Thoughts

We're home from Pennsic.

I have not had a Pennsic that was so difficult ever, in the 29 years I have been attending. I'd agreed to be a deputy to a department head, who is already overwhelmed with life and on top of that had their son & family coming for a first-ever visit with their grandchild while staying in their camp... and they are the camp master, to add to their stress. They're also a micro-manager who does not believe in training their subordinates and responds to every question or suggestion with a loud and public diatribe about why the speaker is wrong. We bled out volunteers as if we had a cardiac wound. Extensive training-from-below was applied by me, discussions held with their direct superior to reinforce "volunteer management advice" and I bit the inside of my cheek so much I ended up with a cold sore in the raw area.

"How bad was it?" you ask.

I worked 20 hours straight on Landgrab Friday because I was unsuccessful in pinning them down on forming a schedule in advance when only they and I could be in charge of a shift and the department had to be open for 38 hours straight. Then when they came to relieve me so I could finally rest they let me know that they'd need to be relieved soon because they spent their sleep hours working on the infrastructure in their camp and "missed their window for sleeping".

I made it to bed around 5am (was relieved on Saturday at 4am), falling asleep in a closed tent which roasted in 91-degree (f) weather and woke up to heat exhaustion around noon, woozy and weak. Had to phone my husband to come take care of me because I could not stand without aid... he opened up all the sides of the tent for air flow, force fed me water and juice, trained two fans on me, and stayed with me until my temperature went back to normal, then went back to the department we'd been working in to continue the work he'd been doing there since 8am. I saw him again when I returned to the department around six in the evening and we both worked until it closed that night at 10pm.

That was just day One and a half.

We didn't have time to cook any food. Everything was grab-and-go or purchased from a food vendor. We didn't have time to help our camp set up hardly at all, or to assist at tear down. We didn't see a battle, a class, a show, a party, someone else's camp, our friends, or the merchant area except for one hour the day after our department closed down. (I got to see Kendrick which was a treat.) I never set foot in the Cooper's store - I hear that the upgrades are fabulous. I look forward to seeing them next year.

I got heat exhaustion twice. And retained so much water that I had to buy men's extra wide shoes to make it through the second week because I'd damaged one little toe from jamming my feet into shoes that were too tight. We thought I might have broken it. Oh - and had a UTI to boot.

One night I posted something on Facebook about how sad I was that a camp I knew well had six parking tickets (between two couples) and that meant that they'd lost their seniority on their block - and was immediately attacked by members of the unnamed camp for "betraying them" (of course I had not named anyone or the camp) and "owed [this ticketed couple] and [that other ticketed couple] a public apology as well as one to the whole group for not acting like a Peer and attacking them in public..." I just set the post to "private" so I could save it should the offended parties try to do more than merely backstab me now that we're back from the event. I'm still a little at a loss how I'm the bad guy for mentioning a camp losing their block seniority in a post explaining why I was sad that day while the ticketed folks have become my poor viciously benighted victims. They are, of course, blameless and what I was posting about "never happened". My spouse asked me why I'd posted - why did I let myself care about what they do to themselves? He is right, so I've set myself a new rule - ignore the group. Disengage from any interaction and from their FB page and put myself in the mental space of noting but not speaking about anything the group does. I'd been heading that way over the last year anyway and this just put the nail in the coffin of an already dead relationship.

Nonetheless, and barring all of that, friends did stop in to say hi while we were working, and we had little moments of joy when they did even though we were usually too busy to talk for more than a couple of minutes. One person volunteered at my department specifically to spend some time chatting with me between duties. It was lovely to catch up with her. She's grown up so much! I've known her since she was a senior in High School and now her children are almost all out of High School. Towards the end of the event, there were more people allowed to be in charge of a shift and I even got a whole day off to go into town and do laundry and shopping. My spouse had to work though. That was tiring in its own way, but I felt a lightness of freedom too. One friend brought a sample of her cooking to me to taste - beans cooked in bacon fat with onions and garlic, spiced with a mix of herbs and spices she'd bought at Aunty Arwen's. That friend cooks over a fire every year and tries to eat what her persona would have eaten. And she brought it to me in an adorable little cast-iron pot that had been enameled on the inside and had a wooden lid. Hers is enameled in red but I could only find it in black - I'm going to get me one of those pots! It is just the right size for one person or two not-so-hungry ones. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KBY4RCF/ref=ox_sc_act_image_2?smid=A1TWYVWG4QDVKK&psc=1

