Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

Finncon Photos

2009-07-18T01:52:34Z

I needed a break from staring at logistics optimization models, so I had a look at the Finncon Photo Album that Cheryl posted this afternoon. This is one of the places where the energy I remember from the 1980s fandom as I knew it seems to have gone.

ConReporter.Com Launching at Worldcon

2009-07-17T16:07:15Z

If you've been following Cheryl's blog you know about the launch of ConReporter.com, a web site designed to gather together everyone's reports of Worldcon in one place so that people all over the world who can't attend can get a taste of what the event is like. It's a form of citizen journalism if you like. I'm excited to be part of it and am one of the reporters on the team helping make Anticipation a true "21st Century Worldcon."

If you are going to Anticipation and planning to blog or tweet about it, you can become part of the fun by letting us know about it.

Motherboard Matters

2009-07-17T01:45:28Z

The technician from Dell arrived on schedule and proceeded to tear apart my Inspiron 600m and replace the motherboard. He said, "Why not just buy another computer," and I tried to explain why I couldn't afford that. He was a nice guy, and turns out to have some fannish aspects. When I explained that I'd be going to Worldcon, he said he'd been to a few BayCons. I said, "Oh, then you might know what this is," and picked up my Hugo Award Trophy.

"You won a Hugo Award?" he gasped, at which I explained that mine was only a display copy; one of two left over after the 2002 Worldcon.

Getting back to the issue at hand, he finished reinstalling the motherboard and, after much fussing with the connectors to get the screen to start working again, booted the machine from a known-good-clone. (I'd cloned it from the other computer, and the drive would boot in the other computer as well.) It seems to be working okay now. We'll see if it stays that way. The technician couldn't believe the symptoms I reported -- having it be a hardware problem with the computer corrupting hard drives seemed so improbable. Well, I agree, but with all of the other likely causes eliminated, it seemed like the only other thing left.

Those Darn Daleks Part 3 Uploaded

2009-07-15T14:34:43Z

I have uploaded Part 3 of Those Darn Daleks, the second of the two amateur Doctor Who movies I helped make in the late 1980s. Sorry for the delay in getting the final episode posted, but the excitement in Tempe last week and my work schedule kept me from uploading it then.

That concludes the uploads of my Doctor Who movies. You can access all six episodes as well as the Making of The Zombie Legions and the Those Darn Daleks preview on my Vimeo uploads page.

Ding, Dong, Dell

2009-07-15T04:46:28Z

I got a call from a Dell service technician, who has a new motherboard for my hard-drive-killing Inspiron 600m. He'll be here Thursday around noon to replace it. Nice when the service works!

RIP: Charles N. Brown

2009-07-13T17:47:14Z

As first seen on coppervale's LJ, the editor/publisher of Locus, Charles N. Brown, has died.

Dell: Less Painful Than Expected

2009-07-13T17:42:15Z

I finally opened a service call with Dell regarding the suspected bad motherboard in my hard-drive-killing laptop. As I expected, they initially suggested I do all of the things that I'd already done, like trying the "bad" drives in another computer, or cloning a different disk image. They also suggested doing a complete reinstallation from scratch, which I really didn't want to do because from all of the other tests done, it seems like it would be a complete waste of time.

Somewhat to my surprise, they agreed to replace the motherboard, and I should be hearing from a service technician in a few days. I'll probably have to do an installation-from-scratch after that, but I won't feel so bad about doing so then because it seems far less likely that the computer will simply eat the hard drive thereafter.

Lisa Made It Home

2009-07-12T03:39:27Z

I did get a message from Lisa while on the way to the SFSFC Board meeting that she'd made it home safely to Mehama this morning. That's a relief.

Meeting Day

2009-07-12T03:38:26Z

Today was the every-four-monthly meeting of the SFSFC Board of Directors. We had what I think was a pretty productive meeting, hosted by Glenn Glazer, who then put on an excellent barbecue lunch for us after the meeting. Now that I'm home, I should work on doing the meeting minutes, but I'm too tired and I will probably just go to bed early. Maybe tomorrow I will have recovered sufficiently from the long hours at work and the stress of the extra days in Tempe to get back to work on things fannish.

If They Pay the Claim, I'll Feel Better

2009-07-10T23:33:26Z

Having completed the most pressing business from work and having been told I could go home when I wanted, I took care of some personal business: prepaing the insurance claim for the extra days in Tempe. Although the AAA trip-interruption insurance won't cover the roughly $1700 in car-repair bills of course, it's supposed to cover up to $1000 in out-of-pocket additional expenses incurred because of such an event.

