Series by Pugilist
Pennsic Day By Day
Friday July 24
I took the day off from work to pack and rest and make certain everything was good for a 1:00 AM departure to put me on site in time to register and be part of land grab. Good plan. But then I finished my packing and such early and decided, hmmmmmm. Maybe I have time to make the video I've been meaning to do for the last six month. I didn't want to wait until the last minute after all.
So I did.
Around 1:00 PM I set up my camera in the backyard and walked through the two (2) forms I had designed and gave an introduction to my stick philosophy and then walked through the basic moves I'd be covering at Pennsic. It did not go horribly and I even managed to throw in some play time with the stick to show the application of speed and inertia with the basic and advanced moves. All in all a good time and a successful creation. I used my OEM software to stitch it all into a video with a menu and fades and all that jazz. It's not great but it's good enough for now.
Now comes the burning part and at 20 minutes a DVD, this consumes a lot of time so I only got a few done before I needed to take a nap in order to make the 5.5 hour drive safely. I hit the rack at 8:00 PM with a sandwich and a beer and some movie I'd seen several times before and was asleep in a matter of minutes
Saturday July 25
The alarm starts cranking at midnight and I get up, still a tad tired, set the coffee to brew, make a quick sweep around the house, let my son Gareth know we'll be leaving in 45 minutes, hit the shower, blah, blah, blah, pull out on time. My first stop is work. I'd left my cell phone at work on Thursday and my brother needed me to print something out, so stop by the office around 1:30, grab my phone, make sure everything is good, print out the things for my brother, forget to print out a master copy of my material for my bo staff class, and hit the road around 1:45.
I've made the drive before so I know where I am going but I have this fancy in-dash GPS and I love it for time management. I punch up the address, hit, the "shortest" option, and this thing has me traveling one of the most bizarre routes imaginable. It wants me to go from West Chester to Allentown and then to Pittsburgh.
No.
I keep expecting it to auto-correct one I am on the turnpike and it keeps wanting me to exit the turnpike and go to Allentown.
About 3:00 in the morning I realize what's going on. When I'd made my last trip to Tennessee my satellite radio stations and clock all reset and I remember when I set my preferences for the navigation system it defaulted to the option to avoid toll roads. I use Easy-Pass so toll roads are my very best friends. Once I reset my preferences, the recalculated route gave me the time management I wanted and I could vary my stops to arrive on-site at 7:30 AM, plenty of time to get checked in before land grad and help strike the tent my brother had used.
Land grab went without incident and I broke out the camp plan I'd done last year to explain how we might go from a four (4) day setup to a two and a half (2 1/2) day setup. By nightfall on Saturday, despite on-and-off rain, we had the entertainment (40x20) kitchen, (20x20) Armour (20x20), three (3) stall shower (20x30), and storage (10X20) tents up and most of the plumbing done, sans the sink because we did not have the right piping.
We did our beer and ice run and had dinner and bedded down on cots in the entertainment and armour tents.
Sunday July 26
Better weather and more work. Today is personal setup day so personal tents go up and get filled out and we make a town run for supplies. We also get the fire pit dug and make a wood run and generally fill out the camp fairly well. Still more work to be done but camp, she is looking good. I fix the broken drain pipe and re-configure the sink piping for simplicity, split hoses, etc and we have hot and cold running water to the kitsch, a showers still in operation, a sink outside the showers for shaving and washing, and a center table in the kitchen to serve as an island and prep area. We've laid the kitchen out differently this year and it seems to be working pretty well.
Monday, July 27
General camp work in the morning, cleaning up, getting things moved around, but for all intents and purposes we are done. We dig post holes for armour stands and our sign, we place torches around, finish filling out the kitchen, etc. but it all goes fairly quick and we are done with it around 1:00 PM. We spend the next three (3 hours) "prepping" for a town run. By prepping I mean waiting for my brother to finish talking and fiddling around camp. This is a precursor to the town run and convinces me that for now on I meet my brother in town so I can leave when I am finished. I need to go into town to pick up items for the cooler drain system I've designed. Well, designed is a strong word since it consists of PVC pipe and hose. Coolers must be drained from time to time to dispense of the water that spoils food and causes the ice to melt faster and I have never liked the "drag coolers out of the kitchen when we have to and dump the water." I need to be in town for an hour, with travel time that should mean no more than two (2) hours. We spend eight (8). Most of that time is spent waiting and I hate waiting.
