What I Did On My Summer Vacation, Part 3

[jducoeur]

Monday was the first opportunity to fight, in the third bridge battle, but we decided to give it a miss for a couple of reasons. First and most importantly, lucianus1 had been badly hit by the heat -- the first week had by all accounts sucked severely in the temperature department, and he wasn't up for constructing all the ammo yet. Second was a more personal reason: I was pretty sure that my helmet wasn't going to pass armor inspection yet, and needed to deal with that first.

That project was really the only thing I accomplished on Monday. I spent a while wandering around slightly lost -- I was looking for Budgardr, which I knew was "behind Enchanted Ground", but the latter had moved a block or so since the last time I was there. (Which may well have been eight years ago.) After a fair amount of casting around, finding that far too many encampments have yellow cords around them, and eventually getting directions, I managed to find Fritz. He looked at the helm a bit skeptically (I got the impression that he wasn't entirely happy to be confronted with his 21-year-old work), then pulled out a few tools and adjusted the bars appropriately. (All the while explaining other ways it could be fixed with simple tools on hand. I always marvel at his Macguyver-esque ability to come up with a dozen solutions for any problem.)

The rest of the afternoon was mostly my annual lesson in hydration. I know deep down that I need to hydrate a lot more at Pennsic, but it usually takes one miserable day to shift my habits over. So I largely sat around and attempted to keep my mild heat exhaustion from turning into anything serious.

Dinner was Snooty Food, the Sequel. Lochleven had invited ICOD over for dinner, and set up actual tables and chairs for everyone -- it was almost eerily organized-looking. The food was basic, but the desserts were, if anything, even fancier than the night before.


Tuesday was the first genuinely busy day. Project number 1 was armor inspection. Knowing that it had failed in a number of ways when I got authorized, I figured I had better deal with that early. I was pleased to come very close to passing, but found that the helm still wouldn't pass -- Fritz had fixed the out-of-alignment bar that I knew about, but another one was apparently also a bit off. Fortunately, the marshals were reasonable: they pointed me at a hammer, and told me that they'd pass it if I could get it adjusted properly, which I did and they did. They still made faces at it, though. The helm was quite decent when I got it, but armor standards have changed over the years, and it now passes only within the finest of tolerances. The message was quite clear: "This is legal, so we'll pass it, but we don't like it. Please get a new one."

lucianus1 and I then spent the next few hours making arrows. (Having discovered that they now require all combat archery equipment to be inspected the day *before* the battle, we had motivation to get done immediately.) SCA combat arrows turn out to be straightforward to make, but not quite as easy as they look. Each arrow requires about eight separate steps, some of them a little persnickety, so we set up a little assembly line, gradually shifting down the steps until we wound up with a couple of dozen arrows each. Not much to look at, but the marshals apparently thought they were well-constructed, so we were all set and ready for battle tomorrow.

After lunch came my first class of the week: teaching Barriera with ladysprite. This is a dance that we've been doing in Accademia for a couple of years now, and it's become something of a favorite of mine. She taught the steps (which she's generally doing rather more precisely than me at this point) and I focused on the choreography. The class seemed to go quite well, with a dozen or so students apparently picking the dance up fairly smoothly, and we received a number of compliments afterwards.

From there, I dashed off to my next class, Laugh and Lie Down. This is a light little fishing card game that I teach from time to time. Got about ten students, and we had fun playing that for the next hour.

Then ladysprite came by again (now completely regarbed for one of lakshmi_amman's Indian dance performances), and we wandered off in search of a belt. I've never given any of my apprentices a green belt before -- I'd simply never gotten into the habit -- but she had expressed some interest in one, so I decided to do so. I have to admit, giving a formal badge of the relationship is pretty neat; I'll have to give that some thought for the future. (I also have to remember the penalty of waiting to do something at Pennsic. By the time we got there, the only belts they had left were about five feet long, which was a bit comical. But they happily cut it down to a more appropriate length, so she got an extra belt out of the deal.)

In the evening, we spent a while hanging out at Moomba, then wandered down to the Pennsic Ball. I was a bit tired, so didn't do as much dancing as usual, but it was still a fun evening out and chatting with friends.

Comments

Budgardr

[cellio]

I got a bit of a giggle when I visited Budgardr. I knew approximately where they were, but hadn't yet spotted them when I hear the unmistakable sound of a wood lathe. That told me exactly where to go. :-)

[keshwyn]

I got the impression that he wasn't entirely happy to be confronted with his 21-year-old work

It's like code. You come back to it years later and go, "-What- was I -thinking-?!"

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Except you don't usually leave comments in helmets. I can only imagine that makes it worse...

[kfitzwarin.livejournal.com]

Several years ago I returned to one of the merchants with a piece of his older work that had taken some damage over the years. He offered me $100 off any of his then-current stock if I would only promise never to wear the old piece again. If the helm is the one I'm thinking of, this might fall into the same category.

[jducoeur]

... right, you *have* known me long enough to remember this helm, haven't you? It's possible that you're thinking of the right one.

The reaction wasn't *quite* that strong, and honestly, *I* still like the helm. (Now that I've cleaned off 20 years of accumulated duct tape and gunk.) But he grumbled about the construction of the rear of the helm, although he admitted that the bars looked like his work.

I'll probably be retiring it anyway. The marshals spent a good two minutes going over the bars with the 1-inch gauge, convincing themselves that they couldn't *quite* force it through. It was a nice helm at the time (when the bar spacing was supposed to be 1.25 inches), and it had a well-deserved reputation as the most overengineered scout helm in the history of Pennsic. But there isn't really a good use for it under modern rules...

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

This reminds me that I want to discuss the workings of the whole peer/apprentice/protege thing with you, and also reminds me that I have an email lurking in my Saved box from last year to the effect (if I recall correctly without looking it up) that I was supposed to remind you about you or Mara possibly teaching a class on such.

Of course I would see that email AFTER the Scola schedule is filled up (especially yours).

[jducoeur]

Well, it sounds like there is enough interest for a special evening session just on that subject. You might want to coordinate with Kali on it...

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

When you say evening session, I presume you mean not at the Scola. Something at MIT or similar could work (to harken back to the boroughs meeting, while having it at someone's house would undoubtedly be easier, I don't think it'll have the audience appeal it needs).

I wonder if there's enough interest in this or that topic, generally, to start a series of once a month newbie-ish workshops... the fealty thing, the periodic tunic-making session...

[dreda.livejournal.com]

I think that's a fine idea (she says, looking at her already ridiculous fall calendar...) I love salons, but they are a little...abstruse, and it might be handy to have some regular entry-level kind of thing. Hmm...

[jducoeur]

A definite possibility. Indeed, it wouldn't surprise me if doing it as a series got more interest in *all* of them. Of course, scheduling would be a pain, but it always is...