After going through my receipts and notes, and including things like the airline ticket change fees and the additional hotel nights, the total claim comes to $925.22, and I'll send it off to the insurance company on my way home. If I'm really lucky, they'll pay before the credit card bills are due next month. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile: Lisa left for Oregon late this morning and expects to be home sometime tomorrow. She was very releived to get out of the desert and into cool Bay Area weather. She and Kuma Bear have had quite enough unpleasant adventures for this trip.

In a few minutes I'm heading home, where me and my pillow are going to get re-aquainted with each other.

Rays of Financial Hope

2009-07-07T16:20:16Z

They do a very good job of hiding it within the web site, but I managed to find the trip-interruption insurance claim form that is theoretically part of my AAA membership. Again, in theory, it's supposed to cover up to $1000 of hotel, meal, and alternative transportation expenses incurred due to vehicle breakdown. It doesn't cover the vehicle repairs themselves, but you do have to include the bills as part of the proof that something happened. Well, all I can do is submit the claim after I get home and see what happens. If they turn it down, I'm no worse off than I am now.

Looking for the Bright Side

2009-07-07T15:41:21Z

While it's inconvenient and expensive -- $100/day hotel room plus meals -- I reckon that being stuck here in Tempe while we wait for the repairs to be finished on the pickup truck could be worse. The hotel room is decently comfortable. The staff of the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel have been very nice and very cooperative. Downtown Tempe, which is right outside the hotel's door, is pleasant enough as long as you stay out of the sun, with lots of places to eat and services like the CVS/pharmacy a few blocks down Mill Avenue. There's a local free circulator bus system that will take us to most of the places that are beyond walking distance that we might want to go while we are here (including the car shop where the pickup is right now). The internet connection in the room is solid and sufficiently fast for me to get my work done, and it's included in the room cost instead of contracted out as a separate profit center. I could use Skype to attend the two conference calls for which I was scheduled yesterday, and I can log in to my work machines as easily here as if I were at home -- that is, they haven't blocked VPN access the way some hotels' systems seem to have done.

Lisa took the pickup truck to a mechanic yesterday, as I wrote then. They called back while we were at lunch -- with my telephone's battery dead, the only contact number they have is the hotel -- and gave us the verdict. The bearings in one wheel need to be repacked, and the rear brakes need turning. There are other things that should also be done, but some of those things need custom parts that are back in Oregon, and those repairs will get Lisa back on the road. Estimated cost: $750. But the truck needs new tires, as well. Lisa had originally expected to nurse the truck through this trip and replace the tires when she got home, but it appears that some of the other problems have exacerbated the wear on the tires, and so as soon as she has the truck again, she plans to take it down the street to Big O tires for new tires as well.

The car shop says that if the parts they need arrive this morning, they should have the pickup done late today. We decided that means Lisa can't leave until tomorrow, and we therefore extended the hotel room stay one more night. I still plan to fly back tonight on an 8 o'clock flight to Oakland. Even if the mechanic's shop needs to keep the truck an extra day, I'll need to go with Lisa there sometime late this afternoon and pay for the repairs since I have all of the credit cards.

On the way to lunch, we checked the Cricket wireless store here in downtown, and not surprisingly, they did not have a charger that fit my phone. After eating, we went to what the Verizon web site identified as the nearest store, which was on the campus of ASU. On the way there, Lisa had us stop and buy sunscreen for me and she insisted that I wear her hat to keep the sun off my head. Unfortunately, while the student union building was open, the Verizon kiosk was closed for the summer, so we walked back to the hotel. It was only 2 km each way, but in the 42C heat it was a pretty severe chore, and harder on Lisa than me. At the room, we called the auto shop, returning their message and getting the prognosis on the truck, and I went back to work for the afternoon, while Lisa took a bath and tried to cool down.

After work, we consulted the local transit schedules and Verizon Wireless stores. The next-closest store appears to be at the Tempe Marketplace, a "power center" outdoor mall. It's about 4 km from here, and in any non-scortching climate, I wouldn't have mind walking it, especially as I had scored an afternoon blood sugar in the high 170s. But in this heat, it's not a good idea. Besides, one of the free "Orbit" buses goes relatively directly between the Tempe Transportation Center (which is a block from the hotel) to the Tempe Marketplace.

