(no subject)
Jun. 20th, 2010 12:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseLast weekend I went to an event. Then I wrote a long journal entry. Then our internet died.
So here's what i wrote, edited a fair bit:
Weather was unpromising; the site was saturated from the excess rain (including the floors of the indoor locations), and the whole camp layout had to be rearranged to use the high ground only at the last minute. Friday night, we ended up barbequeing under what should have been a perfectly useful shade fly, but the wind was high and the drizzle light, sot here was literally no place we could put the barbie, our ourselves, that didn't involve drizzle. Saturday morning was horribly windy but not much drizzle, so we did archery after all; the afternoon remained the same almost to court, at which point we started seeing real breaks in the cloud, and by feast we weren't worried about being rained on; after dark, we were watching stars.
Colin had what seemed to be a minor cold. Then we slept Saturday night on an air mattress with a distinct leak, and he was worse. he went home around noon with another friend feeling pretty bad. Turns out he came out with a fever that night; I grant that I had fun without him, but I missed him. But I'm also glad he was in our house taking care of himself.
I do quite like the site! Truth be told, I thought the rearrangement, putting everything much closer together than it would otherwise be, actually made for a very good set-up for the number of people present. In future years, as it attracts a larger number (Which it likely will, being close to Avacal, allowing for visitors from Sigelhundas (Regina) at minimum, and close to the Shire of Midewinde (Minot, ND), with whom we have good relations), it's good to have the original plans for the set-up in mind, but this year, we didn't need to have to walk most of the length of the fairground for the archery. (It was literally at our back door.)
Except for the one major issue besides the weather, and not totally under the Event Steward's control; Saturday morning, the washrooms wouldn't work; the septic tanks were full. This did get fixed within a couple of hours.... but that they were full again a handful of hours later. We weren't overusing the site that much; the septic tank appeared to be cracked and taking in groundwater. And it was by low ground. The next nearest washrooms we could use were in an RV park, about ten minutes' walk from site (Half that if you were willing to use the cut-through beside the RCMP building, which was more boggy ground this time), and, once they had wind of our problem, the inn/bar, also about ten minutes' walk. (There was also a public washroom building further in town, to which I was driven once.) And of course, many availed themselves of bushes depending on garb, gender, and need.
I was actually shooting pretty decently in spite of the targets being at longer ranges than our indoor range can handle. I missed winning by *one* point, which made me feel pretty good (I had one bad round, so it was a fair cop, though I also had the best individual round of the day. To which: Squee!) To a literal newcomer to the sport, which was slightly deflating.
I bought myself three new pretties (Two ceramic necklaces from different dealers, and a pashmina scarf in my wardrobe's most ubiquitous shade of turquoise). Also hot apple cider from a booth manned by two girls of ~ 9-11 years, but that didn't make it more than ten minutes while the pretties came home with me. I also got to watch a bead-maker do two different styles of lampwork beads - the pendant I bought from her was porcelain and glass, which she couldn't demo on site, but which I have a pretty fair grasp how she did it anyhow.
I then decided that, having not tried it before, I'd try the thrown weapons tourney. I was at first afraid I'd be the one newbie among people who'd at least tried it before (Thrown weapons is usually a very small side activity with about 4 regular contestants - I was betting on 1-2 more from the visitors from Avacal.)
We had a line of over 15, most of whom were new to the activity (Some of them were brand new, first-event people for the SCA, even cooler). I liked the throwing knives. A lot. I was okay with the axes, and I'd certainly try them again, but really didn't like the spear, and not just because I managed to clock myself in the head with one of my practice throws.
Lots of fun.
However, Colin being away, I was then drafted as the Herald for Court. The awards were of course excellent to call, but the mood was ... well, frankly, borderline seditious, including the Prince.
The Big upcoming event in Wisconsin, Warriors and Warlords, or Dub-Dub, is usually set up as a competition of King & Queen versus their Heirs; Hrodir's 'sedition', was set-up for that event, inspired by a number of events in other courts or on Northshield's hall, including a recent time when the King deliberately "shamed" our Baron in front of the court - a schtick that may or may not have gone a bit overboard, tales differ - as our excuse to be on his side.
Then feast, which was very very tasty, as feasts around here are wont to be (Though the Brandon group hasn't had a lot of chance to demonstrate until now, they carried on the tradition with aplomb.)
The Prince had each table try and do something to entertain on the spot, in an informal competition; our table was taken out the first round, and deservedly, for choosing to do the Hokey Pokey (the choice of one of the girls who'd been running the hot drinks booth all day - I was happy enough to go with it. It didn't demand I sing in any real way; projecting my voice in court pretty much brought back the worst of the cough.) There were very few serious entries.
