an icepick through the keyhole

Note that this was written on Monday, 2 February, but is being posted on Tuesday the 3rd because posting from just my laptop is tedious and I have no confidencs in Sable's ability to stay up long enough.

Despite it being disaster season, it's been a pretty good week, modulo exhausting travel and (voluntarily) limited sleep, all thanks to Contabile, the main UK filk convention. N and m went last year; this year we all went (m traveling separately because they're living in the UK now). It's been a very good weekend, and not a bad week before that.

As usual, I'm unlikely to write a separate trip report later (one can hope, but...). The trip was definitely an adventure, taking the ferry from Hoek de Holland to Harwich, then two trains and a cab to the con hotel. The premium lounge on the ferry serves surprisingly good food. So does the con hotel, the Wensum Valley Hotel, about a 20 minute cab ride outside Norwich.

My travel planning and prep has definitely declined. The biggest problem was taking a laptop with a grossly inadequate batter -- I should have taken (Framework 12)Lilac, instead of (Thinkpad x230)Sable, which is definitely showing its age, and has a usable batter life measured in minutes. The list of forgotten stuff is under the cut following the entry for Friday.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Welcome to February, 2026!

Because I am at a con, the weekly "done since" post will be put off to Monday. Also see yesterday's s4s post for today's remembered disaster.

Late January through early February is not a good time of year. My mother-in-law died January 20, 1999. My father died a little over two weeks later, on February 5th. In between, we had Challenger, 40 years ago on the 28th (last Wednesday), and Columbia, 23 years ago tomorrow. Meanwhile people are being killed in the US by the Mad King's gang of thugs. So, in order:

1. The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of -- written for my father, but applies equally well to my late mother-in-law, Shirley Hentzell. I sang it for him a couple of months before he died.
2. Keep the Dream Alive Written a couple of days after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. That was the second Challenger song I wrote; the first was Thrill-Seeker's Waltz. Sorry about that.
3. Rainbow's Edge written specifically for my father. tl;dr: Dad was highly influential in the field of infrared spectroscopy. See the notes at the end of the lyrics page for more details.
4. Rocket Rider's Prayer was written in 1986. The line in the fifth verse, beginning "better pray to Hell's own Pluto..." was not intended to be prophetic of what happened to Columbia.
5. Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

Recordings on Bandcamp hopefully in about a week.

Today I am thankful for...

• Having lived long enough to see some of my younger co-workers retire.
• Being able to walk well enough to handle the rather long trips to and from the ferry, leaving Lizzy for N to use.
• Being able to get by on under 6 hours of sleep most of the time.
• Good meals on the ferry, and breakfast in the convention hotel today.

NO thanks for Sable's crappy battery, which is even worse than I expected.