Thursday, October 16, 2008

Fall River, Kansas

First of all, Mary! Thank god you're okay. I hope everybody else is, too.

Far less important, the above is where I gave a couple of talks this (Thursday) morning. Just me and a bunch of nice, smart, funny librarians. Now I'm in the town of Chanute in the lobby of a wonderful old hotel. My guest room is the Susan B. Anthony room, but I'm in the lobby because Susan seems to be repelling wifi waves. I'll give her your regards anyway.

I hope all of you are well and safe.

Love from not-quite deepest Kansas. That's not until Saturday.

NP

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful place - I'd never want to leave! Glad the trip is going well - we miss you back here in blog land. Continue to be safe, and have fun - and hurry home!

maryb said...

Thanks N. But I should be clear that I don't believe I or anyone in my building was in any danger. We didn't hear or see the explosion and since it was in the parking garage portion of the building it didn't blast out any windows. We just saw people come streaming out of the building and then heard sirens as the fire engines showed up.

But it is scary to think there is someone out there doing these
things.

I agree with Beth, that's a beautiful place. I wish we were all there with you!

Anonymous said...

I know some pretty wild librarians so have fun, Nancy. Susan B must be resisting hearing about the financial markets making her dollar tank.

I think Farf had the right idea. Yesterday food, today DRINKS.
At my house, my hubby likes to start birthday/anniversary breakfast celebrations with champagne with strawberries. So I'll start day with that.

Fabulous Friday to All

AndiF said...

Hiya Nancy. Looks like a wonderful place. And I'll bet those librarians are great fun to hang out with -- plus, you can bring us back some book recs. :)

It seems like I have as many fall pictures as leaves on trees, so I need to them to drop off as well.

Happy Falling Friday. [LINK]

Good Morning All.

Maria Lima said...

Happy fall morning, all! The weather's turned (finally...again) and it's back to the low 60s.

Nancy, that's a gorgeous place for a literary getaway. ::envies::

I'm planning a quiet weekend writing.

What are you all up to?

Jen said...

Oh wow Maryb, I'm so glad you're all right. A bomb nearby is a big deal under any circumstances, I think.

champagne with strawberries

::sits next to Lisa::

Hope you continue to enjoy your trip, Nancy!

Larry Kollar said...

Hey all!

Sounds like a nice place to do a presentation, Nancy. Was KB one of the librarians? Deepest Kansas sounds a little scary… aren't there still some parts of Kansas that never got put on the electrical grid?

Just plugging away here. Got meetings this morning, but one of them ("ops review") involves lunch so I'll live through it. My boss was a bit peeved that three of his peeps didn't send their slides in for the meeting this week (I was one of the two who did), so we'll see what happens there. I'm usually tail-end Charlie, but it looks like I get to stay quiet & adjust my dates for this one.

I got a few hundred words of FAR Future down last night. Not my most productive, but better than I'd done in the last week or so. Maybe the log(o) jam is breaking up.

katiebird said...

Mary! -- What's going on in Saint Louis? Who and why did someone set that bomb? Have they been caught or identified?

Scary? I'd be terrified.

What was going on in that bombed building? Was it just randomly hit?

Anonymous said...

We had a young man from Chanute stay at our Overland Park house for one semester a few years ago. (A fellow K-Stater of my son.) He kept encouraging us to visit Chanute, touting especially the taste of the fish from the many lakes and ponds down there. Haven't made it yet.

maryb said...

kb - here's the story: http://tinyurl.com/6nsjx9

Read all about it. You'll have to scroll down to get the older full story.

In the picture (if they don't change it) my office building is the modern silver building on the right nearest to the photographer.

The building with the "incident" is the red brick building further down the street to the right. The red brick building at the end of the street (where the street appears to dead end) is the Ritz Carlton Hotel. You can't see it in the picture but between them is a high-priced condo building - that's where the man who was hurt lived.

The red brick building on the left across from the "incident" is a combo of condos and shops. All of the red brick buildings including the Ritz were evacuated. We weren't.

Nancy P said...

Wow, that is some dramatic story! Can you imagine the poor guy's luck that the only person there to help him is somebody who doesn't carry a cell phone? Alternate headline could be: Boy Scout Catholic Sure Pissed Somebody Off

Mb, isn't that the hotel I was staying at when you and I met? (I was on a book tour and my publisher put me up there and it was so wonderful I never wanted to leave.)

G'morning everybody. I had breakfast at one of those endangered-species local cafes where the food is homemade and delicious, the place is crowded with locals, and the first words out of the waitress's mouth are, "Where you from?"

Now I'm off to take photos and explore and think about My Next Book, heretofore to be known as MNB. Tonight I give a talk to library readers.

maryb said...

I know! I'm really bad about remembering my cell phone (or forgetting to charge it) but now I'm going to be thinking about it all the time.

