Month: June 2006

bookmark_borderMy Other “Hobby”

Posted on by PaulaO

Hurricane Watch Net Anticipates Activation for First Storm of 2006 Season

NEWINGTON, CT, Jun 12, 2006–With Tropical Storm Alberto expected to be reach hurricane strength, the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) has announced that it anticipates activating later today. The net works in cooperation with WX4NHC at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to gather real-time, ground-level weather data during storms. NHC forecasters use the reports to help fine-tune their predictions of a storm’s behavior.

“Tropical Storm Alberto will be upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane with forecast landfall in northwestern Florida sometime tomorrow,” HWN Manager Mike Pilgrim, K5MP, said in a midday announcement. “While it may be premature at this hour to declare a definite plan, let it suffice to say that we tentatively plan to open HWN net operations on 14.325 MHz late this evening, pending advisory guidance between now and 5 PM Eastern Daylight Time.”

full article

If, at any time during a hurricane, you need to find out how someone is or where they are, you can contact your local amateur radio club and ask if they can gather any information for you. “Health and Welfare” traffic is lower on the priority list but they will follow through. Almost every shelter set up by the Red Cross and the Salvation Army has an amateur radio operator working to provide such information after the emergency information is finished. During Katrina, Rita, and all the other hurricanes last year, amateur radio operators were far too often the only source of communication during and after the emergency. Our motto, “When All Else Fails…”, exists for a reason.

Linkage:
National Hurricane Center
KG4VPY (my ham radio site)
How to Become a Ham
Amateur Radio Relay League

bookmark_borderI’m Baaa-aaack

Posted on by PaulaO

Got home earlier today from a freakin’ wonderful conference. Boy howdee!

I had a blast. So many notes to sift through! So many new ideas! So many pages to cut from my novels since now I know in what ways they suck!

I met my editor, Jane Volbrecht, as well as the head of my publisher, C.L. Both are fantastic women and I feel honored to have them on my side.

I also got to hang out with over 300 lesbian writers and readers. The energy there, the emotional and physical energy, was…astounding, empowering, rejuvenating, awesome, cool, groovy, and a bunch of other similar big words.

And with that, my partner of 16 years prefers I shut this thing off and get ready for bed. I think she kinda sorta missed me a little. 😀

bookmark_borderAlmost Out the Door

Posted on by PaulaO

In the morning we leave for Atlanta for the Golden Crown Literary Society’s Literary Conference!

Lorna will drive me down, stay a few hours, then head home. She’ll return Sunday to pick me up.

Since I don’t have enough clothes to pack far enough in advance to take the stress off, I am still stuffing the suitcase. Lorna is much better at it than I am so she will fix it in the morning. For the most part, I am ready to go. There are those last minute things that I hope to not forget. Like my body pillow. I need it tonight so I will need to get up in the morning and stuff it into whatever form it is traveling in.

Well, I won’t bore you with those details. So I am off to finalize my lists and to get some sleep!

bookmark_borderGhosts, Updates, and Cats

Posted on by PaulaO

Wrote some more on the ghost story. Not much, but enough that I am still pleased with where it is going. I am resisting the urge to add in a love interest ghost. I just want this to be real, not romance. ‘Cause we all know romance ain’t real.

Updated my Writer’s Bookmarks page. I’ve not made many writing-related bookmarks lately so I only had about six new ones to add to the page.

Our youngest cat, Mad Max (he’s 8 I think), has a massive abscess on the side of his face. He’s got a vet appt. at 8 in the morning. Guess who has to be alert enough to drive him there and back? I love this cat though so I am willing to make the sacrifice. We’d not bother with the vet except it is on his face, it’s not draining properly, and he’s not a good healer. Plus we had a cat not that long ago get a bone stuck in his mouth (bird we think) so we are afraid there’s something in Max’s mouth that’s caused this.

