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After that, it was a relaxing two-day ride on the train to get home. Actually, it was supposed to be a relaxing day and a half, followed by a hour or so at the library to get started on the update to my Harry Potter site, then a quiet evening, and an early bedtime to catch up on sleep before plunging back into the working world, but there was a lot of track work or something going on and we got into Portland at 10something pm.
Chris spent the first day reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on and off. Somehow I managed to keep my mouth shut on spoilers when he would pause and share his thoughts.
"You know," he said at one point, "all these new characters are also planets in Battletech. Galatea, Merope, Twycross..."
I know there are only so many Greek mythological names to go around, but-- "Twycross is a Battletech planet??"
"Yeah, it was the site of one of the early Clan defeats."
"Huh." Takes an unusual guy to notice that.
The day after we got home, I went to fellow fan John Ballentine to share thoughts on the book. "Chris says the new characters are also Battletech planets," I said for a laugh.
"So it wasn't just me!" John exclaimed happily.
Over the weekend, I got serious about updating my Harry Potter name reference and attended practically all the operating hours of the Beaverton City Library. Monday evening, I should have started typing up entries but decided I felt tired and there was no harm in skipping a day.
Tuesday morning, I found myself getting my lungs x-rayed to see if I had pneumonia.
I'd had a cold at Disneyland, but nothing that seemed serious, just the sort of thing to be controlled with Tylenol and sufficient sleep and otherwise ignored. And so I had largely ignored it, and not taken care of myself, and ended up with a secondary infection. Ultimately they decided it was just a touch of bronchitis and let me off without antibiotics.
By the end of the week it was clearing up nicely and I was able to finish my update. I was practically recovered, except for a vestigial sniffle, when it was time to fly to Glasgow. All would be well. You may of course laugh now.