Deerfield Fair

It was a beautiful day to go to the fair.  I try to make it every year, this is the first time I remember going alone.  I've gone alone and met people there to do things with, this year I did not.  There are two people that I knew would be there and I visited them each for a bit.  One of the people I visited, my cousin, was one of the featured artists.  She had a small display of her work in the arts and crafts building.  The other person is an SCA friend and she was selling her things in the building for working crafts.  She brings her spinning wheel every year and sells things she has made as well as roving and yarns while she sits and spins.  Getting out and doing these things are my happy things for today.

My cousin and her art.

Sunset 

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Happy Michaelmas Day

We spent the day in Connecticut at the Coronation event.  At the Last Court Caoilfhionn & Brennan they called upon people who had worked hard for their reign.  A few people I know were called into court and recognized for what they have been doing.  One of them is now a Court Baron.  Then the incoming Prince and Princess were called forward and the Coronation ceremony began.  It was a pretty ceremony.  There was a short court followed by some activities in the afternoon and then another court before feast.  We didn't stay for feast but left with a group of people and went to a restaurant with them. 

The question of the day was whether or not K and I would be the next Baron and Baroness of our group.  We are still waiting for word on that.  What I did learn is that the polls are valid and therefore they won't need to be done again. This is my happy for today.

While we were away at Coronation a friend held a small Michaelmas event where goose was served.  He was kind enough to let us have a little in advance so we were able to have goose on  Michaelmas.  Now I am exhausted and hope that my words here make some sort of sense.

On the road.

Beautiful event site. 

Last Court Caoilfhionn & Brennan. 

Our new Majesties. 

On the way to dinner there was an accident on the highway and we found a side road that was lovely, and a bit odd. 

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Just a Daily Happy

After spending over 2 hours hemming a gown for tomorrow I thought that finally getting that done would be my happy.  Ales, it has a seam opening on the side and so will not be my dress for tomorrow, so not the happy.  Thankfully I have other things to wear.  Instead my happy is that the week is over and tomorrow will be a new day with new challenges.

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TMI

In the SCA are things we call Households.  In my early days my now ex husband and I had a household.  It mostly dissolved when we moved and stopped participating as much.  After the divorce, and moving back to the area, rather than start a household of my own,  I joined one that had some of the former members of my original household.  This new household is small and was good to belong to.  We did things together in and out of the SCA.  Over the last few years though the people who were the leaders of the household have had to step back for real life personal reasons.  No matter how reasonable the reasons may be, most of the rest of us are left a bit lost.  Tonight I sent a message to the members of the household suggesting that we revitalize our household or start a new one.  I was hoping for revitalization, it is looking more like starting anew.  Either way, my happy for today is that, with a some help from friends, I finally spoke up about this.  It isn't so much happy as it is relieved.  It is something that has been bothering me for quite some time.

I have been the one who has had to leave all my friends behind when I moved thousands of miles from my home.  It stunk.  It was before social media was a thing and phone calls home had long distance charges.  I like to think that I do a better job keeping in touch with people now, but I could still do better.  The point here is that as a former head of a household, it hurts to lose that sense of community and the family that you helped to build, even when that change had to happen.  At the same time, a lot has been learned over my last 30 years and sometimes good can be found after a change.  I'm hopeful. 

Skies

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Aches

The police officer told me I would feel the results of yesterday's accident today.   He was not wrong.   It was not as bad as I expected,  perhaps because of the massage chair and the ibuprofen I took last night.   My lower back is a problem,  which it had been,  but slightly different today.   It is achy with an occasional sharp pain.  I have a headache, not sure why and a little bit of achy neck (expected for a car accident).  What is bothering me the most is my wrists.  Not because of the intensity of pain but more psychologically.   The wrists are from gripping the steering wheel when it happened.   Last night I wore my splint to bed from when I had the repetitive stress injury last year.   I'll probably wear it the next few nights to help the wrist heal and to keep me from having it in weird positions while I sleep.

When I got home this afternoon I was going to clean out my car and then go to Planet Fitness and use the massage chairs there.   Instead I fell asleep on the couch. My happy for today is that this accident was fairly minor- even though I spent the last paragraph complaining.   🤪  Hopefully it will all be good soon.   Stretching my back is helping too.  😉

Many thanks to my friend in the auto insurance field who helped set my mind at ease about the condition of my car.   ❤❤

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Accident

The day began alright.  Work was work.   After work I headed for the chiropractor.   I had an appointment on my calendar for 4:10.  I got there at 4:08.  My lower back has been bothering me the last day or two.  Probably from sitting on hay bales Saturday night.   There was no appointment in the system however.  The receptionist was kind enough to squeeze me in.  I felt a little better when I left.