Tuesday, July 28
I install the drain system for the coolers and all the folks who had wondered why I was bothering start to see the benefits. I finish this early and Gareth and I hit Merchant's Row to take a gander at what's available to part us with our cash. We pick up a few things to flesh out his wardrobe, spend some time with my niece and a friend of hers at the Beast and Boar, pick up some items for supper at the produce market, and head back to camp so I can cook dinner. We're having a guest this evening.
Dinner goes well and afterwards we set up the Catan board. Our guest proceeds to dominate the game, even though I tried to steal the Longest Road from him, I managed to do so only for my turn and on his turn he crushed us. We played another game after that but I was tired and took naps between turns. I have the ability to drop of to sleep quickly and wake up fully in an instant and it serves me well at 2:30 in the morning when I know it'll be 20 minutes before I need to do anything.
I lost that game too, but that's fine, I got to go to bed.
Wednesday, July 29
Rain.
It rained all bloody day. The tent Gareth and I are using kept dry and around noon I decided it was time for me to go into town. I'd picked up an external DVD burner but this model needed more consistent power than my car/inverter could provide so I decided to drop by Staples and pay to get DVD copies. They don't do them. Bastiges.
So Gareth and I decided to go to a movie, Harry Potter. It was great, we had fun, we came back to camp. It was still raining. Back to camp to cook dinner, spend s quiet night at camp prepping material for my Thursday class and to bed.
Thursday, July 30
Most of Thursday was spent in preparation of my 3:00 PM Bo/Quarterstaff class. In the morning I puttered around camp doing odd jobs but Gareth and I hit the merchant area around noon, he picked up a sword, and I set up shot in the barn so I could burn some DVDs. The burning part went well enough though the LightScribe labeling thing failed more often than not. That was disappointing.
The class itself was again this year well attended and the materials I brought were insufficient but that's life in the big city. I bring materials for 12 people because even though I'm using $10 practice sticks, it adds up. The class went well with just about everyone there to learn rather than demonstrate to me their own skill level. As is normal for me I executed everything in a very slow speed so as to demonstrate the style and technique. This gives rise to some "hmmm, is he any good?" thought in some students which I let fester until about 15 minutes into the class. I always start the class with some practical items and around 15 minutes into it I add in the presentation aspect. It normally settles folks down.
The class went very well and I sold some of the DVDs and booklets I'd brought along. I'd included them this year since I'd gotten a request to do so last year and had not been prepared. I didn't make a killing at $2 for the booklets and $5 a DVD but it covers my cost and gives folks some options and who knows what'll come out of it later.
Just as the wrap of to my class was winding down it started to rain, again and it continued to rain for the rest of the bloody night.
I understand this is not the wettest Pennsic but it is my wettest Pennsic and I'm thinking a bit more heat and less rain might be more tolerable.
We ended the night with a movie and then back to camp for a game of Catan in which the natural order of the universe was restored when I crushed all competition and emerged the ruler of the known world.
Friday, July 31
Not near as much rain on Friday but a lot of running around. Positives to the whole thing is that my kitchen drain system is working well. Many folks looked askance at me when I had proposed it and even more so when I built it but the consequenses is not that it is valuable and worthwhile. Plus it's reusable from year to year so that is sweet.
We did go grocerying (a real word, just ask me) on Friday and bought a whole lot of food for camp and my brother and I had discussions on portion sizes and food and we bought to his requirements. He is, after all the knight and I his man-at-arms.
Laundry was Friday as well and after all the rain and mud, it was nice to get clean clothes replenished. The annoying thing was that there were no free electrical outlets. It's not surprising as you can never tell what people will do with free power but I would have been happy to pay for metered power just so I could have spent the 3+ hours making DVDs.
Such is life.
Saturday, August 1
What the hell, Peace Week is gone and War Week is starting. Where does the time go?
More arrivals on Saturday and some general camp chores, shopping, lazing about and then the epic Battle of the Chili. My knight, my brother, whom I love and respect, has a different view of portions than I. We both believe it is better to have too much food than too little at a meal, I just believe we are good with 25% more than required while my brother prefers the 100% more model. For the chili we compromised at 150%. Needless to say we will be having chili as a side dish for several nights to come. Chili for lunch, chili for guests, hell; we may even have a chili stand in the merchants’ area, if we can sneak it in.
Sunday, August 2
Wars start tomorrow but for today there is shopping and such to be done as well as walking around and armour repair and Catan games and all that. There is also Grill night.
