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texxgadgetIt has suddenly turned cold.
I got in a little trouble first & second weekends for sometimes doing parades without jerkin or doublet.
It was stinking hot and I was melting.
This weekend, I was cold nearly the whole time.
I didn’t skip the jerkin, I would have frozen without it.
Sunday was quite windy.
I missed a call from the mechanic, as I was doing closing parade on Sat.
It turned out to be a warning that it would be at least Monday before they were done.
2 more times the wrong part arrived.
We finally figured out the problem.
Most GM J-body series parts are interchangeable, but there is some variation between early mid & late J-body.
We needed to order an idler pulley for a Chevy Corsica rather than for a Buick and that should do the trick.
Looks like another 2 days. i might get it back for the weekend.
The car died the weekend before labor day weekend.
I don’t have it back yet.
The cooling system let loose on 280 and by the time I was somewhere safe to park, I had a fried engine.
Then it took a pay period before I was able to bail it out.
I got it back early last week and drove it 1 day when an idler pulley failed.
That was an exciting night.
Don & I emptied the last of the Santa Clara storage into his trailer, then we babied the car back to El Cerrito.
In the dark, you could just make out a very faint glow of the temperature light, because the water pump was not getting enough belt action.
I did not want to cook another engine, but couldn’t afford another tow so soon.
Drive one exit, let it rest a long time, repeat.
Being unsure about this weeks weather, (fortunately, it did not rain as predicted on Sunday) we battened down hatches in the guild yard.
We also stopped at the Casa De Fruta restaurant for coffee to go on the way out.
Looking across the place, it was packed and I recognized nearly every face from fair.
I think we are good for business there.
Sharon & Don dropped me off at Colma BART on the way home and I arrived in El Cerrito around mid nite.
I popped across the rd. Popped the hood, saw the serpentine belt laying ac ross the top of the engine, I had a pretty good idea what Arjay had tried to call me about.
Anyway, I got home on foot around 1 last Sunday, and crashed instantly.
The alarm went off at 530 any my day began anew.
I like walking and hiking.
They are becoming more And more difficult due to lower spine pain, and something I suspect is an incorrectly healed foot fracture several years ago.
Im also not in the greatest cardio vascular shape.
I can usually get from home to BART in 25 mins as it is downhill.
Usually the trip up is around 35 mins with the gain in elevation of 300ft in the last quarter mile of a 1.3mi trip.
Google maps helped me trim it down to 1.3 with a route that was not intuitive to me.
In the last month, the trip back up is closer to an hour.
I have to keep stopping to rest.
One of the weekends, I stopped to rest on the bench outside Kensington Circus Pub.
While resting, the mist turned into an actual light shower.
I cowered in the entry and waited out 2 showers before resuming my trek home.
It was around 1am.
With the shorter route, I no longer pass the pub so that bench is not available.
I seem to really gain weight in Aug Sept and part of Oct and then things stabilize and Im in that mode right now.
Im also under a lot more stress than usual and Ive been pushing myself physically ally for the last year.
I may have finally hit a wall.
We had a cool weekend at faire and attendance was lighter than usual.
Sunday was rather windy.
Riding down with Sharon Don & Margie, in a compact pickup truck, they got a late start and picked me up at work.
We arrived at faire and unloaded. The 4 of us unloading from a compact truck after a 1.5hr trip looked like a clown car at the circus.
Soon after Bah, then Budd, followed by Sue & Dave arrived with supplies that had to be unloaded.
As people started to head for bed, I wandered out to P-Camp to the Living Room.
The Living Room is a corral of RVs, surrounding a large carpeted area full of soft squishy arm chairs and sofas under the stars with some LED lighting to brighten things up a tad.
There is also a party tent next to it also carpet over the dirt with more soft seating inside.
Someone gave me 2 over chilled Guiness stouts. They were great but I think Id have enjoyed them more if they had been warmer.
This year, the party tent has a stripper pole in the middle.
What I saw was really more athleticism than titilation.
Phenomenal technique.
A jump and a grasp of the pole about 6ft above the ground with the OUTSEP of one foot against the pole.
This was a starting point of a trip to the top, and then once inverted a trip to the bottom, and then back up.
Then her boyfriend “Princess” took a turn starting on the ground kneeling and he managed a “lever” maneuver that had him on the pole horizontal parallel to the ground.
It was worthy of olympic gymnastics competition.
I later found out he has a bad rotator cuff and he’s STILL able to do moves like that.
