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dragonlady7OK, I had a whole entry half-composed in my head, but then I came and read my f-list and there was this entry, and I sort of don't know how life is supposed to go on when shit like that happens in the world. I mean, I know awful things happen all the time, but the academic knowledge that terrible things happen is much different than reading a firsthand, immediate account of someone's fucking dad shooting himself in the fucking head.
It's even worse if you've been following along with her recent entries about trying to get her life together and get help for her various horrible medical conditions, mental and physical.
So that's really upsetting and I don't know if it's possible to have an intelligent response; all I've managed is gibbering.
But if I don't try to write the half-composed entry, I'll be disorganized all day, so I suppose life does go on. How does one explain, by the way, that one is upset about reading a blog post by someone one only knows through a blog? It is confusing and convoluted etiquette, I think. I awkwardly say "online friend" or "person I know online", but it's unclear and mostly sounds, well, weird.
I don't know.
Well, the email just arrived that my "e-check" from Paypal cleared at Cooper's Lake, so I'm officially pre-regged for Pennsic with Z.
I spent last night sleeping on the air mattress out in the tent in the yard. The tent is enormous inside, I take it back. A king size air mattress sort of rattles around in there. A king size mattress plus several storage bins could easily fit comfortably without becoming ridiculous. !!! The whole concept of actually being comfortable at Pennsic seems sort of alien to me, after last year's adventure in Ye Tiny Tent of Tininess. But if we're crammed chock-a-block onto a too-small chunk of land this year, this enormous tent is going to be something of a liability. I may ask Mom and Dad if they still have that little four-man tent I used to sleep in the yard with. They may not, though. And if I remember right, it was pretty tiny. :/
The thing is, a lot of people who camp alone have 10x10' tents, or even larger, though I didn't measure any or examine them in detail so I'm not sure. So it didn't seem excessive for me to have a 11x13 for two people. In previous years, maybe it wouldn't be a problem, but this year we're really pretty crammed in. So I'm fretting.
Anyhow, maybe I'll just hope that the land agent figures out where to put everybody... Apparently one of my camp-mates is making a detailed map including trees, paths, and other landmarks.
Yesterday I cleaned and filled all the pots I plan on growing things in this year. I'm going to intersperse pots in the shady bed I let go to violets (it did it by itself! I planted pansies there, and there were wild violets in among them, so I left them, and gradually they've filled in the entire bed. It's so lovely! I wish I could get columbines to take over the upper storey, but so far only one has made it-- and it gets attacked by insects every year, so it doesn't spread), and I plan on putting a few other pots into garden beds I don't want to replant after the tulips die back. Then some will be in the driveway, and there's one or two hanging baskets.
I also cleaned out the fruit bed, where I have raspberries underplanted with strawberries. The strawberries haven't filled in entirely under the raspberries, so there are a lot of weeds, and mint is trying to take over. I plan to put in a big oregano plant and a big thyme plant, and try to persuade some rosemary and lavender to grow there too. I know I already have an herb garden but one can never have too many herbs. Especially when one is trying to keep the weeds down. I will mulch heavily when I'm done planting-- I haven't really tried that so far.
My book tells me to mix grass clippings half-and-half with wood chips, so I have a big tub of grass clippings I've been saving to try this. They ought to be fresh, though. I'm sort of fretting that I won't have enough grass clippings and I can't get my nerve up to talk to the neighbor that doesn't actively, hostilely hate me so she'll give me hers, and I feel really weird just snagging plastic bags from the curb on garbage night. I may yet do it-- but I don't know who uses chemicals on their lawns, doesn't that affect them?
Who knows.
I had planned then to spend the late afternoon planting the pepper and tomato seedlings I have. But around noon, Z was done working, so I went to work on the back porch with him.
We cleared everything out of it, and he scrubbed the mini-fridge. I scrubbed the wall that's the side of the house, because it was grungy and watermarked where rain has leaked. (I don't know if I can get up on to that roof to re-caulk it but it needs it.) Z then hosed it down and it's lovely and white again. I then spot-scrubbed the floor, including all the corners, all the grunge accumulated under the electrical conduit around the corner of the floor, and all the windowsills. Z then mopped the floor twice.
