stephanloy.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Woke up woozy this morning and still at it. It's like I had a few too many beers, but without the fun part. Then my wife decides to take me on a walk around the block for some fresh air, then falls and cracks her skull. Not a good day for waking up.

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

The plumber has just told me he might have to jackhammer the floor (the one I just re-did) in order to get that toilet back in.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

I have surrendered. For nearly a week I've been struggling with a bathroom, putting in a new floor and removing and replacing the toilet. The toilet was a mess, installed wrong on all counts. After many attempts to set it right, I've paid a plumber to save me.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

I still don't have that toilet properly installed. Will I have to eat crow and bring in a plumber?

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

And, to make me feel better, here's a few shots through our train bedroom window as we rode the California Zephyr back toward Chicago. This is California, Nevada, and Colorado.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

I also have critiques to do for my writers' group, which meets tonight.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

I'm in the middle of a toilet fix and replacing the linoleum flooring in one of our bathrooms. A 1 or 2 day DIY job that, naturally, is now on its 4th day. I've got my stick-on tiles, just waiting for the floor to dry before putting them down to great ire and frustration.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Huh. An American Pope. From Chicago. My Catholic ass really did not see that coming.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

I own a Tesla (that model, in fact) and this is still brilliant.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

GUARDIANS AT THE GATE, a dark satire on the plight of public education in America, is right there, ready for you to buy, read, and gawk at. ebook formats and print. If you're a teacher, know a teacher, or ever had a teacher, this novel will blow you away. books2read.com/u/4A09QJ

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

@rivianofficial.bsky.social Guys. A service center in Indianapolis. The only thing holding me back from buying Rivian is that Chicago, Ft. Wayne, Cincinnatti, and Louisville are awfully long hauls if my truck is majorly broken to where the mobile guy can't fix it. Also, Ft. Wayne?

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

I just dead lifted a 10-pound cat about 35 times to put her on the floor after she jumped up on my desk. Does that count as exercise?

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Lucid Motors (an EV company) has really come down in price over the last few years. Now, if you kit one out to the max with 512 miles of range and whatnot, it only costs as much as my house.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Write that book for you. If you get it published, most people will read it only once. Before you get it published, you have to read the damned thing four, five, six times.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

I'd do another 30-Day Song Challenge, but the first and last one showed me that the answers are almost always Chicago, Rare Earth, Earth Wind and Fire, and Tower of Power. And repeating that would be boring.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Two pics from Vancouver, BC.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

When we went out west (Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco) half the houses seemed to have solar panels and every fourth car was electric. I felt I'd found my people. Coming east, the solar panels and EVs disappeared when we crossed into Colorado. Back to being a stranger in a strange land.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

When we went on our rail adventure, we unplugged the car so that it wouldn't pointlessly suck down electricity while we were gone. Two weeks later, the car has lost only 3% of its charge.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

We arrived just before Easter, so the Royal York Hotel was in a decorating mood. Here's the lobby just past the entrance.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

In Toronto, we stayed at the Royal York Hotel, this big, snazzy barn of a building that just happened to be the closest hotel to the train station. It was something else, what would normally be WAY above our pay grade. But, you know, splurge.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

This is my new best friend. As long as neither of us gets too close to the other. In Jasper, Alberta we took a walk through a municipal park and found this moose grazing on the tier above us. This was not taken with a telephoto lens. That girl was that close, but ten feet up.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

A few pics from the Canada side of our epic rail trip. We were aboard The Canadian, Canada's longest rail journey and also its classiest. The train cars are 75 years old, so it was a time-warping experience. Beautiful scenery, genteel dining (by comparison to Amtrak), and all the amenities.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

How I get a lot of my writing done.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

Good morning, everyone! I'm back from a long and exceedingly cool train trip vacation. Rented a car to Niagara Falls, took Amtrak to Toronto, the Canadian from there to Vancouver, Amtrak into Seattle, The Coast Starlight to San Francisco, and the California Zephyr to Chicago. Fun!

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

I guess it's Passover now? Happy Passover!

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

We have four kinds of crackers in the house right now. My wife just now noticed that all of them are products of Canada.

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

Yay! I just learned that Chicago 1 (Chicago Transit Authority) has been inducted into the Library of Congress's National Archive of Sound, the most recommended recording this year. I know what I'll be listening to! www.youtube.com/watch?v=19gC...

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

My birthday's coming up soon. I share this ass-spicious day with: Marcus Aurelius Muhammad (which seems sketchy) John Audubon Eugene Delacroix Rudolf Hess (yeeaach!) I.M. Pei Carol Burnett Koo Stark Jet Li Yoshihiro Togashi Melania Trump (ugh)

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments