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Wait for the Train
Friday, January 14, 2000 I got email with the information about my new DSL account today, to be used in the installation next week. I'm somewhat nervous about this. I dread having something go wrong, so that the DSL line won't work, but I won't be able to have my current dial-up account function either! Of course, I've no reason to think that this is likely, but... I went to my eye appointment this morning. The optometrist retests my eyes (which are apparently still too rough to be tested for glasses), then takes my current lenses away. They'll be sent out for reshaping, or polishing, or something. He gives me soft lenses to wear while the real ones are on a repairing lease. The woman who works the front desk (Is she the office manager, receptionist, or an eye technician? or all of these in one?) gives me the drill on putting these little pieces of plastic wrap in my eyes, and taking them out again. Soft lenses are not for those who are squeamish about touching their eyes; you have to actually put your fingers in there more than with hard lenses.
The weblogs-social list is getting fairly active. I've seen this before; various fannish email lists have developed some traffic (much of it off-topic for the official purpose of the list in question), then everyone starts chatting on another list when they are admonished by the list-owner. I'm sure we'll be back on the weblogs list soon. People are posting some elaborate intro posts, with full biography! Maybe I should point to a few journal entries where I discuss the past, and how I got here.
I'd signed on for picking up Jack's younger daughter H---- at the train station, and bringing her with me to Bellingham. I checked the website and saw that her train was going to be late, so I decided to wait at the office for quite a while, then drive directly there, instead of stopping at home first. When I arrived at the station, I saw that the train was going to be even later than I expected! So I drove off again (though I hated to give up my nice parking place close to the station) and went looking for food. It occurred to me: a good chance to go to the Chinese place above the QFC on Broadway! I've eaten there during the film festival, and I like the wide rice noodles they have. So I drove there and ate. Delicious and quick! I returned to the station and began waiting again. I read Cordelia's Honor, which I started a few days ago. One of the things that interests me about these Vorkosigan books by Bujold is the author's little scenes of homage to my favorite Georgette Heyer. If you are familier with Heyer, these references really jump out, even in a space-opera cum war novel. The book stands on its own, also, but these parallel scenes are like in-jokes. Finally the train arrived at 10:30 pm, about two hours after it was supposed to pull in. We drove north, H---- sleeping in the passenger seat, reclined way back. There wasn't much traffic and the drizzle was at a minimum, so we zipped along north of Everett and got to Jack's house around midnight. Jack had been obliged to stay home because it's his weekend to be on-call at work. He'd already dealt with one tech-support incident, getting beeped before he even left the parking lot!
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