The next stop was McDonalds and then to i Sebastiani Commedia practice.  It is raining and there was traffic.  Somehow I managed to drive by my exit. This resulted in my getting off the highway and taking city streets for maybe a half an hour to get to practice.  Unfortunately along the way a car pulled out in front of me and I hit them.  Long story short, I am okay.  I refused an ambulance ride and decided checking my vitals was probably useless considering how much adrenaline was racing through me and I was shaking quite a bit.   The other driver looked okay, but had a pacemaker and so they went to the hospital.

After doing all the things one does with reporting an accident, I sat in the car and calmed a bit before heading to rehearsal.  On the way, the little aches and pains started up.  Lower back again/still and my hands and wrist.  I gripped the steering wheel pretty tight as I slammed the breaks.  All this brings me to my happy... there is a message chair where we rehearse.  It is busily working away at my back and neck.  Hopefully I will be better tomorrow because of this.

The Charles River,

On the way to get ice cream. 

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Not too much special, Monday.

The students this year are more for me than last year.  Or perhaps I just forgot more this summer than I thought I had.  I'm feeling more drained after work.  Or maybe I am just a year older. 

K has been working on some new garb the last few days.  It is going to be fantastic.  A new style for her.  Well, it is actually man's garb, but she wears it well.  Z tried on the hat tonight and it looks awesome on him too.  My daughter and her husband are just too cute sometimes.  There was much complimenting on how well the hat looked on them both and I think they may have some matching garb in the future.  😄

Last night my hope to fall asleep without a problem didn't happen.  I'm hoping better for tonight.  I think the shower/ wet hair kept me awake.  I ended up Googling a sleep meditation to listen to, it took longer than I expected, but I did fall asleep before it finished.  I forgot to set my alarm but somehow managed to get up and out of the house on time.  I think that is my happy for today.  Well, maybe that and seeing Gideon get ready for his Scout meeting tonight.

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Happy Sunday

Last night I ended up staying awake most of the night talking.   Eventually real exhaustion set in and I slept a little by the fire until just before sunrise.   The sky was glorious, the pond still as glass with wisps of fog floating over it.   Geese and other birds awoke and fish jumped in the pond.   We ended up going around the pond because we saw something floating and wanted to be sure it had nothing to do with the burning of the ship last night.   We tried to be very careful and only found some hay floating and the one arrow that I knew had fallen but drifted away before I could reach it.  The item we saw floating was a float type device from some random boat or dock.   This morning's clean up time and canoe ride are my happy things for today.

Gideon dyed his hair today,  well,  his mom did it for him.  It's cute,  but I haven't a picture yet.   I had a brief visit from a friend today.   She stopped by, while she was in the area, to pick up a cooler I had borrowed .  We caught up and talked household stuff.  I napped and did chores and errands the rest of the day.   I am pleased to say that I will be in bed before 10 and hope to be asleep by then.   Perhaps it will mean a good start to the week.

Sunrise

Folliage

The float thing that set us out onto the water. 

Dousing the fire. 

I had some papers from storage in my car that we burned.   Some of the colors from the dyes in the paper were gorgeous. 

Sunset. 

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Happy Autumn

The summer is over.  The evening was spent around a campfire with folks celebrating the life of one who passed away just after Pennsic this year.  There were stories told of his kindness and generosity.   Songs were sung to say goodbye.   It was a nice way to say some final goodbyes.

Time with friends is again my happy for today.

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International Day of Peace

Annually on September 21 is the International Day of Peace.  This was brought to my attention today in Social Studies class.  The teacher had some suggestions of things that could be done to help commemorate the day.  Things like sit with someone new at lunch today or read to a sibling were some of the suggestions.  Part of the point was to show that there are things that we should do and that we can do them daily, not just on the holiday. 

After work I went to visit a friend.  We went for a walk and chatted the afternoon away.  Dinner and the company of her and her son are my happy things for the day.

It is pretty impossible to see here, but the sun had a ray that was shooting out from behind the clouds this morning and it was pretty.

