Wednesday,
August 11, 1999

Happy Eclipse!

Yeah, we saw it in Stockholm, maybe 60% totality. Everybody in my building were hanging out of windows or aitting around the plaza in front, armed with pinhole viewers, those Mylar glasses thingies, and other protective eyewear. And most astoundingly of all, it was nice and clear. We've just been having the nastiest weather this past week, so I had kind of given up on seeing anything today, but no, the day dawned clear and bright and stayed that way. I have to admit, it was kind of weird during the eclipse -- shadows were still quite bright and sharp, but there was this odd shadowed quality to the light itself. Kinda cool. Still wish I could've been somewhere on the totality line, though.

Well, things have cleared up somewhat on the credit card situation -- with any luck, my in-laws will be receiving the cards sometime next week. Then if my sister-in-law can overnight them to me, all will be well with the world. Have I mentioned recently that I really, really love the Co-Op Bank?

On the writing front, I'm cranking along on all burners, doing my pay stuff and the shared-universe story for alt.culture.fabulous. It's actually amazing -- I did a word count on ATTACK OF THE MEDIA MIDGET, and I'm almost up to 20K. Lyndon said, "If you could do that on the novel, you'd be finished by now." Which is true. I should have ATTACK finished and posted by the weekend -- maybe after that I should sit down with the second half of WHITE KNIGHT, QUEEN ALICE and see if I can do the same thing.

The only fly in the ointment is that I ran out of my thyroid pills on Sunday and I can really tell -- I'm dragging along like Droopy. Part of the problem is that it was the end of a prescription, so I need to go to the doctor and get them to write another one -- problem with that is finding the time to call up and ask how to do this. My old prescription was written by a TSB company doctor -- I just showed up, said "I'm a contractor's wife and I need this," and she chunked out the script. Unfortunately, I can't do that anymore because we now have Swedish ID cards and are supposed to go to the local Vårdcentral (clinic) when we need something medical done. And since I've never been to the clinic myself, I'm not quite sure of the etiquette -- can I just show up and get a scrip, or do I have to make an appointment?

Enough of this. I'll call 'em tomorrow, get everything set up.