Speaking of Pratchett, the podcast Imaginary Worlds did an episode on Discworld this last week!

Best of luck on the trip to LA this week, David & JZ!

This year my sister talked me into a weekday season pass at Bear Valley, which is just 40 minutes from her cabin in the mountains. Unfortunately, we only got 2 days of skiing in before the incredible winter storms came in, and came in, and came in. We were planning to spend 3 days skiing next week, but apparently Bear Valley closes for the season on Sunday!

So I am taking tomorrow off, and we are driving up tomorrow morning to at least ski all afternoon. And then we drive back to the Bay Area on Saturday morning, so we can spend the afternoon dress shopping with my nieces. We all need dresses for the wedding in June, after all...

I'll have to look for that podcast.

I hope the weekend trip is smoother this week, JZ and Hec!

Just got tickets to see the Ft. Lauderdale Symphony perform Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto this month. I have never seen it played live. This is without a doubt the one piece of music that I have played more than any other. I used to go to sleep to it nightly decades ago. When it comes up on my playlist I always end up repeating it. Don't know why it has always been my favorite, but I just love it. Anyway, apparently it is the composer's 150th birthday and they chose this one, just for me I am sure. They are also doing Bruckner’s Te Deum, which is in the whatever category for me. I'll sit through it. I am excited.

Also, I don't know if you can read my local newspapers articles, but sad loss of art in one of the homes destroyed by the flooding. [link]

The Fort Lauderdale-based artist and puppeteer known for leading Florida’s longstanding Day of the Dead parade had just lost more than half of his handcrafted paper-mâché puppets to the murky floodwater that crept up nearly 4 feet in his artist studio.

He lives over near the park where I take Skinner downtown.

Oh, that is sad. I have been seeing news stories about all that and thinking of you, Laura. Glad you get to see your favorite piece of music soon!

Hoping JZ is having an easy if necessarily long day! Glad there is a lot of Pratchett to keep her company.

Laura u was thinking about you and all that rain.

We leave for Florida tomorrow, where it hasn't been raining that much. I'm mostly packed. I have to triple check some things. There is a definite difference to our packing ... M said he was done and I looked over and it was just 3 shirts and some shorts. He said "we will have a washing machine so I don't have to take much". In the meantime time I'm looking at things and making sure I have something to wear every day plus something to wear fishing and pajamas and...

Then there is also the art stuff I plan to take.

The plan is to drive tomorrow, and ge4 I'm, then Sunday it supposed to rain so we will just chill and then Monday dad will come down for fishing ...possibly and visiting and that's all that is planned so far

I hope you have a delightful trip. Remember to relax.

Today I received my THIRD gas bill for the month of April, complete with missing meter dates, unexplained extra charges (apparently there was a 6-day period for which the meter was read but no actual statement compiled), and a second and third initial sign-up fee added. Much of the math didn't add up, and after quite a long time on the phone with a CSR I think we got everything straightened out but the final amount I owed matched none of the totals on any of the paper and e-statements.

Now that daytime temperatures are rising above my thermostat setting my gas usage should plummet. But if billing in future months is as much of a boondoggle as the last three have been I'm going to buy tankless water heaters for my bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room and switch to space heaters, blankets, and feline heating pads before next winter.

That sounds very frustrating and like a bery bad way to run a utility company.

I am packed. Ish. I was sorting through the laundry we just did and was separating out what I am going to take into a laundry basket. The plan was to then put it in my suitcase but I was looking at it and thinking about the extra work and now I'm just going to put the laundry basket in the car and call that packed. I mean I may change my mind but we aren't going to hotel.

friends of mine used to drop off their clothes at a place that would wash & fold for $1 a bag (like big paper bags from the grocery store but very well packed!) and then pick them up on their way out of town and call it luggage.

My mom called it Bohemian matched luggage. Now I'm thinking I should probably google and find out how racist she was being

edit: OK apparently it's an Irish immigrant thing because (allegedly) Bohemian immigrants were treated better than Irish ones so Bohemian jokes evolved as a way of punching up at people they thought were getting an unfair advantage in the US.

Utility companies do seem to make a real effort to make billing incomprehensible.