Tonight is “It’s Still A Good Life,” the Twilight Zone sequel starring Bill Mumy and his daughter, Liliana. That’s 9 PM (unless they’re running it in the second half hour) Eastern Standard time, check your local listings. Remember, Bill said he’d be swinging back here tomorrow to hear what you all thought. At exactly 1 AM EST tonight, I’ll start off a journal entry and you guys can sound off.
PAD
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
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