Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

[I have previously used another quotation that in turn quoted a part of this. Bears repeating though.]

"next time you read an article that presents trans people as fundamentally controversial, ask yourself this: what does this article propose trans people should do?

"if the answer is something like 'not be trans,' please consider that most trans people have tried that and it didn't work"

-- mogen binnie (@imogenbinnie), 2016-10-17

I had an interesting week. I'm still catching up on news, might not catch up on Dreamwidth and Twitter, surely won't catch up on Facebook because I never keep up with Facebook ...

I was treated to a fun trip that I couldn't have afforded myself, but it started with rather a mess.

Friday before last, I was taking a shower while a friend was en route to pick me up for the trip. A leg fell off my clawfoot bathtub. The tub tilted crazily, I managed to right it by shifting my weight, it rocked again ... and on one of these tips there was a sharp crack. And when I managed to get everything shut off (without losing my footing!) there was water all over my bathroom floor (and pouring out of the kitchen ceiling, below) because the tub's drain pipe had snapped.

Mopping up as best I could and leaving towels and buckets in place, I rushed to finish packing, delaying the start of our trip a bit. Then a drive to Danville with a dear friend, her two delightful children (no sarcasm -- they truly are wonderful kids), and a small bearded dragon. Overnight at my friend's parents' house, then a drive straight through to Orlando. (The bearded dragon stayed in Danville.)

The water theme continued with a tall glass of ice water getting knocked over into my lap when we stopped for lunch the next day, then waking up the following morning to the news that the shower in our suite was leaking and we were being moved to a different suite. Fortunately, Poseidon lost interest in me after that.

A few days of family mini-vacation (I missed Gatorland because I was short of spoons and wanted to rest up so I wouldn't miss watching the kids enjoy Wonderworks ... Gatorland was described as a short thing, but not if the kids are seriously into reptiles -- they stayed until it closed), then a couple more days of hanging out with the kids while their mother attended a conference.

Nanoreview of Blue Man Group: exceeds expectations.

Thursday was music practice and swimming with the kids, then dinner out for all of us. (The suite included a kitchen, so we cooked and had dinner in, the other days -- I got the kids to help.) Friday was checkout, aquarium, chocolate tour, then rejoining their mother for dinner and the drive north.

Sea Life aquarium would have been pretty cool without the kids, but was ever so much more interesting with their enthusiasm and fascination. I'm sure my feet will stop aching from standing too long there, eventually. I think both children enjoyed the Chocolate Kingdom factory tour, but they clearly had more interest in the marine life.

So, dinner at a Greek restaurant, and the drive back to Danville to pick up the now slightly larger lizard (he ate a lot of crickets) and the instruments I'd stashed there (because the original plan had been to go directly from Danville to a gig, then get a ride the rest of the way home with a bandmate -- but the gig wound up being cancelled due to weather). Breakfast and a couple hours nap in Danville, and completely repacking the car, and we were back on the road again.

This Thursday, a plumber will come and repair my tub. While he's here, I'll get an estimate for replacing my boiler (or the whole furnace), because I probably should't try to do another winter on space heaters alone.

A truly delightful, if exhausting, trip. I'm grateful for the chance to go, and to spend so much time with people I'm extremely fond of, and I'm glad I was able to make it possible for my friend to attend her conference. That much driving would have been easier if I were fifteen years younger, but it was worth it.

Decades ago, when I first tried cruise control, I thought, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if instead of just setting a speed for when there's nobody in front of you, the cruise control would automagically slow down to maintain a safe following distance when another vehicle was ahead?"

On the Orlando trip, our rental car was a Passat with "Adaptive Cruise Control" and a radar unit behind the VW logo on the grille. Wow. It's here, and it's wonderful (though now that I have what I'd imagined all those years ago, I find myself wishing I had access to the firmware so I could tweak the algorithm a wee bit). Controls to set the following distance, even. How long has this been A Thing?

A pity the seats in the Passat sucked so badly (they enforce slouching). Because other than the seats and maybe 25% too many controls crammed onto the steering wheel, the car was a delight.