Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

Today started very promisingly and ended badly. It could have been worse, though.

( Collecting the Astro )

After getting the van back to the hotel, I took a nap before heading for San Jose, where I handed over a bunch of SFSFC supplies to CostumeCon 39's use. This includes things people brought to Tonopah and also some things that Westercon 74 bought for the convention and thus they now belong to SFSFC.

Then it was over to Santa Clara to collect Doug and Kirsten Berry to take to the San Jose Giants game. This is when things started going pear-shaped. First, I realized that I'd left my tickets in the hotel, so we were going to need to head back to Fremont, but as I was running early, that didn't seem to be a problem. Then, as I merged onto the freeway, I felt something go wrong with the power steering. Looking down at the dashboard, I saw the alternator light go on. Combined with the engine heat starting to spike, that meant that something had gone wrong with the serpentine belt. I changed plans to try and see if we could somehow make it to San Jose Municipal Stadium, but we ran out of power part-way there. Fortunately for me, there was a curbside space where I could stop without blocking traffic. I opened the hood and discovered the problem.

( Belted )

As I wasn't going anywhere for a while, I asked Kirsten to contact Ken Patterson, organizer of tonight's fun and games. He and Jerry Majors Patterson drove over to where we were sitting and rescued Doug and Kirsten, and I think they'd previously offered to collect them and take them home anyway, so that wasn't a problem. Just in case I could figure out a way to get rolling again, Ken gave me a spare ticket to tonight's game so I wouldn't have to drive back to Fremont. (In retrospect, I probably would have needed to do that anyway, because I would have needed to drive long enough to get some charge back into the battery; however, it turned out to be moot.)

Meanwhile, I put in a call to AAA, including asking if the tow company happened to have a tensioning tool, which they did not. I waved goodbye to everyone else and wished them a good time at the ball game while I settled in to wait. Fortunately, the Asian grocery store next to which I had broken down had restrooms (for customers, so I bought a bottle of water). I called Lisa to fill her in on the problem, while figuring out the next step, which I decided was to get the Astro back to Pep Boys, since they had just worked on it, even though they wouldn't be open again until Monday morning.

After about an hour, the tow truck driver arrived. The corner of 10th and Alma isn't a great place for this, and he did have to block a lane while he first pushed my vehicle backwards far enough for him to get in front of me, but it could have been worse. He then hooked me up and we headed for Newark and the Pep Boys. After he dropped the van, I filled out a "night drop" slip for the van and dropped it and the keys in the slot at the shop. The driver was nice enough to drive me back to the hotel, so I didn't have to do the walk (or pay for a Lyft) again.

So now I'm stuck until Monday morning at the earliest. The Holiday Inn Express was able to extend my stay (and didn't even require me to change rooms, which is nice because it means I keep my upgraded suite), so I'll be here through Sunday night at least. I did not bring my work computers with me, not thinking I would need them. This actually made the next steps a bit challenging, as it took me a bit of digging to find the email addresses of my manager and of my co-worker who was subbing for me on Friday and who expected me to be back on the job at 4 AM Monday morning. I eventually found their emails and sent them messages from my personal account explaining the issue and letting them know that I'll be out at least Monday and possibly longer depending on what the shop says.

I'll be on the phone to Pep Boys when they open at 8 AM Monday. If, as I hope, this is just a simple task (including putting a charge on the battery so it will start the van again, that's all well and good. Unfortunately, it could be a sign of a bigger problem. We had a similar problem on our way to SpikeCon in 2019, and it required replacing the tensioner. I haven't really driven a whole lot in those past three years (COVID, after all), but it does seem to be a possibility. If that's the case, we could need several days to get this done. That's expensive, but at least feasible.

