starting to feel the time factor

Three and a half weeks to go. Whee!

Took a couple of bags of stuff down to Oxfam today. The wind was blowing manically around the nearby office/shopping block on the corner (known locally as the Dalek): it was bad enough at that crossroads before they built it, and now it's there, the wind's even worse. One walks at an angle and carries bags on the lee side so they don't get blown into you. And don't even think about trying to manage umbrellas -- which makes it really annoying when it's raining and windy at the same time.

Building up a stash of stuff for American trip. Presents for friends, chocolate for using as prizes/bribes at Yaoicon (and must also get some really nice chocolate for personal gifts to con guests), yarn for myself, copy of Unseen Academicals for archangelbeth, check on when to get some dollars, etc . . .

(rubs hands together)

Must be calm. Plenty of time yet.

---

221B

Here dwell together still two men of note
Who never lived and so can never die:
How very near they seem, yet how remote
That age before the world went all awry.
But still the game's afoot for those with ears
Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:
England is England yet, for all our fears--
Only those things the heart believes are true.

A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane
As night descends upon this fabled street:
A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,
The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.
Here, though the world explode, these two survive,
And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

-- Vincent Starrett