Lisa and I think that a "power center" is a stupid sort of commercial development to begin with, particularly when the architecture encourages people to drive from one part of the complex to another. I suppose it may be more energy efficient to have outdoor swamp coolers (misting towers) than air conditioning, but why the heck do they have gas fireplaces running in this place when it's more than 40C outside?

Our first stop on the trudge from the bus stop to the Verizon store was an outdoor store, where we bought me a new floppy hat to wear in this heat. Yes, I suppose I look silly in the hat, but it's better than turning beet red and burning what hair I still have off the top of my head. Then we went into the Verizon store and asked for a replacement charger. To my annoyance, they informed us that they didn't stock a charger for a phone that old. I bought it about a year ago. This is so stupid. It appears that the phone manufacturers change power connectors about every two or three weeks. Among the various reasons this is stupid is the terrible ecological waste. I have several old phones in a closet, all of which have mutually-incompatible chargers. The current stable-as-a-wave-in-water designs are creating e-waste at a ferocious pace.

Manufacturers should agree on a common standard for mobile phone chargers, or else the government should impose one. I'd prefer the former, but it seems that commercial forces are not producing the most efficient, ecological approach. Is there some reason they can't use a common standard like mini-USB (chargers for which I did see hanging in the store)? If they used that, it seems like it would be easy enough to charge one's phone out of one's laptop. If I had that, I wouldn't have to carry a separate charger and could just use a lighter adapter cable in my computer bag. My current phone has about nine months left on its contract. I am going to have to make a point of paying attention to the charger connection as a selection point the next time I change mobile phones.

Anyway, after the frustration with the telephone, and no Jamba Juice in this mall in which to drown our sorrows, we trudged through the heat back to the bus stop, having to run to catch the next bus back to downtown Tempe. Then we returned to the room and recovered for a while. We thought that perhaps we could finally take a ride on the light rail system, and headed for the stop out back of the hotel. With no particular destination in mind, we planned on buying day passes and catching whichever train next came by. Unfortunately, as we approached the station, trains came and went both ways, so Lisa decided not to bother, as it would have been another fifteen minutes' wait for the next ones, and it was already after 8 PM.

Instead of a "joyride" on the light rail, we walked down Mill Avenue, picked up a few more things at CVS, and then back up the street. After considering several dining options, we ended up going to My Big Fat Greek Restaurant for the sixth time. The staff there have us memorized by now. Our server escorted us to our "usual table" and remembered what we were going to order. I said, "Don't take this personally, but I hope you won't be seeing us again, at least not for a long time," and explained why we were here in "overtime."

From our table, we could see the Diamonbacks-Padres baseball game on the monitors. Had the Giants been in town, I think I would have made more of an effort to have gone to the game. After all, the light rail goes to the ballpark, so getting there would have been a breeze.

After dinner, we needed a walk, but with the sun down, it was not nearly so unpleasant. We explored the area some more, finding things like a nearby laundromat (which would have been handier for Lisa if most of her clothes weren't still locked up in the camper shell on her pickup) and the former Tempe train station (now a restaurant). We walked under the light rail bridge that crosses the Salt River, and admired the LED light sculpture. Standing under the bridge, watching the lights pulse across the bridge, Lisa said, "Charge the laser cannon!"

We then circled back home by way of Tempe Beach Park. By then, it was nearly 11 PM, and we'd had a pretty long day, with fair bits of highly unwanted stress, not all of which I've detailed here. We were both highly on edge despite the walking, and it took a long time to wind down.

We've been making the most we can manage of this sojourn in Tempe, and I guess I shouldn't complain too much, but I'm very aware of how much money this is costing us.

Where's Kuma?

2009-07-07T07:19:43Z

I still have a huge pile of photos from Westercon to process and caption, but we also have photos that Lisa took on her trip to Phoenix. While passing through Barstow, she stopped to look at the older preserved equipment parked there. Kuma Bear decided to hide on one of the locomotives.

Here's the locomotive on which Kuma hitched a ride. Can you find him?

After you've checked out the photo under the cut, you can see where Kuma Bear was hiding.

