Because of Kayla trying to attend the virtual Second Main WSFS Business Meeting of the 2025 Worldcon, and thus using up the middle four hours of our flight from LHR to DEN, we didn't get any sleep on the return home. I got back to RNO shortly after 10 PM PDT, got my luggage, retrieved the minivan, and got into the Best Western SureStay hotel literally across the street from the airport within an hour. I've been up since about 7 AM BST Saturday, meaning that I've been awake for more than 24 hours, and that's why I've booked the room. I'll have a longer write-up of the trip, and Kayla is apt to have more to say about the WSFS BM, but she has a commitment at 10 AM Sunday morning, so it's time for me to fall into bed and get enough sleep to get us safely home in the morning, get the house reactivated, and give her a chance to get ready for her meeting.

I've said it in various places, but for the record:

I declined nomination to the seat that I have held for many years on the WSFS Mark Protection Committee. My current term ends (in effect) on the first day of Seattle 2025, when the MPC holds its final meeting of this term. Unusually, we will know who my successor is before then, because the election to fill the three seats up for election will be held during the virtual Business Meetings behind held before the in-person convention happens.

Please take note that my decision do to this was unrelated to anything having to do with the Hugo Awards. I have not been a Hugo Award administrator for many years, and in particular, I was not a member of the Hugo Awards Administration Subcommittee in 2023. Unfortunately, due to some intemperate remarks by me about how WSFS works, I was reprimanded by the MPC and resigned as Chair of the MPC, but did not resign my seat as a member of the MPC and the ex officio directorship of Worldcon Intellectual Property, the non-profit corporation that manages the WSFS service marks on behalf of the World Science Fiction Society.

It appears to me that there is a strong sentiment among a large-ish number of people who are apt to participate in the process that WSFS needs some change. Well, by golly, I'm going to give them changes, and this year, those people have an opportunity to elect at least two people who are not incumbents, as the only one of the three incumbents who stood for re-election is Nicholas Whyte. I wonder if those people who said that I personally was the person doing the most harm to WSFS are even members of Worldcon and if they are, will they vote. Yes, those accusations still rankle, as did being threatened with being sued into oblivion for malfeasance as an MPC director and officer. Such accusations tend to chase away our most valuable and useful people in an organization that depends on dedicated volunteers to keep it working.

I declined nomination to the Trial Committee that will hear disciplinary charges against certain WSFS members. If you want to know more, read the linked article from File 770. The entire issue was discussed in executive session at the July 13 virtual WSFS Business Meeting, and aside from what is in the Presiding Officer's official statement, I do not think I can discuss any of the substance of the issues.

I appreciate people nominating me, but I do not think that I can serve in good conscience. I do not even expect to be personally present when the results of the Trial Committee's deliberations are presented to the Business Meeting, although it's likely that Kayla will be there.

Part of the package that Exeter University offered Cheryl included first class train travel for her and me to and from Exeter. Cheryl collected me at Heathrow Airport last Saturday and we went into London Paddington on Heathrow Express, then on to Exeter on Great Western Railway, as I reported at the time. After the ceremony at the university on Monday, they had a hire car take us to Exeter St. David station, where we had enough time for me to get a coffee at Starbucks (Kayla's Starbucks app seems to work here in the UK) and catch our train.

( Trains, Wonderful Trains )

It was a pretty good train trip, although we were more than 30 minutes late into Swansea due to a combination of issues. Cheryl will contact the person who arranged our travel in case they want to claim compensation.

Cheryl drove us to her home in Ammanford from Swansea and heated up a dinner she had made in advance of the trip for this sort of this sort of situation. I didn't realize until I tucked in to her mince over rice just how hungry I was.

We got to bed pretty late. I did not realize until the next morning that I was so tired that I hadn't put in my CPAP mask and anti-teeth-grinding mouth guard. I must have been asleep within a minute of turning off the light.

I was happy with our train trip, even with some of the delays and distractions. It turns out that I've been mostly traveling first class on these entire trip. That won't be the case going back to London on Friday, but that's okay. I can see how one could get spoiled by such things, though.

I know I've been a touch mysterious about why I went to the UK and why I'm with Cheryl Morgan. Today was the big day, and now that it's done and we've finally made it back to her home in Wales, I can finally reveal what the big deal was and why we could not talk about it.

