u break i fix

repairs, who knows

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so BIL drove me back to Buffalo, since he was headed to Erie PA to retrieve his daughter from his father. We met up with Dude at the park-n-ride right on the exit 49 ramp at Depew, conveniently placed, and then Dude took me, instead of straight home, to a cellphone repair shop he’d researched and found on Hertel Ave at Delaware (so, quite close to my workplace), and we went in there and they said a screen replacement is like $200 and would take 2-3 hrs. It was 4pm then, and they closed at 7, so we went home and waited for them to call and finally we wound up going to a restaurant that was directly next door, because coincidentally this cellphone repair place is directly between a Verizon store and the best place to get Indian food in North Buffalo.

They did not call, and closed for the night, and Dude was facing the window and hissed “there goes the cellphone repair guy” as the kid walked past just after 7, having closed the store. 😂 They’re open today too so I hope to hear from them today. Anyway. I have Dude’s old Nokia 7.1 and it doesn’t hold a charge I’m told, but I’m not using it for that much because my apps aren’t on it. I just will know if I get a text.

Despite my dead-screen phone having been binging merrily along telling me everyone in the world was texting me, it was only Dude telling me about the repair shop, and I haven’t gotten a text since then.

And yes, on the ride home I suddenly realized that it being Saturday, I had forgotten to update a chapter on Friday, and I have a policy of not uploading chapters on weekends because nobody reads them, but like this chapter is so good and so juicy and I don’t want to forget and I won’t be able to put it up on Monday because it’s a holiday and I’m traveling (I have not yet mentioned this! but I am! It’s a very brief getaway LOL)

So we’ll see, I might just do that today. I’m dithering. It’s so juicy, I don’t want it to get lost. But I don’t want to hold it hostage for some mythical Better Engagement, that’s silly. But I also have things going on today, so– well we’ll see.

Also I think I’m going to make it be the end of a story and have the next one pick up as a new story just so I’ve got room to do an author’s note and flag a bunch of warnings on it. Nothing particularly gross is going to happen, but I plan to have a young character have his sexual debut, so I want readers to first off be warned about it and second off have a chance to kind of like– well if it turns out to be a thing they’re not into then it’s easier to remember where it is, I think, if it’s not mid-story.

anyway i’m chewing on that. I need to go like. Scrape myself off this couch and shower and become a functional human somehow. But for the moment I’m caffeinating and contemplating. (Your picture was not posted)

chapter update

iorveth, vernon roche, the witcher

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I forgot on Friday, so here’s the next bit of Growing Out, which is in fact what happened when Roche climbed in that window. It’s the payoff for a long-running joke, among other things.

chapter 9, on AO3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/38098480/chapters/100302750

The window whispered a little creak as it opened, and a wash of cool air came across him. Iorveth opened his eye and blinked a little, staring up at the ceiling.

The air pressure changed; the window, being pushed shut again, fastened, the cold draft stopping. There was a moment of silence.

“Come to kill me, Vernon Roche?” Iorveth sing-songed, delighted.

There was a pause, and then Vernon’s familiar, lovely, gravelly voice said, “No,” in awkward bad grace, as Vernon always sounded. Iorveth laughed. He was happy it was Vernon. Vernon made him happy.

“Then you’ve come for aught better,” Iorveth said triumphantly. He didn’t mind Vernon trying to kill him. It hurt, sometimes, and it wasn’t his favorite thing, but the way the world worked people tried to kill him mostly, and he couldn’t blame Vernon for joining in sometimes. But if Vernon wasn’t here to kill him then maybe Vernon was going to touch him nicely, and he really liked that. His fingers twitched with the desire to touch Vernon’s hair, which was so soft and for some reason the ghost of deep annoyance came up in him about that, and he regarded it with some perplexity: why would he be annoyed that Vernon’s hair was so soft?

“I,” Vernon said. “No. I– what?” (Your picture was not posted)

loud

farm stories

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riding in the car yesterday with BIL, who is the farmer’s market president, on his way to PA to pick up his daughter from her visit to the midwestern relatives.

his phone rings and he answers it on bluetooth. it’s the woman who’s working the farmer’s market for the farm today. it’s near the end of market. she says she’s just calling to keep him posted on what went on today.

Well, she says, there were some religious fundamentalist types who came into the market to preach, which is a thing that happens. If they stand by the entrance and gently hand out fliers that’s fine, that’s up to them. but when they come in and start yelling, that’s when people get mad and ask them to leave. it’s disruptive and bad for business. But we have free speech, the people always protest, but they can stand on a public street and say whatever they want. Not if you’re impeding business, the vendors argue. Or if you’re harassing customers.

Well, she said, we called the cops, but the cops said they wouldn’t do anything unless the preachers were getting violent. But I had a solution, the woman says. Because the thing is, if they can stand in the street and yell, then I can too. So every time they started preaching, I’d walk out and stand next to them and start shouting about the various goods and services offered at the market, and shout directions to the various booths, and explain the merits of a producer-only market like this, and the importance of patronizing local food businesses.

It usually worked, she said; she had better projection and more fervor than they did, and she sold a lot more stuff than usual because customers would follow her back to the booth to buy things.

“Sorry you had to deal with that hassle,” said BIL, who confirmed that there’s nothing the market can do unless the preachers are directly hassling people or impeding business.

“No no,” she said. “It’s fine, it was a really cathartic release of aggression for me, especially given current events.” And then she laughed. “The thing is they thought they knew what they were getting into, but the thing they didn’t know is, I’m loud.” (Your picture was not posted)