In the meantime, I spoke to Lisa, and she told me to not worry about things about which I can do nothing. I have a nice hotel room, I'm safe (heck, I'm getting extra bonus IHG points for the stays), I have enough PTO to cover the unexpected time off, so she told me to take tomorrow off and relax. That seemed like good advice to me. A plate of microwaved lasagna from the hotel's mini-store (helpful, that) is not a great substitute for the Baseball and Barbecue I was anticipating tonight, but things could be far, far worse, and I have to keep reminding myself of that, and how this is just an annoyance, not a catastrophe.

Saturday evening, I joined a bunch of the members of BASFA at Star Wars Night at the San Jose Giants (A-league affiliate of the San Francisco team), where Ken Patterson had once again organized a section of the Martinelli's VIP deck for us.

( The Forth Was With Us, but Not With the Giants )

A splendid time was had by all BASFAn, but unfortunately not by the Giants. The Quakes pitchers had a combined no-hitter through seven innings until the Giants' bats finally came to life in the eighth. With the bases loaded and the Giants trailing 7-2, the Quakes pitcher hit the batter, forcing in another run and bringing the tying run to the plate. The batter hit a soaring fly ball that unfortunately didn't quite have the legs to find the fence and thus the game-tying grand slam didn't happen. The Quakes went on the win 7-3.

I invited any curious BASFAns willing to make the trip out to the back corner of the parking lot (where I carefully had triple-checked that the headlights were out before I parked there) who wanted to see where I live when I'm doing these extended stints in the Bay Area, and three took me up on it. After giving them the Cook's tour of the Rolling Stone, they headed off shivering (after sundown, the overcast moved in and it got chilly) and I set off for my usual overnight layup spot. I was very tired and it was not difficult to get to sleep.

One thing that still puzzles me, though, is why so many people I meet in the Bay Area think I live so close. I tell people I live 30 miles east of Reno, and they say, "That's a four hour drive, right." I tell them, "You can drive 300 miles in four hours? Remind me not to ever ride with you!" While if you could average 75 miles an hour, you could do it, I don't see how one could ever do that. While I was passed by a few people out on I-5 this afternoon who seemed to trying to do that, not only do I generally not drive that much over the speed limit, but the RV isn't even capable of going that fast, save downhill with a tailwind.

Coincidentally in time for the Major League Baseball All Star break, my new San Francisco Giants shirt arrived.

( Kuma Bear Likes it Beary Much )

Unfortunately, the floral SF Giants swim trunks that go with this shirt were a little small, but there's another goal to look forward to should I lose some more weight.

The San Jose Giants BASFA Baseball Night was a great success, except the Giants got their hats handed to them on the field. It was still great fun and great food. After the game there was a fireworks show as well, which was also entertaining. I walked with Doug and Kirsten Berry and Lisa Harrigan out to the parking lot at San Jose Municipal Stadium and bade them good night, as I'd parked way in the back of the parking lot on account of the Rolling Stone needs extra space. I climbed in to the RV, turned on the light, put away my baseball gear, turned off the light, then climbed into the driving compartment and turned the key.

( *click* )

With all of that unwanted extra excitement, I didn't get to bed until very very late. (My usual bedtime is around 8-9 PM on account of having to be up so early on weekdays.) I didn't set the alarm, and yet I work up on my own at 4:45 AM! But I then went back to sleep for a couple more hours. That was still early enough that I had time to go use the shower at my office and head toward Tracy on my way aiming for Yuba City, where I need to go to my actual bank branch sometime before the end of July.

( Lesson Learned; Always Check Traffic Conditions )

It's that time of the year again for my annual diabetic eye exam, which means I'll be half-blind from eye dilation for most of the afternoon. I've managed to also schedule my semi-annual diabetic medical check (the labs don't look good, I'm afraid) for later this afternoon as well, and the doctors are in the same building.

I used to have to schedule my medical appointments and social events around the times Day Jobbe wanted me in the Bay Area. Now it's the other way around. The key event is the BASFA baseball outing to the San Jose Giants this Friday. That led me to schedule a week in the Bay Area this week, and that was convenient for doing my routine medical appointments with the physicians I've been seeing here for years, and also for scheduling certain in-person meetings with Day Jobbe. All very logistical.