You stayed at the Chase-Park Plaza which is on the other side of Forest Park. It's really nice. I remember you liked it.

Kelly McCullough said...

Urgh. That is all.*

*Fine, but frazled and oh-so busy through Monday.

maryb said...

They've updated our bombing story and it's like something out of a mystery novel.

Security has found the person on the surveillance tape dropping off the bomb the night before (!) but they can't identify anything about the person(even gender) because the person was wearing a yellow (rain?) poncho down to the knees, sunglasses and had balloons in front of his or her face.

http://tinyurl.com/6nsjx9

Curiouser and curiouser.

katiebird said...

Oh God! Mary!!!

That's totally weird. The rain poncho is clever. But, who would have EVER thought of balloons???

Wow.

Actually it's pretty frightening. Or VERY frightening.

Anonymous said...

Bombs and Balloons. Quite a story.

Nancy, Good luck tomorrow.
Hook em Horns.

Larry Kollar said...

Bombs and balloons: two things that go pop, I guess.

Hey, anyone want some fried apple pie? My mother-in-law is making some for the Gold Rush festival tomorrow.

AndiF said...

Hey mystery writers, looks like Mary is providing you lots of great material. The balloons in front of the face will make a great detail.

Morning all.

Anonymous said...

Morning Andi--Hubby's off camping with scouts so the critters and I have the house to ourselves. Nice to have some quiet time. Work being hectic.

Went to see Secret Life of Bees movie. Enjoyed it. Needed some emotional massage topped off with a bit of feel good.

Farf--Fried pie is one of my all time favorites. Brings back my childhood, cause few people cook those any more. My favorite were apricot. I can smell the cinnamon spiced apples and taste the slightly crunchy, flakey crust.
Pass the milk please.

Waves to all.
Wonderful Weekend to all.

Maria Lima said...

"Morning," she mumbles around a bad attempt at stifling a yawn. "Mmm, Saturday..."

Really hard to get up this a.m. as it's so *dark*!

Off to "do my hair" - euphemism for cut/color later this morning. Then just quietly reading, writing, catching up on my shows.

I have Iron Man, Dark Shadows Bloopers and Pippin Special Edition from NetFlix for a treat tomorrow.

MaryB - that whole bomb story's been something else!

::stumbles off in search of breakfast::

Larry Kollar said...

Saturday. October chill is in the air. Mrs. Fetched's mom is at Gold Rush and the tourists are jamming the place. Then there's Moonshine Festival next weekend, more crowds of tourists. October weekends are crazier than the usual elevated background level of crazy around here.

DD is spending the weekend with DoubleRed, who is house/dog-sitting at a rather upscale place, and Mrs. Fetched is doing chicken stuff. I have the manor to myself as well, but October weekend craziness will soon catch up to me.

Anonymous said...

If you have not watched Dexter, Showtime series about a serial killer. Let me highly recommend it. Best, complex character I've seen. I'm not a slasher movie fan, so the blood/gore factor isn't over the top. I'm watching season 2on DVD. Season 3 just started on Showtime. Season one was fascinating but season 2 is downright riviting. Writers constantly work to round their characters. The many facets and motivations of Dexter are amazing. This is a dark show, but you can't help but root for good over evil. It's just not easy to recognize the difference. Like in real life.

Anonymous said...

Farf, If I was closer to Georgia I'd be coming for that Moonshine festival. I always liked the Baldwin sisters with their recipe on the Waltons. I'm drawn to the free spirits of life. Probably because that is what I wish I were more like instead of the stodgy, reliable worker bee I've always been.

Anonymous said...

Farf, wish I was at those festivals, too! And Lisa, I'm not a TV watcher, but I rented the first season of Dexter on the recommendation of a friend, and was hooked. Hard to explain the attraction of the character to people who haven't seen him, but it is truly a well-written show.

I'm visiting my best friends for the weekend. They just moved into a new house, and he was diagnosed with cancer a couple of weeks ago. Starting radiation this coming week. So I came down to help them get unpacked, before the treatments start. Helps me realize my problems are petty in comparison.

And being a free spirit isn't all it's cracked up to be, Lisa. Sometimes I'd like to be stodgy and reliable (tho I wouldn't describe you that way!).

Have a wonderful weekend, folks. I'll be unpacking boxes - seems like that's all I've been doing for the last 6 months. And Go Sox!

Larry Kollar said...

Stodgy reliable worker bee? I resemble that remark! Although there's the free spirit that bangs around the inside of my head WANTING OUT too…

Nancy P said...

Andi, that's a really pretty photo. Thanks for that.

Katieb, here we are, all these writers, but you're the one who asked the mystery-writer question, lol.

Maryb, this is all so interesting! Do you know how the victim is doing now?

Nancy P said...

Maria, Dark Shadows bloopers?? Let me know if they're good, okay?

Far, those fried pies look like critters who just might march off en masse to eat us. Beware the Fried Pie