The last World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) we actually attended was in 2018: Worldcon 76 in San Jose. We had full attending memberships for Dublin 2019, An Irish Worldcon, but we decided to take a cruise instead. And we had full attending memberships for ConZealand last year, but we decided against going before Covid-19 hit.

This year, we had full attending memberships for Discon3 in Washington, DC. It was supposed to have happened in August, and we might have been able to go, but then they lost one of their hotels and Covid-19 hit, so they rescheduled for December 15-19, and we chose not to go. But they’re making all of the big events and some panels available online, so we attended the Opening Ceremonies this afternoon from the comfort of our couch.

The view and sound were excellent; I didn’t have to worry that a tall person would sit in front of me; there was a little chat going on, but it was easy to ignore. And I wasn’t in a room with hundreds if not thousands of other people, and I didn’t have to stand in a long registration line.

The ceremonies themselves were fairly entertaining; they gave out some honors that are traditionally presented at the Hugo Awards, such as the Big Heart award. There was an excellent choral group from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in DC (I wasn’t thrilled by the choice of music, but the artistry was great). And Sebastian Martorana, the designer of this year’s Hugo Awards base, spoke about his design – it’s a block of marble from a local quarry which got flooded decades ago. He salvages the stone from buildings being destroyed (like abandoned row houses in Baltimore) and makes artwork from it – it was a great presentation.

Next year’s Worldcon is Chicon 8 in Chicago, on Labor Day weekend. We have attending memberships, but if we’re lucky, we’ll be in Africa instead.

After watching the Opening Ceremonies, we joined some members of the South Bay Striders for an “Afternoon Amble” on the club’s San Jose Year-Round Walk at Almaden Lake Park. It was a pleasant walk, and we finished while the weather was still good. Diane even had a chance to take a nice photo.

The rain stopped this morning, so we were able to take our usual Tuesday morning walk on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. It wasn’t as crowded as it often is, but we did run across a few other walkers, including one wearing a jacket with a LOT of patches – one of which was for the South Bay Striders Volksmarching Club.

We were members of the Striders back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but things got busy and we dropped away, though we kept walking. I asked whether the club was still going, and it is; they have occasional one-day events and support quite a few Year Round walks. And they try to get people together on Wednesday afternoons to walk one of the local Year Round trails – we may join them on tomorrow’s walk.

Sometime in the summer of 1989 – Diane is pregnant with Jeff.

You never know what you’ll find on a walk!

It rained today – not nearly enough to break the drought, but enough to make it feel like a good day to stay inside, which is what we did for most of the day. We did keep our morning appointment at the JCC with our trainer, and we even managed a quick walk right afterwards – but then it was cocooning, cooking, watching TV, and reading until after dinner.

Tonight was the Limmud (teaching session) with our last Rabbinic candidate; the candidate took us through texts about the Sabbatical year (when we are commanded to let the land rest), and how we could apply “lying fallow” to our own lives. I found it very interesting and helpful.

This morning, we made a very quick trip to the Farmers’ Market before going to the Shir Hadash “Town Hall” meeting. There were about 40 of us in the Sanctuary (plenty of room for social distancing) and at least as many more joining via Zoom. There were no surprises (which, as a Board member, made me happy) and we finished on time (which made me even happier – the room was COLD!).

We managed to squeeze a walk in after lunch – the weather forecast called for rain all day, heavy at times, but it’s been pretty intermittent and light.

We probably could have walked after dinner, but we chose to stay home and watch Marin Theatre Company’s Rolling World Premiere production of Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley instead. We’d seen the two previous plays in the trilogy at City Lights, and I expect they’ll do this one in a year or two, but I was happy to have the chance to watch from home. Like the previous two plays, it’s a logical continuation of Pride and Prejudice; it’s light without being lightweight. The live production ends on the 19th of December; I’m not sure how long the online version will be available, but it’s a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

I was lay leader for Shir Shabbat today; I also was the Board rep, so I had to read the announcements; I was also the darshon, the person who talks about the Torah portion. Today’s portion was Vayigash (Genesis 44:18-47:27), the end of the Joseph story. It is full of material – Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and is reunited with his father, Jacob’s family (all 70 of them) come to Egypt, Jacob and Pharaoh meet, Jacob’s family are allowed to dwell in Goshen, Joseph institutes a 20% tax on all the land in Egypt, and more.

I couldn’t decide what to talk about. And I was running out of time. So I did some quick research on Sefaria and found a text study by Nicole Auerbach of the Central Synagogue which quoted an article by Rabbi Shai Held about “The Fourth Cardinal Sin of Judaism, Humiliation” which gave me material to read aloud and add my own spin to. Dayenu (it was enough).

This evening, there was Havdalah and Happy Hour at Shir Hadash to give some of us a chance to meet another Rabbinical candidate. It was a good event, with too much food and some good discussions. The candidate did a little teaching, too, but the bulk of the opportunity for that will come Monday evening.

And in between all of that, we took some nice (if chilly) walks before the rain that’s expected for the next couple of days.

Not a bad way to spend Saturday, not at all.