jjbaker

This morning around 10:30 AM, I took Kuma Bear and Lisa in to Reno Airport to catch her flight to Denver continuing on to Munich for her European Rail Adventure. This was the first time I'd ever parked in the short-term garage at RNO.

Her flight was scheduled for 1:30 PM, and we got there a bit after 11:30 AM. We'd upgraded the first leg of the flight to first class because it was a bargain, getting her through the express check-in and also a faster Terrorization queue. The new rules on not having to take off your shoes are in effect here. I stayed with her as far as the security checkpoint, then waited here to make sure nothing went awry. They needed to go through her bag, which took a while, but eventually she got everything put back together, waved goodbye, and headed off to find her gate.

Because of a previous unfortunate experience with a train trip, it seemed prudent for me to stay at the airport until her flight departed. I therefore had lunch at the only ground-side restaurant at the airport. While I was there, she called me. (We got her a flip phone; the same model as I have.) No serious issues, although she did cut her hand somehow while repacking her bag. (One of the airport staff gave her a bandage.) I slowly ate lunch, and by the time I was finished, her flight was boarding, and I decided it was safe enough to leave.

When I got home, I did need to get back to the Day Jobbe, but the accumulated fatigue had caught up to me and I simply had to get a nap. Before doing so, I used FlightTracker to check on her flight. By then, she was out over Utah somewhere on her way to Denver. I got about a 90 minute nap, when she called me from Denver to let me know that everything went fine and that she was at the gate for her flight to Munich. From our previous checks, we know that there were a pretty good number of empty seats, and that the middle seat next to her was empty. I won't know until she gets to Germany, but I reckon there's a decent chance that she'll get at least an empty seat next to her and maybe even the entire group of three seats, if the person in that third seat in her row jumps to one of the other empty areas. I hope so; that way Kuma Bear can have his own seat.

Returning to the Day Jobbe, I worked for a few more hours before calling it a day. I need to get more sleep!

I had to come out of hibernation this morning, because we concluded that due to needed to be at Westercon/BayCon through the end of the convention on Monday, we had to stay an extra day. Fortunately, I brought one of my work computers and was able to put the PTO request. I called the front desk and they told me that while they could extend my stay, I couldn't get the convention rate and it would cost more than $100 more per night. I winced but said yes. Then I had to go down and get our keys recoded because I'm the one with the ID. I then handed everything back over to Kayla.

Because I'm driving to Westercon instead of flying, I can be more expansive in my packing and don't have to fit everything into one (or at most two) bags. That's both good and bad. The good part is not having to work so hard packing. The bad part is carrying way too much stuff. But I guess it's sort of good practice for Worldcon. I sprung for first class for the flight to Seattle, so I get two checked bags, and based on what I've been packing for Westercon, I think I'll need it. Mind you, I won't be taking an extra Banker's Box of Westercon gear with me to Seattle, which will help.

Tomorrow's plan is for me to get away from Fernley as early as possible. I typically am up around 3 or 3:30 AM on Thursdays anyway, so if I can make an early start, I should be able to get to the hotel and get moved in fairly early. I'm I'm lucky, I won't get tangled up in any of the commute-time traffic, save possibly the morning Sacramento commute. Wish me luck!

Kayla thought she had a meeting at 10 AM today, so off she went to breakfast and then did some errands. When she got home she discovered that that thanks to misreading a time (we're usually very good at this thanks to so many meetings we attend taking place in lots of different places online) the meeting was actually at 2 PM Pacific Time.

The issue here was that I had a $20 discount coupon from Jiffy Lube for air conditioning service, which the minivan needed, and it was good today only. The original plan was for Kayla to take her meeting and then I'd take the minivan to Sparks. Jiffy Lube is only open until 4 PM on Sunday, and an AC job takes a lot longer than an oil change, so if I was going to take advantage of this offer, it had to happen sooner, not later.

I got to JL and after confirming that the Astro has had its AC upgraded to the modern coolant (that we did years ago up in Oregon), they said they could do it, but that it would take a little while. I wish I'd know just how long it would have taken, because had I known, I might have tried to get some lunch. Instead, as I typically do when going to that JL, I ordered a coffee from Starbucks, which was ready (albeit under Kayla's name, but nobody ever checks) by the time I walked across the shopping center parking lot. For an oil change, they often are done by the time I get back, but an AC recharge involves purging the system (sucking out all the coolant), which turned out to be harder than usual, they said, because the coolant was sort of goopy. That's odd because I had the system completely repaired last year, but okay. Fortunately for me, I had a new issue of Trains to read.

I had assumed that some of the coolant had leaked out of the system, but they said that the biggest problem was that there was too much coolant in it, which was part of why it took so long to purge. They also were concerned that even after recharging, it wasn't putting out as much cool air on Max AC, but I reassured them that this older vehicle and older system doesn't work that well at slow engine speeds. I rarely turn on Max AC except at freeway speeds because it needs more power to run the compressor than works at slower speeds.

After stopping to grab a sandwich and soda, I set out on I-80 east for home, and to my relief (in multiple ways, as it was pretty hot out there), I got the level of of air conditioning I would expect from a properly functioning system.

I wanted to get this done before Westercon because it is a long drive (around 500 km each way) from Fernley to Santa Clara, and much of it will be in hot places including the Central Valley of California. Here's hoping that this recharge holds for a while.

I had my hair trimmed today, and decided that they gray dye job I had last time did not look good, but that solid black is not good either, so they tried a darker brown-black this time.

( Dye Job )

I still keep thinking about what it would take to restore all of the hair up top. Even if the HSA will cover it, I think I need to try and build up the account from all that I spent on the hernia surgery and the laser facial treatment.