My Pennsic
Aug. 19th, 2010 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichThis will be a bit disjointed - just like my thoughts. But then, you're used to that, right?
Bossman, Opi & I arrived onsite a week ahead of landgrab to do our staff-thing (they to spend the daylight hours creating new poles for the various A&S and field pavilions, me to be a good little secretary). We did something we'd never done before - stayed at a hotel Friday night and then came in during Saturday morning to set up camp. That was so much better than our work/pack/drive/set-up experience of the past that I will budget for it every year from now on.
Saturday was killer-hot. Set-up took almost the entire day, with me being almost no help (and then being absolutely no help thanks to a bad sunburn and heat exhaustion) and the guys being forced (by me) to stop, rest, and hydrate more often than they wanted to. The big slow-down was before we started unloading - land negotiations were still going on and we didn't have the correct measurements. As it was, we learned once everyone got there a week later that the 'final' measurements were incorrect and our group was short by about, um, 900 feet? 1200? something like that. The Land Computer Crash bit us on that one. It happens.
The rest of staff week was glorious in its weather-comfort. We had one bad storm, which tested the new sunshade, and then it was just lovely mid-70s weather for the work week. The guys were slaving away every day by 8:00. Heck, everyone there was working by eight. We get a break around noon for a quick lunch, then back to work until 6:30 or 7:00, break for dinner, and then we're off... except that a lot of folks aren't really off, as we all have 'one more thing we want to get done before tomorrow' so go back to work until sundown. You know how that goes. Or that is the time we take to go into town for personal stuff. Like laundry. Or, since the temperatures were in the low 50s at night - for a down comforter. (Which, of course, prompted the night temps to rise to the mid-60s and only got used one time after purchase. So yeah, the hot night weather was my fault.)
I loved my job. It was a one-time thing, being the Mayor's secretary, and I was already feeling regret at not doing it again before the middle of peace week. Not to mention that when I first heard of it, I felt sort of superior-indulgent about the position but having done it, I know absolutely believe that it is essential to the running of the event. A mayor just can't divide themselves into small enough pieces to be on job AND get the necessary paperwork done, plus be available to everyone who has questions. The job is too large now. I handled a lot of fiddly little details - which aren't 'little' when they are holding up someone else's job until they get answered/addressed/solved. It felt good.
Land Grab came and was over in a record 9 minutes for most groups. The final set of groups (and you know who you are) were taken care of by (what was it John said? 11 minutes? 17? I can't remember now) the time we used to just be gathering in the barn. Folks were setting up everywhere in masses. Our camp was rising long before lunch time... it was good to see the early birds. Opi switched over to "set-up camp crew" while Bossman was working up at The Watch. Both guys were busting butt. The camp was shaping up every time I came back to it. And I got the added bonus of having Edward and Pippa camped behind me so 'backdoor neighbor' chatting was really great!
My first week was spent, for the most part, in the mayor's office. As was the second. Normally, the secretary has more time off - I didn't take it because I was feeling awful. Mean and grumpy. Sore and snappy. And rather whiney, too, so I hid in there and made myself useful as much as I could. The tell-tale symptoms of a UTI made themselves known before the week was out. I started slamming cranberry juice and water like a crazy person. It seemed to help. Or so I thought, even though the symptoms didn't really lift much. Finally, I headed over to the First Aid Point to chat with a doc. He sent me to Butler's urgent care clinic. Once there, they took me in the back while Bossman dealt with paperwork and we did the temp/blood pressure/pee in a jar thing... my bp was 188/115! I yelped "WHAT?", Bossman, who had finished paperwork and came in, said, "that can't be right" and the tech said, "let me get a nurse to try it". It was slightly higher when the nurse gave it a try... Bossman's comment was, "been suppressing a little pain, maybe?" which didn't require an answer on my part.
So we were sent to the ER, with the Urgent Care doctor on the phone with the ER doc, who was waiting for me there... one pee-test later and a poke in the back that made me weep like a penitent nun, I had a script for medication. And an answer as to why I'd been so grumpy/hermit-like previously.