Timing in Tempe

2009-07-06T16:12:02Z

After I got back to the hotel last night, Lisa and I got things as secured as we could for now. She bought me a shirt from Scott Dennis so I'd have one shirt besides the one I had been wearing. We had dinner (which made us feel somewhat better), and walked down to the CVS/pharmacy and bought more cereal, milk, bowls, and plastic cutlery. (We'd accidentally left the remaining cereal and supplies in the room from which we'd checked out yesterday afternoon, so that's a bit more wasted money, alas.) We found a new headset there as well. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a charger that would fit my phone. Even the Box of Chargers at the hotel's front desk had nothing that fit a Verizon Coupe phone. My thanks to Westercon 62 chair (and WC 64 Fan Guest of Honor) mwillmoth for his offer to loan me his headset if I needed it.

Returning to the room, I confirmed that the headset worked and that Skype works from from the hotel's internet connections and did what I could do to get secured for working today, letting my co-workers how to reach me and warning them that my mobile phone is out of service. Then we did get some sleep, although without my CPAP machine -- it was in my luggage -- it probably wasn't terribly restful.

We've found a shop within a couple of miles of where we are that looks like it could do the work on Lisa's truck; she spoke to them on the phone and they didn't rule it out, at least. Once she has the pickup rigged for being worked on in a garage (radios and antennas stowed, that sort of thing), she'll take it down there. With it being a short distance over streets (no high-speed/freeway running), she thinks she should be able to drive it there. I sure hope this is something they can deal with by tomorrow at the latest.

Unwanted Extra Days In Tempe

2009-07-06T03:40:53Z

As those of you following my Twitter feed probably know by now, I'm going to be in Tempe for a couple of extra days. Lisa pickup truck broke down just after she left the hotel (and I'd left for the airport). She nursed the truck and its wobbly wheel back to the hotel. People managed to track me down at the airport. The hotel was willing to on my verbal say-so reopen the reservation and check her back in for two nights (we assume that nothing can be done in less than two days even if we can find someone who can fix it tomorrow morning). I'll be heading back to the hotel in a few minutes -- it was a 25-minute wait for the next shuttle, so I decided to stay in the air conditioning for a few extra minutes. I hope to be able to borrow a microphone for my computer so I can do the conference calls I have tomorrow morning. I'll need to get some work done remotely from here or else take an emergency day or two off from work and I don't have a lot of spare time in my account right now.

My luggage went on to OAK without me and will be locked up for me to come claim it. Unfortunately, that includes my CPAP machine and all my spare clothes. Should be an interesting couple of days. Probably will have to buy a new shirt tomorrow. And the charger for my phone was in that bag as well, so I have no way to recharge my phone, which is showing zero reserve now, so don't expect to reach me by phone for a couple of days.

Freight Train vs. Tornado

2009-07-05T20:05:28Z

Deb Geisler has posted an astonishing video of a freight train being hit by a tornado from the point of view of a camera pointing out of the cab of a rear-facing trailing locomotive. Incredible.

SMOFS in a Room

2009-07-05T19:52:41Z

It appears that the Westercon 63 committee has decided to file a write-in bid to host the 2010 NASFiC as part of Westercon 63. That is, if they win, the 2010 West Coast Science Fantasy Conference in Pasadena would also be the 2010 North American Science Fiction Convention. The filing deadline for the ballot having passed, Pasadena's bid can only run as a write-in against Raleigh, the only group that filed a bid before the deadline.

Busy Busy Day

2009-07-04T08:12:15Z

Besides the Business Meeting, I was on two panels today. The first was about "Gafiation" (Getting Away From It All, or dropping out of fandom) and the second about "Is This Your First Con?" I was a bit disappointed that only four people total turned up for the latter, only two of whom were at their first convention.

Besides the panels and BM, I had the SJ2011 and Anticipation tables at which to try and spend some time, and, oh, yes, Lisa and I had a full 45 minutes to actually look at the dealers room and art show. We were in our complimentary WSFS uniforms, and Lisa was wearing the jet-pack with the "Bear-o-Metric" chamber that included Kuma Bear in his WSFS shirt. As is common, there were many people enthusing over the jet-pack and particularly making much of Bear.

We were at the fan tables until 7, at which point I went off with Glenn Glazer and the Site Selection team led by sfrose. They counted ballots while I set up a spreadsheet to capture the results. Once we were all certain of the results, Sharon certified them and handed the site selection funds to Glenn Glazer, I posted the announcement that SJ2011 had won (no real surprise, of course) to Twitter, and I e-mailed the results to the convention newsletter for publication in Saturday morning's newsletter.