Then, and this is really monumental, we actually went out with Fi, checked Wal-Mart, and went to Target, where we purchased (!!!!!) an indoor-outdoor rug. !!!!
It is now the only thing out there on the gently-gleaming painted concrete floor. It looks lovely, just bee-yoo-tiful.
We have been trying to find patio furniture to go out there, but everything is boring and expensive and uncomfortable. Last night we had the brainwave of maybe trying to get a futon instead of some wicker chairs and shit, so we're looking at that now.
Every summer we live out there. So having a nice futon would really be awesome. Then we could have one more guest-bedroom in summer, as well as comfortable seating for several in the event of, say, garden parties or the like. (We even could perhaps move the futon in at the end of the summer to replace the Ratty Couch of Held-Up-By-A-Phonebook, if it comes to that. But say it quietly; we don't want to jinx it. The whole concept of actually purchasing furniture is still kind of a difficult one for us.)
So anyway, that was about three hours of very intense work. I tried to do more gardening, and did make a valiant beginning at the pepper planting, but I was sunburnt, grimy (there was dirt settled in the creases of my neck, in my cleavage, and two little delicate patches of dirt sitting atop the shelf my breasts make in that old bra-- quite hilarious), blistered, and exhausted. So I gave up and went to shower.
There's just so much damn work to be done with a house. And we're not even doing anything elaborate. My mother put in a garden probably ten times the size of mine every year and I swear she didn't spend this much of her time on it. But maybe it's because I let it go so much last year, I've got to do all this to make up for it?
The soil is wretched in all of the beds I'm planting into, by the way. it's kind of horrifying. Big rock-hard chunks of red clay with no humus or silt to speak of-- just clay, clay, clay. No rain for weeks is making it almost unworkable-- I am having to use two bricks and smash clods between them because I simply can't crumble them.
It's even worse if you've been following along with her recent entries about trying to get her life together and get help for her various horrible medical conditions, mental and physical.
So that's really upsetting and I don't know if it's possible to have an intelligent response; all I've managed is gibbering.
But if I don't try to write the half-composed entry, I'll be disorganized all day, so I suppose life does go on. How does one explain, by the way, that one is upset about reading a blog post by someone one only knows through a blog? It is confusing and convoluted etiquette, I think. I awkwardly say "online friend" or "person I know online", but it's unclear and mostly sounds, well, weird.
I don't know.
Well, the email just arrived that my "e-check" from Paypal cleared at Cooper's Lake, so I'm officially pre-regged for Pennsic with Z.
I spent last night sleeping on the air mattress out in the tent in the yard. The tent is enormous inside, I take it back. A king size air mattress sort of rattles around in there. A king size mattress plus several storage bins could easily fit comfortably without becoming ridiculous. !!! The whole concept of actually being comfortable at Pennsic seems sort of alien to me, after last year's adventure in Ye Tiny Tent of Tininess. But if we're crammed chock-a-block onto a too-small chunk of land this year, this enormous tent is going to be something of a liability. I may ask Mom and Dad if they still have that little four-man tent I used to sleep in the yard with. They may not, though. And if I remember right, it was pretty tiny. :/
The thing is, a lot of people who camp alone have 10x10' tents, or even larger, though I didn't measure any or examine them in detail so I'm not sure. So it didn't seem excessive for me to have a 11x13 for two people. In previous years, maybe it wouldn't be a problem, but this year we're really pretty crammed in. So I'm fretting.
Anyhow, maybe I'll just hope that the land agent figures out where to put everybody... Apparently one of my camp-mates is making a detailed map including trees, paths, and other landmarks.
Yesterday I cleaned and filled all the pots I plan on growing things in this year. I'm going to intersperse pots in the shady bed I let go to violets (it did it by itself! I planted pansies there, and there were wild violets in among them, so I left them, and gradually they've filled in the entire bed. It's so lovely! I wish I could get columbines to take over the upper storey, but so far only one has made it-- and it gets attacked by insects every year, so it doesn't spread), and I plan on putting a few other pots into garden beds I don't want to replant after the tulips die back. Then some will be in the driveway, and there's one or two hanging baskets.
