An invitation to questions

In a blog I recently started reading, the owner recently decided to give a quite detailed introduction of herself. I enjoyed reading it quite a bit. {Smile}

Then I wondered about doing something similar, and realized I didn’t know where to begin… or where to end, or what points to hit in between. {rueful smile}

I know there are a lot of things I don’t talk about. Usually it’s not because I want to keep secrets, but that I don’t realize anyone is interested. {shrug, spread hands, Smile}

I’m not entirely sure how to fix that. So far, all I’ve thought of is offering to answer any questions about me that you might have been wondering about. That’s by no means a perfect fix, since you might not think of some questions at all, but it’s what I’ve thought of so far. {spread hands, Smile}

So… any questions? I'm not likely to get offended, honest. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Thanksgiving

I'd like to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrated it today. {Smile}

To those who don't, I hope you had a good day. {GRIN, wink}

If you're interested, for us it was just the four of us. Valentine only jumped up on the table once, and got back down when scolded, so he didn't have to be exiled. He had as much turkey as he could cadge off of us. Mom, Dad and I had turkey, stuffing, succotash, cranberry sauce, and blueberry pie.

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Fridge update

Well, the fridge is fixed. It took most of Sunday morning, but it’s fixed. The fellow came, leveled the thing because it was tilted far too far back, and dumped hot water down the drain tube until it broke thru a surprisingly stubborn ice dam. I think he was about ready to open the thing up and see if a gecko had crawled into the tube when it finally started draining. Apparently that happened at least once before. {Smile}

 

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Repairs

We’ve had a bit of a repair saga this past week. The freezer has been icing up. On Tuesday, it got bad enough, the fan blades regularly hit the ice. So we tried defrosting it on our own Tuesday morning.

Then in the evening the toilet stopped flushing. It was definitely broken. Fortunately, we know a plumber lives a few houses down the street. Literally. So we called them that morning. He and his assistant looked at it before breakfast, fetched a part, and fixed it that morning. I do like quick service. {Smile}

The freezer had started icing up again Wednesday afternoon. Dad called a repairman. We expect him repairman tomorrow around 10. We’re more than a little surprised the repairman suggested working on a Sunday, but it was his idea, not ours. {spread hands, shrug} Since church starts too early for Dad and me anyway tomorrow, we might as well stay home and get our fridge fixed. Hopefully. {cross fingers, smile}

Just… don’t let anything else break. This is enough! {wry look}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Tsunami research

Well, it’s been almost two month since I learned my friend had died. I’m finally beginning to feel like writing again. Yes, it took me that long. I lost one of my best sounding boards, one of my most reliable beta readers… and that only covers the help she gave me with writing. There’s so much about her that I miss even more... {bite lips}

{STEADYING SIGH}

Anyway, I want to get back to writing. I know which story wants to get written. It involves the Widow Mere, her children, and a tsunami. So now I’m researching tsunami. Living in Hilo, I’m around tsunami stories a lot. Dad even has one; he outran the April Fool’s Tsunami (April 1, 1946) as a teenager right here in Hilo.  (I remember my friend saying she thought you couldn’t outrun a tsunami when I mentioned that in an email. Well, you can’t if you give it a fair start, but Dad wasn’t stupid enough to do that. He had at least a mile’s head start, and didn’t even hang around long enough to figure out how much more he might or might not have had. {Smile})

Unfortunately Dad’s story will only go so far with my story. He’s given me permission to base a story line on his experiences, but they only fit one of the six storylines I need. So I’m looking further afield. So far, I’ve found:

 

NONFICTION:

Dudley, Walter C. and Min Lee. 1998. Tsunami! 2d ed. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

FICTION:

Buck, Pearl S. 1986. The Big Wave. New York: HarperTrophy.

Fredericks, Anthony D. 2007. The Tsunami Quilt. Chelsea, MI: Sleeping Bear Press.

Salisbury, Graham. 2007. Night of the Howling Dogs. New York: Random House.

No, it’s not a long list. At least I own all except the Pearl Buck, and I’ve ordered that through the public library.

