Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

Late this morning, Lisa and I drove the Astro to Reno, did yet another stop at US Foods Chef'Store (stuff for Hospitality) and at Staples (more ink cartridges just-in-case because we were down to the final black cartridge), then to Savers (where we bought some old blankets for less than furniture pads would have cost, and then we collected the rental trailer from U-Haul.

( Ready for Packing )

I had a brief time in the morning to take care of fixing an issue with the Gavel of Westercon. A past Westercon managed to lose the box in which it is normally stored. I assume that someone saw the unmarked box (which fortunately didn't have the gavel in it) and tossed it. Anyway, I have another box of the same type (it's the one that held the one that Lisa gave me at Worldcon 75 for my birthday), and I decided it to donate it to Westercon, but this time I did some thing to make it less likely that anyone would mistake the box's intended use.

( Unmistakable )

Later this evening, Lisa and I will start loading the trailer, the minivan, and Lisa's pickup. We're taking both vehicles and convoying to Tonopah sometime tomorrow.

We've not been going to Reno as much as we once did, and consequently when we do go in to do our shopping, we typically buy more at once. We had fairly elaborate plans for a day of grocery and other shopping in Reno today. With the Astro laid up in Fremont for repairs, Lisa got the Small Orange Pickup out to stretch its legs. When we refueled it at the Pilot station on the way out of Fernley, she said, "The last time we put gas in was in February."

Knowing that she hasn't used the pickup much, I said, "2016?"

"No," she replied, "2015." Yes, this was the first time the pickup had been refueled in more than two years.

The pickup ran just fine even though it hasn't run much of late, but when we got into Reno we realized we'd forgotten the insulated bags, and thus couldn't buy any perishable groceries. Consequently, after our first two stops for non-perishables, Lisa elected to cut the expedition short and take us home. We'll make another trip later. Nothing was critically urgent.