Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

Sunday morning was bright and pleasant and sunny, but things changed dramatically in the late afternoon. While I was watching the Super Bowl, Lisa told me to look outside.

( Mini Blizzard )

After the worst of the wind and snow subsided, Lisa came out and spread ice-melt on the sidewalk. Very little snow actually fell (maybe 1-3 cm), but it got cold very fast and the snow formed an icy crust. Lisa and I were both happy we had no place we needed to be today. Listening to the radio scanner, I felt for the police and fire services who were out in that weather dealing with accidents. A big accident just east of Fernley on I-80 was made worse when someone came along, ignoring all of the emergency vehicles, driving much too fast on an ice-covered freeway, and crashed into North Lyon Rescue 61, the ambulance/paramedic unit responding to the existing accident. While according to the posting, none of the crew were injured, the rescue unit was seriously damaged. NLCFPD only has three such units, so this is going to hurt while they deal with getting the damaged unit replaced/repaired.

( What a Difference a Day or Two Makes )

Meanwhile, the Super Bowl did not go the way I wanted. Near the end, as the Chiefs were making their (ultimately successful) comeback, I was hoping that the 49ers could hold them to a field goal that would have tied the game, and then that time would run out, sending the game to overtime and paying off $100 to me on a "prop" bet. It was not to be. I lost all of my bets. Fortunately, I'd only wagered the money we won on the keno ticket last week, so we're no worse off than we were before that dinner. I do try very hard not to wager anything I can't afford to lose.

I spent a good chunk of today's Super Bowl coverage doing my income taxes. Rather to my surprise, despite all of the changes, the amount I paid (and my refund) didn't change appreciably. I think dealing with TurboTax with the Big Game on the other screen was a reasonably good use of my time.

Incidentally, despite having mortgage interest deductions and keeping track of my expenses as a volunteer for a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization (SFSFC, Worldcon 76) carefully, it still wasn't worth the effort to itemize deductions. I even kept track of all of the money I spent on sales taxes in 2018 (Between $900 and $1000) in case it mattered; as Nevada has no personal income tax, I didn't have to make a choice between the two under the new tax law.. Still, now I know how much I'm contributing in consumption tax.

Canadian ice skater Kevin Reynolds did his routine in the Canadian national championships using the theme music (Tank!) to the anime series Cowboy Bebop while dressed as Spike, one of the lead characters from the series.



According to the io9 article where I saw this, he placed third despite a fall during his routine.

BASFA generally always ends its weekly festivities by adopting a "Rumor of the Week." We didn't adopt the one I preferred, but I liked it so much that I thought I'd share it with those of you who follow gridiron:

( New Motto for Denver )

No, you won't understand it if you don't know American Football. Don't worry about it.

Bad news first: I appear to have caught a cold, probably in Reno/Sparks on Saturday. It proceeded to put its claws into me as I was driving to San Jose today. Unfortunately, because of the nature of my two-and-two home-and-away schedule at work, it's not a good idea for me to not show up in the office and be visible, particularly after having been away for three weeks, which is a near-eternity at my office. (I keep expecting every time I come back that the entire office has been scrambled; we're about as stable as a sand dune.)

More bad news: The Vagabond Inn at which I've been staying regularly when I'm here appears to have discontinued their internet supersaver promotional rates (15% off rack), which is going to start costing me more money. But I'm not going back to the EZ-8; even I have standards. The Vagabond's rack rate is a little higher than the EZ-8, but the rooms are clean, the plumbing works, and I don't feel nervous every time I go out the door, nor does the staff treat me with suspicion. (Indeed, they recognize me and have been trying to put me into the same room each time I'm here if they can do so.)

Good news: I made the trip to San Jose more or less in one piece. As usual, including a stop for lunch and for rest breaks along the way and picking up groceries for the hotel room as I neared the hotel, it took about 8 1/2 hours. Weather was clear. Too clear; we need snow.

Had the weather been bad, I would have taken the train to the Bay Area; however, today that might not have been a good idea. The California Zephyr was over 4 hours late as of this morning, and as I was leaving Reno heading into the Sierra, I saw it stopped east of Reno with the engineer's cab door open and a truck alongside on the service road, which it unlikely to be a good sign. If the operating crew (engineers and conductors) had gone "dead on the law" — they're only allowed to work 12 hours, and that's 12 hours, not 12:01; there's no flexibility — they would have normally have been relieved at the previous station; in this case Reno. There seems little reason to limp five miles east before re-crewing the train. I never did find out what that was about.

Better news: The 49ers won their playoff game! Although I was driving through a mostly broadcast-radio-free zone, my smartphone mostly didn't lose signal, and to my surprise the KNBR internet radio feed of the San Francisco 49ers-Green Bay Packers playoff came wasn't blacked out. (I thought there was a good chance that NFL wouldn't allow the local stations' broadcasts to be streamed over the internet.) Aside from a few blank spots in cell coverage, I was able to follow the entire game from pre-game to post-game. And oboy was it exciting; probably too much so.

I'd laid down a bet on the 49ers this past week (it is, after all, legal in Nevada). The 49ers were 3 point favorites, which meant they needed to win by more than that for me to win the bet. However, because they ended up winning (on a last-second field goal) by exactly three points, the bet is a "push" and the next time I go home, I can stop by the Sparks Nugget and collect my $20 I originally wagered. So of course I was hoping that Frank Gore would break through on a couple of those runs at the end of the game and score a touchdown; however, I was still happy for the winning field goal. And now it turns out that there's even an outside chance that there might still be one more football game at Candlestick Park, if the New Orleans Saints somehow manage to pull off a huge upset next week and defeat the Seattle Seahawks, while the 49ers need to beat the Carolina Panthers. Ironically, the game broadcast today included commercials telling fans that they can buy the seats from Candlestick Park before the place is torn down.

