Arontius of Bygelswade

.....It was something of a long week, or actually several long weeks. Three days off. And a sleep-in tomorrow morning. Although I know how that's going to work. :-) The internal alarm is going to ring at about 5AM and I will feel compelled to get out of bed. Maybe I'll try to stay up for a while and go to bed late. It might help a little.

.....Sat for the enhanced driver's license today. It was an hour and a half wait. Which I suppose if better than the two hour possible wait time that was being advertised on the web-site. I'm glad I took off from work a little early this afternoon. But I certainly wasn't alone in that regard. Looks like quite a few people were making it a four day weekend.

.....Picture on the temporary license again looks amazingly like my brother. With the exception that this time I was trying to focus on the mark the photographer was vaguely pointing out. All I could see without my glasses on was several big dark blurs. I started laughing as I was trying to squint and see whatever she was pointing towards.

.....License is supposed to arrive in anywhere from two to four weeks. Would be nice if it arrived before we took off for Kingdom A&S / Bardic in Canada.

.....We need a new vacuum cleaner. Argh! Thankfully, there aren't many carpets anymore. But after about ten minutes of pushing our current cleaner over the carpet in the Computer Room, I finally came to the conclusion that I was just wasting the electricity in making the beater bar rotate. I could have moved more dirt around the carpet with a pair of tweezers. I ended up taking a broom to the carpet and working at it until the carpet at least looked relatively clean. Several weeks of accumulated stuff was put away and the Computer Room looks almost habitable again.

.....If anyone is getting rid of a vacuum cleaner that has another year or so of life on it, let us know.

.....Took some time to do some research on an item being judged at KBC. The title of the presentation is 'English Bagpipe'. I thought that seemed a little open ended when I saw it, so I pulled out my own reference books on musical instruments. Talk about open ended! During period, there were dozens of different species of bagpipes being played in England. Several different regions even had their own versions. There were single reeds, double reeds. Some made from wood, bone and metal, in various combinations. Some with single drones and some with multiple drones. The combinations were many. And it was easy to see that the sounds being produced would sound remarkably different depending upon which one was being played.

.....Was curious, so I went over to YouTube to listen to some. But that is always a dangerous proposition. Many of the bagpipes described from period are that only, written descriptions. Some with pictures and / or engravings. There are many with no extant versions available for study at all. So, the bottom line is that a lot of what we're hearing on YouTube is speculative. Maybe good speculation, but still just that.

.....Even keeping that in mind it was remarkable to hear the variations in sound in the various reproductions. Some louder or softer. Some woodier than others. Some sounding close to the Shawm they represent, with that really buzzy sound. Some much smoother and closer to a single pipe in nature. It was interesting.

.....It'll be really interesting to hear the 'English Bagpipes' played at KBC and hear the background. Especially whether or not it is based on an extant instrument, or built off a studied supposition. That experimental archaeology at work. :-)

.....A friend of mine at work sent me an article of a new pepper being produced that is the hottest grown yet. Just the descriptions alone are pretty awful. Sent it on to Renart and suggested more peppers for the green house. :-) He came right back and suggested I contribute to the seed fund. Hmmm, may have to think about that one if it gets me some cool peppers to try out next year.

.....TBT would like to go to the Quilt Show tomorrow. I kept meaning to ask Talia if she has something on display, or if she was planning on going at all. We still have her prize from the Baronial Bardic Championship to give to her.

.....Musing over other things to do this weekend, but I think that I'll go and read something cheap and light for a while. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.