I also cleaned out the fruit bed, where I have raspberries underplanted with strawberries. The strawberries haven't filled in entirely under the raspberries, so there are a lot of weeds, and mint is trying to take over. I plan to put in a big oregano plant and a big thyme plant, and try to persuade some rosemary and lavender to grow there too. I know I already have an herb garden but one can never have too many herbs. Especially when one is trying to keep the weeds down. I will mulch heavily when I'm done planting-- I haven't really tried that so far.
My book tells me to mix grass clippings half-and-half with wood chips, so I have a big tub of grass clippings I've been saving to try this. They ought to be fresh, though. I'm sort of fretting that I won't have enough grass clippings and I can't get my nerve up to talk to the neighbor that doesn't actively, hostilely hate me so she'll give me hers, and I feel really weird just snagging plastic bags from the curb on garbage night. I may yet do it-- but I don't know who uses chemicals on their lawns, doesn't that affect them?
Who knows.
I had planned then to spend the late afternoon planting the pepper and tomato seedlings I have. But around noon, Z was done working, so I went to work on the back porch with him.
We cleared everything out of it, and he scrubbed the mini-fridge. I scrubbed the wall that's the side of the house, because it was grungy and watermarked where rain has leaked. (I don't know if I can get up on to that roof to re-caulk it but it needs it.) Z then hosed it down and it's lovely and white again. I then spot-scrubbed the floor, including all the corners, all the grunge accumulated under the electrical conduit around the corner of the floor, and all the windowsills. Z then mopped the floor twice.
Then, and this is really monumental, we actually went out with Fi, checked Wal-Mart, and went to Target, where we purchased (!!!!!) an indoor-outdoor rug. !!!!
It is now the only thing out there on the gently-gleaming painted concrete floor. It looks lovely, just bee-yoo-tiful.
We have been trying to find patio furniture to go out there, but everything is boring and expensive and uncomfortable. Last night we had the brainwave of maybe trying to get a futon instead of some wicker chairs and shit, so we're looking at that now.
Every summer we live out there. So having a nice futon would really be awesome. Then we could have one more guest-bedroom in summer, as well as comfortable seating for several in the event of, say, garden parties or the like. (We even could perhaps move the futon in at the end of the summer to replace the Ratty Couch of Held-Up-By-A-Phonebook, if it comes to that. But say it quietly; we don't want to jinx it. The whole concept of actually purchasing furniture is still kind of a difficult one for us.)
So anyway, that was about three hours of very intense work. I tried to do more gardening, and did make a valiant beginning at the pepper planting, but I was sunburnt, grimy (there was dirt settled in the creases of my neck, in my cleavage, and two little delicate patches of dirt sitting atop the shelf my breasts make in that old bra-- quite hilarious), blistered, and exhausted. So I gave up and went to shower.
There's just so much damn work to be done with a house. And we're not even doing anything elaborate. My mother put in a garden probably ten times the size of mine every year and I swear she didn't spend this much of her time on it. But maybe it's because I let it go so much last year, I've got to do all this to make up for it?
The soil is wretched in all of the beds I'm planting into, by the way. it's kind of horrifying. Big rock-hard chunks of red clay with no humus or silt to speak of-- just clay, clay, clay. No rain for weeks is making it almost unworkable-- I am having to use two bricks and smash clods between them because I simply can't crumble them.
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 06:00 pm (UTC)And lots of young slave labor, for many years. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 06:09 pm (UTC)We didn't really help a whole lot! We sort of got in the way more than anything else, as far as I remember my childhood...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-23 04:21 am (UTC)And you are so right about the house! Good luck getting that terrible garden soil amended; once you've got something better to work with than just clay, the gardening tasks will get a lot easier.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 06:13 pm (UTC)I'm hoping mulch helps with the soil... I just have to get off my butt and actually do it. Now at least the peppers are in. Soil amendment is the hardest part. I did find a municipal compost facility that sells a whole truckload of finished compost for $15, but I don't have a truck. So boo. I am going to have to barter for one.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 06:07 pm (UTC)The size of the tent depends on your household! I believe each person is allotted a 16x16-foot square or so (250 square feet? Something to that effect) according to the rules of land allotment. But depending on the household and on the terrain (http://land.pennsicwar.org/maps/), how much you actually have room for varies. Up on the Serengeti (N0-N18), where everything is featureless and flat, everyone gets a 16-foot square and that's that. But down in the Bog, where my household is, there are ditches, streams, trees, rocks, hills, and, you know, actual bog, so what's actually campable, as opposed to what's defined "campable" by the authorities, really varies.
