The Heat

Camping in the heat and humidity for some people is shorts, swimming,  hikes and fires with marshmallows at night.   When a person camps while at a medieval event when the heat is in the upper 90's and the humidity is thick enough that it can be seen in the air and felt with every breath it is still an outfit from a the times of long gowns and long sleeves.  So tonight I am more hot and sweaty than usual and hoping to sleep well despite that.

Other than the heat and feeling of melting the day went well.   Tomorrow when I am home I plan to write a bit about the event and post some pictures.   My happy for today was watching Gideon play with people around our campsite.   He had a blast mispronouncing words with one person and trying to do sudoku with another.  Another happy is listening to various bardic circles as I fall asleep.

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Battery dying

Just a happy because my cell phone is almost dead.  My happy for today is that this is a great event, much fun is happening and a very deserving person has been entered into the Order of the Pelican.

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First Day 50th

The SCA group that I am a part of has been around for 50 years.  This weekend there is an event celebrating this anniversary.  My friend and I arrived onsite this morning and found the allotted land.  It is not square but rectangular so my mapping from yesterday needed adjusting.   There is also an electrical pole in the middle of it.  I can work with these things.  The weather has been a mixture of rain,  overcast,  sun and wind.  While putting up our nylon yurt it started to rain.  We thought it would be a quick shower like the last.   It was not,  the tent was soaking wet inside when the rain stopped and we got the tent up.

My happy for today is that the tent got dry with some work and is set up and ready for sleep.  Pictures when there is wifi.

Good night
Peace

Tent mapping

Someday I will get this right and take notes on what I want to write about during the day so when I sit down, the mind doesn't go blank.  Someday pigs will fly too!  😉  It has been a very busy day filled with doctor visits, shopping, packing and cooking.  Well, for me, mostly packing and shopping, my daughter got the rest.  I also planned out, as best I could, the tent map for the event coming up.  It is my responsibility to figure the best way for the tents to fit into the spot of land we have been allotted.  I tried using a program that was recommended but failed in learning how to use it in 10 minutes (I could have tried harder) so I went to Google Drawings, which I had used before.  After getting that almost done I made a change that basically changed the scale of the 'land'.  Unfortunately, it didn't change the 'tent' drawings on the 'land' and I had no idea what the scale was to start, my mistake.   Anyhow, from there I drew them out on graph paper and did it old school with scissors and glue.  It will all change when we get there and find out that we have more or less land than we thought or the angle of the corner isn't what it looks like or some such.  That may all sound like I am being pessimistic, but I am really only preparing myself to be flexible.  If my mind prepares for the worse now, it will take the small stuff much better.  Every once in a while I wonder if I should have gone into map making or architecture/designing homes.  Oh, well.

Earlier today my phone dinged at me; it was an app letting me know that the moon and Saturn are lining up (link).  I looked up and reminded myself that it was a dreary, overcast day.  As I write this, it sounds like it is pouring outside, there will be no stargazing tonight. 

My happy for today is that a friend and I are going to the event together.  My family and I needed to take two vehicles and I was going to be driving alone, now I am not and that makes me so happy.  I used to love driving long distances, not so much anymore.  At least, not alone.

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Shortness...

Driving home from rehearsal the street lights were spread out to give that dark- light- dark- light- dark appearance along the road.  The dark part where the monsters spawn and the light is where safe if playing Minecraft.  It would be time to put up more torches to see by so less creatures would be there if any at all in the game.  Interesting how our playing a game like that can enter into other things we do and perhaps make a person scared or apprehensive to be in the dark, so they want to have a torch.

Any how, my happy for today is rehearsal.  I'm really enjoying trying to come up with ways that the show can go a little longer and capture the attention of the audience just a little bit.  Ciao.

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Another Short Post

At this moment I want to ramble on (okay, vent) about some negative things that happened today.  Posting about these things publicly would not be the smart choice so I am going to be an adult and keep it to myself. 

Instead I am taking some deep breaths and concentrating on the part of my day that was less frustrating-going through my storage unit.  My daughter and I spent many hours looking through box after box for a few specific things.  Some of these things were found (Yay!) but not all.  K's car is full of things, many that are going to the dump or charity, and there is SO MUCH MORE that we still need to go through and get rid of.  My happy is that we are taking small steps moving forward by reducing the clutter of the past.

Loving today's clouds!

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Lazy Sunday-short

It was a recuperate from yesterday's stress day.  Which is weird since I thought I handled the stress OK, not spectacularly, but OK.  Most of the day I wasn't feeling great and I relaxed.  Eventually I did the dishes and worked on organizing some things for an upcoming event.  That will most likely take up much of the next few days.  I get to map out how everyone's tents will fit into a small space.  It is an ultimate Tetris game.  😊

My happy for today is sitting down with Gideon while he taught me a new game that is available to download as an app.  The game (Fallout Shelter) looks like it could be fun.  It reminds me of SimTower, only building down.  The game isn't the happy part, Gideon showing me how to play and wanting me to download is my happy part.  I haven't, yet. 

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Baronial Meet & Greet

My daughter K and I are candidates to become the next Baron and Baroness of our local SCA Barony.  This is a large commitment and responsibility that would be part of our life for the next 3 to 6 years.  Today there was a Meet and Greet so that members of the populous could come out and ask questions and get to know all the candidates better.  There are 5 people that make up 3 options for who will next serve that roll.  I feel that all of us answered the questions well.  We sat there for about 2 hours taking turns answering questions.  I think there was only one that I fumbled a bit with.  I started to go one way and realized it wasn't coming out the way I had hoped and stumbled through it a bit.  K did an absolutely awesome job though.  She was very nervous coming into this, I spent my nervous energy while sitting up there. 

Now it is over and that is my happy for today.  That this public speaking that included some very tough questions is now behind me and I can concentrate my energies on the next task and getting ready for other events coming up. 

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Last day of school

For almost 3.5 hours I watched students cycle through my station of Four Square as part of the Field Day activities.  If a student was at the school today it is pretty safe to say that I saw them.  I even tried to play with some of the students for a few minutes.  I am not good at the game.  After the Field Day activities, the students got their year books and were able to spend about an hour signing them and tee shirts.  I wasn't asked to sign much, but I joyfully signed when asked.  It was a bittersweet day of happy when they were playing and sad that things were changing.  In the afternoon they finished watching a movie that was started on Wednesday.  The staff goes outside at the end of the day and stands on a hill to wave goodbye to the bus fulls as they head off for summer break. 

In the evening I went with Z and Gideon to Market Days for a little it and then walked on to craft night.  Market Days was very busy.  It seems to be growing in size and popularity.  Craft night was busy, too with 10 people showing up.  K was tracing and cutting out sheep shapes for a game with some help from me and others.

Happiness today is brought to you by the hugs from some of the students.  Understanding why the rules say there is to be no touching is one thing, living it was harder than I expected. 

Market Days

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Happy Summer Solstice

It being a Thursday I decided that after work I would see about visiting my cousin for a while and then going to craft night across town from her.  Again I had a lovely visit with her that lasted until too late to go to craft night.  Tomorrow is the last day of school and so their town won't be sort of on the way home for me again until September. 

Today, the penultimate day of the school year, there was a substitute for science class.  Since I am in that class so often and had a good idea what needed to be done, the sub let me more or less run the first class.  I started with a loud, get their attention, 'good morning' and proceeded to let them know what was up for the class.  I used my performance voice and it made it more fun.  They got to listen to a podcast (the Vultures Inherit the Earth episode) as well as do a scavenger hunt for science related information  and a brief survey.  The next classes the sub took the lead.

It became late again with all the things I did today.  The above paragraph and speaking loud and clear is my happy for today.  Sleep is what I need next.

The moon.

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Outside Day

This is the last week of school for the 2017-2018 school year.  The students don't want to be there and most of the staff don't want to either.  The teachers in my group decided to take most of the morning and spend it going between activities, some inside and some out.  My task during this was to escort the students between the in and the out.  I also watched them play some games with one of the teachers.  My highlights of this included:

1. Watching some of the students who don't like to participate in athletics play games that are at least active.  Sometimes watching others have fun is all it takes to try.
2. Noting to myself how much taller and more adult looking some of them have gotten in the past 9 or 10 months and wondering how much older they will look after summer break.  I remember as a kid how much my peers would change over the summer.
3. For one of the games words were rattled off until one particular word, cup, was said.  Listening to different students come up with the words, repeat words that others had used before and only saying two or three words before getting to cup was rather telling of their patience.
4. Laughing at their antics.

The above are my happy things for today.  

Another happy is Gideon and his 'adogable' Lego dog he and Z put together.

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Statue in the park.

Last night we had no power and I naively thought I would have time to make a long post tonight.   Tonight however is Tuesday and Tuesday is rehearsal night and rehearsal night is late.   Add to that a piece of research that I had to do tonight because of a statue. 

First here is the song, or at least a version of it.  It is about a soldier, dead and buried, from WWI and the singer is wondering about the soldier's life and death.  The soldier's name is Willie McBride.  There are some motivated people who did a bunch of research to find out about Private McBride and a little bit of that is here.  The statue I saw today implies what a common name his must have been because the statue would not be the same person.

Rehearsal was fun.  The character I am playing has reasons to be very angry.  I don't,  but I am still finding the part to be rather cathartic.   I get there tired and weary and leave awake and happy and that is my happy for today. 

Morning clouds.

William P. McBride 

The Statue

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No Power

There was a large-ish storm that rolled through leaving us without electricity.   K & I were out shopping,  for groceries,  for dinner,  that we can't cook.   🤔  So I am eating an almond butter sandwich and then going to bed. 

The plus side is that I got some pictures of the storm and a walk in.  I love watching a good storm,  safely.  The storm also brought some cooler air and is my happy for today.   So much more I wanted to write,  but the power is needed on my phone to wake me in the morning.

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Lazy Sunday

The temperatures got into the 90's today, I am pretty sure.  If not outside, than inside.  I forgot to turn off my alarm and so woke up at 5:10 AM.  After staying in bed for another 3 or 4 hours I got up for breakfast and then rested again watching Appalachian Trail Youtube videos.  After trying to sleep for a few hours I did some dishes.  I puttered a bit, took a shower an then decided to take a walk.  It was close to 6 PM and I didn't have 1000 steps yet. 

The walk ended up being about 4.75 miles and I surpassed my step goal.  👟  It made for a good way to start off the week.  I decided to start using Spark People again to monitor my food intake.  Suddenly I am realizing why I am feeling cruddy.  Today I didn't get enough calories, and most likely I haven't been.  At least not often enough.  I'm not feeling very hungry usually, and I am feeling satisfied without having too much at this point.  Lesson is hopefully learned, eat enough calories of the good stuff and make sure that I am eating them.  I reintroduced a dairy product today with Kefir.  No lactose but it has probiotics so I am hoping there won't be any problems.  I miss milk.

There was a woodchuck by the railroad tracks today as I passed by.  Pictures below.  I also saw a gold finch and a few sparrows and a bunch of squirrels on my walk.   City wild animal like is my happy for today.

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Golden

Exhaustion has once again overtaken me.  I slept really well but not long enough last night.  The majority of today was spent outside on this hot June day.  The event was small but it seemed to go really well.  The site was larger than I had imagined and there were some really pretty views. 

This event had 3 separate competitions for new people playing in the SCA; one for heavy list fighters, one for fencing and one for golden tongue.  All the participants did well.  The heavy list and fencing are limited to adults who are qualified to fight with those weapons forms and in order to actually win the tourney they need to have only been fighting about a year or less, give or take.  For Golden Tongue I believe the person who can win can't have won anything before having to do with performing (I think) to qualify.  Any how, for Golden Tongue children can enter.  Almost every child who could walk got up and either sang a song or told a story.  Some we could hear better than others but they were all good.  The winner for this is chosen by audience vote and this year one of the children one.  This is my happy for today.

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Field Trip

When the event this weekend ended up being close we decided not to camp, just to go up for the day.  This afternoon K & I spent some time there visiting with folks.  Now that I am home I am almost regretting that decision.  The thought of being able to sleep in a tent is very appealing to me right now.  The better decision is being home because of my weird diet plan and my certainty that I am better off eating as much at home as I can.

There was a field trip today to a local art museum.  From what I could tell the students all had a pretty good time and were well behaved.  This is my happy for today.   There were things I noticed today that I hadn't seen when I visited last week.  We had a docent that gave us a tour of some of the rooms, highlighting certain pieces.

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Clouds-Flag Day

Work as a para educator today was so much better than yesterday.  It was a good kind of busy and the students were mostly polite and respectful.  Ending the school year on a good note will be a wonderful thing.

Yesterday the letters were published for the Baronial candidates in our local SCA newsletter.  My daughter and I are candidates and submitted more information than the other candidates did. The others sent in what is required and we also sent in some additional information that was recommended to all the candidates in a group email.  It is interesting how different people will read the same information and yet come out with different responses to that information.  It is what makes us unique.  There will be a mini event soon that will give everyone the opportunity to meet the candidates prior to the polling.  After that the polls are mailed to members, the responses to a separate place to count, then to the King and Queen who will make the final decision as to who will represent the Barony.  It is a long process and there is no end date that we can look at and say that the results will be in at such and such a date.  Theoretically sometime in the next 90 days or so we will know.  It could still be 6 months or more after that before whoever is chosen will be invested.

While waiting for dinner to cook I went for a short walk.  The clouds... if I could paint (I can't) the clouds today I would have used cotton balls as a brush blending the grays, purples and whites across a deep blue sky.  Getting out for a walk is my happy for today.

This tree has been shaped into a heart to allow the utility lines to pass. 

Love smelling these as I walk by.

Daisies! 

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Ugh.

After a tough day I went home and did dishes, relaxed and even practiced on the guitar for a little while.  Dinner brought a new challenge for me when I decided to introduce a food to my diet that I had been eliminating.  The meal plan fell through tonight and I am now not feeling well.  Trying the whole 30 plan does not appear to have been a good choice on my part. 

The teacher I am a para for most often was out sick today.  Sometimes the students pay attention to the substitute, sometimes they don't.  Today, perhaps because break is so close, they were more rambunctious than usual.  Whatever the reasons for their attitudes today, I am looking forward to a new day at school tomorrow.  My happy for today is that I am NOT a 7th grader.  😄

One more happy that I just remembered happened while I was practicing the guitar.  Gideon came upstairs to let me know about the dinner problems and also to inform me that the adults in his life are correct and he needs to walk more often.  This gives me something else to look forward to, walks with my grandson. 

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Greetings!

Greetings, oh fair readers!  Tis I, Weft a note, typing a short post to bring to the world something about my day and something that aided in making my day happy.  It is my hope that some of the things might turn up the corners of your mouth as well.   As part of my afternoon was spent having my teeth cleaned and polished let me say how happy I am that no other work is needed to be done at the dentist.  Let me also include how rehearsing tonight made me happy by allowing me to be loud and move large.

Pictures for this day include two from the side of the river, one of which has a lovely spider web.

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Real Short

It is not yet 9:30 PM and I am ready for bed and exhausted.  Rather than fall asleep while typing, here is a short happy list for today:

• Pictures of new born baby of coworker's sister.
• Lunch was provided to us today so I didn't have to make it. 
• My foot might be starting to feel better.
• Not sure if it will work but my son sent me this link. 
• It is not yet 9:30 PM and I am going to bed.  😴

May you always find something happy to think about from your day before you go to sleep.

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Archery

It has been almost 2 years since I shot archery.  I hadn't been shooting regularly before then, I only shot once that year, but the injury a year ago March meant that I wasn't sure if I would be able to shoot again.  Today I tried.  My hand started to bother me, but just a little.  The same as it does now whenever I use it for more than a few minutes.  So I didn't shoot much.  K did practice a bit more than me and is thrilled that she is remembering so much of it.  She hasn't shot in over 10 years we think.  Z tried his hands at thrown weapons today and also had a really good time.  Gideon decided not to try today because he still isn't feeling completely better since the conjunctivitis last week with a cold/allergies which has left him with a cough still.  I wish I took some pictures.

After archery practice I wasn't feeling great so I missed the birthday party for my niece and pretty much took it easy the rest of the day.  Since I am fairly certain it was the way I have been eating that is why I am not feeling great I will be continuing to adjust the meal plan and reintroducing foods this week. 

My happy things for today include archery practice, spending time with old and new friends, watching K enjoy archery for the first time in years, hearing about how well Z enjoyed thrown weapons and playing games in the car with Gideon.

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Just a happy

It has been a day where I was busy, but not enough that I should feel as tired as I do, so this will be short. 

We went to an art museum this morning and wandered through looking at all the pretties.  I didn't take many pictures but here are K and Gideon reading Other Wordly.  There is an astrology mosaic built into the floor that was Gideon's favorite. 

The other thing going on today was Weaving Circle.  I managed to work on the smocking and on preparations for an event coming up soon.  These are all things that made me happy today plus one more thing which is the salmon that K cooked for dinner.   Eyes don't want to stay open, good night.

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Bird

Two more weeks and then school will be out for summer break.  When I look at my calendar it is very full.  So many things that I want to do or have to do and that I am looking forward to doing.  We sorted through a few things at the storage unit today and it seemed overwhelming.  Just now though, I imagined that feeling I will have when it is empty and I know I can do this.  I said goodbye to a few things today and it was good (random article about saying goodbye).  As these things leave my possession, there will be room for living a simpler life.

The evening was just right for being outside so I walked to craft night across town.  It was a good decision to go because my signature was needed.  I finally got a bit more done on the apron I have been smoking.  I'm trying to decide whether or not to change the color of the thread I am using at the half way point before moving on.  Walking home the city was alive with people out enjoying the nightlife.  There were people just hanging around and talking, walking their dog, or listening to live music. 

Along the walk I heard a bird and was able to take quite a few pictures of it.  It appears to be a cat bird, which was my second guess.  Before I saw it I thought it might be a mockingbird.  The cap on that gray catbird though-I love. 

Last fall there was an artist in residence program and all the students and adults got to make a tile.  Today we got them back and that is my happy for today.  The lines along either side were made by pressing in and rolling rings that I wear almost all the time.  The swirly lines are from a cut shell and so is at least the comma part of the semicolon-- also from a cut shell.  Most of the rest were stamps that were available to use.

Grey catbird

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Family Bible

The mood swings this diet (Whole 30) seems to be giving me are more than I really want to deal with in my life right now.  K reintroduced bread today for herself.  I'll make that decision tomorrow morning whether to have a piece of toast or not.  The things I did expect like hunger and stomach/intestinal issues are happening too.

Apparently I was pretty tired because I fell asleep before posting and writing about my happy for today.   I went to visit my cousin and help her move a few things around at her house.   Her father (also my cousin) and his wife are moving and they are storing things at her house and the things needed rearranging.  One of these things was a beautiful family bible that was given to my great grandmother and grandfather at their wedding in 1888.  It is not in the best of conditions, but it could be much worse.   We did the wrong thing and opened it up a few pages.   Someday maybe I'll bring some cotton gloves and look through it more... or just pack it better for preserving, because that could be done much better too.

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