Grill night has always been a meat heavy affair but as we have two (2) vegetarians in camp we've made some modifications and have steamed vegetables and rice of one sort or another at every meal. We outdid ourselves for Grill night dinner. Steak and chicken and kielbasa and steamed vegetables and spiced rice with vegetables and bread and salad and, of course, chili. It was delicious.
I am a competent cook but the folks on the kitchen staff, with their input and suggestions and willingness to lend a hand, they are who brings it together.
After dinner we had a bit of a sit around the fire and then we broke out the Catan game. I could say that I completely dominated the game and crushed all opposition in the face of constant harassment and attack of the Thief and Pirate and I will because it is true.
Then it was 1:00 AM and I had to get up at 7:00 AM for battles so I went to bed.
Monday, August 3
I am allowed to say "ow."
It was like this. My helm, from my starter set of armour, is fine but I need to re-strap it as the chin strap has gotten iffy over the last 1.5 years of use. Well, it was battle time and I thought I was good but as I charged forward the chin strap popped off followed seconds later with a helm shot from the opposing line (I killed a couple first) that shifted the helm and before I could call it good I got popped another few time by someone else.
As I was walking out someone noted I was bleeding. I mentioned it was incidental. They insisted it was not. So I saw the chiurgian who immediately called the EMS folks who decided I needed to see the doc. I missed the other two battles that morning as I was getting stitches but was back on the field for the afternoon resurrection battle and got more killed than I was killed so it was all good.
The less than good part was that the local anesthetic started to wear off before the doc was done stitching me up but I was on a tight time schedule so I did not mention it. Of all the enjoyable things I have done, stitches in the forehead without a local anesthetic is not one of them. But hey, I'll have a cool scar that was the result of a stupid mistake on my part. I'm hoping the wimmin' folk will concentrate on the scar and not my stupidity.
Jarl Timoch was kind enough to return to camp with me and fix my helm with some pounding and filing and re-padding and I did make it back into the afternoon battles as indicated. Aside from the scar, I also now have a new motto as I get my gear and tabard on. "Blood in front" as my tabard is stained a bit.
Lodge Night was great. It was a little later due to a memorial service but during lodge night my brother took two (2) squires, myself and Nick. Both of us had previously been man-at-arms in his household and while I understand folks may look askance at my brother taking me as a squire, those people are welcome to pound sand. I just don't have the time nor interest to deal with the sensitive nature of some people.
Nick is a great guy, single parent of two 92) daughters, an E-7 "Doc" in the Navy working with the Marines, hard worker, tough fighter, all-around good guy. It was a pleasure working with him during Pennsic and we're planning things for next year when, if we are lucky, there will be a full complement of squires.
Tuesday, August 4
More battling today, and that was great - no further injuries and I got to find out that the work I had done on my shoulder September 2008 has paid off. Well that and the rehab program I instituted once the doc gave me a "no restriction" release. It involved a lot of stretching and range of motion exercises, weight lifting and Bo staff work. I still don't have 100% strength or range of motion back but they are about at 95% for both and the endurance is around the same. What this means is that I'm about 20% - 30% better than I was before the surgery which was evident when I did a quick fore and backhand strike at someone in the melee and knocked them back. Granted, I got clocked about 1.7 seconds later but I had my moment of triumph.
We did a bit of squire and knight work afterwards which was enjoyable but I have to admit I was getting a headache from my helm pressing on the stitches after 4-5 hours and did not do my best. Getting back to camp I had to deal with a family emergency which made me miss my 5:00 PM beginners’ bo-staff class and be off site from around 4:00 PM until 2:00 AM. I was not ecstatic about the issue but obligations must be met in the correct order.
Wednesday, August 5
Up around 8:30, putter around camp, make my apologies, etc and then down to the A&S point to explain the class issue and reschedule and get a Battlefield pass from Public Safety for my Wednesday and rescheduled Thursday classes. No issues with any of them but I did manage to get a parking violation notification before I left camp. When I left site on Tuesday the lots were still restricted, apparently that was cleared up and by Wednesday at 10:20, 5 minutes before I went down to A&S, I was tagged. Some things are worth getting upset about; this was not one of them.
What made the whole thing even better was that I left my medallion in my tent and as I was leaving the site one of the blueshirts wanted to see it. Damn, now I had to go back to camp and I was at the battlefiled already. Nope, I was not allowed to go back to camp, I had to go to troll and get the wristband of forgetfullness. What this allowed me to do, however, was to go to troll, explain the situation, get my band, run my errands, get my battlefield pass, help with the kid's fete, make my DVDs, hit the merchants, then wander back to camp, avoiding blueshirts, in time to get my medallion, drive to the battlefield, close the loop with the kind folks at troll, and teach my class.