Because of the decisions of Friday's Business Meeting and because there was a definitive winner other than None of the Above in the voting, there will be no Saturday meeting. That takes some of the load off of me, because we're not committed to opening to sell memberships until Noon Saturday.

Having dealt with the election, I went back to Fan Tables where Lisa had been patiently waiting, and we helped Glenn carry the SJ2011 gear up to his room. He started keying the results into his computer, and Lisa and I went to have dinner.

We've eaten three times at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, a local chain, and we've had the same thing at every meal -- Athenian Spaghetti (spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, and feta cheese), Lisa with shrimp and me with Greek sausage -- because we like it and it's easy to decide. And it isn't even affecting my blood sugar adversely.

Yes, we walked the couple of blocks from the hotel in our WSFS uniforms. We got the odd look or two. Hard to say what people were making of us.

Returning to the hotel after dinner, we took downstairs the Westercon 64 banner and Conversion Rates banner that I'd printed last week and that Lisa had carried here in her pickup truck. There, we placed the banners at what had been our bid table and what will be our convention table in a few hours.

Business done, we were finally able to spend a couple of hours going around to the var/ious parties, but we headed back to the room by Midnight. At first we thought we needed to go out to get fresh milk, but the ice in the cooler has held the milk we purchased earlier, so instead we turned in for the night. And now I'm going to fall into bed and not worry about getting up especially early.

We have more photos, but again, not time to post them, not without sacrificing even more sleep.

San Jose Wins 2011 Westercon

2009-07-04T04:29:00Z

San Jose received 79 of the 93 votes cast in the 2011 Westercon Site Selection (the remainder spread over a raft of write-ins, None of the Above, and No Preference) and will host Westercon 64, July 1-4, 2011, at the Fairmont Hotel, San Jose, California. (Those who attended ConJose will remember this as the 2002 Worldcon's headquarters hotel.)

Guests of Honor are Patricia A. McKillip, Kaja & Phil Foglio, and Mike Willmoth. Convention Chair is Glenn Glazer.

Membership is $45 if you neither voted in Westercon Site Selection or pre-supported the SJ2011 Westercon bid. Discounts apply to those who voted/pre-supported.

More details, including online registration, will be available in a day or two on the convention's web site, http://www.westercon64.org/

Westercon Business Meeting Results

2009-07-03T20:43:02Z

The Westercon Business Meeting gave first passage to a proposal to repeal the existing rule that prohibits sites within 75 miles of the current Westercon from bidding to host the Westercon two years hence. This proposal will be sent on to next year's Westercon for ratification. If the proposal is ratified next year, it would first apply to the 2013 Westercon site selection to be held at the 2011 Westercon.

The Business Meeting scheduled for 1 PM Saturday will not be held unless there is a problem with site selection. The results of site selection are expected to be published in the Saturday morning edition of the newsletter, and if there is any reason to hold the Saturday afternoon Business Meeting, it will be announced in the Saturday morning newsletter. Results of Site Selection are official as soon as announced by the Site Selection administrator, and therefore we expect that the results will be made public around the convention later this evening.

No Time for Journals

2009-07-03T07:42:37Z

It's been a very busy day here on the first day of Westercon. I have lots of photos and stuff about which I could write, but insufficient time to do it. During the day, I divided my time between the Anticipation and SJ2011 tables, which face each other across the lobby in front of the Dealers' Room. I had one panel about which I knew -- but also another one on which I was scheduled according to the program book, but that did not appear on my own printed schedule, so I didn't know about it until too late.

In the evening, SJ2011 held its Final Bid Party tonight, and (helped by being the only open party on Thursday) had a large turnout.

I'd write more, but we have to go run get some milk for our breakfast (we ice it down overnight in a small cooler) and it's nearly 1 AM and I've been up since 2:30 AM the previous morning. To say that I'm sleepy is an understatement.

Getting to Phoenix

2009-07-02T17:00:26Z

Aside from the highly undesirable getting up at 2:30 AM in order to sure of being at the airport by 4 AM for my 6 AM flight, and having to pay $16/day for parking instead of being able to take BART and the AirBART bus for much less money, the trip from Oakland to Phoenix was uneventful, just the way I like it, and the middle seat didn't fill. Lisa having checked in last night, and I confirmed the credit card details and went up to the room.

