My Wednesday Night.

.....It still feels strange not to be processing hundreds of e-mails on July Coronation. :-) But it feels good to be able to slow down a bit and just take things easy for a change. Only a handful of message, mainly dealing with Lost and Found items. For some reason people left behind a lot more stuff then normal at J.C. The Constabulary might pull in some good money just off of this event alone at their yearly Lost-and-Found Auction next year.

.....Started work on taking back control of the jungle last night. Pulled out the hedge trimmer. The battery was dead so it is recharging for tonight's attack. But didn't let that stop me, I went ahead and started pulling weeds and dead plants from the side yard next to the driveway.

.....Tonight the hedges are mine!!! They are going to look bare and ugly by the time I get done with them, but it will only be a temporary thing until some new buds grow in. It is really hard to kill this hedge. I can see why the owners had juniper planted below them. It was the only thing keeping them in check from expanding like kudzu. I hate juniper though, so it went early and now the hedges are working their way out into the road. I think the neighbors are starting to fret. :-)

.....Putting notes together for the final July Coronation report. We did pretty good in income and attendance. Aelianora is still working up the numbers. But we had over 1200 people come in through gate. We grossed somewhere over $18,000. I'm pretty sure that includes merchant fees and pre-registration, but Aelianora will tell me for sure. But this really makes me feel better. Before the event I was worried enough about our expenses that I decided to pick up the cost of the scooter and half of the rented house myself. But I feel no qualms now about folding those expenses back into J.C. Especially considering how handy both items were to the event.

.....OMG, the scooter made such a big difference to how well J.C. ran. At the typical Port Gamble event, I'm usually exhausted half way through Friday with my dozenth or so trip up Eric Hill. With the scooter you can zip around everywhere and get errands done, supplies delivered, people dropped off, and still have the energy to think and do other things. The scooter is the way to go for any event at Port Gamble. I think that it should be come an automatic expense, like the U-Haul, for any large event held there.

.....It'll be interesting to see how the June Faire board shakes out for 2007. I would like to keep my same position as Marketplace Liaison, if only to shepherd the Marketplace through its first 'Juried' Selection Process. I'm very interested in developing the process and making it work. I'd also like to make up for the mistake I made this year in trying to put too many merchants on the hill. The merchants are a very fickle lot. I barely survived this year with my scalp intact. :-)

.....But at this time their are no candidates willing to take on Chairman of the June Faire Board. It is a difficult job and the Customary says that you either have to have been a member of the board in the past or have autocrated June Faire sometime in the past. That definitely narrows the playing field. We'll see. Since J.C. was successful, maybe that'll inspire a few people to step forward.

.....One thing that very much surprised me at July Coronation was Sir Daniel. He did spend all the time that he promised he would at Gold Key. But what surprised me was how much attention he gave to those of the Modern World who wanted to know something about the SCA. He was very informative and objective to a large degree. And took a real interest in answering all questions put to him. I was impressed. He came across to me much differently than he does on the e-mail lists. I may not agree with Sir Daniel on many issues (well, let's be honest, on most issues :-)), but I think that in his own unique way he cares about what happens to the SCA as much as any of the rest of us. What a concept!

.....Ruminating on what to do next. There is a lot to consider. But I'm going to enjoy doing nothing as long as I can do so. But the Tolkien Word Battle and the Sonnet Battle are beginning to loom large in my thoughts. Need to engage the brain in that direction.

.....Hope everyone has a good day. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.