Welcome to San Diego

[billroper]

I've borrowed connectivity from my brother-in-law, Jeff Duntemann, so I'm able to post at the moment. (We'll see what happens when we get on the ship.)

The flight to San Diego was late, but uneventful. We called the hotel at about ten minutes to midnight and they said, "Sure, we'll send the shuttle." It never came. When I called back a half-hour later, they said that the shuttle drivers had gone home and we should take a cab and they would pay the driver at the desk.

Except that none of the cab drivers would agree to do that. After about four phone calls to the hotel, the driver at the back of the line decided he could actually make some money and took us.

We got a coupon for a room-service breakfast for our trouble, which was better than it might have been.

Our room has a view of a roof and another hotel, but Jeff and Carol's room has a lovely view of the bay and the ship that we're sailing on. In a few minutes, we'll be rolling the luggage over to the terminal.

So far, so good.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Why would you discuss getting paid at the hotel with the driver before gettting into the cab?

K. [give our best to Jeff and Carol!]

[patoadam]

I recognize Jeff as the author of "Our Space Opera Goes Rolling Along".

Did you and Jeff discover filk music independently?

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I agree with K. Your mistake was that you didn't simply get into a cab and say: "Take me to Hotel X." Then, when you got to the hotel, you would tell the driver to wait while you went into the lobby and got the money from the fornt desk.

I can understand not wanting to be stuck with the bill if the hotel refuced to honor its agreement, but you'd be stuck with that in any case.

Sometimes all the information is too much information.

B

[billroper]

Yup, that would have been a better idea. Of course, it was about 2:30 AM our time by then, so I wasn't thinking as well as perhaps I should have...

[billroper]

Yup, in fact we did. And since Jeff is sitting across from me at the moment as I type on his computer, I'll invite him to respond below.

I first heard the word "filk" at the Clarion SF Writers' Conference at Michigan State University in the summer of 1973, and that was in fact where I wrote "Our Space Opera Goes Rolling Along." I wrote most of what I'm known for in the next several years; maybe it was a phase I was going through. I've posted more of my history in the filk world on my Web site here.

And there you go. (Wow, guest bloggers and everything... :) )

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Wow. Maybe you should have slept in the airport.

B