I hope I'm able to watch the 49ers game next weekend; unfortunately, the schedule is such that I'm apt to be having to check out of one hotel but not yet able to check in to the next one while the game is on, as I'm doing the Holiday Inn shuffle this weekend to chase more IHG points.

(It's not impossible that I might turn up enough points that I could go ahead and convert my Worldcon stay from paid to points. Ordinarily I wouldn't do that; however, it turns out that Loncon's room blocks don't have attrition issues the way Worldcons in the US typically do, so I'm not hurting Worldcon if I can stay on points after all; if anything, I'd be doing someone a good turn by returning rooms to the Loncon block, assuming there are still at that point rooms available for points.)

I got away earlier than usual from Fernley this morning, but OTOH I stopped longer along the way. When I was on the road I made good time. I speculate that there was less traffic than usual because of more people watching the Super Bowl. The game kicked shortly after I left my usual mid-way coffee stop at Colfax and was coming back into range of a radio station on which I could hear it.

Yesterday when Lisa and I were doing our shopping, we went to the Atlantis to have lunch at the Manhattan Deli, which has a view of the Sport Book. I saw just how many of the strange proposition bets they were booking on "The Big Game." (I assume they aren't allowed to call it The Super Bowl without NFL permission or something like that.) Bets included things like which team would first use a coach's challenge and who would win the coin toss. (Why that one wasn't exactly even money I'm not sure.) One of them was "Will there be a safety?" and I was for some reason tempted to take a flyer on that one. I was obviously sorry I didn't do that when I heard the first score of the game.

At Lathrop I made a short rest stop. In the market there, I found that my favorite flavor of Pringles, dill pickle, was back on the shelf. The expiration date was sufficiently far into the future that I don't think it was just a few stray cans left from after they discontinued it. Maybe there's hope for lovers of the Evil Dill Pickle yet.

I got home with about seven minutes in The Game and was able to watch the dramatic finish. Not having any dog in the fight, I was able to enjoy an exciting game.

I spoke with Lisa a few minutes ago to reassure her that I'd gotten back to Fremont safely and that I would call the Klamath Falls Holiday Inn Express tomorrow during the day when there's a chance of talking to an actual manager rather than some Sunday night desk clerk regarding her checking in on our reservation tomorrow. I expect the worst case would be that she'd be obliged to pay cash for the reservation on which both our names appear.

Now I need to get my laundry done and get to bed early for another intense week at my new job assignment.

What I wanted to do was sleep all day after this past stressful and tiring week, but I did have to get out to run some errands, like going to two different banks (ne for me, one for the SF & F Translation Awards), redeeming the recycling, and doing some grocery shopping. Then it was back to the apartment for today's main event: The 49ers-Saints NFL playoff game. I was a bit peeved that so many of the pundits were already saying that the Saints were a shoo-in. I figured it would be close, but I would have picked the 49ers by a single point. I wish I had placed a bet on them before I left Nevada last weekend, because the 49ers did indeed win, and by four points, not just one, but boy was that a tight game.

After the nail-biter by the Bay, the nightcap was a bit of a letdown, as Saint Tebow finally managed to not pull out a game under improbable circumstances. During the game, I packed up some boxes of things that I'm going to move to the Yuba City storage locker tomorrow when I go see my mother. Yes, I could take the boxes to Fernley on my next trip, and eventually I'm going to close the YC storage locker and get out of paying rent on it, but the more things I can get out of the apartment in Fremont, the better. Even after taking all of the things I've taken, it keeps seeming to me like there's still a vast amount of stuff to move.

All of the sports that interested me this morning were overseas and thus way too early in the day to suit me: the Masters tennis semi-finals in Paris, and the international "friendly" soccer matches. I didn't wake up in time for the first tennis match, and then I stayed in bed and watched the last part of the USA-Slovakia match and the first half of England-Brazil.

I'm feeling well enough that I'm going to go in to San Francisco today for the SF in SF reading. Going early means a chance to shop for good cheese and other nice foods at the Ferry Building.

I'm still not fully recovered, but I'm no longer actively sick. I assume that I'm not contagious, either -- if I thought I was, I'd stay home.

So much for the storybook ending for Kurt Warner. I admit to cheering a bit for Arizona, although I didn't really have a serious dog in this fight.

For a while there, I thought the converse of my football pool numbers (Steelers x1, Cardinals x0) were going to come up, but then the safety put paid to that.

Who says the Super Bowl is always a boring game?

I was a little bit late getting in to watch the woman's tennis final at the Australian Open on account of answering questions and making posts about the opening of online room booking for Anticipation. I figured I'd only missed a few games, but was very surprised when I went into the bedroom, turned on the TV, and found that Serena Williams had won the first set 6-0. Unlike most of the matches with 12:30 AM PST starts, I was actually able to watch the whole thing because it only lasted an hour. Poor Safina only barely missed losing by the most ignominious score in Australian Open history.

Anyway, despite being up so late watching tennis, I had to get up this morning and get moving, because I am heading to downtown San Jose, where I'm going to have a look at the actual practical parking options "on the ground" you might say, and take some pictures of the area around the Fairmont before walking over to the Shark Tank to watch the San Jose Stealth lacrosse game to which I won tickets earlier this week. Nobody took me up on the offer of having my other ticket, so I guess I get an empty seat next to me.