Pennsic Saturday 2006-08-12
I've just had a shower, and I always feel better after a shower.
We got on the road very late Friday, and it was after midnight when we got to Cooper's lake and checked in through troll. And of course we still needed to unload the van and set up camp - in the dark. It's good to be familiar with your tent. It was also rather chilly last night (and again tonight), especially after the near-record heat scarcely a week ago. After all that we parked farther away than we ever have before (which is to be expected for arriving so late), made more exciting because some of the parking is hilly and the grass was dewey and slippery - at one point the van slid down an aisle of parking, all 4 wheels locked, parked cars not so far from us, none of this in our control - and we had a long walk back to our camp.
So, not that much sleep last night. Not much sleep the night before either, with packing and late preparations. I didn't even look at the class schedule until this morning, and there was still so much that needed doing with our campsite that I decided not to try for any classes today. We wanted to get the reflective tarp up over the tent to keep it cooler (when the sun's up) and drier (when the rain's up - which it is at some point quite reliably every Pennsic). The tarp didn't quite work the way it did at home. I think it would have been better to put the tarp up before the tent, but our arrival dictated otherwise. The tarp is providing cover for the tent and for all our stuff that doesn't fit in the tent with us. (I think we're going to get a much bigger tent for the future....)
[There's people going by now singing the Monty-Python Spam chorus, only the words are "beer", and there's no melodic content.]
Pennsic Choir rehearsal was good. The group seems small, but there will probably still be people arriving for the next couple of days. Everything we worked on today sounded better than I expected, and a couple of the short easier pieces were almost ready for public consumption right off the bat. One of the basses prepared MP3 files of everything this year, and maybe that helped people learn the notes on their own. There's still the vagaries of Latin, Spanish, Castillian, and Portuguese pronunciations to deal with, but we're off to a very good start. (The concert's Thursday night.) And our pitch did not drift. That thrills me no end. Pre-war registrations were very short on basses, but that's improved too. (Still far more women than men, but it's workable.)
We're part of the Caer Edgemere meal plan this year, and dinner was a delicious pork roast (apparently cooked to blackened in some kind of salad dressing). Flavorful (garlic/cheese?) mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, and okra with tomatoes. Breakfast was pancakes and sausage. Quite a good deal for $6/day.
And so now to bed before 22:00. Tired.