I’m still getting ready for the convention. I washed my neck brace, found my notebook, found Jo’s elephant, and cleaned my chair tires. Tomorrow I take Max to the vet (8am), go to the pharmacy, take Callie to the vet (4pm), shop for clothes (we had no success today), and perhaps pick up some bottled water. Lorna has to wash Joella and take the last load of clothes to the laundry to dry. Is that it? Dang, I hope so!

bookmark_borderGetting Ready for Con

Posted on by PaulaO

The Golden Crown Literary Society’s Literary Convention is in a few days.

Our initial plans were for Lorna to go with me (and Joella) and for us to have a luxurious time surrounded by like-minded women.

But Real Life sucks.

Our babysitter had to cancel.
Then Jake (dalmatian) decided to be a bitch.
Then Max (cat) came home with a swollen face from an abscess.

Lorna’s staying home. She’ll take me down to Atlanta, stay for a bit to meet folk, then come back on Sunday to listen to the speaker (Ann Bannon) and to take me home.

Joella and I will be on our own. We’ll be just fine. We will still be surrounded by like-minded women. We just won’t have Lorna. sniff

We did laundry today and I went through my clothes, trying to decide what to wear. The banquet and awards are kinda dressy. Some will be wearing tux and others will be wearing dresses or suits or nice clothes. So I feel the need to get something to wear. I have an old vest. It’s okay, but it is wool and HOT. I wish I’d planned ahead better. I would have gotten a suit. Nice pants, matching blazer or vest, crisp oxford and maybe even a tie.

The workshops will be more casual and I am set for that. I do casual rather well! I am on one of the panels so I’ll need to wear something appropriate. Again, wish I had planned better. I could have ordered something appropriate from Nth Degree. Like, “Day Off” or “Camp Can’t-Feel-My-Legs” or maybe even the “Darwin” shirt.

But I do have a cool suitcase and I did get my briefcase washed. Tomorrow I need to clean off my chair and to clean up my portfolio/notebook thing.

bookmark_borderShort Story

Posted on by PaulaO

Went to visit a friend yesterday. They are in the process of building a house and in the meantime the house they were living in sold (which is good since now they have the money to build) so they moved to a log cabin. That’s where we went yesterday. Cute little place. About as old as this house and in about as good shape. :rolleyes: The kitchen is an add on and is falling away from the rest of the house. The woman who lived in it before died and the family just left the house alone from September until this past April. So it was mold everywhere.

They also discovered the place had several others living there. Others as in ghosts. Now, we didn’t know this. But I could “feel” it. It’s something I inherited from my mother and my father’s grandfather. Anyway, we are inside getting the grand tour (of the four rooms). The dogs–Joella, Zoe, and Emmitt–are outside doing the “where-ya-been?” dance. I look out to see a fourth dog with them. It was just for a few seconds. It looked in the screen door then left. I told Lori they had a visiting dog. She got all excited and asked what it looked like.

Seems as though I saw the ghost dog. It’s the only ghost still around since they talked the others into going away. Sort of. Gary wanted me to go to the basement and tell the others to go too but I declined. We shared ghost stories later and why each of us did or did not believe in them.

As we talked about the ghost dog and about the others there and others we’d met, a story started forming in my mind. It is rather interesting, actually. I came home last night and wrote a goodly chunk of it. When it’s done, I’ll share it with Lori and Gary.

bookmark_borderTrees

Posted on by PaulaO

Got some good writing in last night. The new project is up over 5000 words which is great!

I haven’t a clue where it is going though so it slowed down this morning. I’ve only gotten, like, maybe 200 words all day.

Lorna and I have talked some about Simple Sarah, book one of the Thobian Chronicles. What we’ve decided is that I will write all three of them at once, as if they were one huge book. Then I’ll decide where book one will end, edit up to there, submit it, then start editing the next one. Make sense?

The new project is about trees. I’ve done some research about them previously for both Simple Sarah and Wayback. Some of this new book has taken a lot from Wayback in terms of trees and religion.