The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

I just had a weird realization. Both of my parents were boomers, but my dad was the youngest and my mom the eldest of their respective siblings. My dad had half the number of siblings as my mom, but still his eldest brother was part of the Great Generation, even if just barely. Whereas my mom's youngest brother is a Millennial, if only just barely. It's kinda crazy.
 
I just had a weird realization. Both of my parents were boomers, but my dad was the youngest and my mom the eldest of their respective siblings. My dad had half the number of siblings as my mom, but still his eldest brother was part of the Great Generation, even if just barely. Whereas my mom's youngest brother is a Millennial, if only just barely. It's kinda crazy.
So, no-one gets along?
 
Ah. Thunder. Haven't heard thunder in months! Finally getting enough rain to do more than get the cars dirty. Forecast said more than an inch. Yep. Airport rain gauge indicates almost 2" so far.

I think I have three stories in the can, all in the Barstow series. Another pass through the two-parter, and up they go. Next one will get a week under the warming lamps before I serve it.
 
... And then the sky opened up for a few hours.

Holy moly. It absolutely dumped on us since last mentioned. NWS reports 5.31" at this point, and more overnight, although (thankfully) not as heavy. Even the TV weather person was astounded 'cause it was just our local monitoring station. Most everybody else was 3" or less.

Almost afraid to go out to check on the other properties. Leaves came down in huge flurries and were already clogging storm drains 5 hours ago. Gotta be a mess out there.
 
#4 son & SO with #4 grandchild (#2 grandson) Are in town this weekend. They arrived late yesterday and are staying out on Amelia Island, which is a bit of a haul from Casa del Duleigh so we trucked out there in 2 vehicles and met up at their hotel. Grandma Duleigh and Great Grandma Duleigh got a room at the beach front hotel (Is there a difference between hotel and motel anymore?) and I followed up in The Tank (It's what Grandson #2 calls my pickup)

Pulling into the narrow parking spot at the hotel I dented the door of the truck next to me. (Warning - parking spots in Tourist Towns outside of Orlando are incredibly narrow) I went into the motel and told the front desk and they reached out to the truck owner, a nice younger woman (at my age they're all younger) from Pensacola traveling with her boyfriend and a band of bikers. We exchanged insurance info and phone numbers, and she was sad, but she wasn't angry with me, but she did tell her boyfriend, "My husband is going to kill me."

With that settled we held an early Christmas for Grandchild #4 because they're going to be on a cruise for Christmas, then we went to Sliders, a great restaurant on the beach. I hadn't been there in a long time, the last time I was there was when I met Campus77 shortly before he died so I was a bit trepidatious, but we had a great time. LOTS of free entertainment, the band did a long Lynyrd Skynyrd set (Mandatory for any band that wants to play within 50 miles of Jacksonville) and we got to see the Nassau County Sheriffs make an awesome arrest out on the beach - some drunk harassing peaceful stoners and he put up a fight with the cops. Fun for the whole family. All in all, not the worst birthday I've ever had.
 
#4 son & SO with #4 grandchild (#2 grandson) Are in town this weekend. They arrived late yesterday and are staying out on Amelia Island, which is a bit of a haul from Casa del Duleigh so we trucked out there in 2 vehicles and met up at their hotel. Grandma Duleigh and Great Grandma Duleigh got a room at the beach front hotel (Is there a difference between hotel and motel anymore?) and I followed up in The Tank (It's what Grandson #2 calls my pickup)

Pulling into the narrow parking spot at the hotel I dented the door of the truck next to me. (Warning - parking spots in Tourist Towns outside of Orlando are incredibly narrow) I went into the motel and told the front desk and they reached out to the truck owner, a nice younger woman (at my age they're all younger) from Pensacola traveling with her boyfriend and a band of bikers. We exchanged insurance info and phone numbers, and she was sad, but she wasn't angry with me, but she did tell her boyfriend, "My husband is going to kill me."

With that settled we held an early Christmas for Grandchild #4 because they're going to be on a cruise for Christmas, then we went to Sliders, a great restaurant on the beach. I hadn't been there in a long time, the last time I was there was when I met Campus77 shortly before he died so I was a bit trepidatious, but we had a great time. LOTS of free entertainment, the band did a long Lynyrd Skynyrd set (Mandatory for any band that wants to play within 50 miles of Jacksonville) and we got to see the Nassau County Sheriffs make an awesome arrest out on the beach - some drunk harassing peaceful stoners and he put up a fight with the cops. Fun for the whole family. All in all, not the worst birthday I've ever had.
Probably beats the best birthday I have ever had.
 
I had a dance dream last night. I haven't had one of those in a long time.

I don't remember a lot of the setup, but the woman was a recently-retired professional dancer who went on to other things. She agreed to do one performance for a fundraiser, and called the man who was her favorite dance partner to help her.

He is still dancing professionally, so he's in great shape. She gets in shape to perform a simple duet before he arrives. They rehearse once with music played from a boombox on stage. To them, it's like they never stopped dancing, but he realizes that she wants something more, and he wants to give it to her.

Without her knowing, he replaced her music with the music for a more difficult, very romantic duet--knowing that dancers never forget choreography. She realizes what he's done when the music starts. She hesitates, but the show has to go on, and they perform the duet without rehearsal.

The last scene before I woke up was of the couple spinning on stage. I could only see them from the shoulders up. He held her close with her arms extended over her head.

I don't think I've ever seen that move--maybe something like it by a couple from Alvin Ailey--and I don't know if it would even be possible. The balance would be extremely challenging. But then, anything's possible in a dream.

I suppose, had I not woken, there would have been a romantic conclusion. Maybe she would un-retire.
 
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Almost done with the hand painting on my test ornament. You can't see it in the photo but I added glitter to the snow on the rooftops, trees and ground. You can see some on the steeple. After this shot I gave the sphere a coat of Mod Podge gloss with glitter, we'll see if it helps that gold. I know when working with metalic acrylic the more coats the better but after three it wasn't improving. (Could it be the PLA fliament?)

Oh well, more stuff to paint. The Starship Enterprise is on the printer right now and there's a slew of tin soldiers planned. (I may be a Christmas fanatic, but there will be no pickle on my printer or my tree)

Oh, btw - @MrPixel - Mrs. Duleigh thought the 3D printer was a stupid idea, then I started making geocaches shaped like pinecones and suddenly she's all in on 3D printing for HER craft business. To help her business and insure familial harmony, she got me a Flashforge ADX5 Four color printer for my birthday. (I need to start buying filament)
 
So I finally finished the first draft for my sci-fi novel. I was targeting 60K and the draft came in at a hair over 57K with several scenes left out. So I actually feel good about estimating the length for once. On to the next one, which I am already about 1K into.

It's around 70 here today and beautiful. We ate breakfast outside (in the screen porch) probably for the last time until spring. Most of the days in the 10 day forecast are highs in the upper 40's or low-50's. This is the time of the season when the typical conversation with acquaintances is whether you turned on the heat yet or not. Most people consider it okay to turn on around November 1, but we have been cheating by using room heat pumps when it gets too cold.
 
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