Safely home

Miss D. and I enjoyed our last morning at LibertyCon.  I had a final panel at 10 a.m., where authors living in Tennessee got together to introduce ourselves to each other and potential readers and discuss how living in this state had influenced our writing.  I pointed out that having lived here for only a few years, I couldn't say the location as such had influenced me greatly - but that the discovery of Tennessee moonshine had definitely had an effect.  The audience seemed to enjoy the thought.  Another suggestion was that "y'all" should be officially adopted as a standard English term.  I pointed out that a 'yawl' was a type of yacht, which aroused suitable amusement.  Someone challenged me by pointing out that "y'all" wasn't spelt with a 'w', but I responded that it was certainly pronounced with one!

We left Chattanooga as soon as my panel was over, and headed north.  The drive was uneventful except for a real gully-washer of a rainstorm halfway back.  It was so heavy that traffic slowed down to 30-40 mph, and even at that speed with wipers going full blast visibility was difficult.  One poor motorcyclist had stopped beneath a bridge, and was standing disconsolately next to his bike being sprayed with water by every passing vehicle.  I felt very sorry for him, but I'm glad there was a bridge to shelter him.  It would have been very unsafe for him to be on his bike in the middle of the cloudburst.

We arrived home to find our cat alternately snubbing us for our heinous crime of abandoning her to the tender mercies of our housemate and his family for five days, and snuggling up to us, purring, trying to inveigle milk and treats out of us.  She's been getting progressively more snugglier and less aloof as we unpack and settle down.

We're exhausted after a hectic few days, so I'll bid you all goodnight and head for bed.  I'll put up more posts in the morning.

Sleep well, y'all.

Peter