Im still jealous.
Saturday night, the guardsmen had their party, this week the theme was rum.
I had a Seabreeze and a Havana Sidecar.
As they were shutting down they had just mixed up some more “Gumby shots”.
I ended up heading on to the archer party with a 6oz Gumby shot in my hand.
Its bright green, what more can I say. Finally ended up out at “The Living Room” out at P-Camp.
Earlier in the evening was hamburgers at Cuthberts, a screening of “Labyrinth” up at Royal Court, and Dance Macabre did their annual after hours night glow stick parade
The nights were in the low 40s. I bring an old Dacron sleeping bag, almost expendable, but I wished Id brought a better one.
At least I was in a tent and not out in the open on a hay bale like last year.
It was nice to get back to the guild yard, and just slip into my tent.
Nothing to set up, just crawl in.
Looking at weather, I already have a hoodie and sweatpants stashed there, but I think Ill bring a little more clothing this weekend. (Knit beanie for sure)
Unfortunately morning dawned….
“The day doth break, My head doth ache, I really had a ball last night!, The morning light is WAY too bright, AAAAAACK! THE FAIRE IS OPEN TO ALL!!!”
Well, not quite the morning parade song, but its close. I was challenging Angus for hangover status.
Those Gumby shots have a price the next morning.
Speaking of Angus, he did his “Drunk Constable thing, laying on the road looking totally dead.
By the end of the afternoon, people had stuck $50 into his tankard, including a 20.
SOMEONE totally loved his schtick.
This year, we have a 4ft tall trebouchet.
The very same one we tagged Molly with last week.
We set up inn the German camp across from the Washer Well Women.
We were trying to get stale marshmallows into their well.
They were armed with wicker rug beaters but we got a few in anyway.
When one side or the other got hit with a marshmallow, they would collapse into the street screaming in mock pain.
At one point some of the Youngers dashed out to retrieve ammo that had fallen short, in the confusion, someone stole the trebuchet.
It turned up and it wasn’t the washer women who stole it.
We keep telling them that the Cuthberts well is the best in Willingtown.
Admittedly the Cuthberts well is simply a hose bib with a roof over it.
Some of the washer women came over to hang wet laundry upon it.
I suppose that they might be considering our superiority.
I got in a little trouble first & second weekends for sometimes doing parades without jerkin or doublet.
It was stinking hot and I was melting.
This weekend, I was cold nearly the whole time.
I didn’t skip the jerkin, I would have frozen without it.
Sunday was quite windy.
I missed a call from the mechanic, as I was doing closing parade on Sat.
It turned out to be a warning that it would be at least Monday before they were done.
2 more times the wrong part arrived.
We finally figured out the problem.
Most GM J-body series parts are interchangeable, but there is some variation between early mid & late J-body.
We needed to order an idler pulley for a Chevy Corsica rather than for a Buick and that should do the trick.
Looks like another 2 days. i might get it back for the weekend.
The car died the weekend before labor day weekend.
I don’t have it back yet.
The cooling system let loose on 280 and by the time I was somewhere safe to park, I had a fried engine.
Then it took a pay period before I was able to bail it out.
I got it back early last week and drove it 1 day when an idler pulley failed.
That was an exciting night.
Don & I emptied the last of the Santa Clara storage into his trailer, then we babied the car back to El Cerrito.
In the dark, you could just make out a very faint glow of the temperature light, because the water pump was not getting enough belt action.
I did not want to cook another engine, but couldn’t afford another tow so soon.
Drive one exit, let it rest a long time, repeat.
Being unsure about this weeks weather, (fortunately, it did not rain as predicted on Sunday) we battened down hatches in the guild yard.
We also stopped at the Casa De Fruta restaurant for coffee to go on the way out.
Looking across the place, it was packed and I recognized nearly every face from fair.
I think we are good for business there.
Sharon & Don dropped me off at Colma BART on the way home and I arrived in El Cerrito around mid nite.
I popped across the rd. Popped the hood, saw the serpentine belt laying ac ross the top of the engine, I had a pretty good idea what Arjay had tried to call me about.
Anyway, I got home on foot around 1 last Sunday, and crashed instantly.
The alarm went off at 530 any my day began anew.
I like walking and hiking.
They are becoming more And more difficult due to lower spine pain, and something I suspect is an incorrectly healed foot fracture several years ago.
Im also not in the greatest cardio vascular shape.
