Fire Arms? Wait did I miss this?
Not Fire Arms...Fire Alarms! The hotel was doing a lot of construction, and the dust set off the fire alarms three times on Saturday night/Sunday morning! Two of the three times we were all herded out onto the sidewalk! I won't say too much in case he wants to talk about it, but Jim had been up and got less sleep than the rest of us. One of the vendors made up buttons, and did some saying "I survived the Polaris 23 Inferno...3 Times". I got one and gave one to Jim (as well as one for Shannon...she wasn't with him when I gave him the buttons).
I don't do a lot of cons. I did an early Toronto Trek (before they changed the name to Polaris) twenty-something years ago, and then didn't do another until Polaris when I saw Jim would be there. The reasons I haven't done many are partly money-related (until not too long ago I really couldn't afford all the time off work...that's since changed) and partly not having anyone to go with. I work an afternoon shift on a fixed schedule, making socializing difficult (my "weekend" is Wednesday/Thursday). On top of that, all the people I'd go to cons with have since moved out of the area, and regularly going on my own just isn't as much fun.
I've known about Ad Astra for years, and always intended to go at some point. Robert Sawyer announced that he'd be there so I checked out the website. Seeing that Jim would be there was the clincher for me! Rob is an acquaintance/becoming a friend in large part because he's local. He lives in Mississauga and I live in Kitchener. He has a lot of friends here and is down regularly...he's spoken of moving to the area! I say "becoming a friend" simply due to not seeing him that often. If he's in town and sees me anywhere he does make a point of coming up to say hi...we also talk online fairly regularly. Anyway, I have him to thank for the heads up about the con, and enough lead time to book the time off!
I'm sure I'll see you there...I'll look out for you in costume!
Now I just need to work out the public transit routes to Markham...