I got to see, not just listen, to a San Francisco Giants game today because this afternoon's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks was a Facebook Game of the Week. I could put it on one screen while doing Day Jobbe on the other. It was Giants Torture again, but this time we came out ahead, with a home run in the bottom of the 9th with two outs to tie the game, and then a walk-off hit in the 10th to win it.

As soon as the game ended, Lisa and I ran in to Reno/Sparks for some shopping errands (and also had dinner at the Peppermill Buffet). I have more news to report, this time about Worldcon, but it's late and I'm up way past my bedtime, so it will have to wait for tomorrow.

In a few minutes, I'm heading off to San José to attend tonight's San Jose Giants game with other members of BASFA during the Giants' "Star Wars Night." While costumes are encouraged, I have nothing appropriate, so it's just going to be my usual orange-and-black Giants gear. It looks to be a fun.

Tomorrow I head for home, but something has come up that means I have to make a detour up to Yuba City as well, so it's likely to be a very long day for me. I sort of hope that I wake up early and get a fast start. Don't know if I'll be online much more between now and getting home, and by the time I get home, I may well just want to fall into bed because I still start work at 6 AM on Monday.

When Lisa and I left the Sparks Nugget after dinner heading to Raley's to go shopping, the Giants had a comfortable 5-2 lead going to the top of the ninth inning and we were feeling pretty good about San Francisco going back to Chicago for a decisive game 5. By the time we got to Raley's, the Giants had blown that lead, and by the time we checked out, their season was over as they lost to the Cubs 6-5, losing the National League Division Series 3 games to 1.

The Cubs now advance, and I hope that they go on to win the World Series now and break their curse. travelswithkuma says "Go Cubs!"

The cold I have picked up is fairly mild — I'm ambulatory — but I'm not working very hard, and have mostly stayed home and tried not to work too hard. I did feel good enough this morning to go have breakfast at the Wigwam Restaurant/Casino and try once again to win a free breakfast (no winner for the third time in a row on what amounts to a coin-flip), but otherwise it was a quiet day. I listened to the San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in order to get into the post-season (a one-game playoff against the New York Mets), and worked with lindadee to start getting the WSFS documents as of the end of the 2016 Worldcon online. That's about as ambitious as I want to be.

This coming week, I'm working from home. I'm glad I won't be contaminating my co-workers.

Having checked to confirm that there were plenty of seats still available, we went back into Reno on Saturday afternoon for the double-header between the Reno Aces and the visiting Albuquerque Isotopes (AAA Minor League Baseball) forced by Friday's game being rained out. We exchanged our tickets from the postponed game for comparable seats down the third base line in the shallow outfield, only four rows back from the field.

( Keep Your Head in the Game or You Might Lose It )

One advantage of the early start for Game 1 for Lisa and me (and travelswithkuma) personally was that we had plenty of room to spread out for most of Game 1. Albuquerque took the first game 2-1. Reno had the tying run on base with one out in the bottom of the seventh (minor league baseball double-headers are shortened from nine to seven innings) but bounced into a game-ending double-play.

Near end of the first game, the seats around us began to fill up. In fact, it got crowded enough that we moved over to the next section and up ten rows, where the view might not have been quite as good, but we had plenty of space around us.

( On to the Nightcap )

The second game was a back-and-forth affair, but Albuquerque exploded for 4 runs in the sixth inning to break it open and Reno was unable to respond, dropping the nightcap 8-4. Insamuch as Lisa is a New Mexico girl, she had been cheering for the Isotopes and we went home happy.

We did enjoy the games, and got a good deal for the price, what with getting two seven-inning games for the price of one. As it happens, had we gone to today's game, we would have almost as much baseball, as it was a twelve-inning game decided by a single run scored by Reno in the bottom of the 12th to win 1-0.

I hope we'll get a chance to go see some more games, because they are good value for money and it's a comfortable place to watch a baseball game.