Stuff and Moonshine

This has been Jason’s annual birthday celebration for 29 years, called off last year and held this year over Zoom. The randomly-generated page number this time was 171. I read p.171 from Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely, and Andrew read a page each of Ray Bradbury and Robert E. Howard, but we logged out early as it turns out I find Zoom conferences exhausting when more than one other device is involved.

That didn't go too badly.

In retrospect I probably should have pushed through to the end of the story and not worried about overtime, rather than stop with about a page-and-a-half to go. There are a bunch of people I now have to email a copy, because it's no longer up on the Friends of the Merril site. On the bright side, there are a bunch of people who want to read the ending.

The enthusiastic characters are much easier to read than the quiet ones. Their dialogue flows better.

People didn't laugh at most of the jokes. I'm hoping they just didn't notice they were jokes.

My parents came.

Also, Kari's songs continue to be funny, and the story she read from was excellent.