I’m back. Well, we’re back–Kathleen and the baby and I–from the Neverending convention that was Farpoint, down in Maryland.
The problem with having heard so many weather reports in the past warning of major snowstorms which turn out to be a half inch of dusting is that one becomes cynical. You figure, who’d dumber? The weathermen for not knowing what they’re talking about, or you for believing them? So on Saturday when meteorologists spoke with grave portents about snow, I didn’t think anything of it.
We woke up for Sunday morning’s programming to discover that snow was falling at a rate of 2 to 4 inches an hour, and had been falling since about 5 AM. We thought of trying to leave immediately, but the roads were already being shut down. By Sunday afternoon we knew we were stuck.
So was pretty much everyone else. The convention had been lightly attended as far wiser folks than us had stayed the heck away, preparing for a blizzard. Fortunately enough, everyone remained in good spirits, even as food supplies in the hotel began to dwindle. A good thing this year’s actor guests were good sports (as opposed to the occasional egomanics one gets). Fans hung out with (and I apologize for misspelled names) Erin Gray and Gil Gerard of “Buck Rodgers,” Gary Graham, Eric Pierpoint and Michelle Scarabelli of “Alien Nation,” and Armin Shimmerman of “DS9” and “Buffy” (and hey…wouldn’t it be a hoot if the First showed up as Snyder and spent a whole episode telling Principal Wood that he was going to wind up eaten, because all Sunnydale principals wind up eaten?)
And since Mike Friedman, Bob Greenberger and I were snowbound together Monday and had nothing else to do, we started work on the next “Mystery Trekkie Theater” for Shore Leave, after T. Alan Chafin managed to hotwire a VCR loaned us by dealer Herb McCullough.
The biggest challenge was shoveling out my car. With yeoman like help of several friends, including Deb Greenberger (Bob’s wife), I managed to find the car and start it up. I figured the smart thing was to try and back it out of the spot and find one with less snow (of which there were several). The problem was, although I knew enough to clear the snow away from the exhaust pipe, I didn’t realize snow had packed itself up INTO the exhaust pipe. Since I was gunning the engine to try and roll the car back over the icy spots, the interior of the car filled up with carbon monoxide and exhaust fumes. I spent the next couple of minutes wretching and coughing before I cleared it out of my lungs.
When we finally got home, we literally couldn’t get into the house. We were blocked by over two feet of snow.
Fun.
PAD
• 
Why didn’t your kids shovel your driveway for you? Or were they not there?
Anyway, I’m glad you made it home safely.
I’ve heard of this snow business… I think we get some of that mixed with ice each year. But, this has to be an urban legend… who ever heard of more than a half-inch of snow? Ha! pull the other one, it has bells on… (pratchett reference)
Anyway, glad you’re back…
Trav
Yikes, some snowstorms can be simply dreadful, can’t they? I’m glad you made it back home safely too.
Um, what kids? Shana and Gwen live up in Boston now, Ariel’s only 11 or so, and Caroline’s not ambulatory yet. Peter and Kathleen
were presumably pretty much on their own for the shovelling (hmm. Given that presumably the shovels were in the house, one does wonder if they had to paw at the snow with ice scrapers…or just borrow a shovel from a neighbor).
But let’s get to the important thing; did Peter get home in time for Buffy? 🙂
I’m glad you’re back safe and sound. Quite a contrast with the Creation Con in California a few weeks ago, huh?
Re: Meteorologists…
I’ll never forget the time I heard on the radio the host giving the weatherman grief about the “eight inches of partly cloudy I had to shovel this morning.”
“Why didn’t your kids shovel your driveway for you?”
Well, Shana and Gwen live up in Boston, so they were hardly in a position to come down to New York and attend to it. Ariel was with her mom that weekend, and Caroline was with us and, at age 10 weeks, wouldn’t have been much help except as maybe a snowball.
That’s all the kids I have at my disposal.
PAD
PAD,
You should have had boys 🙂
Glad you got home safe. It was not fun here in NY as you now know.
Cheers
I know you apologized in advance for any misspelled names, but I assumed you were referring to the convention guests. “Buck Rodgers”?
Well, it’s a simple mistake, although I’m sure you feel wretched about it. (Not bad enough to retch, I hope…)
<…wouldn’t it be a hoot if the First showed up as Snyder…>
So, PAD, is this your sneaky way of hinting at possible future spoilers? Does Mr. Shimmerman know something the rest of us don’t (but would like to)? Or was this just idle speculation to kill time while waiting to be dug out?
