we go about our business planning for our respective summer travel plans coming up in the next few weeks.
kevin_standlee: (Fernley)
2025-06-20 02:35 pm
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Solstice Sunrise

From our years of living here, we know what the northern and southern points at which the sun rises over Fernley as seen from out front porch.

Sunrise over the Asphalt Plant )

Not exactly scenic, but I'm happy to see the longest day of the year and the start of the sun's retreat to the south.
kevin_standlee: Kevin after losing a lot of weight. He peaked at 330, but over the following years got it down to 220 and continues to lose weight. (Default)
2025-06-19 08:08 pm
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No Trouble Sleeping Tonight, I Think

I was up about 3:15 this morning, and Day Jobbe stuff (split between Kayla and me, but it tires us out no matter who does the work meant I was working until 8 PM tonight. There was a break when Kayla went to get dinner, but it was still a long day, and so sleeping tonight shouldn't be difficult. And fortunately, I don't have to be up on Friday until 4:30 AM, which counts as "sleeping in"
kevin_standlee: (Kreegah Bundalo)
2025-06-17 06:06 pm
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Still Not Enough Sleep

We're getting into a part of the year where it's particularly difficult for me to get enough sleep. Even with pieces of insulation in the west-facing windows of the bedroom, it's hard to get it dark. I generally try to get to bed by 8 PM or earlier because I need eight hours of sleep most of the time these days, and it doesn't get dark until considerably later. It makes me wish we were on year-around standard time.
kevin_standlee: (Kreegah Bundalo)
2025-06-16 06:41 pm
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Short Night, Long Day

Not enough sleep last night, and Kayla had an errand to Reno late this afternoon. (She'll write about it tomorrow.) I hope I get more sleep tonight.

I see that LiveJournal seems to be working again. I'd stopped cross-posting because I was getting nothing but 403 errors.
kevin_standlee: (House)
2025-06-15 02:51 pm
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Swamp Cooler Repairs

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the pump on the swamp cooler stopped pumping water into the pads that make it work. Due to our hard water, replacing the pump every year or three is something we've become accustomed to doing. Yesterday afternoon, Lisa undertook the repairs.

Pump Doesn't Pump )

Lisa opened up the swamp cooler and replaced the old pump with the new one. While the impeller now worked, no water went though the system. Further investigation led her to remove the top of the cooler so she could get at the screw that held a T-shaped distribution pipe. The pump sends the water up to the T-shaped pipe, which sends the water to the pads on the back and sides of the cooler. When she removed the pipe, she found that it was completely clogged. Fortunately, the build-up hadn't hardened, and she was able to get it out by forcing water the "wrong way," blowing air into the pipe, and poking at the clock with a probe.

There was also a lot of crud in the bottom of the cooler. Lisa and I carried the cooler outside and she washed all of the crud out. While we were doing this, we kept hearing a periodic thumping noise coming from the minivan, which was a few meters away. Investigating, we discovered that one of the power door lock switches was stuck in the "unlock" position, meaning that it would periodically try to unlock the doors. Poking at the switch got it unstuck, and I'm glad of that, because not only was it unlocking the doors, but it would have eventually run down the battery.

We carried the cooler back inside, Lisa reassembled everything, I brought in buckets of water to refill the tank, and she turned it on: Success! The cooler started pumping water as it should, and soon thereafter, we started getting cool air wafting through the living room.

I thanked Lisa for doing this. She's much more handy with these sorts of home repairs than I am. I can carry things, buy parts, and so forth, but knowing what to do is more up her alley.
kevin_standlee: (Lisa)
2025-06-14 10:25 pm
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No Kings Day: Lisa's Surprise

Lisa surprised me this afternoon. She went to the No Kings Protest herself. She dislikes crowds, but she drove to Carson City in her small orange pickup and drove up and down Carson Street (the protest was on that street in front of the state legislative complex), taking lots of pictures, but not mingling in the throng of people who flocked to the state capitol today. I didn't see her, nor she me, but there were something like 5,000 people at the protest. She did her part, giving the thumbs up and getting as many pictures of clever signs (of which there were many) on her pass through downtown. She handed me the photos and I got them posted. I have a large Flickr album that includes both her photos and the ones that Kayla took. I'd say more, but I've been up since 4:30 AM and need to get some sleep.
kevin_standlee: (Fernley)
2025-06-13 02:23 pm
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Something Fishy

There is a fish and chips food truck that visits Fernley around once a month. For some reason, I typically get notifications of them coming here after they've already moved on to a different city. This time, I knew they would be here today, stopping at Big R Ranch & Home. As it happens, I needed to go there anyway. The water pump on the swamp cooler has stopped pumping. I think there's just been too much hard water build-up in it. Also, the pads into which the water is pumped have too much build-up in them. It's easier to just replace the pump and pads than to try and clean them. So I went over to Big R, bought the swamp cooler parts, and went outside to get some fish.

On The Hook )

It was pretty good fish.
kevin_standlee: (Fernley)
2025-06-12 09:44 am
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Mooned

As Kayla headed out for breakfast this morning, she snapped a photo of the "Strawberry Moon," which if I'm reading right is about the largest the Moon will appear in our sky for a long time.

Moon Over Fernley )

The camera phone is of course not very good for taking this sort of picture.

LiveJournal continues to show a 403 Forbidden error.
kevin_standlee: (Kreegah Bundalo)
2025-06-11 06:56 pm
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Some Sleep is Good

Another 3 AM start today. Things went okay, but by the time we got to Noon PT, I was done. I laid down and slept for several hours before being awakened by yet another phone spammer. Because of the nonprofit corporations on whose boards I sit, I'm targeted by sales calls that assume that all corporations have millions and millions of dollars to spend, and have a difficult time contemplating all-volunteer organizations with no employees and no reason to spend vast sums of money on their services. After all, isn't it illegal to not make a profit?

Anyway, I hope to get caught up on sleep tonight and put in an ordinary work day tomorrow.

I'd cross-post this to my LiveJournal, but I'm getting 403 errors trying to open LJ.
kevin_standlee: The letters GXO in orange on a white background (GXO)
2025-06-10 06:09 pm
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Yet Another Early Day

As I mentioned, I get another 3 AM wake-up call tomorrow due to needing to be at work on the Day Jobbe due to the person in India for whom I'm the backup being on PTO. Oh, well, I hope I can knock off work no later than Noon tomorrow. And on the bright side, it should be cooler at 3 AM and I can open the front door (we do have a screen door) and get more cross-ventilation through the house.

Not helping my rest was having to work late today, and also I was expecting a call that never came. I wish the people who were holding me in place had at least dropped me a note telling me that they didn't need me this afternoon after all.