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Just another Happy of the Day

Since I am up way too late again I am going to just write about a happy for today.  Today we had a fire drill at school.  Why on earth would this be a happy thing, one may ask.  Well, because as a whole we all left the building with minimal problems or noise.  But also because I actually remembered to do some of the things that last year I forgot, like turn off the lights and close the doors.  Sometimes it is the little things that are the best things in a day.  There are other things too that, as I write this, have popped into my mind.  Things like pay day, talking on the phone with family, talking on the phone with friends, the sunrise, sleep and remembering things from my past..

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Happy Birthday Z!

Today is Z's birthday so I got Gideon for the evening.  We were dropped off at Friendly's where we had dinner and ice cream.  After dinner we walked home.  There had been some sprinkles while we were eating but things were starting to dry out by the time we began our trek home.  The air had a clean feeling and the temperature was around 65 so it was just lovely walking home.  Gideon went on and on carrying on a conversation that describes games he develops in his imagination.  Since I am not always in the know for what is out there for games and aps sometimes I need him to be specific as to what is real and what isn't.  If I could convince him to write these ideas of his down maybe he could start turning some of his imagination games into real ones.  Dinner and walking with my grandson are my happy things for today.

Sunrise.

Ice cream!!

A church we walked by. 

A shop had a Halloween display. 

Another had Christmas gnomes. 

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Performing--short

After school and a nice visit with a friend I went to dinner with other current and previous i Sebastiani performers.  It was a nice time.  One of the people I 'met' seemed really familiar.  On the ride home I realized that her son and mine used to play together as kids!  The troupe is starting up right away with working on another show.  The next two weeks (as far as I know) will be open for anyone who may want to perform with or just check out the troupe.  I'm seriously considering going back and performing again. There are a couple of friends from around here that might be interested in trying it out.  It isn't always easy to make the time once a week though.

My happy today is that I was able to visit my friend.  I'm hoping to make more time this year for things like visits with friends after school.

This morning we had heavy rain, this afternoon it cleared and became nice out.  

This was a few hours after the rains.

This pic is close to sunset. 

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Just a Happy

Back to work today.  I feel like I am having a more difficult time getting back to work than I did starting new last year.  Hopefully it is mostly because soon after the new school year started I came down with a cold.  This will pass and I will get a better handle on things.  The first few weeks is supposed to be getting to know the students.  This is not an easy task, getting to know the students, during class when they are supposed to be paying attention. 

After school laundry got done and general down time.  Last night was the first time since this cold hit that I haven't been able to get to sleep.  I'm hoping for better tonight.  I had a pleasant surprise after work, my son had called while I was working.  I called him back, we weren't able to talk for long but it was so nice to hear his voice.  His broken toe is getting better.  Hearing from C is my happy for today.

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Mountains -- lots of pics

There was a meeting today about an hour north of us for our SCA group.  It was in a pretty part of the state near the White Mountain National Forest.  During the meeting I made the mistake of using the word -we- in reference to the entire local group and it was taken as if I meant -we- as in myself and my daughter.  Since we decided to accept the nomination to possibly become the next Baron and Baroness of our group I have done this a few times.  Every time meaning -we- the Barony, not -we- the candidates.  It has made me wonder how often I must have used -we- and no one thought anything of it because I wasn't part of a pair running for office.  I am not trying to be presumptuous.  I have no idea who will win.  While living in the Barony, I have been involved, it is highly unlikely that I will not continue to be involved and consider myself part of -we- the Barony.  There are so many friends that I would miss.

After the meeting and lunch a few of us went north to go Geocaching.  We ended up exploring around the Basin.  We were on a tiny part of the Appalachian Trail.  My plan was to see the Basin and then do some wandering and let the others geocache.  I've enjoyed looking for caches in the past but wanted to walk a bit.  I ended up climbing up to help them find it and did exploring where it was supposed to be.  I had pretty much given up when I spotted the cache.  It was fun and is one of many things I should probably do more often. 

The mountains were beautiful.  There are a few leaves hinting at turning yellow or orange but mostly still green.  Near where the geocache was, there were quite a few trees that had moss along the root area that looked like perfect fairy or gnome homes.  It was a magical area that was just off a trail and would have been missed otherwise.  This is my first happy of today.  The second is finding the geocache and the third is that I was able to be out today with friends and get to know some folks a little better.  The fourth is my cold seems to be fading a bit and just leaving an occasional cough and slight congestion, so much better than it had been.

We were a bit ahead of the group.

Lightning strike or just old and cracking? 

The Basin 

Perhaps I should have asked them to pose...

Serious fairy or gnome city... 

The shots with the the finding of the geocache. 

Sunset 

 Munchies!! 

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