I'm done with winter

Its not like we get a real winter anyway. What amounts to winter is miserable cold and rain, what kind of winter is that. Lets begin with miserable cold. Miserable because it cannot make up its mind on whether the temp will hover below freezing? Forcing my thin blood to wrap myself in long john's and play the layering game.

Long johns are the greatest of inventions with roots well back to the vikings and beyond. The problem with them, at least for this male, is they tug on my leg hairs. Can you say annoying, its like I am surrounded by 3 year olds who have just declared my leg hairs are worms and MUST BE REMOVED! But I digress, long johns are warm, and required for me when the temp drops below 40 Deg. The other problem with long john's is they work exponentially well at temperatures above 40 deg. So now we start the problem with the typical Florida Panhandle winter. Wake up, check outside to see if it is a cold day. You have to because the day could be as warm as 60 deg. or as cold as 20 deg....in the same week. So, check outside...cold? yes? Don long johns, itch all day because by noon you may also be surrounded in a thin layer of sweat if the temp rises above 40 deg because remember, long johns work exponentially better above 40 deg.

Ok, so you decided to risk wearing long johns even though the temperature is hovering around 35 deg...but its raining the slow drizzling rain of "I am not cold enough to make snow so this is what you get" kind of rain. So now you have to add the waterproof boots because if my feet get wet, no matter how well the day has gone, it just began to suck. I would be a proud supporter of waders if they could figure out how to make the damn shoe wearable. I mean it is rubber, and crocks are rubber, why cant waders fit like crocks....I digress again.

So now the fun begins, I am warm, and dry, and now have to leave the house. In two hours, after stepping in that deeper then expected puddle and spending the morning having the dry foot taunt the other, the sun comes out and it is 60 deg, humidity rises to 90% and the day turn gorgeous except you have one wet booted foot, your sweating your britches off in your long johns and you forgot your full backpack of clothing ranging from a pair of shorts to spare socks, crocks and t-shirt as well as another pair of long johns (in case the weather went the other way) and another jacket to add to the layering.

So have your self, a merry panhandle winter, where you cant tell if it is winter or just summer having a bad day.

New Blog

Well I started a new blog today, the beer blog. i like good beer and I figured blogging about them would be a great way for others to get an idea of the "other" beers available. So enjoy my rants and remember, if I am beer blogging, I have beer...

...and they think I'm crazy!

Jousting, ouch, that looked like it hurt. Well anything that can potentially snatch a fully armored man from his seat on a broad backed steed has to hurt. We have spent the weekend watching thes guys fight, well, run at each other with a stick, and in between their bouts, us scadians have been able to fight and OMG! what a head turner, to quote one person, "these guys [jousters] are bad but you guys are awesome, this is real fighting!" ....what can I say, I get looking at their statue, not much difference from the average scadian fighter, armor? hell i know not only what the peices are called but where and how they attach AND how much protection their full plate really protects. We in our group, no a burly man called Ucla, he is viking and did I mention big? I have seen men take the full brunt of his frontal charge and fair no better or worse then these jousters knocking each other off their horses with sticks.

I have no intention to insult but instead, bring up a point that we, as scadians, are in a real honest to goodness full contact sport and proper armor and training are not only essential, but required. I have heard many others shy away from making themselves a real kit only to substuite something else for it made out of mundane trash or worse, LARP armor. This is real guys and gals, don't skimp on your armor, there are alot of people willing to help you get a kit together but that means commitment, do you have commitment?

Speaking of commitment, I have a date with a pot of coffee and then it is off to the joust!

Scadian Years

I have a thought on scadian years. Much like dog years that people refer to, scadians age at about 5 years to every mundane year, let me explain. Most of us know the first year scadian, by the time they hav spent a year as a scadian, they have a relitive age of a toddler, the second year, that of a 10 year old child and by the 3rd year, they know everything, just like a teenager. By the fourth year they begin to see how the world works and by the fith year, they have as much sense as a 25 year old, old enough to know better but young enough to not care. You can see he pattern here and as the mundane years as a scadian grow, so does the scadian grow so that once you have been in the ranks of the SCA for a decade, you generally have the wisdom and experience of a 50 year old adult who knows very well that life is full of consequences and has the scars to prove it.

This musing brought to you by shear luck

A new way of communicating

I has occoured to me this very morning, just how far apart the human race is becoming with each other yet at the same time so close. Heare I am, reading some news, working on editing a couple videos of my fighting at 12th night when all of a sudden I hear ..blink blink (that is the sound coming from my computer notifying me of an instant message on Yahoo Messenger...I look and who do I see? Well none other then my son. We say our good mornings in real time except he is sitting in CLASS and I am at home with my coffee. No grumpiness, no remarks taken out of context due to a slight fluctuation in tone perceived by the other as insulting, or at least reason for rebuttal. Nope, just a simple typed good morning.

Now I know we are lacking the physical values of face to face communication that limits body actions and therefore removes body language and the others ability (or inability) to properly decipher what is REALLY being said. But is that so bad. I mean, our ability to communicate has expanded and continues to expand while our ability to UNDERSTAND communication has gotten smaller and more simplified. Look at the introduction of smileys in email, why are they there? Simple, to help the reciever understand the mood or emotion behind the text. They have become popular because WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT or emotion behind the statement.

Enough of this musing for the moment, my son just sent me another IM....