I was supposed to be running a bardic competition that night, but first the competition got cancelled due to lack of participants (While the weather was now promising, it had been miserable for enough of the day that we lost a LOT of people who opted to feast then drive home, both to Avacal and to Winnipeg) then we cancelled the second fire pit, as the one in front of the Baron's tent was pretty much becoming the place to be.
I sang along between coughs, but the one time the Prince really pinpointed me to do a song, enough other things happened that I didn't actually have to try. (It's rare when I say 'phew' to not getting to sing, in spite of the fact that i'm quite often nervous as hell at doing so.)
And they got Abacchus drunk! Fortunately, while he was a great deal of fun drunk, he didn't go so far as to forget himself, and he did down lots of water before he slept. But it's his first time. And he's my age, not a young'un. (Granted, the most I've been is giggly. But at least I've been that, and I actually have no interest in hitting "I can't walk", which is how far they got him before he started to sober himself.)
The main fun on Sunday, besides cursing that this would be the warm and sunny day, was driving home. To be clear; Cristina is an experienced driver, but she's also a country girl. With this being the second time in her life she'd handled a standard, while she managed to get us onto and most of the way down the highway, she had no confidence with doing so in a city. So me, the one with the learner's permit, got to do the last stretch, especially in the city.
Clearly, we got home alive, since it's been a week now since that happened. No problems, either.
I have to say that a highway that drops from 100 klicks to 70 with widely scattered lights for at least ten minutes before it drops to city speeds (60/50) is a LOT more comfortable than one that drops from 100 to city on the spot, as the highway up from North Dakota does. It's not nearly so much the speed, as it happens, but that the cars don't go from wide-spaced to cramped in one fell swoop.
So. That was last weekend. This week was quieter. Colin got better slowly. I did archery and dance practice. I've been mostly not writing, except for edits and an attempt to get the synopsis for Bird of Dusk down to a reasonable length (It's currently 11 pages double spaced. And that's after I cut. It will take at least two more cuts, or a major brainstorm about doing it a totally different way, to get it to seven or less. Ideally, I'd like five.)
Also, we cleaned house and started to get more furniture into place and more of the little jobs remaining on the renovation done. It begins to look like a real living room/dining room again.
That's all.
So here's what i wrote, edited a fair bit:
Weather was unpromising; the site was saturated from the excess rain (including the floors of the indoor locations), and the whole camp layout had to be rearranged to use the high ground only at the last minute. Friday night, we ended up barbequeing under what should have been a perfectly useful shade fly, but the wind was high and the drizzle light, sot here was literally no place we could put the barbie, our ourselves, that didn't involve drizzle. Saturday morning was horribly windy but not much drizzle, so we did archery after all; the afternoon remained the same almost to court, at which point we started seeing real breaks in the cloud, and by feast we weren't worried about being rained on; after dark, we were watching stars.
Colin had what seemed to be a minor cold. Then we slept Saturday night on an air mattress with a distinct leak, and he was worse. he went home around noon with another friend feeling pretty bad. Turns out he came out with a fever that night; I grant that I had fun without him, but I missed him. But I'm also glad he was in our house taking care of himself.
I do quite like the site! Truth be told, I thought the rearrangement, putting everything much closer together than it would otherwise be, actually made for a very good set-up for the number of people present. In future years, as it attracts a larger number (Which it likely will, being close to Avacal, allowing for visitors from Sigelhundas (Regina) at minimum, and close to the Shire of Midewinde (Minot, ND), with whom we have good relations), it's good to have the original plans for the set-up in mind, but this year, we didn't need to have to walk most of the length of the fairground for the archery. (It was literally at our back door.)
Except for the one major issue besides the weather, and not totally under the Event Steward's control; Saturday morning, the washrooms wouldn't work; the septic tanks were full. This did get fixed within a couple of hours.... but that they were full again a handful of hours later. We weren't overusing the site that much; the septic tank appeared to be cracked and taking in groundwater. And it was by low ground. The next nearest washrooms we could use were in an RV park, about ten minutes' walk from site (Half that if you were willing to use the cut-through beside the RCMP building, which was more boggy ground this time), and, once they had wind of our problem, the inn/bar, also about ten minutes' walk. (There was also a public washroom building further in town, to which I was driven once.) And of course, many availed themselves of bushes depending on garb, gender, and need.
