Arontius of Bygelswade

.....The drive in to work this morning was much different than it was during the last 'snow storm'. It was wet and viscous this time. I think if it was a choice between the two I would prefer the hard-packed and frozen version of snowed roads as it 'stays put' for the most part when driving over it. The wet snow seems to want to 'help' your car move into unexpected directions.

.....We had about six to eight inches on Fairgrounds Road. The Shipyard was officially operating on a normal day schedule. Although it was interesting as the power went out sometime last night around 2AM. At 4AM my eyes popped open and I got right out of bed without even thinking about it. I clued into the fact there was no power about a minute later. Then walked into the computer room to pick up my watch and verify the time. Yup, 4:02AM. :-)

.....No shower this morning. Sigh! Took me a while to get assembled in the dark though. Hit the road at about 5AM. Suzie was again a trooper on the roads. Although she did slide a bit. I got a scare coming up the hill over Fairgrounds onto Waaga. Somebody in a subcompact could not get the traction necessary to get off of a side street and onto Fairgrounds. I was headed up the hill and was scared they were going to pull in front of me and I was going to have to stop. That would have been bad as I don't know how easy it would have been to get started again.

.....The rest of the drive into the garage was uneventful. The rain was coming down hard already. I bet the snow is gone by noon. Meant a soggy walk in from the garage though. My feet were soaked by the time I made it to my desk.

.....I was not impressed by the response of the road clearing crews in Kitsap County. We pay more in property taxes than they do in Seattle and I don't see the return for value in the form of services. Our infrastructure sucks. Our libraries and emergency services need as many volunteers to fill their ranks as they have paid members and constantly begging for money. Our homeless rely on charities almost alone for any food and housing they receive. Sigh! I'm not sure if I'm turning conservative in my old age or what.

.....I hope the snow goes away by noon. Tonight is Druim Doineann's Business Meeting. Sophia is stepping down as their Seneschale and Ivan is stepping up. They have a lot to discuss. Sophia mentioned anything from branch dissolution to hiatus to leaving things the status quo. We could help but we dare not do too much. We've been accused of meddling in the past and need to wait until specifically asked. Which is frustrating as we're a Barony of 'fixers' and 'doers'. Standing by and waiting to be asked to do something is not our style. But in some situations you have to do just that.

.....I'm thinking good thoughts for them and hoping for the best. I would be sad to see a branch go away. Even into hiatus. I remember when Silverthorn dissolved with all of their big dreams of expansion and new directions. I think they finally disappeared a year later. I know the situations are much different. But once you go down the path of hiatus or dissolution, it's hard to come back.

.....Sir Brendan and Mistress Aryana were at Fight Practice last night! They are really nice people. Even after I failed to recognize them AT ALL until they introduced themselves. I was mightily embarrassed. :-) He brought another fighter with him and they wanted to get re-authorized. We made sure he received an invitation to the next indoor fight practice at the Manchester Fuel Depot. If he could come to even just a couple it would be a fantastic learning opportunity for our fighters in the Barony!

.....Mistress Aryana is no slouch either. We were discussing what Druim Doineann could do to help itself and she offered many good opinions. She dived right into a myriad of topics and knew items of interest in everything we brought up. And was a welcome addition to the conversation. I hope the both of them come and play with us.

.....For the rest of this week: nothing tonight (yeah, I can get caught up in e-mail); Thursday is a Dragon's Pearl meeting; Friday is the Western Regional Pelican Meeting in Tacoma (agenda out, check; must send out reminders by Thursday); Saturday is free (yeah!!!!); Sunday is a retinue meeting; Monday is a holiday (yeah!!!).

.....Gots lots to talk about but never seem to think of Live Journal until just before bed and when I seem to fall asleep just as the screen comes to life. I should think about ways of becoming more disciplined about writing in the journal. Hmmm...

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....It was my first Saturday in a while where I didn't have to be anywhere. As well as the only free one for a handful to follow. And do you think I could actually sleep in? Naw, I woke up at 4:30 and finally stopped trying about 5:30. :-)

.....I was able to take off from work at 2:30 and ran to the theatre to meet TBT and the Rhys Monster so we could watch Harry Potter. The movie was not bad. It was long though, but there were a lot of details and backgrounds missing. I could see the logic behind some of it, but the details really become important to the end game. So it will be interesting to see exactly how the movie wraps up next July. I suppose that it is hard to get all of the details on to the movie screen. But I was a little surprised in that most of the previous movies were very faithful to the books they were following, even down to a lot of the details. This one not so much so. More liberties were taken.

.....Makes it sound like I hated it, which I didn't. It was actually enjoyable.

.....Looking forward to 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' next month though. The previews look pretty good. Although it is evident that the story line has changed, so we'll see.

.....Still trying to get my brain wrapped around a 'to-do' list for the weekend. But brainstorming:

* A couple of circlets.
* Grind and paint bell (and ask Eleanor if I can borrow her tripod for Yule Feast).
* Clean computer room, bedroom and bathroom.
* Transfer files to portable hard drive in preparation to wipe computer.
* Block out ceremonials for Yule and chart out day.
* Ensure that we have completed ceremonials for Championship and remaining fealty groups.
* Outline Sargeantry and talk to various people to join discussion group.
* Do laundry.
* Take Mom shopping and help with a few chores.
* Deposit Crier checks and update records.
* Look at e-reader.
* Review 'to-do' list for upcoming weeks and update.