Unfortunately, the Fredericks and Salisbury aren’t applicable like Dad’s story, and Walt Dudley’s co-author summarized things a bit too succinctly. (Walt’s a former co-worker of Dad’s, hence the nickname. I think he’d be shocked if I used his full first name, and not in a good way. {wink, GRIN}

Remembering how much help I got when I asked for recommendations of books with handicapped heroines, I thought I’d ask if anyone knew of some good books, TV shows, movies, etc. involving tsunami. I figure it’s worth a try. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

A Concert

I went to a concert by the Escher String Quartet last night. I liked the music, and loved getting to go. {SMILE}

I haven't been to a concert in years, ever since Mom and Dad decided they couldn't sit thru a long concert between Mom's back's tendency to give her trouble, and Dad's need to put his feet up or walk around or something. He's not supposed to sit still for long periods of time. That pretty thoroughly messed up my transportation options, so I've been pretty much pretending that Hilo doesn't have any shows I want to see for several years now. {resigned smile}

They do have a few, like last night's concert. Fortunately, a friend who lives a block or two away offered to take me with her. I bought my ticket when I got there, and had a wonderful time. The music was pretty nice, especially since it was live. Even better, I got to see a few folks I haven't bumped into in years during the intermission. {SMILE}

I enjoyed myself so much, I'm trying to figure out how to do this a little more often. I'm hoping to think of something. I've missed this entirely too much. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

{sigh}

I know I’ve gone quiet recently. I’m sorry if that worried anyone. I’m okay... but I lost a dear friend to cancer at the end of August. {bite lips} It’s taking me time to adjust to her not being around anymore. I miss her very much. {resigned look}

 

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Large Print Science Fiction and Fantasy

I've been wondering about something. Does anyone know of good sources for large print "dead-tree" science fiction and fantasy books? Or for science fiction and fantasy e-books that can be formatted and printed for your own use?

I'm not trying to go into publishing; I'm just trying to get a wider variety of reading material for my mother. She's decided she needs large print. She wants absolutely nothing to do with either audiobooks or ebooks. She's more emphatic about wanting large print dead-tree books than I am about preferring dead-tree myself. {chuckle, Smile}

I know more folks on here lean the opposite way, but I thought I'd ask in case anyone happened to notice something. It could happen, and I'd really appreciate it. I'm more than slightly frustrated with the limited variety I've found so far. Mom particularly likes Misty, Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, and Georgette Heyer (the only non-SF writer among her favorites). While they all wrote quite a bit, only Heyer seems to have much available in large print, and even that is mostly used. {rueful smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Edited To Add: By "Misty," I mean Mercedes Lackey. I wrote to a group of fans who use that nickname of hers first, and forgot to replace that with her full name when I decided to ask here, too. I'm sorry for any confusion. {apologetic smile}

A.E.B.

Foot Update

Well, my dermatologist says my foot is essentially healed. Finally. He wants me to continue putting a fungicide on those toes once a day until late next week. Then I can put it on every other day. He wants me to continue to do that indefinitely. He's very concerned that this could come back, and wants to prevent that. {pause}

I’m concerned about over-using a fungicide, since that tends to produce resistant organisms over time. However, this infection was pretty bad, and I had another… probably last spring; if not, then the spring before that. Two nasty foot infections in two or three years are TOO MANY! I really don't want to go thru this again. So I guess I keep applying the medicine. {resigned smile}

Still, I'm glad to be over the current problem. That is a relief! I even felt free to tag along with Dad when he went grocery shopping yesterday, since I don't think I have to worry about putting my foot up now. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Foot trouble

Well, I have a badly infected foot. It started a little over a week ago, with a badly itchy foot. By the time I realized it wasn’t some irritant like soap or dry skin, it was too close to the weekend to see a regular doctor with a normal appointment. So we waited. I saw my Dermatologist last Tuesday. He was very concerned, giving me instructions involving medicine, toe spacers, frequent washing, and putting my foot up above the level of my heart as much as feasible.

Unfortunately, I’m bored. Putting my foot up a lot severely limits my computer time. I am getting a fair bit of reading done, but… I still miss my computer. Especially the friends it lets me stay in touch with, even if I don’t write much beyond responses to what they write most of the time. {odd smile}

The good news is, it seems to be helping. He was favorably impressed with the improvement when he saw it again on Thursday. He should be happy when he sees me again next Friday, since it’s improved more since.

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin