13 years later
I’m freezing my ball off right now. Hard to believe it was warm enough this weekend that I am sunburned. Bah.
Ymir was a lot of fun, with some minor and major irritations. You never want to hear “Sir, do you have any weapons in the vehicle?” as the first words coming out of a cops mouth. More on that in a bit.
Friday night, I kissed the wife and kidling goodbye and got on the road. I had an uneventful trip down and finished up the first half of “The Greatest Knight” a books-on-tape novel about the life of William Marshall. I really enjoyed listening to this (Thanks WT!) and I think I will purchase the actual book so I can finish it. My only frustrations are that in knowing the story as well as I do I had several moments where I was like “But you left out the best line!!! Argh!!!!’ Oh well. I understand artistic license and all. If she just wanted to copy Duby, Painter, Howden, etc. she could have done that. I have no issues with the romantic/sex stuff put in either, because it’s a novel and there has to be love interest of some type I guess, and frankly I’d rather they be women if given the choice. (Don’t get me started on the modern ‘scholarly’ bullshit about Richard I being gay….)
Anyway, I knew that there were cops all over the place and that US 58 is a speed trap so I set the cruise and carefully drove down. Listened to some “Geeky White Boy” music and enjoyed myself.
Even though this event site has been used several times, this was the first time I have been there. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though the architecture is AWFUL. Ugh. Plus whoever designed the stairs to the upstairs of the cabins needs a swift kick in the taint. It’s nice and toasty up there though.
Anyway, Les helped me get settled in and then I changed and eventually went down to the vigil site. Even though Alaric let me sneak in early (I hope we were amusing and helpful to Theron) I ended up staying up way too late just chatting with friends I haven’t seen since before Gracie was born. At one point I realized “Why the hell am I still here? I can’t feel my toes!!!” Sadly, my blue Please Touch Pottery Mug shattered when it tumbled off a bench and rolled down the causeway to hit some stone steps. Drank out of it anyway, until Lywr gave me a mug to use. Red Wine does strange stuff to me. And what the hell does ol’ Darkness have in that Flask of his anyway? Yum.
Saturday morning came too early but I managed to get a good breakfast in at the Roanwulfe Café before we went down to the field. I got dressed and packed up some bedding and then came back down to wait for the knighting. I got to see a lot of folks I haven’t seen in a while which was very nice, and chatted with Mathlide (first time I think we have done that face to face).
Everything ran late at this event, which was the major bummer of the day. The knighting was at least an hour late getting started. I was asked to speak about the “Lance of Truth”. I stumbled a little with it, not really being prepared but I think I did ok. I was trying to be brief, but I hope I got the message across. I only choked up when the belt was put on, so no crying pictures of me like at Justus’s knighting. Anyway, afterwards we had this giant chiv meeting (35 knights there! I counted! Wow!) where we basically discussed Face Thrusts and the end result is that we will be going back to the standard of “Positive Force” that I grew up with. Thank God for that. But then we had to tell all the fighters about it. And Val took a squire. And we had authorizations. It took FOREVER to get started.
Now I know that Baron Gaston reads this list, and I am not calling him out or chastising him or anything like that. I know that a lot of times with a big tourney that things get out of your control very fast and scheduling can be a bitch. So I’m not harshing on you G, I’m just relaying my thoughts on what happened. I was discussing how to do Sapphire this year and we were thinking about going back to a simple double elim., but after this weekend I am going to have to think about that.
Anyway, I was announced as the very first fight of the first list announced. That fight lasted about 45 seconds or so, and then I sat and waited to fight for 45 minutes. That pattern would repeat, with longer fights, for the rest of the day. We had 96 fighters which were split into 3 perfect 32 man lists. The top two would advance and HM would invite two more to get 8 fighters for the final rounds. The problem was that we only had one list field to run all 32 fighters through, so the first couple of rounds were brutal. You fought and then you got cold. I’m sure the later rounds sped up a bit but I can’t comment on those. I only went 2-2, but had some really good fights. I faced Humphrey, Sir Daemon, Sir Theodric (Middle - dammit! I beat him twice at Candlemas! I guess he got his Win back on me! ), and His Highness Sinclair. To tell the truth I was grateful when His Highness hit me. I was very tired of waiting around to fight and I knew I could go do pickups.
The best part of my day was hanging out with Gunnar Redboar, a chivalrous gentleman of the Middle that came down as part of a huge (like 12-15 guys) contingent from the Mid-realm. We got some pickups and some training in and I really enjoyed that little part of my day. Those midrealm guys sure do dress purty. Another highlight for me was meeting and getting to talk to so many newcomers. I really enjoyed that and I look forward to doing that in the future.
Afterwards I caught the end of the tourney and then started dressing down. I checked with His Majesty and due to everything running late, He decided to cancel the evening Chivalry meeting. While I was very grateful for this as it meant I could get on the road, it is a shame that with all those knights there we couldn’t meet to talk about something more than face thrusts. I had a productive, if frustrating talk with someone I need to talk to, and then got pack up and left the site by 6:30pm.
Unfortunately I had forgotten to eat anything after the tourney, and of course, I don’t eat when I fight. So my blood sugar had crashed. I drove down to Eden and stuffed my face with Arby’s. Then I gassed up and got a bunch of sugar and caffeine and hit the road.
Somewhere outside of Danville I made a wrong turn, and being male I refused to just stop and ask for help. All in all I was lost for an hour before I got back onto 58 to get home. Danville just seems to go on for miles and miles when all you want to see is a sign that points home to Richmond.
Anyway, between spotty cell coverage and my phone dying from the strain of that I talked to Kim and a couple of folks to help stay awake. During one of those calls I was crossing this bridge from somewhere else into Mecklenburg County. One side of the bridge the speed is 65. On the other it is 55. I had my cruise set to 70 and didn’t see the sign. Blue lights flashed on the undercover SUV that pulled me and I ended up getting a ticket. My sob story didn’t matter a bit. But he did slowly circle the car with his flashlight and the first words out of his mouth were “Sir, do you have any weapons in the vehicle?” To which, having been in this situation before on the way home from an event I replied “No, there are no weapons in this vehicle.” He said “Well I just asked because you have all that stuff in the back there…” “I assure you there are no weapons in this vehicle.”
Ugh. Luckily he let it go at that and just gave me the ticket. I told him I was trying to get home to a sick 4 month old and had been lost in Danville for an hour (both true) and that I didn’t see the speed change and had been using cruise, but he didn’t care. I was just another quota. It’s been a while since I got a ticket, and I was told (Skorri? Little help…) that I can do an on-line driving course to counter the points increase…
Anyway, I got home in one piece thankfully and crashed.
Sunday was a lazy day of lounging around until the big wind started up. We kept power but F came over to finish cooking some chickens for Winter Tidings, since he had lost power. We did Mexican for dinner and later after the MiL got home I got some good Daughter time with Grace.
The only bad news and I will preface this by saying that I know God loves me, and watches my back, of Sunday is that we had a 20 foot limb come down in the backyard and land across the back fence. So I know what I am doing this weekend. (Though my chainsaw is busted I think I can borrow another). The good news is that this thing felt and missed the Pennsic trailer by about 2 feet. Which, when it comes to trees fallings, is like 2 inches. Whew.
Anyway, that is the Ymir Report. Now leave me alone. I am going to stomp around the office until the blood returns to my toes.
Ymir was a lot of fun, with some minor and major irritations. You never want to hear “Sir, do you have any weapons in the vehicle?” as the first words coming out of a cops mouth. More on that in a bit.
Friday night, I kissed the wife and kidling goodbye and got on the road. I had an uneventful trip down and finished up the first half of “The Greatest Knight” a books-on-tape novel about the life of William Marshall. I really enjoyed listening to this (Thanks WT!) and I think I will purchase the actual book so I can finish it. My only frustrations are that in knowing the story as well as I do I had several moments where I was like “But you left out the best line!!! Argh!!!!’ Oh well. I understand artistic license and all. If she just wanted to copy Duby, Painter, Howden, etc. she could have done that. I have no issues with the romantic/sex stuff put in either, because it’s a novel and there has to be love interest of some type I guess, and frankly I’d rather they be women if given the choice. (Don’t get me started on the modern ‘scholarly’ bullshit about Richard I being gay….)
Anyway, I knew that there were cops all over the place and that US 58 is a speed trap so I set the cruise and carefully drove down. Listened to some “Geeky White Boy” music and enjoyed myself.
Even though this event site has been used several times, this was the first time I have been there. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though the architecture is AWFUL. Ugh. Plus whoever designed the stairs to the upstairs of the cabins needs a swift kick in the taint. It’s nice and toasty up there though.
Anyway, Les helped me get settled in and then I changed and eventually went down to the vigil site. Even though Alaric let me sneak in early (I hope we were amusing and helpful to Theron) I ended up staying up way too late just chatting with friends I haven’t seen since before Gracie was born. At one point I realized “Why the hell am I still here? I can’t feel my toes!!!” Sadly, my blue Please Touch Pottery Mug shattered when it tumbled off a bench and rolled down the causeway to hit some stone steps. Drank out of it anyway, until Lywr gave me a mug to use. Red Wine does strange stuff to me. And what the hell does ol’ Darkness have in that Flask of his anyway? Yum.
Saturday morning came too early but I managed to get a good breakfast in at the Roanwulfe Café before we went down to the field. I got dressed and packed up some bedding and then came back down to wait for the knighting. I got to see a lot of folks I haven’t seen in a while which was very nice, and chatted with Mathlide (first time I think we have done that face to face).