Before Pennsic I was asked if I'd be willing to take on getting new walls for our camp's giant ger and I agreed. The old walls had been thrown away (without anyone being consulted) because "they take up too much room in storage" so I searched for a useable alternative and found seven-foot-long fabric shower curtains with a repeating design on them. Folks in the household threw money at me until we could buy as many as we needed. They look like a Persian interpretation of Mongolian art. The curtains are lightweight and pack down into a tiny pile. They are polyester so will age over time but we can replace them at need or maybe someone will make real walls someday. In the meanwhile they worked very well and looked pretty, too. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09DB17DG1?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details


We also brought "sheep walls" from home, three-foot-long panels that we'd made for the Great Dark Horde encampment for War of the Wings long ago. A long-ago Autocrat had decreed just two weeks before the event that every camp was to "be completely encircled with sheet walls" but they'd typo'd and had written "sheep walls". So of course our quickly-thrown-together walls featured sheep of all varieties. At Pennsic we've been using them to hide a big plastic sink at the top of our camp but this year we learned that our regular walls had gone walkabout, so the sheep walls were press-ganged into being camp walls. We have a long boundary at the foot of a hill that we don't normally wall off, not having enough red & black panels to use. We made it into a clothesline this year but weren't really thrilled with it. I'm going to make more of those sheep walls, as are some of my household members, and we'll run the sheep walls along that boundary. Lots of people walk along that block edge as it is beside a road leading from the Bog and lakeside areas. I think the walls will entertain some of the children who make that hike.

Day four of the caging snow. It is actually more dangerous on the roads right now than it was yesterday. Most of the roads are coated with snow packed down to ice, with high-edged ruts or piled snow along the edges blocking access to the drains. We ventured out to make a grocery run and saw quite a few accidents during our 12-mile round trip. Most dangerous are the drivers in trucks with empty beds or lightweight top-heavy SUVs who were travelling on partially-cleared 4-laned roads while driving in excess of 50mph - those were city roads with random stop lights and lanes suddenly covered in white ice. Idiots.

Also idiotic is the mindset which causes men (it seems to always be men) to insist on backing into a clear driveway from an ice-packed road with three cars parked at the curb across the street... luckily one of the neighbors my husband blocked from reaching his home had about ten pounds of road salt in the back of his SUV, which he shared with Bossman so between that and the backing/forwarding rocking of the truck the hubster finally got our extra long truck away from being a total roadblock. I was scared to death he was going to hit one of our neighbor's cars - the truck was skewing (!) sideways in the road and getting its self more horizontal to the road than before. I have never seen my man take such a risk just to have the nose of the truck pointed toward the street in our driveway. We rarely put the truck in the driveway as it requires our across-the-street neighbor to have an empty curb in order for us to even pull out. Having his vehicle stuck at the curb and all that rutted icepack on the road - - I have no idea what my guy was thinking. We have a Ford 250 with a six foot bed. It isn't short from bumper to bumper, nearly as long as the road is wide.. Neither is it lightweight. There was burning rubber involved and a lot of adrenaline as he spun the tires, burning through the ice to the bare pavement. I jumped back about five feet (and nearly landed on my hinny) when the truck slid sideways towards me the first time - and then he did it repeatedly afterwards until he got traction. Good gravy that was alarming.

Schools are out tomorrow, still. And likely the next day. The city is basically paralyzed until the snow melts more, with the road crews unable to even plow our main roads much less the vast tracks of neighborhood ones.

There is going to be a heck of a lot of potholes to repair this spring. But we've four days of daytime temps being above freezing and rain coming on the warmest days so hopefully by the end of the week we'll see mostly-clear roads.

The end of the week is when our local area is hosting Kingdom 12thNight. The organizer has pulled out all stops in getting everyone she knows to do her a favor in running something for the event. We are filling every available room in the convention areas, which take up two floors of the building. There is one restaurant on the bottom floor. We've just learned this is important, because she held back on the information that non-staying guests will not be allowed to bring in any foods, beverages, or alcohols, so luncheon cannot be a sideboard. We must eat in their restaurant or leave the hotel for a meal. Those of us who are on specialized diets (us diabetics are livid) are scrambling to find workable solutions. Mine is an age-old one. We'll bring a cooler to keep in the car and smuggle our munchies inside. Jerks. I sure as heck am not giving Pat Robinson's foundation $15-20 (or more) for a hotel lunch. And I've publically asked how this policy will affect those of us who are giving food items as gifts.

My Khanate (a small unit of members of the Dark Horde) is running a gaming room for the event. We'll offer period games - board, dice, and cards - during the day and open the room for both modern and period ones once court starts. I have no difficulties keeping the game room open during court as I, as are many Atlantians, are attempting to have the least amount of contact with Atlantia's current monarchs as we can. This way we will provide a comfortable space for those who would otherwise feel that they might as well leave the event at that point. We were going to keep the gaming open for the duration of the event since there is dancing after feast, but with the news about the food/drink situation, we'll likely fold up when feast begins.

And before that, I need to get a muslin cut out and tailored into a decent del and then make the del, or I'll be the only member of my Khanate who is not dressed in a Mongolian style. And I'm the Tarkhan, the head of the khanate! Dels have been a running sore spot for me since I joined the Horde years ago, as big bosoms and bathrobe-lapping tunics are not friendly. There is always some sort of gap to flash a bra at others no matter how I cut it in a period-correct manner. My co-sufferers just pin theirs to keep the gap closed but it looks like crud that way and I refuse to do it. I had one del that worked but it only did that because I sewed the flaps to each other from the inside and had to take it on and off by pulling it over my head. The side ties were just for show. I really need to experiment and get one draped correctly.

The problem with 'feeling better' is that one's brain starts to write cheques that one's body (or time) cannot cash.

For instance, I'm cooking for 14 or so people in a 5-day camp next month and (cheque written) need at least two new tunics or gowns. It finally occurred to me that while I have a perfectly acceptable sleeveless surcote-styled apron, what I don't have is but one gown and one tunic whose sleeves can be rolled up to stay out of dishwater or flour in a bowl. Oops. And all of my tunics are linen, nice enough that I'd rather not chance staining them while spending each day in the kitchen. So I must sew myself some new garb. I have piles of fabric in my craft room that are in the 'need to use up' category of cotton so I think a few kitchen tunics which can later be donated to Gold Key as "Men's tunics" are the ticket. They will be plain as all-get-out but sturdily made. Because I have so much free time between now and then...

I'm mulling over side dishes for the event. We will have two evenings with everyone onsite so one will feature Rolled Thin Pancakes (a Chinese/Mongolian 14th century dish) along with ham lumpia, the modern descendent of RTP. I've never served either of these with sauces or side dishes but wonder if I should. Usually people just stuff themselves until they look at the next batch with horrified longing. So maybe those don't need side dishes. But the next meal will be a selection of sausages the men (it's mostly men) can grill over my little tripod campfire while they are hanging out after the fighting and archery sessions and I should have something to go with those. I have one diabetic besides myself to consider but I think that I'll do something specific for us two and for everyone else try something like mashed parsnips & carrots with cheese. I don't know. Got a suggestion for something I can take along which won't require too much cooler space? My cooler use is going to be awful!

And there is the painting of 22 new sheet walls, three hanging baskets to fix the chains on so they can actually hang (I've not much hand strength so this is in fact a chore), a kitchen layout to map so this year's try will not be as chaotic as last year's, a hangerroc to finish hand-sewing, and things that have slipped my mind right now but which will surge back as soon as I am laying in bed trying to sleep again.

I haven't ridden my sweet trike yet. A tropical storm followed by the flu has set that back. I can't wait to get on it now. Maybe this evening after the heat of the day passes. Until then it will be the last of my camp wall sewing, a mountain of laundry, and writing my after-Pennsic deputy mayor report. Oh - and checking out amazon prime for a solar phone charger. Gotta get that charger. Oh, and get to the commissary for this week's food supplies.

I have acquired more stuff. On Friday we travelled to a Sam's Club out of our area so I could get a shiny red tricycle rather than the shiny gold ones available at our local store. Yeah, we checked out regular bike shops first but the price difference for the rather boring and mundane model that I wanted was huge - I'm not ready to spend a minimum for $500 for a bike when I don't even know for sure that riding it is going to be something I can maintain! So - shiny red bike came home in a box. Sunday morning, after he woke up and saw that I was desperately fighting to get to sleep, my man waited until I'd succeeded and built the bike on his own, letting me sleep for eight hours rather than waking me up to be a part of the Trike Building Team. There is now a long scratch through the paint on the support leading up to the handlebars - and I don't care. Because he sunburned the heck out of himself and sweated a few pounds, too, so I could have my new toy for this week's increase in my physical activity plan. I'll get some car paint to dab onto the scratch marks. Or maybe just by some reflective paint and decorate right over it.

Riding a trike is weird. You can't lean into a turn. In fact leaning seems to be counter-productive, as it misaligns the rider to the bike frame. That is going to take some getting used to and will likely impact any decision about buying a regular bike down the line.

I've been researching headlights and tail lights. I already know that I will most likely be riding during the night so those are quite important. I don't know how it is in your area but my little corner of suburbia has few sidewalks, if any, and we are legally required to ride out bikes on the roads... where reckless drivers can ram us on their own terms. Or so it seems. Which is one reason why I'd rather ride at night - fewer cars on the roads and bright lights on my trike will make me far more visible than I shall be during daylight cruising beside parked cars and trailers on the sides of the roads.

I am not actually required to buy a helmet. My own doctor told me that I needn't, pointing out that since helmets are normally worn to protect a rider from damage while falling and the likelihood of falling off of a tricycle is about 5%, it is not necessary for me to wear one. (He said that if I were to be riding and fall because I'd been struck by a car, then there would be a lot more to worry about than head injury. Likely he is right about that but the cautious part of me is still looking at a helmet. If I can wade through all of the ones offered online. Good gravy! It is worse than porn!

Saturday we delivered the small fridge to its new owners and came home with my 15K89 Singer sewing machine. Which does not have an operator's manual online. I shall have to use the 'generic' 15K manual. Oh, and it does come with a case. So this is what I've got now.


I haven't tried to use it yet and likely won't until I get the 22 sheet walls for our GDH camp perimeter sewn and painted. Or at least as painted as they are going to be by mid-October.

Okay, so I made a new one. At some point I should makes something a little more classical in its depiction of sheep, but for now this one amuses me.

Wow, what a nice weekend... I spent most of Friday sewing a new cote for a friend who's on the King's Guard - his "real" cote is all hand sewn (and didn't the blanket stitching along the raw edges of the cloth where his buttons & buttonholes are going to be placed take me for freakin' EVER!) - *ahem* anyway, I had enough cloth left to make him a second cote so I did although it took 13 pieces of cloth to create enough whole fabric to make his final sleeve. The temptation to leave it off and tell him the story of the Princess and her 7 brothers was hard to resist. So I had the hubby, who was traveling to Crown Tourney with the guy, hovering above me at the kitchen table while I sewed and edged as fast as I could (I have now learned that a G-63 takes me about 7 hours to sew if I only handfinish the parts that will be seen). And then the pressure was off. I called my PT tech and canceled therapy that day, which earned me a precious extra hour-and-a-half just in travel time. So I did my exercises, resisted the urge to call her and tell her I really did just finish them, and then took a nice nap (while washing my traveling clothes, of course, which I'd finally thought about locating). Got up, packed, and out of here in less than 30 minutes only to walk into the nastiest weather I've seen in a while. The rain was not too bad, in amount, it was the wind and gusts blowing the rain horizontal that sucked mightily. Driving was a challenge and crossing the high spots in the freeway overpasses (and the long drive above the water of the bay) was really, um, interesting. I made a game of counting how many phones I saw dropped as drivers had to use both hands and how many elbows went horizontal as folks clutched their steering wheel (you can see a lot through the back window of the car in front of you). But past Williamsburg, the rain and the wind went bye-bye and the driving conditions were just as I love them - a clear night with a dry road. Very nice. Seven Nations and John Cougar Mellencamp were in my CD pile so that's what I sang along with (I'm silly enough of about driving that I change out CDs only when the car isn't moving... my arms don't reach far enough to do that and keep good control on the road. This means that I'll be hearing the same album for at least one repeat so I have to really *like* it to bring it along for the drive.) John Denver and Jimmy Buffet stayed home this trip...