I'm unpacked and settled in, and have turned in an assignment that was due from me that I did while on the plane. Now to go get registered and take stuff down to the fan tables. Wireless access is free. Not sure how much I'll be online.

I wouldn't mind a nap, actually. I can't sleep on planes easily. And aside from food bars I took with me, I haven't had anything to eat this morning. Food services at Oakland airport mostly don't seem to open until 5 or 5:30, except for the Starbucks kiosk near gate 14, primarily aimed at that 6 AM departure for Phoenix on USAir.

Early Bird Gets the /W/a/r/m Hot

2009-07-01T22:42:59Z

Lisa made far better time on this drive than she expected, with the result being that she's arrived a day early. After talking to the hotel's front desk, which then called and talked to me, they're going to let her check in to our room tonight (they said they'd do it at the same rate as the rest of the stay; fingers crossed that this actually happens) and I could deal with the physical credit card when I arrive tomorrow morning. I'm sure Lisa will appreciate getting into an air-conditioned room and getting a bath after four days on the road in the pickup.

Could It Be the Hard Drives After All?

2009-07-01T12:57:37Z

I'm still banging my head against the wall with this darn hard drive/computer problem. It's gotten to where I'm scared to ever turn off the computer, lest the drive refuse to boot again on the next go-around. For a while, I was nearly convinced that it must be the motherboard/controller on the main computer, but the latest experiment now has me confused.

I had two drives that would boot (Primary and Backup A), and one that would not (Backup B). Leaving Primary running in the laptop PC I normally use, I put Backup A into PC 2 and booted it. No problem. This is the laptop that we've assumed is working okay. I cloned Backup A to Backup B using PC 2. This means that neither A nor B had ever been inside the suspect PC on this go-around. The clone reported itself as complete and normal.

Neither drive would boot. I now have Primary cloning back into Backup A. We'll see in 90 minutes or so whether the clone of Backup A will boot inside PC 2.

All three hard drives (Primary/A/B) are 250GB Western Digital hard drives. Two were purchased at Fry's in Wilsonville OR, while the third came from Fry's Fremont CA.

Now that I've sort of tested the variable, I'm starting to wonder if my PC actually has the hardware problem (potential motherboard failure) we thought it might have. Maybe there is something wrong with the system installed on those three drives. The only way to test that would be to do a bare-metal WinXP installation -- something I'm almost willing to do, but not today. I don't have all day to spend playing with the computers. I'm working from home today (so I need at least one computer running without balking) and also packing for Westercon.

The current plan -- because I pretty much need to have at least one working laptop PC with me at Westercon -- is to make PC2 the working machine for now, and to have it booting from its own hard drive. I don't think PC2's drives have been contaminated with system files from PC1. I've also not put either of PC2's drives (primary and backup) into the suspect PC1 chassis. When I have time -- maybe next week after I get back from Tempe -- I will try doing a bare-metal installation of WinXP on one of the 250GB drives installed in PC1 and see whether it holds up.

Having five hard drives to keep two laptops running is not the happiest state of affairs. And there's still a higher chance than I like that I may end up completely offline while in Arizona, if whatever is troubling the trio of 250GB drives/PC1 starts showing up on the pair of 160GB drives/PC2. OTOH, neither of the 160GB drives has done a "will not boot" on me, so fingers crossed.

Kuma Bear Says, "It's Too Hot!"

2009-07-01T12:36:24Z

Lisa left me a message last night -- it's almost impossible for me to answer my mobile phone before it rolls away to voicemail unless the phone is in my hand -- with her current status. She went to Las Vegas and spent some of the day there yesterday (taking the opportunity to spend time in air-conditioned spaces), and was heading south and east to Arizona, where she would pick a place to stop for the night.

Lisa reports that she had a near-disaster with the pickup truck. While driving through a parking lot's speed bumps, the motor died. Upon investigation, Lisa found that the distributor rotor had been jarred loose. She had a spare distributor -- the one previously-installed, for which the now-broken one was the replacement -- and was able to get moving again. She said she'd try and pick up a new distributor on Wednesday, because she didn't like running without a spare.

She also told me that she had wanted to stop and take a picture of the slot-machine-themed Las Vegas Fry's Electronics, but they closed (and turned off the lights) a few minutes before she got there.

Lisa reports that Kuma Bear is complaining of the heat and would rather be by a cool mountain stream playing Salmon Keno. No, she doesn't know exactly what that is, either.