( It's not clickbait, really! )

They treated us very well, and they took much better professional photos compared to my quick shots here. These two are here just so you who follow me know what happened. I haven't labeled all of my photos, and I hope to go back soon and talk more about how yesterday went. I will say that the university treated both Cheryl and I very well, and I am extremely proud that she asked me to be her +1 with her at this event.

More later when I have had more sleep and time to work on labeling photos. We'll be here at Cheryl's place, with me working on the Day Jobbe tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm taking Thursday and Friday off, and Friday we head back up to London, where we'll stay at a hotel near Heathrow to make it easier for me to take my flight home. I'd love to stay longer, but medical, dental, and fannish commitments during this very busy part of my year are piling up.

Surprisingly, I seem to have adjusted to UK time pretty well. Okay, I woke up at 5 AM, but my normal wake-up time at home is around 4:30 AM anyway. OTOH, that won't work on the two days this coming week that I'm working remotely at the Day Jobbe, but I'll deal with that when we get there.

Today we had the day to ourselves (we have commitments tomorrow).

( Around Exeter )

We did a lot of shopping but very little buying. There was a street market with various vendors, and I bought Kayla a pair of earrings, which was about all for me. We also looked in some bookstores, but I didn't find anything that I wanted to try and squeeze into my luggage.

We were back at the hotel in the mid-to-late afternoon, as I was loaning my computer to Kayla to participate in the First Main Meeting of the 2025 WSFS Business Meeting. She participated by voice only because I didn't pack the webcam. Because of the nature of the meeting, neither she nor I have much to say about it. Cheryl put various sports on the hotel TV and we ordered room service.

Tomorrow we have non-fannish responsibilities about which we'll report later, but with luck I'll get some sleep tonight despite having to drink a bunch of coffee to stay awake earlier today.

I'm heading to the UK (RNO-SFO-LHR) today for a week, staying with Cheryl Morgan at her place in Wales. We're attending a non-fannish function about which I might write later, but not now. In order to preserve PTO, I'll work remotely for a couple of the days I'm there, as I did last summer after Worldcon.

Normally, I don't look forward to long flights, but this time United's upgrade algorithm slipped a gear and offered a Polaris Business class upgrade for less than Premium Economy and cheap compared to them asking $500 (!) for a first-class upgrade for the roughly hour-long flight RNO-SFO, and I jumped on it before the AI came to its senses. I get what looks to be a very nice seat (left side single), along with Polaris lounge access at SFO on the layover.

With luck, I should get some valuable sleep tonight. The flight leaves in the evening and arrives Saturday afternoon local time. Given how tired I am right now, I'm looking forward to it.

This morning around 10:30 AM, I took Kuma Bear and Lisa in to Reno Airport to catch her flight to Denver continuing on to Munich for her European Rail Adventure. This was the first time I'd ever parked in the short-term garage at RNO.

Her flight was scheduled for 1:30 PM, and we got there a bit after 11:30 AM. We'd upgraded the first leg of the flight to first class because it was a bargain, getting her through the express check-in and also a faster Terrorization queue. The new rules on not having to take off your shoes are in effect here. I stayed with her as far as the security checkpoint, then waited here to make sure nothing went awry. They needed to go through her bag, which took a while, but eventually she got everything put back together, waved goodbye, and headed off to find her gate.

Because of a previous unfortunate experience with a train trip, it seemed prudent for me to stay at the airport until her flight departed. I therefore had lunch at the only ground-side restaurant at the airport. While I was there, she called me. (We got her a flip phone; the same model as I have.) No serious issues, although she did cut her hand somehow while repacking her bag. (One of the airport staff gave her a bandage.) I slowly ate lunch, and by the time I was finished, her flight was boarding, and I decided it was safe enough to leave.

When I got home, I did need to get back to the Day Jobbe, but the accumulated fatigue had caught up to me and I simply had to get a nap. Before doing so, I used FlightTracker to check on her flight. By then, she was out over Utah somewhere on her way to Denver. I got about a 90 minute nap, when she called me from Denver to let me know that everything went fine and that she was at the gate for her flight to Munich. From our previous checks, we know that there were a pretty good number of empty seats, and that the middle seat next to her was empty. I won't know until she gets to Germany, but I reckon there's a decent chance that she'll get at least an empty seat next to her and maybe even the entire group of three seats, if the person in that third seat in her row jumps to one of the other empty areas. I hope so; that way Kuma Bear can have his own seat.

Returning to the Day Jobbe, I worked for a few more hours before calling it a day. I need to get more sleep!