(And, for his sake, I’m glad Eric Roberts wasn’t there when the food started to run out…)
We can send people to the Moon (well, we USED to be able to). We can visit the depths of the Marianas(sp?) Trench.
One hefty snowstorm, and society grinds to a halt.
Kinda puts it all in perspective, doesn’t it?
The First as Snyder comment comes from Armin Shimmerman’s presentation on Saturday. In his presentation he mentioned that he met DB Woodside while doing an episode of Girls Club. DB was the opposing council and mentioned that he happened to be starting on a show that he hadn’t watched before – Buffy – and that he would be the new principal. Armin told him “when they kill you, you’ll have to be eaten.” Armin was asked if he had been filmed yet for this season and he said he hasn’t.
Peter, I’m glad you made it home okay. It sounds like people made the best of the final days there. Part of me wishes that I hadn’t escaped Saturday evening.
Neil
We’re glad you’re back! And don’t use the baby as a snowball!
I was helping to push my family’s car out of the snow, and I got a smogg full of that Car Exhast. Woooohhh, that stuff was horrible. I’ve had a horribly dry mouth, and swear I still feel it sticking in there.
Glad you didn’t stay in the car too long once the exast starting coming in. The baby wasn’t in there at the time, right? That would be bad for the baby, I’d imagine.
Glad you got back. That would be really cool to meet Armin Shimmerman. He’s a great actor, playing on DS9 and Buffy. I even remember a decidedly diffrent role he played on Star Gate, as one of the Peaceful Nox. That was a twist from Angry Principle on Buffy.
Hey – Maybe Spike will eat the new Principle!
One memory from Farpoint was wandering into the gaming room Monday afternoon and seeing Peter holding Caroline in his arms while she helped him play trivial pursuit.
I don’t know how well she did on the trivia, but I’m betting she did a great job of distracting the other players. She’s a real cutie. 🙂
Speaking of misspelled names, that should be “retching” not “wretching”. Thank you.
Wretch
No, Caroline was not in the car at the time. Peter was clearing the car of snow. We weren’t putting her into the car until we could get it to the overhang in front of the hotel to protect her from the snow and cold.
She is a cutie and I think did very well for her first convention. On Saturday, I had her in her Skywalker Ranch T-Shirt that the Lucas folk sent her as a shower present. I figure I can totally mortify her with the pictures when she becomes a teenager.
Kathleen
It’s humid. People don’t know how to drive. ‘Spring’ is a season that exists for about a week. The 2000 election imbroglio. The mosquitoes. “No habla Ingles”. Hurricane season. There are far…far…too many rednecks and human bottom-feeders. And don’t get me started on Miami.
But there are times, like this week, when I can’t imagine living anywhere else but Florida!!
Welcome back, Peter, Kathleen, and Caroline!!
:^)
Hooper
>>On Saturday, I had her in her Skywalker Ranch T-Shirt that the Lucas folk sent her as a shower present. I figure I can totally mortify her with the pictures when she becomes a teenager.<<
When she gets married, don’t forget to project ’em at her Rehearsal Dinner!!
Hooper
With thanks to Peter for coming up with this on Sunday morning (from another survivor of “SnowPoint 2003”.)
“This is the con that never ends… it just goes on and on my friends… somebody started running it, not knowing what it was, and they’ll just keep on running it forever just because…”
Only took 14 hours to drive home from Baltimore to Chicago…
Peter,
Nicely done report. I’m terribly biased towards Snowpoint, err I mean Farpoint, and would also mention that the conventiongoers had an extra day of programming to enjoy, albeit at a reduced level. The hotel’s employees and the other nonconventiongoing hotel guests participated for free during Sunday and Monday’s activities. Several expressed gratitude to some of us committee members — we ran screening versions of “The Two Towers” and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” several more times Sunday evening and Monday as well as some more live and interactive performances such as “Whose Trek Is It, Anyway?”
Watch for a Snowpoint / Snowcon T-shirts and possibly even a CD of filk written to commemorate the event, depending on how adventurous we can convince the rest of the committee to be. I hope to convince Steve to sell both from the Farpoint web site.
I’m glad you apologized in advance for name mangling. I believe Armin spells his last name as Shimerman (two “m”s, not three). My reference is the IMDB — http://us.imdb.com/Name?Shimerman,+Armin
You have a lot of company though. I think more folks spell it wrong than spell it right!
Regards,
Tom