Kage Baker never learned to drive. This was a public service on her part, as her eyesight was poor: she had strabismus, and was effectively blind in one eye. She also felt she was emotionally unsuited to cope with other drivers without bow cannons.

I didn’t mind at all, because I didn’t think other drivers could possibly benefit from Kage having bow cannons …

But the bottom line was that Kage never drove home from a science fiction Convention. We would both babble while I drove, the pair of us madly, decompressing and downloading all the weekend’s various events. Then, usually about 2 hours out of Pismo, Kage would fall asleep. Every now and again she’d lurch upright and declare: “I have to keep you awake!” And then she’d be gone.

Well, now she really is gone, and I get to drive home by myself. I talk to myself a lot, and sing loudly. The drive from San Jose yestreday was not bad at all – I left by 3 PM and only drove as far as Pismo once again; I meant to spend the night there, and drive on to LA this morning.

I got to Pismo, which was exquisitely cool and smelled of the sea: my hotel was a bare 200 feet from the beach. Unfortunately, my room was on the second floor, up 20 stairs. (I counted, gasping …) and I arrived pretty much pre-exhausted from the day and the drive.

I am only technically mobile these days. Too long in one position, or too much walking, and my back and left leg are automatically replaced with broken glass in Silly Putty. It’s all to do with neuropathy, and is only of import here because it contributed to my being useless last night.

Mostly I lay on my lovely soft bed and breathed in the sweet sea air. I was too tired to even contemplate eating – which was good, because there was no way on any earth that I was getting down and back up those stairs again …

Oh, and the wifi didn’t work. It was a nice hotel, but it was a Motel 6, and you just can’t get working wifi in those. I gotta get my own Hotspot (Luisa, how did you DO that?)

Anyway, I got home this afternoon after a long, futile search through the 5 Cities area for a nursery Kage had loved … I found the place where it used to be, but it was inexplicably gone: all buildings, flower beds and orchards razed to the ground, the earth apparently salted and the whole surrounded by barbed wire. I have no idea what happened, barring a sudden infestation of triffids.

But I went tearfully on my way. And in the course of time I made it home, and promptly collapsed. Somewhat revived by Mullah coffee and brownies, I have gotten at least as far as this lengthy explanation of why I vanished into the silent void last night.

More later, Dear Readers. How much later, who knows? There are tamales in the offing, and I could end up either comatose or energized. But there is much more to tell!