Saturday, June 16, 2018
10:24 p.m.

Okay, this is weird. I posted just after midnight on Thursday, and then I went to bed. When I got up, we had no Internet, and there was a bill posted for the Internet that was more than $70. higher than the negotiated price.

Net neutrality just ended. We have Comcast. Imagine my surprise that any of this had happened.

Well, this bill wasn't due for another day, and naturally, my son wasn't about to take it lying down, so the phone calls began, and by the end of the day we were back to our previously agreed upon price, but Comcast was making it sound like they had just given us a fantastic new deal.

Pu-leez!

Still no Internet, though. They were unable to find an internal issue with that, so they scheduled a tech to come on Friday.

I left the house--(!!!!) and went downtown to pick up our badges for Comic-Con. I cased out the best bus route, walked a bit of the 16th Street Mall for old time sake, and then I came back home.

By the time any techs came on Friday, I had left the house with my grandchildren and headed to Comic-Con. My son gets to deal with all that sort of thing, anyway.

Now, the house next door has become vacant, and I don't know if it has been sold, or is being prepared to be sold, but there have been a lot of workers over there. Apparently, they broke something, and that's why we had no Internet.

It was back on when we got home Friday evening, but they messed up the siding on my house and left cable dangling, and I think I may have to kill someone soon, because that's just bulls***.
No one should perform a service job and leave to site a mess. Comcast, you suck. I'm going to review you on some platform, and you'll be sorry.
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Now, in between all this Comic-Con traveling to and fro, I have been participating in a writers' challenge, #WriteAwayJune. With no Internet, I got a little behind, and I haven't shared anything here on my blog for the last couple of days, but I'll end tonight's post with those.

I have also been involved in a writers' group where I agreed to read and review four novellas by the end of August. I'm not actually behind on those. the first review wasn't due until June 29, and I have finished two of them already. I shared those here in a previous post.
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I've decided to wait to review Comic-Con until after it ends tomorrow. So far, I have to say that it has been a good time.

There were scheduled guests that I was looking forward to seeing, but performers are, by and large, controlled by schedules that change frequently, and I understand that that they cancelled due to changes that were not totally in their control.

People will complain about anything, though.

For example, I told you about my friend and I attending a concert with two of the remaining Monkees, Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz. It was fantastic, and although it would have been nice had Peter Tork also been able to perform, we understood that he'd made previous plans to perform with his own group.

But the complaints I read on line about this concert, I can't even believe. One person went so far as to say that without Davy Jones, there were no Monkees songs and so the whole show was a rip off. Actually, all four men performed songs, not just Davy. Another woman was upset that Davy couldn't come to Denver; how could he let the fans down? Uh...he died, lady. Not his fault. I'm sure it wasn't in his big scheme to ruin this concert by going to the great beyond before it was scheduled. LONG before.

Wow.

These men came to my city and performed a concert I didn't believe I'd live to see, and I am so grateful. None of us is getting any younger (damn it) and we've got to enjoy the things we can!

I got a bit off track, though. Point was, I heard some griping about the kids from the show "Stranger Things" cancelling their appearances here this year. They were scheduled to appear at the MTV awards instead, by their representatives. It is always a good idea to go to awards shows where you might actually receive an award, which I mentioned, unasked (of course) to the complaining people waiting in line to see the adult cast member who did make it.

"Really?" one fellow said. "Well, good for them! We didn't know that."

And they didn't bother to check it out before complaining, either.

Of course, I missed them. But there will be other chances.

Now, there are a few things to complain about that I understand completely and would love to gripe about myself, like $6.00 for a soda!! Oh. My. God. You literally have thousands of people at your convention center--you're not going to lose a dime over a lower cost soft drink.

I do understand that people come here to do meet and greets, sign autographs and take photos and that they deserve to earn money for their efforts, but again-- $75.00 for a selfie? Yikes!

