Former Member

Naturally! ;–)

You two just cause trouble wherever you go! Are you sure it’s not the Imp trying to prevent you from ending the story? ;–)

Porting would make things so much easier when traveling! No more, ‘Are we there yet?’ No cramped airplane seats or TSA checks. No seasickness. ;–) Of course if everybody could do it, how would you prevent two or more people from porting into the very same spot? Would you end up inside someone else? Would you get bumped – and what exactly would that mean? Would you end up in a random location? Would you end up next to the other person? Would you end up back where you started from? Would you get sent to Denmark? ;–)

I hope this is not your way of saying the story has ended! I see it’s still listed as In Progress… ;–)

I see parallels and influences from all sorts of cultures. They remind me a bit of Native Americans (which isn’t a surprise because the ancestors of the Native Americans came from nearby parts of northeast Asia). The helmet the horseman is wearing reminds me of historic Chinese and Japanese designs. And there’s the clear Western influence everywhere else. Such a video couldn’t have happened a few decades ago! ;–)

One of Aidan’s problems is that he has no life outside of work – Heathcliff doesn’t count because Aidan has convinced himself that he’s only spending time with Stone because of work. I’m surprised he hasn’t berated himself for his ‘prostitution.’ Even when he tried to find some recreational sex away from work, he ended up with Heathcliff! He might be able to gain some perspective if he spent more time with Isabel. ;–)

If you have a young child who needs to learn calming skills, a simple way to teach them is to give them a container of bubble liquid and have them blow bubbles. If you’re too agitated or angry, you blow too hard to make bubbles. Only a calm, more measured breath can create bubbles. I’ve often wanted to try that trick with a four-year-younger former neighbor who sometimes acts like a four-year-old. He has a terrible temper and I only maintain contact because I knew his partner long before I ever met him (his partner and I met when we were both volunteers). When he gets angry, he throws stuff like mice, keyboards, a vacuum cleaner, or whatever he’s angry at. When he was a child, his parents taught him if a rock tripped him, to hit the rock. He once snagged his shirt on a hook in the wall, so he smashed the hook off the wall of the apartment they were living in! He’s been in therapy and he seems to have mellowed slightly over the years… ;–)

Would you be able to add a Comment in the final chapter of The Hidden Ones: Resurrection when you post The Hidden Ones: Ascension, please? I’m Following that story as well as this one, but not your other series (sorry). ;–)

Ezra’s still using his money to influence Artie. This time he wants to fly into The City to persuade Artie of his sincerity. The flight might not be overwhelmingly expensive, but he’ll probably stay in one of the most expensive hotels or a fancy AirBnB.

It’s not just a matter of price, but also of availability. There just isn’t a lot of housing stock available. Tech millionaires have been buying houses just so they can tear them down to replace them with mansions. A recent news story out of San Francisco was about a condemned house for sale – it was in such bad condition that you can’t even enter the building! It will sell because of the location. Berkeley is a relatively old city, there aren’t any empty lots to develop. Berkeley is a city with many wealthy residents, mostly in the hills. Kyle & Blu would have to get in line behind others who want to just dump cash on a real estate agent's desk and expect results.

I realize this is a fantasy, but this line was just too wildly out of whack to be believable! This is Berkeley we’re talking about. There are no cheap studio apartments near the UC campus! I believe students are only allowed to stay in university-run residences for their first year because of the severe shortage of housing. Berkeley is physically constrained between the hills and the Bay. There has been a shortage of housing for students for decades. Compounding that is the sharp rise in housing prices in general in the Bay Area due to the tech and biotech industries. As housing prices rise in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, people move to the East Bay and other nearby areas. People displaced from the less expensive urban areas get forced further and further to the edges of the region. There are students who are homeless because they can’t afford the rent. Many of them live in their cars or stay in homeless shelters. Many others are food insecure because they can’t stretch their budgets to cover tuition, books & supplies, rent, and housing. This is a crisis that has been decades in the making with cities preferring business and commercial development over housing due to the tax benefits. There are no cheap studio apartments in the Bay Area. At least, not livable ones. The ones that are relatively inexpensive have other major disadvantages, usually being in dangerous neighborhoods (like mine). ;–) If the Waters clan really wants to find a relatively reasonably priced studio apartment, they’d be much better off looking in May when recent graduates leave the area for their new careers. Looking when school starts is way too late. There will be students living in motels when school starts because they can’t find anywhere else to stay!

Still… ;–)

Ivor the author seems to disagree with Ivor the replier. ;–)

I was talking to a woman on the bus yesterday. We started talking because she agreed with a political pin I have on my backpack shoulder strap. At one point she was complaining about being told to do things online. She said she didn’t have internet access (I mentioned using the library and their computers as an option). She was frustrated that so many places, including the city of Berkeley where she lives, almost require you to do things that way. (I know there are proposals to allow voting online, but they haven’t figured out how to prevent fraud and insure security.) The woman was complaining about the Electoral College too. I explained what the original intent was and that there have been proposals to eliminate it. It was all new information to her. She was a middle-aged woman who sounded at least somewhat educated, so I was surprised she hadn’t learned that in high school.

Geyser or geezer? ;–) I did not know that geyser comes from an Icelandic spring called Gersir, related to geysa ‘to gush’.

I don’t think you’re ruling it out: you’ve left this story In Progress! ;–)

Young people often think older people are technologically inept and that is the only reason why someone might not want to use an app. It’s the Mark Zuckerberg-ization of life. ‘We know better than you do and if you give us complete access to all your data, we can everything better than you can.’ ;–)

I do my banking at a Credit Union, a special type of bank that’s member owned and community based by law. It’s expanding member-wise, so new branches are a possibility, but only in a few years. They loan money to members and the interest is used to pay interest on savings accounts. I’ve had accounts at the gigantic banks when my accounts at smaller banks were taken over. I hated the way I was treated. So I kept moving my money to friendlier banks which kept getting acquired. They can’t take over Credit Unions. ;–)

My last plane trip was in the mid-Eighties… ;–)

I miss Zombie too. But I miss seeing you around. I guess we’re not reading the same stories these days…

It was nice to reread the story here. I misread your preface and wondered why, if it was three years later, Jake was attending Ren’s funeral. And after a paragraph or two, I realized you meant three years since you wrote the first chapter! ;–) Hey, I’m old and forgetful! ;–)

Why do I get the feeling that Eric is going to run into Rob in one of the stores? For someone Eric didn’t work with for decades, he seems to have made an impression on him. I wonder if Rob will also remember him? That might be a clue for Eric as to whether he might also be Gay… ;–)

As far as banking is concerned, I’m nearly the opposite of Eric. I do almost all my banking online. My Disability is direct deposited every month and I've set up automatic payments for rent, internet, and utilities. I use my debit card for shopping both online and in person. But my credit union doesn’t have a branch nearby, so I get cash at the grocery store (no fees at one of the stores). There are nearby ATMs, but they charge fees and withdrawals are more visible to thieves than when I’m shopping for groceries. ;–)

When I take the train I’m almost as bad as Eric! Because I only use it twice a year for holiday dinners, I’m not used to the stops or the way the system operates. And because it’s always a holiday, the trains only run once an hour. It would be a serious delay if I miss my stop. ;–) I have a card with the stations written down so I have a vague idea where I am and how quickly my stop will come up. It’s not like BART where I’ve used the system frequently enough to know what I’m doing. ;–)

Actually, I’m surprised you haven’t changed your avatar image again. Maybe something more appropriate to the season. Not a fall theme with the pyracantha pomes. ;–)