Plus my household has a bar, and a communal kitchen area; the understanding is that everyone gives up a few square feet out of their allotment so that the remainder can be scraped into a common area.
In past years, it hasn't been crowded, so my household hasn't ever been pressed for space; we ceded some land to a new household, we keep the peace with our neighbors, we ceded space for Swamp Watch to put up a tent (and put it up for them) so volunteer adjunct-Security forces could patrol the Swamp.
But this year, everyone in the household is actually planning on going. It's not enough that we'll be ceded additional land, and besides, if we pressed for more land, the junior household on our block would have to leave, and we like them so we don't want that.
So i'm worried that my enormo-tent will cause trouble. I'm well within the SCA's official guidelines-- hell, for two people I could have almost two tents that size!-- but knowing my household's particular situation this year, I am concerned.
If you're worried your tent is too big, talk to your household's land agent. If you don't have one, then you're in single camping and all you need to do is stick up for yourself. Given that you're within the guidelines for allotted space (unless my math is really terrible!), the only issue would be if your household has specific space concerns. And even then, your claustrophobia should be a good reason for your land agent, and household-mates, to be understanding of your situation. You're not just camping in a big tent, you're trying to avoid freaking out. I can't see anyone having a real problem with that.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 06:12 pm (UTC)I just found this link at a yahoo group - joined to get more info.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCA_Turkish_Personas_Moderated/message/2064
http://valkyrja.shawwebspace.ca/pages/
no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 06:30 pm (UTC)If you're by the lake, then you're not too-too far from us. We're the Inn of the Three Swans, down by the Causeway in the Swamp/Bog. (We're the household that brings and maintains the tiki torches to light the entire length of the Causeway, which is a somewhat elevated road in the woods and thus is very dark without the torches-- we deemed it a security hazard and put up lights so nobody would fall down the hill into our camp.) The bar is usually open and there's always at least a couple of people sitting and people-watching, and often drinking beer. :) Come visit!
I don't know where the rules are, now I think of it-- best to talk to your land agent, as land agents are always well-informed about these things. The guidelines must be up on the Pennsic website somewhere, but I've no idea anymore. I researched it all pretty intensively last year, and don't remember now.
Most of the garb I'm making/bringing will be sort of generic European-- if I can swing it, I'll attempt Baltic-- but I have a few friends who do Turkish, and I might be working at the Turkish coffee shop, so I bought Reconstructing History's Turkish Dancer pattern and am making that. But it needs some tweaking to accomodate The Girls, and I'm deciding on specific adornments etc. I want at least one full Turkish outfit because Turkish strips down well in the heat, and besides, our neighbors are drummers who play at haflas and I want to go and blend in there.
I just want an improvement over last year's "ye genericke bodice" and elastic-waist skirt and elastic-neck chemise with sports bra underneath...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 08:56 pm (UTC)Will stop by. Thanks
no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 02:44 am (UTC)My garb making is perpetually way, way, way behind. It's sad, usually. I wound up borrowing a bunch of stuff last Pennsic, which I can't do again since the person I borrowed it from is going. I'm trying to make a date to work with several people on churning out some garb, maybe assembly-line style-- T-tunics for everyone! We'll see.
I want to get the Turkish done for sure. Last year I didn't have enough chemises, didn't have enough hot-weather-suitable stuff, and just didn't have enough I-feel-good-in-this stuff to go out in. I know it didn't matter but I felt so much better in better clothes, so I'm going to really try to churn some stuff out.
I will probably be there part of both weeks, but missing the weekends. We'll see. I don't know my work schedule well enough yet. I am looking forward to it so incredibly much though...