Hump Day

Yep, its Wednesday. Last night was a late one, cleaning the shop and doing some remodeling, ended about midnight woke with the sun, I think thats an old person thing, the not sleeping. You might say 6-7 hours sleep is plenty, as it seems to be, but I remember REQUIRING 8-10 hours sleep or I could not function.

I see this same thing in my son, Oshea. He is a sleeper, or an almost vampire. I don't think he could tell you what breakfast is. But I digress. Working in the shop again today, but only sporadically. Intentions were to work in the yard but the rain that showed up is putting a damper on those plans. No bother, too broke to go play and work is slow.

Today I sampled my brews, well, my beer, mead needs ALOT more time, years even. Anyway, I tried the dark first, of course. This is a peat smoked porter that is black, not dark but black, hell the head is the color of light carmel. Taste reall good, but still young. Extremely pleased and will enjoy showing it off at Gulf Wars. The other batch is my India Pale Ale. let me say OMG! This stuff is the bomb, a beautiful dark amber, clear with good head, sweet with no bitter bite I expected for a hoppy beer. So good I had to have a second taste, hence the reason to stretch my back for an hour because it seems both beers are quite big. No I didn't take gravity readings, I dont like to touch my beer when brewing and what comes out is what comes out. But needing to sit for a bit after a small sampeling, I would say they work.

So now the rest of my day...garb creation, no more cheap t-tunics and baggy pants, cotes and gambisons for me, and hosiery too!

Until the next time fingers meet keys!

Armoring

Spent the weekend at Michael Moulton's armoring. Mike and his Lady are fine host and I thank them for their hospitality and Michael for imparting his knowledge in the dying art of Medieval Armoring.

Arriving Friday evening I was immediatly sent to the task of deburing the edges of 18g stainless with my squire brother Seamus and my Knight Syr Raim. Under the watchful eye of Michael we worked a couple hours preparing for a full Saturday. Sleep did not come easy and I awoke as the sun rose eating a hearty breakfast and in the shop by 8am. Over the course of the day I earned a nice blister or two and shed a little blood shaping 2 full arm harness and a half dozen sets of half gauntlets. by evening we were through with the grunt work and welding (Mike is an awesome welder) and slept like a rock that evening after BBQ and deer meatloaf. There is still work to do but the harness is coming along nicely and plan of returning for the final shaping and assembly. Pics are not in any order but we had a blast if you could not tell!

Coffee....yet again

It always seems to start this way, wake up, brush thy teeth, scratch thy head...hunt for coffee. Even the bitter black sludge that found its way into my mug this morning, remnants of a pot left to cook all night, is better then not. Can I survive without coffee (shudders at the thought) of course I could...really, I could. The sludge this morning is coffee-ish, taste like ass if I were to be honest, but it will do until the fresh pot is made, and its cooking now.

I am looking forward to Friday as this seasons archeo field survey class and the mapping of last years field school site in Molino begin. This is possibly one of the oldest sites of habitation in all of North America and was set up as a Spanish Mission for the Apache population surrounding the area of Pensacola and Escambia River basin. I'm excited, as much about getting back out into the field as my new coffee thermos.

Jan 13th 2010

It is early, but not too early. Cold enough for Northwest Florida to keep me inside. I have work to do on the house today so venturing outside is inevitable as I cannot seem to get the house to fix itself. I know I complain about the heat here and yes, 110 deg F is hot, but there is always the pool. Its the shivering that seems to be getting me, the tensing up of muscles in an effort to move blood has an averse reaction onto my mack and if my back goes out, this man is down and unless a Loratab fairy come and visits me, I am horizontal.

Coffee is ready, I will be right back...

Back...coffee, what can i say. I like mine black, I tease "I like my coffee like I like my women, dark and bitter." Might should change that as I am a very monogamous married man and I am not about to call my wife dark OR bitter. I will stick to my coffee. I should change that to "I like my coffee like I like my beer, dark and bitter" as it seems more fitting but just does not get the chuckles like the former. Beer, unlike coffee, is a whole other subject and should not be discussed without one close by to reflect on and being fairly early in the day I will have to broach that on some other blog. But I digress...

Coffee, as one legend has it is attributed to an Israeli goat herder many many years ago who noticed his beast were a little more jovial then normal and found the source is the bean of the coffee plant. What puzzels me is who decided to roast that little pick-me-up bean and pour hot water over its crushed remains. That is were the revolution is, nothing has that taste and while its peppy properties are now required to sustain life in this old shell of mine as opposed to a novel high. If you want to feel the effect of caffeine then try tea.

Tea you say? Yes I say. I was out of coffee a couple weeks ago and taking my wife's advice, I made myself a hot cup of water in my cup and dipped a tea bag in, I like my coffee dark so I used a family size tea bag to darken the amber liquid and give me some pep! For those of you who do not know Tea has MORE caffeine in it then coffee...you didn't know that...lol...neither did I. The tea, well it tasted just like tea, funny thing about that, and it is not like I dislike the taste of tea, I love Iced tea, not sweetened but that is because it taste like water, so as as a coffee replacement, tea will be a failure in my book. So I continued to drink the strong hot tea and within minutes I found myself in the grips of REAL caffeine... bugs in my hair, itching, non stop speech and a weird twitch in my left eye. This was terrible, this was NOT coffee....when I did finally quit twitching I swore never to be lured into the temptation of tea again, for such a frail little leaf it packs a whollop.

So there it is, My first official Blog. Not so bad when enjoyed over coffee, I would fear the results of tea.