I save up for a year to do Comic-Con, and I generally spoil myself with one autograph or one selfie each year. I regret not doing selfies with Sean Astin and Cary Elwes, opting for autographs instead. But I can't do both. Oh well, hopefully I will get another chance someday. And if they didn't charge quite so much, that would be nice.
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Okay, as promised, there will be a #WriteAwayJune post shared. Fair warning: Days 14 and 15 were writing prompt assignments, so I will share Day 14 tonight and Days 15 and 16 (A short and easy one) tomorrow.

#WriteAwayJune Day 14 – Complete a Writing Prompt using your character

Emma had spent the whole day perusing documents at the library. She sat down on the bed in the guest room of her sister’s house, pulled off her glasses and gave her eyes a vigorous rubbing.

“I feel a little crazy,” she told Melody. “I expect to see name-spelling issues with Dad’s family, but this is Great-Grandma. What am I doing wrong?”

“Beats the heck outta me,” Melody said. “How do you mess up ‘Merchant’?”

There was a sound of a woman chuckling, and suddenly they were joined by a small, thin woman with short, blond pin curls. “It wasn’t always ‘Merchant’,” she said.

Emma sat up straighter. Melody, alerted by her sister’s body language, darted her eyes around the room. Not that it did her any good; only Emma saw the departed. “Who’s here?” she asked.

“I have no idea,” Emma admitted. She gestured to the small woman to have a seat beside her on the bed. She repositioned herself so she could easily see her visitor as they spoke.

The woman chuckled again. “I am Layla Marconi,” she announced, smiling.

“What? ‘Marconi’?” Emma was confused; wasn’t that Italian?

“How do you get ‘Merchant’ from ‘Marconi’?” Melody asked.

“How did we get ‘Knight’ from ‘Noche de Paz’?” Emma countered.

“Doesn’t that mean ‘Night of Peace?’” Layla asked.

“Yes.”

“So, ‘Night’. That makes sense.”

“It would,” Emma grinned, “Except that it’s spelled K-n-i-g-h-t, like Knights of the Round Table.”

“Oh! Whoops!” The blond giggled.

“Okay, ‘Marconi’,” Melody mused. She didn’t really need to hear both sides of this conversation in order to follow it. “Are we Italian, then?”

“No,” Layla replied, and Emma repeated it. “Marconi happened as the family moved around Europe. While my great-grandfather was in France, it was Marquis. A move to Italy, and it became Marcon. Then when I left home, I went to Sicily to join the circus, and I changed it to Marconi.”

Emma had been repeating this for Melody’s sake and now, the both asked a question at the same time.

Emma: “Why?”

Melody: “You joined the circus?”

Now Layla really laughed, and Emma giggled, too, which got Melody going.

“Ah,” Layla sighed, finally. “I thought Marconi sounded more romantic than Marcon, and yes, I joined the circus. I considered going back to Marquis, but there were a band of brothers, acrobats, who were Marquis, and that would have caused some confusion. “

“Well,” Emma said, that explains some of it, but how did the name get passed down to my great-grandmother? Oh, and then changed?”

“Oh, like all of us, I was susceptible to that devilish emotion: love. I fell madly, crazily in love with one of the trapeze artists.”

When Emma passed this information on, she and Melody shared a knowing glance.

“He was so handsome, he was beautiful.” Layla sighed. “I followed him about like a puppy dog. God help me, I probably even panted as I did so. I would have done anything for that man—and I very nearly did! But when I went to him to tell him there was a wee one on the way to us, he tossed me away like garbage!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Emma cried. “What did you do?”

“Like a coward, I went crawling back to my parents’ home in Italy. I planned to beg for a place in the stable, but they took me in immediately and all was forgiven. They had given me up for dead!” Layla stared wide-eyed at Emma, obviously still astounded that she’d been so blessed.

“Yeah, our family is cool like that,” Melody smiled.

“A few months later, I brought a son into the world, and my mother and I named him Nicholas Merchant.” Layla giggled again. “It was Mama’s joke, because my lover sold me a terrible bill of goods, and I bought it. Mama said he was quite the salesman.”

“I hope I meet your Mama someday,” Emma giggled. “She was clever!”

“Indeed she was,” Layla agreed.

Thanks for joining me.

And, goodnight!