.....That's enough for one weekend I think. How much of it will I actually get done? I have no clue. :-) The nice thing is that next weekend is a four day holiday. I'm looking forward to it. Then in four weeks and a little change will be Christmas vacation. Nearly three weeks of must leave to use! I'm salivating at the thought. :-)

.....When we come back to work in January there will be a few changes to work through. The former Big Boss will be gone for real. It's not like he has been involved much in our daily lives lately, but the presence is still felt in a big way. I've passed him a good half-dozen times over the past handful of weeks. It's been interesting. They've been variations of what happened the week before last. I was sitting at a desk in the Admin. Building, talking to the Resource Manager, when he walked on by. I tensed up immediately, expecting some stinging comment or command. It was one of those weird scenes where something horrible is about to happen and time just seems to slow down as you witness every detail. In this case though, he saw me and looked for a few seconds. It looked like he was trying to recall what my name was. He then continued walking and didn't say a thing. At first I felt a great deal of relief. Then I was rather angry. How could someone that evil, who had caused so much agony for four long years, be so casual and non-chalant. Finally, I just laughed. Both at the fact that I had such a strong reaction, then because of the fact that he had already erased me so completely from his life. I'm just glad that I will not be part of his life anymore starting in January. :-)

.....We asked OPG to let us have Port Gamble for July Coronation next year. They came back and formally said no. I was a little surprised. They've never said no completely to us in the past. But then came the real answer. All three days that weekend are booked solid with weddings. Each of those weddings brings in a minimum of $3,500. That's a lot of money when compared to the scope of what we bring to town for the weekend, how much space we take, and how little we pay them in comparison to the amount of territory and support we take up. But what it means to us is that we're looking through alternatives. I've got an application at the Fairgrounds and feelers out to at least one other location. Oliver has a site or two to check out and Jahnkin is going to see what he can stir up with the local military installations. Doesn't look all that great at the moment though.

.....I wonder if we're going to see snow this weekend? The weather reporters are showing snow up in Bellingham and they are talking snow for down here later tomorrow. I could be driving through the snow on Monday on the way into work.

.....Dusty Strings sent me their latest e-mail sales brochure. There was a picture of the last Harp Symposium there. And in the back row of the class was Master Connor from Three Mountains. :-) I'm going to have to grab that picture and send it to him. Just looking at the Class Agenda was making me wish I had the time and the funds to go some time. Looks like a lot of fun.

.....Angharad is going a good job at promoting bardic activities again. I keep wanting to pull out my recorder and / or gemshorn and play some music. I wonder if there would be enough interest to form a regular consort of some type. Would be a lot of fun to have at least a mini-concert at Candlemas. :-)

.....I know I'm getting old now. Was in Safeway a few days ago and I was absent-mindedly humming along with the elevator music that the store was piping over the intercom. I was paying close attention to it at first. Then all of a sudden I stopped short when it percolated into my brain just what was playing. It was Guns 'n Roses, 'sWeet Child O' Mine', set to elevator music! Oh, Wow! I had to laugh! This was hard rock much that I remember vividly from my early twenties. This was stuff I remember hearing at ten million decibels rocking out at the King Dome in Seattle (and not being able to hear for a week afterwards). Amazing! :-) I wonder if Axl Rose was embarrassed at all when he signed for the release that allowed this to happen. Although, you know, it didn't sound that bad for elevator music. :-)

.....Enough randomness for the time being I guess.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....I was watching the news on the Tele. this morning and listening to the radio, and to hear them one would think that there are monster snow drifts and cars scattered everywhere. I can't speak to other parts of the state, but here in Kitsap County things were rather disappointing. :-) There was a dusting of snow on the streets but nothing major, and a totally uneventful ride into work. Which is probably a good thing.

.....Last night, I put out a notice on the Baronial E-List concerning the upcoming Background Checks to be done in support of those who deal in Youth Related Activities in the SCA. I woke up this morning to some volunteers, a few good questions, and then an e-mail that really made me scratch my head and go 'Huh?' The SCA may be looking out for itself in implementing this plan, but you know, I don't think that it is wrong to interpret this as an attempt by Society to actually protect the Youth population from people who might prey on Youth. Maybe I'm going out on a limb by saying that, but I think that it is a pretty safe interpretation. Just sayin' I put that e-mail aside to re-read tonight when I get home. Maybe I just mis-interpreted it.

.....Then I get another e-mail that had nothing at all to do with the Youth Background check, it had to do with June Faire. You know, June Faire is going to happen. It may look a little different. Heck, it may look a lot different. But panicking over it isn't going to solve anything. Port Gamble is considering this as an event that IS going to happen. I am confident that they will work with us to make June Faire happen. I doubt very much that they are going to wait until May to tell us to go and find a new site. Maybe we ought to, like, give them a chance? Just a thought...

.....Sigh! O.K. I'm done whining now. Time to get to work.

.....Arontius / Aaron.

.....I love watching the snow fall from my living room window. With a soy chai tee and a full set of candles in the fireplace. I should probably just go ahead and start a fire in there, I think that I've got a bundle of wood around here somewhere. Or maybe I'll just watch the snow fall some more... :-)