So I made it to where ever it is that Magnus and Michalena live ("just go to one o'clock on the Beltway and take exit 25...") and snuggled in with good friends. Michalena looks really good - her new hair color is startling only when you really think about it. Otherwise, it fits her so well that I didn't notice it wasn't natural. As in "this color found in nature" natural. She's a lot more relaxed and smiling than I remember too. That was grand. Breakfast the next day was grand. I don't do breakfast, normally, but I'd be a rare fool to pass up handmade apple sausages and pancakes. Then we were off to the GDH meeting, which was carried on with the style only my Brothers do well, and then we stormed an unsuspecting Chinese Buffet (okay, so we called ahead and warned them. Sheesh. We're Mongols, but not barbarians!) and back to the house for w-a-y too much fun chattering. I have never had a chance to really sit and talk with Ro (Mistress Rowena, past Society A&S Officer) for more than a few minutes... that evening we talked so long that I didn't leave Herdon until long after midnight (others talked too, but them I knew!) thanks to her stories, and Chon's, Chimbai's, Master Thomas'.


The drive home was another clear and dry one so I celebrated by buying a banana moon pie in Williamsburg and eating it before reaching Norfolk. (Actually, it's one of my strategies for a sugar-boost if I'm getting sleepy and am close to the end... a little sugar goes a long way when you don't normally eat it. Especially when combined with caffeine.) Then my blessed waterbed welcomed me (the cat didn't) and I was oblivious to everything for about 10 hours...


Shawn, through his room-mate, took me and Arni out to eat at the Outback for Mother's Day. It was weird but nice. Weird only because his roommate used to be a friend of ours (he's about 10 or 11 years younger than me) and now he's my son's friend and treats me like "the mother of my buddy" - which drives me crazy and leaves me unsure of how to react. I'm quite sure that my initial - and squashed - reaction of anger isn't the best one. The guy is old enough to be my kid's dad, for pity sakes, so the changed status from "member of the household/friend of equality" to "son's buddy and guy who assumes he's in charge of my kid's world" is, well, insulting to me, but not something I can explain to him (or anyone else) well enough to illustrate the reason. And it isn't meant in an icky way or anything - he's spent the best part of three years hanging out with young folks who are starting life - it's the environment he's grown accustomed to, while we've suffered a serious burnout and have reduced our circle of friends and activities. So really, Arn and I during the week are pretty boring - we don't play video games, go to every movie as soon as it's out, or hang out in pool halls... (I do remember those days. Boy, was I young.) But it really, really, bothers me when he assumes finaicial responsibility for my son (Shawn's new job hasn't lasted long enough for the first paycheck - you know the "three week" beginning pay gap). It *really* bothers me. It smacks of the manipulative things some acquantainces used to do to non-verbally show me that WE weren't good parents and so THEY would take care of our poor, poor, mistreated son... Thank goodness this will pass as soon as Shawn is settled in his new job and won't need the temporary boost. I'm really proud of that boy-man and of how well he handled his firing/job search... I've seen too many folks fall into such a depression that they just wouldn't look for a job, but he didn't and he handled life so gracefully that most folks didn't really notice he was unemployed. He's done a damned fine job of gowing up.


Zack called from Las Vegas and wished me a happy day and wanted to know if I liked my package. It hasn't arrived yet, so I have something to look forward to. Two somethings - the package opening and then the phone call to say thank you.


It's all good.


I found that not only am I moving better thanks to the PT, but I'm losing weight again - probably as a result of being able to move and do things. My activity level has really increased and I'm celebrating a new "hey I can do that!" surprise nearly every day. That can continue for a long, long, time. I'm liking it.


Humility chewed me out when I got home on Sunday morning (is 4:30pm "morning" or "night" if one hasn't slept yet?) but she's since decided I need remedial cat/human training and has been taking me in paw every few hours to coach me through petting and grooming sessions. I can't change locations in the house without bringing the furbrush with me. Heh.