So the rest of my War was spent inside the mayor's office, hiding from the sun and playing computer games on my laptop. (That ER doc knew that we were from the 'group doing that medieval thing at Cooper's lake and camping' so why did he prescribe drugs that make a person incredibly sun-sensitive - and thank all of you who told me horror stories about what happened to you when you went out into the sun - and needed to be stored at 62-78 degrees? Yeah, yeah, so it was probably the best drug for the infection, but still... 62-78? I couldn't even put it in a cooler on ice! Thank goodness for the communications equipment and its need for air conditioning.)
We saw our Eldest the first night after he arrived (and ran into old friends while delivering his camping gear) and go together with him and a few campmmates for an evening of Losing Loadum during War Week... that was fun. So was dinner at Drea & Calli's camp, even if I was already a Grumpy Goose by then. We didn't see much of the Eldest after that... I had to remind myself that he is 31 years old and has better things to do at Pennsic than hang out with his momma! But I think I may have worn out the ear of our Youngest with phone calls as my empty-nest syndrome kicked in. It couldn't be that I missed him a bit, right?
I did make it to Khan's Court, where I was given custody of Stormbrew, the twin of the Pennsic War Drinking Horn, for the next year. Those of you in Atlantia will see it, as I've been charged with taking it to events and gathering stories for it until next Pennsic. It was gifted to the Great Dark Horde many years ago... I need to get THAT story so I can start filling out the new history-book that Mistress Rowena made for it. (You should see that book. I thought she'd bought it from Barnes & Nobles, but no - she made it in the bookbinding class that was offered onsite. Wow. Pictures will probably follow.)
Packout was made easier by Ivarr and Zackory coming to help. We packed out wet, though, and had to set all the tents up again here at home. Shawn's wall tent, which Zack was using down at Pandora's Box camp, was filthy... rain,soggy ground, and trees are not-so-good for poor little canvas tents. It needed scrubbing.
Me, I'm washing everything made of cloth... our house smells of super-heated damp fabric going to mildew, thanks to the final weekend.
Bossman, Opi & I arrived onsite a week ahead of landgrab to do our staff-thing (they to spend the daylight hours creating new poles for the various A&S and field pavilions, me to be a good little secretary). We did something we'd never done before - stayed at a hotel Friday night and then came in during Saturday morning to set up camp. That was so much better than our work/pack/drive/set-up experience of the past that I will budget for it every year from now on.
Saturday was killer-hot. Set-up took almost the entire day, with me being almost no help (and then being absolutely no help thanks to a bad sunburn and heat exhaustion) and the guys being forced (by me) to stop, rest, and hydrate more often than they wanted to. The big slow-down was before we started unloading - land negotiations were still going on and we didn't have the correct measurements. As it was, we learned once everyone got there a week later that the 'final' measurements were incorrect and our group was short by about, um, 900 feet? 1200? something like that. The Land Computer Crash bit us on that one. It happens.
The rest of staff week was glorious in its weather-comfort. We had one bad storm, which tested the new sunshade, and then it was just lovely mid-70s weather for the work week. The guys were slaving away every day by 8:00. Heck, everyone there was working by eight. We get a break around noon for a quick lunch, then back to work until 6:30 or 7:00, break for dinner, and then we're off... except that a lot of folks aren't really off, as we all have 'one more thing we want to get done before tomorrow' so go back to work until sundown. You know how that goes. Or that is the time we take to go into town for personal stuff. Like laundry. Or, since the temperatures were in the low 50s at night - for a down comforter. (Which, of course, prompted the night temps to rise to the mid-60s and only got used one time after purchase. So yeah, the hot night weather was my fault.)
I loved my job. It was a one-time thing, being the Mayor's secretary, and I was already feeling regret at not doing it again before the middle of peace week. Not to mention that when I first heard of it, I felt sort of superior-indulgent about the position but having done it, I know absolutely believe that it is essential to the running of the event. A mayor just can't divide themselves into small enough pieces to be on job AND get the necessary paperwork done, plus be available to everyone who has questions. The job is too large now. I handled a lot of fiddly little details - which aren't 'little' when they are holding up someone else's job until they get answered/addressed/solved. It felt good.
