Today turned into quite a day. When it started, I thought it was going to be a calm day spent reading a manuscript while sitting comfortably on the sun porch, enjoying the not-oppressive weather (which was a change from the last several days). But then I got a text message from a Mensan friend in New York, telling me he’d had Covid-19 in March, and though he is recovered, he’s spreading the word for any potential contact tracing needs.

As we were texting, I got a text message from another, long-time science fiction friend, telling me that F. Alexander Brejcha had died in February. Alex was a writer I knew when I worked at Analog. I set about writing his obituary for SFScope, and discovered that the February in question was actually February of 2019. So I felt terrible, not only for having lost contact with him, but not knowing he’s been gone for so long. As I was writing the obituary, I emailed Trevor Quachri, the current editor of Analog, to ask him to pass the word along to Stanley Schmidt, who’d been my boss at the magazine, and who had discovered both Alex and me.

Then, before I could post the obituary, my mother called to talk about several things. In that conversation, however, she told me of another New York Mensan who had also had Covid-19. She had been much sicker with it, very much in danger, and has only recently recovered enough to get home from the hospital.

I posted Alex’s obituary, and then glanced at my email again. Trevor had responded, promising to tell Stan the news, and then incidentally telling me he’s going to buy my story that has been on his desk for a month or so. (I don’t normally talk about sales until I actually get paid, but today really needed a dose of good news.) So that turned things around a bit.

Then I decided I needed a break, and went out for my daily walk. Around the neighborhood, and then to the woods, and by the time I got to the turtle pond, the intermittent thunder I’d been hearing all day resulted in drops in the water as the rain started. So I didn’t get all the way to the blueberry bushes (which I’ve been enjoying, and tasting, every day for the last week or so), but instead turned around and headed out. By the time I got out of the woods and to the street, it was big, heavy drops of rain, so I was wet by the time I got to the house.

Like I said, it’s been a day.