I was actually shooting pretty decently in spite of the targets being at longer ranges than our indoor range can handle. I missed winning by *one* point, which made me feel pretty good (I had one bad round, so it was a fair cop, though I also had the best individual round of the day. To which: Squee!) To a literal newcomer to the sport, which was slightly deflating.
I bought myself three new pretties (Two ceramic necklaces from different dealers, and a pashmina scarf in my wardrobe's most ubiquitous shade of turquoise). Also hot apple cider from a booth manned by two girls of ~ 9-11 years, but that didn't make it more than ten minutes while the pretties came home with me. I also got to watch a bead-maker do two different styles of lampwork beads - the pendant I bought from her was porcelain and glass, which she couldn't demo on site, but which I have a pretty fair grasp how she did it anyhow.
I then decided that, having not tried it before, I'd try the thrown weapons tourney. I was at first afraid I'd be the one newbie among people who'd at least tried it before (Thrown weapons is usually a very small side activity with about 4 regular contestants - I was betting on 1-2 more from the visitors from Avacal.)
We had a line of over 15, most of whom were new to the activity (Some of them were brand new, first-event people for the SCA, even cooler). I liked the throwing knives. A lot. I was okay with the axes, and I'd certainly try them again, but really didn't like the spear, and not just because I managed to clock myself in the head with one of my practice throws.
Lots of fun.
However, Colin being away, I was then drafted as the Herald for Court. The awards were of course excellent to call, but the mood was ... well, frankly, borderline seditious, including the Prince.
The Big upcoming event in Wisconsin, Warriors and Warlords, or Dub-Dub, is usually set up as a competition of King & Queen versus their Heirs; Hrodir's 'sedition', was set-up for that event, inspired by a number of events in other courts or on Northshield's hall, including a recent time when the King deliberately "shamed" our Baron in front of the court - a schtick that may or may not have gone a bit overboard, tales differ - as our excuse to be on his side.
Then feast, which was very very tasty, as feasts around here are wont to be (Though the Brandon group hasn't had a lot of chance to demonstrate until now, they carried on the tradition with aplomb.)
The Prince had each table try and do something to entertain on the spot, in an informal competition; our table was taken out the first round, and deservedly, for choosing to do the Hokey Pokey (the choice of one of the girls who'd been running the hot drinks booth all day - I was happy enough to go with it. It didn't demand I sing in any real way; projecting my voice in court pretty much brought back the worst of the cough.) There were very few serious entries.
I was supposed to be running a bardic competition that night, but first the competition got cancelled due to lack of participants (While the weather was now promising, it had been miserable for enough of the day that we lost a LOT of people who opted to feast then drive home, both to Avacal and to Winnipeg) then we cancelled the second fire pit, as the one in front of the Baron's tent was pretty much becoming the place to be.
I sang along between coughs, but the one time the Prince really pinpointed me to do a song, enough other things happened that I didn't actually have to try. (It's rare when I say 'phew' to not getting to sing, in spite of the fact that i'm quite often nervous as hell at doing so.)
And they got Abacchus drunk! Fortunately, while he was a great deal of fun drunk, he didn't go so far as to forget himself, and he did down lots of water before he slept. But it's his first time. And he's my age, not a young'un. (Granted, the most I've been is giggly. But at least I've been that, and I actually have no interest in hitting "I can't walk", which is how far they got him before he started to sober himself.)
The main fun on Sunday, besides cursing that this would be the warm and sunny day, was driving home. To be clear; Cristina is an experienced driver, but she's also a country girl. With this being the second time in her life she'd handled a standard, while she managed to get us onto and most of the way down the highway, she had no confidence with doing so in a city. So me, the one with the learner's permit, got to do the last stretch, especially in the city.
Clearly, we got home alive, since it's been a week now since that happened. No problems, either.
I have to say that a highway that drops from 100 klicks to 70 with widely scattered lights for at least ten minutes before it drops to city speeds (60/50) is a LOT more comfortable than one that drops from 100 to city on the spot, as the highway up from North Dakota does. It's not nearly so much the speed, as it happens, but that the cars don't go from wide-spaced to cramped in one fell swoop.
So. That was last weekend. This week was quieter. Colin got better slowly. I did archery and dance practice. I've been mostly not writing, except for edits and an attempt to get the synopsis for Bird of Dusk down to a reasonable length (It's currently 11 pages double spaced. And that's after I cut. It will take at least two more cuts, or a major brainstorm about doing it a totally different way, to get it to seven or less. Ideally, I'd like five.)
Also, we cleaned house and started to get more furniture into place and more of the little jobs remaining on the renovation done. It begins to look like a real living room/dining room again.
That's all.