Land Grab came and was over in a record 9 minutes for most groups. The final set of groups (and you know who you are) were taken care of by (what was it John said? 11 minutes? 17? I can't remember now) the time we used to just be gathering in the barn. Folks were setting up everywhere in masses. Our camp was rising long before lunch time... it was good to see the early birds. Opi switched over to "set-up camp crew" while Bossman was working up at The Watch. Both guys were busting butt. The camp was shaping up every time I came back to it. And I got the added bonus of having Edward and Pippa camped behind me so 'backdoor neighbor' chatting was really great!
My first week was spent, for the most part, in the mayor's office. As was the second. Normally, the secretary has more time off - I didn't take it because I was feeling awful. Mean and grumpy. Sore and snappy. And rather whiney, too, so I hid in there and made myself useful as much as I could. The tell-tale symptoms of a UTI made themselves known before the week was out. I started slamming cranberry juice and water like a crazy person. It seemed to help. Or so I thought, even though the symptoms didn't really lift much. Finally, I headed over to the First Aid Point to chat with a doc. He sent me to Butler's urgent care clinic. Once there, they took me in the back while Bossman dealt with paperwork and we did the temp/blood pressure/pee in a jar thing... my bp was 188/115! I yelped "WHAT?", Bossman, who had finished paperwork and came in, said, "that can't be right" and the tech said, "let me get a nurse to try it". It was slightly higher when the nurse gave it a try... Bossman's comment was, "been suppressing a little pain, maybe?" which didn't require an answer on my part.
So we were sent to the ER, with the Urgent Care doctor on the phone with the ER doc, who was waiting for me there... one pee-test later and a poke in the back that made me weep like a penitent nun, I had a script for medication. And an answer as to why I'd been so grumpy/hermit-like previously.
So the rest of my War was spent inside the mayor's office, hiding from the sun and playing computer games on my laptop. (That ER doc knew that we were from the 'group doing that medieval thing at Cooper's lake and camping' so why did he prescribe drugs that make a person incredibly sun-sensitive - and thank all of you who told me horror stories about what happened to you when you went out into the sun - and needed to be stored at 62-78 degrees? Yeah, yeah, so it was probably the best drug for the infection, but still... 62-78? I couldn't even put it in a cooler on ice! Thank goodness for the communications equipment and its need for air conditioning.)
We saw our Eldest the first night after he arrived (and ran into old friends while delivering his camping gear) and go together with him and a few campmmates for an evening of Losing Loadum during War Week... that was fun. So was dinner at Drea & Calli's camp, even if I was already a Grumpy Goose by then. We didn't see much of the Eldest after that... I had to remind myself that he is 31 years old and has better things to do at Pennsic than hang out with his momma! But I think I may have worn out the ear of our Youngest with phone calls as my empty-nest syndrome kicked in. It couldn't be that I missed him a bit, right?
I did make it to Khan's Court, where I was given custody of Stormbrew, the twin of the Pennsic War Drinking Horn, for the next year. Those of you in Atlantia will see it, as I've been charged with taking it to events and gathering stories for it until next Pennsic. It was gifted to the Great Dark Horde many years ago... I need to get THAT story so I can start filling out the new history-book that Mistress Rowena made for it. (You should see that book. I thought she'd bought it from Barnes & Nobles, but no - she made it in the bookbinding class that was offered onsite. Wow. Pictures will probably follow.)
Packout was made easier by Ivarr and Zackory coming to help. We packed out wet, though, and had to set all the tents up again here at home. Shawn's wall tent, which Zack was using down at Pandora's Box camp, was filthy... rain,soggy ground, and trees are not-so-good for poor little canvas tents. It needed scrubbing.
Me, I'm washing everything made of cloth... our house smells of super-heated damp fabric going to mildew, thanks to the final weekend.