The nice thing is that I realized as soon as I was headed to troll that this blueshirt lady who thought she was teaching me a lesson was actually doing me a favour. I did not thank her for it as I am certain she would not have appreciated the situation near as much as I did.
After class I dropped things back at camp, freshened up, and wandered around midnight madness, keeping my tradition of not buying anything. I did see Clan Tynker, which is always a great performance and spectacle. Their showmanship is on par with their level of skill and the combination of the two is incredible. Should the opportunity ever arise to see their acts, do not hesitate to do so.
Thursday, August 6
Woods battle. I bagged the woods battle last year due to a vigil I was standing for now Sir Tyndall. This year I was with my Knight and squire brother and we did a good job of aiding in controlling the battle. I spent most of the battle moving from place to pace along the right flank, providing support and stiffening the line and harrying the enemy. I managed to get popped twice from spear/pole arms and although I never got kills in that battle, each time I got popped it was part of a maneuver that rolled back the enemy line. Someone needed to step up and cause a distraction and I was that someone.
Toward the end of the battle I tried to gather a couple of people to roll the enemy's left flank but just as I got the folks together we got called back. It was disappointing but it was a decisive battle win and folks with whom I was fighting complimented me on discipline and movement.
Perhaps the most interesting moment is the second time I got popped and went to the resurrection point one of the commanders was imploring people to get their helms on and get to the lines so that we would be ready for a sudden charge. I looked around, my head was pounding from the stitches, I was tired, and I shouted out, top of my lungs:
"I am 48 years old; if you are younger than me you should be in front of me!"
Much to the delight of the commanders and several other folks.
I had my rescheduled beginning bo/quarterstaff class to teach at 5:00 PM so once the battle was done we got back to camp and I cleaned up and did some camp chores, prepped a bit for the Hafla, and went off to teach. The class was lightly attended, only about seven (7) or so, but we had a good time and when I got back to camp dinner was nearly over but my squire brother Nick had set aside a plate for me which was greatly appreciated as I was tired.
After dinner we finished preparations for the Hafla and the weather was excellent and the attendance was stellar and Nick and I spent most of the time running around doing minor things in a support role. That was fine as I was tired and when I get tired my social skills, never great, fall away and people wonder how I manage to interact at all. When I've got a job to do, it does not matter how tired I am because I can blame the job for brusque behavior, so having things to do at the Hafla was a relief.
I stayed up too late talking poetry and finally hit the rack around 4:30 AM, the only night I did this year.
Friday, August 7
Up around 9:30 AM, get a cup of tea and some breakfast, decide to skip the Friday battles and start to break camp around 11:00 AM. My main job was to disassemble and pack the kitchen and I am one of those people who like to do things once so it was a matter of people working all around us, wondering how long we would be delaying them and suddenly, when they came to me and said, "we need the kitchen stuff" I pointed to the initial pile of items and before they could load those we'd increased it several fold. We also probably shaved 2-3 hours off of kitchen setup next year just by slimming down outdated and broken supplies and packing things more appropriately.
We also made a running list during breakdown of things we needed for next year, things we'll either bring or buy so there are less annoyances. I've volunteered to run the kitchen again next year and will detail out modifications to the camp setup document I'd put together based on our experiences and suggestions.
We finished breaking camp down by 6:00 PM on Friday. The tent I was using was left up as was my Niece’s tent but we did get the Moose Cave down even though we spent until midnight packing things.
Saturday, August 8
Final stages. I emptied my things out of the tent I was using and made room for it in my car as my brother and knight has given me the use of it for as long as I need. The nice thing about the Regent is that you can put them up and take them down solo. The center pole is an issue on top of a tarp but I have a solution for that, use multiple, smaller, tarps. Firstly they are easier to move around, secondly they provide a better overall ground covering and thirdly there is not as much of a problem when it comes to set up and take down. One thing I will get before I use the tent next is the roof rack for my car so I can put the tent poles on the outside.
We finished final pack-out by 1:00 PM, and hit the road, just in time for the rain. Peace week was a swamp and many folks bagged Pennsic because of it. War week, however, saw decent weather and clear and dry weather for packout which, with canvas, is critical.
It was a great Pennsic and being there for the entire two (2) weeks is the only way to fly. Hell, I filled in as kitchen head and head cook and exchequer and anything else that needed to be done, got stitches and squired and fought in battles and taught classes and had a great and relaxing time.
And next year, things will go even better, because we'll plan even better.
It's what I do, after all.