Everything ran late at this event, which was the major bummer of the day. The knighting was at least an hour late getting started. I was asked to speak about the “Lance of Truth”. I stumbled a little with it, not really being prepared but I think I did ok. I was trying to be brief, but I hope I got the message across. I only choked up when the belt was put on, so no crying pictures of me like at Justus’s knighting. Anyway, afterwards we had this giant chiv meeting (35 knights there! I counted! Wow!) where we basically discussed Face Thrusts and the end result is that we will be going back to the standard of “Positive Force” that I grew up with. Thank God for that. But then we had to tell all the fighters about it. And Val took a squire. And we had authorizations. It took FOREVER to get started.
Now I know that Baron Gaston reads this list, and I am not calling him out or chastising him or anything like that. I know that a lot of times with a big tourney that things get out of your control very fast and scheduling can be a bitch. So I’m not harshing on you G, I’m just relaying my thoughts on what happened. I was discussing how to do Sapphire this year and we were thinking about going back to a simple double elim., but after this weekend I am going to have to think about that.
Anyway, I was announced as the very first fight of the first list announced. That fight lasted about 45 seconds or so, and then I sat and waited to fight for 45 minutes. That pattern would repeat, with longer fights, for the rest of the day. We had 96 fighters which were split into 3 perfect 32 man lists. The top two would advance and HM would invite two more to get 8 fighters for the final rounds. The problem was that we only had one list field to run all 32 fighters through, so the first couple of rounds were brutal. You fought and then you got cold. I’m sure the later rounds sped up a bit but I can’t comment on those. I only went 2-2, but had some really good fights. I faced Humphrey, Sir Daemon, Sir Theodric (Middle - dammit! I beat him twice at Candlemas! I guess he got his Win back on me! ), and His Highness Sinclair. To tell the truth I was grateful when His Highness hit me. I was very tired of waiting around to fight and I knew I could go do pickups.
The best part of my day was hanging out with Gunnar Redboar, a chivalrous gentleman of the Middle that came down as part of a huge (like 12-15 guys) contingent from the Mid-realm. We got some pickups and some training in and I really enjoyed that little part of my day. Those midrealm guys sure do dress purty. Another highlight for me was meeting and getting to talk to so many newcomers. I really enjoyed that and I look forward to doing that in the future.
Afterwards I caught the end of the tourney and then started dressing down. I checked with His Majesty and due to everything running late, He decided to cancel the evening Chivalry meeting. While I was very grateful for this as it meant I could get on the road, it is a shame that with all those knights there we couldn’t meet to talk about something more than face thrusts. I had a productive, if frustrating talk with someone I need to talk to, and then got pack up and left the site by 6:30pm.
Unfortunately I had forgotten to eat anything after the tourney, and of course, I don’t eat when I fight. So my blood sugar had crashed. I drove down to Eden and stuffed my face with Arby’s. Then I gassed up and got a bunch of sugar and caffeine and hit the road.
Somewhere outside of Danville I made a wrong turn, and being male I refused to just stop and ask for help. All in all I was lost for an hour before I got back onto 58 to get home. Danville just seems to go on for miles and miles when all you want to see is a sign that points home to Richmond.
Anyway, between spotty cell coverage and my phone dying from the strain of that I talked to Kim and a couple of folks to help stay awake. During one of those calls I was crossing this bridge from somewhere else into Mecklenburg County. One side of the bridge the speed is 65. On the other it is 55. I had my cruise set to 70 and didn’t see the sign. Blue lights flashed on the undercover SUV that pulled me and I ended up getting a ticket. My sob story didn’t matter a bit. But he did slowly circle the car with his flashlight and the first words out of his mouth were “Sir, do you have any weapons in the vehicle?” To which, having been in this situation before on the way home from an event I replied “No, there are no weapons in this vehicle.” He said “Well I just asked because you have all that stuff in the back there…” “I assure you there are no weapons in this vehicle.”
Ugh. Luckily he let it go at that and just gave me the ticket. I told him I was trying to get home to a sick 4 month old and had been lost in Danville for an hour (both true) and that I didn’t see the speed change and had been using cruise, but he didn’t care. I was just another quota. It’s been a while since I got a ticket, and I was told (Skorri? Little help…) that I can do an on-line driving course to counter the points increase…
Anyway, I got home in one piece thankfully and crashed.
Sunday was a lazy day of lounging around until the big wind started up. We kept power but F came over to finish cooking some chickens for Winter Tidings, since he had lost power. We did Mexican for dinner and later after the MiL got home I got some good Daughter time with Grace.
The only bad news and I will preface this by saying that I know God loves me, and watches my back, of Sunday is that we had a 20 foot limb come down in the backyard and land across the back fence. So I know what I am doing this weekend. (Though my chainsaw is busted I think I can borrow another). The good news is that this thing felt and missed the Pennsic trailer by about 2 feet. Which, when it comes to trees fallings, is like 2 inches. Whew.
Anyway, that is the Ymir Report. Now leave me alone. I am going to stomp around the office until the blood returns to my toes.