See The Dust Gather On The Horizon!

.....It's happening. In about three days now. :-) Can you feel the excitement in the air? The tension building? Do you feel this overwhelming need to throw your arms in the air and flail them like Kermit the Frog?

.....Maybe that's just me. :-)

.....One day of work down. I have my stand-ins all selected and approved. For the most part, there is one left that needs to be indoctrinated. But all the 'go-dos' have been lined up to either finish tomorrow, or wait on the back-burner until next Wednesday when I get back to work. I'm lucky in one regard as this seems to be a rather popular week to take vacation. There are a lot of people away from work, which means many meetings are being postponed until later in the week, next week. I'm good with that.

.....All the supplies have been purchased. I thought I might need some more marking paint. That is, until Jenae texted me and reminded me of the case waiting for me to pick up at their place left over from An Tir / West War. It was good timing on her part and for me as I was going to stop at Lowes on the way home and buy one more case. :-) We might end up needing some more marking paint. We'll see how things go on Thursday. If I have to do so, McClendon's Hardware is about a ten minute drive away in Belfair and I can buy another handful of cans as needed.

.....All of my SCA clothes have been stuffed into Lobelia. But there is a list of stuff that still needs to get packed. We were going to drop off Lobelia at Imperial this evening, but we saw some good prices on batteries at Costco over the weekend. Between that and Imperial telling us that they have no room to store Lobelia even for an extra day, we decided to risk it and just buy two new hotel batteries and install them. I removed the existing ones right after work and put them in TBT's car. She's going to stop at Costco tomorrow and pick up new ones and turn these in for replacement.

.....Ralg said he'd help with the battery selection and installation, so I feel better about making this decision with the least risk. I'm still worried that there is a power drain somewhere that needs to be found by a professional. But the fact that these are about five years old and have sat through several winters all connected, I'm thinking that we've nailed the culprit down fairly well.

.....Not taking Lobelia to Imperial tonight means we'll have to make arrangements to get her and the U-Haul to site on Thursday. I may have TBT be signed on as a driver on Wednesday as well. She can drive the U-Haul and I'll grab Lobelia on Thursday morning.

.....I think tonight, since Lobelia is still here, I'm going to have to pull together some more stuff to put into Lobelia for the weekend. I've got some stuff bags I can pull out for the regular clothing and other soft goods. It's primarily the food-stuff I'm most worried about getting to site and loaded into Lobelia unmolested. Might want to think about some ice as well.

.....What I really need to do, I think, is take a few moments and write out a list of stuff that needs to be done for myself personally to support September Crown. Otherwise I'm grabbing at loose thoughts and not remembering them long enough to make any use of them.

.....Must not forget Madrun's circlet either! It's sitting in the Computer Room right now. This is my reminder to pick it up and put it someplace I will not forget it. Like maybe in Lobelia now.

.....Tomorrow night is the regular Social at the VFW Hall. I need to ask Aileen about her plans for capturing people who camp on Thursday night. She'll have to have at least a book ready to go for them. As well as site tokens. Don't know about the Site Handouts. They get turned in today to Staples for printing from Angharad. They might be on site by Thursday possibly, but I don't know that for sure yet.

.....Also need to ask Aileen about her volunteers for Friday itself. As is usual, much of the volunteer base will be showing up and setting up on Friday, and so will not be available for gate help until later in the day. It could make for a very long day for Aileen if she is stuck at the gate for a fourteen plus hour day! Will have to see what I can do to shore that up a bit.

.....Most of the questions coming my way seem to be relatively simple at the moment. I've told several dozen people now that there will be drinking water on site. That seems to be an anxious point for a number of people. Having food vendors on site seems to be a hot topic as well. That one is a little surprising as there have not been that many food vendors at Crown Events lately. At least not what I remember. I don't think there were any at July Coronation. The one food vendor at May Crown was part of the Fairgrounds holding the event. September Crown last year did not have any food vendors as I recall. I wonder if the Airport Diner across the street is going to be packed at times with hungry SCA people? They've been warned. :-)

.....The other big question is a 'Day Trip Fee'. Because of the expenses involved we really had to say no to a reduced day trip fee. Many people have been surprised by that. But consider the costs involved. It was $4,000 just in site rental alone. It is not cheap holding events in Kitsap County!

.....Still need to see about a roving patrol of Peers and Peer-Like Object (PLO's) to put their eyeballs on people partying over the weekend and give them the 'an adult is watching you' look from time to time. It generally works well in moderating parties that seem to be getting loud or crazy. We don't need people being any more silly than normal at this site. Especially when we'll be in such close quarters.

.....Also need to talk about radio channels. Team Haggis III will be on a general radio channel for the weekend. But I may end up carrying a second radio to listen in to the camping coordination on Friday. I also need to gently let the Team know that they should consider having a second radio for personal conversations. Some joking and nonsense is fine and helps break up the tension. But I'm not sure everyone really wants to know what TBT and I are going to do for dinner that evening. :-)

.....Have to make sure that my emergency contact list is in order. I have my instructions and address ready for instant clarification. But need to know who my direct contacts are in the Police Department and Fire Department are. I know they reviewed our site plans and know we'll be at Norseland all this weekend as they reviewed and bought off on the Special Event Application. But when I received the license to actually hold the event, they didn't give me that information. I need to make some phone calls tomorrow.

.....Also need to call Hemley's and Hall's Hauling one last time to make sure we're on the same page for deliveries of dumpster and Biffies this week to site. No frantic calls to them on Friday wondering where in the world they are.

.....Time to get moving.

.....Aaron / Arontius.