   Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
My grandmother died last night. This wasn't a shock or a surprise. Her health has been on the decline, and she's been in hospice for the last month. She lived a long life, and in her final days she was surrounded by her three adult children.
My grandma was a kind woman. She wasn't perfect, but I always felt loved in her presence. She was a retired kindergarten teacher, and was still working when I was a kid. I have so many happy memories sitting at her kitchen table, and I'm going to carry those with me for the rest of my life. She was also proof that anyone who claims that you get more conservative as you get older is full of shit, because she certainly didn't.
I think it's interesting how the body processes grief sometimes. I don't know that I'll cry, but over the past month, knowing this was coming, I've felt a tension in my gut. Now that she's passed, instead of relief that tension is replaced by a sense of emptiness. That something is missing that should still be there. Something has been taken away, and I feel it.
Of course, as I wrote that, I immediately started crying... so I guess my body processes grief in pretty ordinary ways too.
I wanted to come up with something profound linking this to Beltane, which we sit in the middle of right now, but it just seemed hackneyed. Like I was trying to dig out some greater significance when the truth is death comes whenever it wants. The only predictable thing about it is that it's the end of all of our journeys. I hope that when I pass I'm so lucky to have lived such a long life with people that I love around me in my final days.
For the record, I will be fine. I just needed to get these words out while they were still in my head. I don't have some rousing conclusion or deep insight to tack on here at the end, just that gut feeling that something is missing.
Because it is.
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At one point while volunteering, I was pressed on to take a GoH to a dinner event, held at a restaurant a mile offsite.
When I say “At one point”, I mean my first year attending the con, in a city I’d never been in before, in a small no-frills car with no air conditioning, without owning a GPS. Thankfully for all involved I wasn’t an axe murderer or an idiot, and we made it there and back just fine.
All our GoHs now have Limo service from the airport (not that expensive, really) which has a proven track record: It’s surprisingly affordable, makes quite an impression to start the convention, and is always on-time and prompt for pick-ups.
…and only once was the limo driver unable to find the gigantic downtown convention center, which is someone else’s story to tell.
My old con (and my new con) were/are held in a town an hour’s drive from the nearest airport, so limo service was never really an option.
It was always “who has a car that isn’t embarrassing to look at”
An hour away from airports is pretty ouch, yup. Ours is 20 minutes, which means that you may have to rely on ‘fan with a van’.
Still, Limo service is worth considering. One year, our Guest of Honor (Bill Holbrook) and his daughter arrived at the airport ready to be picked up. His daughter spotted the limo driver with a “Holbrook” sign, and said “Daddy, is that for us?”
Bill replied with “No sweetie, that’s for important people.”
And then the limo driver said “Mr. Holbrook, for Anthrocon?”
His daughter didn;t stop bouncing all trip. 😀
I have heard the unable to find convention center story. And must say from con staff point of view it is kind of funny
Actually, there WAS a local airport a few miles away, but we boycotted it due to the airlines treatment of our very first voice actor guest.
It was embarrassing to drive guests the 1.5 hours it took to get to the con site, but there were benefits as well. All my passengers were from the Dallas/Houston area and I pulled over on a lonely country interchange in western WI (with their permission) so they could see what stars looked like away from any city lights.
Actually, it was that AND we were able to beat the plane to the Twin Cities via car…