Where the supermarket used to stand

We did not check out on time, Monday. We got close, between the time saved in our packing the night before and my being able to snag a luggage cart. And the elevators being okay enough for this. But at the last minute we couldn't find one of our phones, and were sure it had to be packed, but we couldn't find it, so I went downstairs to try unpacking enough to find it while bunny_hugger called it on the hotel phone to see if we could hear it. I did hear it, in a suitcase, so we were safe. Later she realized there was no need for me to go: if she called the phone and we didn't hear it, it had to be in the car. Well, yes, if you're one of those fanatics who believes in object permanence.

For a little post-con, pre-driving activity, we had a letterbox to seek out. bunny_hugger had found one in Olentangy Park, a park near the site of Morphicon/Anthrohio's old hotel. Along the way we passed that corporate park where we'd gone letterbox-hunting once and seen a cottontail flop, making us realize that rabbits use flops in the wild to take dust baths. This also let us see what's become of the old hotel, which has finally been demolished and is being rebuilt as a bunch of two- and three-storey buildings.

The park is a nice-looking place, with a biking and walking path that felt comfortably like Lansing's River Walk. As we walked toward the park I saw something and froze. I told bunny_hugger what I saw. It was a deer, standing there maybe fifteen feet down a steep hill, chewing at plants like this was nothing. We stopped and took photographs of the delight, of a deer in bright daylight so close we could fool ourselves into thinking we could touch it. A guy, I presume a local, noticed us stopped and photographing and asked what we were looking at. ``A deer,'' we told him, and he shrugged, ``Oh''. He told someone else who was curious about our curiosity that it was only a deer.

We would learn why local parkgoers were so jaded to this. Turns out the deer there are very comfortable around humans. Later, after we'd found the letterbox and were sitting on a bench to tend it, we saw another deer emerge from the woods. It strode past us, on level, open grass, again not ten feet away and completely unconcerned by our existence. Gave us time to get a bunch of photographs, too. I suppose it's easy for regulars to be jaded to that but we were still amazed.

The letterbox was right where the clues suggested it would be. It was also ruined, as comments had led us to expect. Water had gotten in and ruined the logbook. The problem --- to me --- seems that the letterbox was more bare than usual. Most are a book and the letterbox's stamp, wrapped in a sealable plastic bag, like you use for sandwiches or leftovers, and put inside a sealable plastic bin. This one didn't have the plastic bin; it was just a heavy-duty plastic bag hidden in the park. I don't know what constraints kept the letterbox's planter from providing a box. We could peel apart still-wet pages of the log book, and make out something of people's stamps printed into it. If we were local we'd likely have taken it home to try drying it out and cleaning it as best as possible. But, given we have no reason to expect to be back in Columbus before next year, the best we could do was pat it dry some, set it in its own plastic bag, and then donate our own spare log book and new plastic bags to protect the thing as best as we could hope.

This wrapped up our business in town, so we went to look for lunch before driving home. This brought about our discovery that the Hot Head Burritos in Hot Head Plaza wa closed, not just for the day but permanently. They'd taken the furniture and fixtures out and everything. We'd have liked to go to Skyline Chili, but there's no eating chili-on-spaghetti in the car and we don't think the franchies offer outdoor seating. So White Castle it was, something not hard to talk us into. We did go inside to place our order since that seemed like the shorter line, and I wouldn't have to try remembering the kind of Freestyle soda I like. (``Mello Yello Zero Citrus Twist'', which I observed is too many words. ``That's not an order, it's a memorandum of understanding'', I said, or something like that.) Also waiting for the Impossible Sliders to cook gave me time to drink about a quarter of a drinking cup extra Mello Yello Zero Citrus Twist out of the Coke Freestyle machine. So, you know, good results all around.

And, so, finally, we set off for home, where everything was in good order and we could do whatever's the usual anymore.

And now that I'm done talking about Anthrohio ... here's pictures of Anthrohio, starting with Friday's activity.

Opening Ceremonies! They set the stage up so it was against the wall adjoining Secondary Events; we'd learn this was so that the speakers would be blasting away from Secondary events and so, particularly for the dance, make it easier to hear anything going on.

Mask discipline was pretty solid at the con. Masks were also required for fursuiters but I had no way of verifying that anyone besides bunny_hugger did.

And here's one of the Pipsqueakery representatives, holding one of the rabbits who's incredibly patient about being held. Really. I expect a rabbit to give you maybe one, possibly two minutes before they start punching and this one was just cool the whole ceremonies.

Trivia: Greenback circulation in the United States was fixed in 1878 to a maximum of $357 million. Source: History of Money, Glyn Davies.

Currently Reading: Moon Launch! A History of the Saturn-Apollo Launch Operations, Charles D Benson, William B Faherty.