I can usually get from home to BART in 25 mins as it is downhill.
Usually the trip up is around 35 mins with the gain in elevation of 300ft in the last quarter mile of a 1.3mi trip.
Google maps helped me trim it down to 1.3 with a route that was not intuitive to me.
In the last month, the trip back up is closer to an hour.
I have to keep stopping to rest.
One of the weekends, I stopped to rest on the bench outside Kensington Circus Pub.
While resting, the mist turned into an actual light shower.
I cowered in the entry and waited out 2 showers before resuming my trek home.
It was around 1am.
With the shorter route, I no longer pass the pub so that bench is not available.
I seem to really gain weight in Aug Sept and part of Oct and then things stabilize and Im in that mode right now.
Im also under a lot more stress than usual and Ive been pushing myself physically ally for the last year.
I may have finally hit a wall.
We had a cool weekend at faire and attendance was lighter than usual.
Sunday was rather windy.
Riding down with Sharon Don & Margie, in a compact pickup truck, they got a late start and picked me up at work.
We arrived at faire and unloaded. The 4 of us unloading from a compact truck after a 1.5hr trip looked like a clown car at the circus.
Soon after Bah, then Budd, followed by Sue & Dave arrived with supplies that had to be unloaded.
As people started to head for bed, I wandered out to P-Camp to the Living Room.
The Living Room is a corral of RVs, surrounding a large carpeted area full of soft squishy arm chairs and sofas under the stars with some LED lighting to brighten things up a tad.
There is also a party tent next to it also carpet over the dirt with more soft seating inside.
Someone gave me 2 over chilled Guiness stouts. They were great but I think Id have enjoyed them more if they had been warmer.
This year, the party tent has a stripper pole in the middle.
What I saw was really more athleticism than titilation.
Phenomenal technique.
A jump and a grasp of the pole about 6ft above the ground with the OUTSEP of one foot against the pole.
This was a starting point of a trip to the top, and then once inverted a trip to the bottom, and then back up.
Then her boyfriend “Princess” took a turn starting on the ground kneeling and he managed a “lever” maneuver that had him on the pole horizontal parallel to the ground.
It was worthy of olympic gymnastics competition.
I later found out he has a bad rotator cuff and he’s STILL able to do moves like that.
Im still jealous.
Saturday night, the guardsmen had their party, this week the theme was rum.
I had a Seabreeze and a Havana Sidecar.
As they were shutting down they had just mixed up some more “Gumby shots”.
I ended up heading on to the archer party with a 6oz Gumby shot in my hand.
Its bright green, what more can I say. Finally ended up out at “The Living Room” out at P-Camp.
Earlier in the evening was hamburgers at Cuthberts, a screening of “Labyrinth” up at Royal Court, and Dance Macabre did their annual after hours night glow stick parade
The nights were in the low 40s. I bring an old Dacron sleeping bag, almost expendable, but I wished Id brought a better one.
At least I was in a tent and not out in the open on a hay bale like last year.
It was nice to get back to the guild yard, and just slip into my tent.
Nothing to set up, just crawl in.
Looking at weather, I already have a hoodie and sweatpants stashed there, but I think Ill bring a little more clothing this weekend. (Knit beanie for sure)
Unfortunately morning dawned….
“The day doth break, My head doth ache, I really had a ball last night!, The morning light is WAY too bright, AAAAAACK! THE FAIRE IS OPEN TO ALL!!!”
Well, not quite the morning parade song, but its close. I was challenging Angus for hangover status.
Those Gumby shots have a price the next morning.
Speaking of Angus, he did his “Drunk Constable thing, laying on the road looking totally dead.
By the end of the afternoon, people had stuck $50 into his tankard, including a 20.
SOMEONE totally loved his schtick.
This year, we have a 4ft tall trebouchet.
The very same one we tagged Molly with last week.
We set up inn the German camp across from the Washer Well Women.
We were trying to get stale marshmallows into their well.
They were armed with wicker rug beaters but we got a few in anyway.
When one side or the other got hit with a marshmallow, they would collapse into the street screaming in mock pain.
At one point some of the Youngers dashed out to retrieve ammo that had fallen short, in the confusion, someone stole the trebuchet.
It turned up and it wasn’t the washer women who stole it.
We keep telling them that the Cuthberts well is the best in Willingtown.
Admittedly the Cuthberts well is simply a hose bib with a roof over it.
Some of the washer women came over to hang wet laundry upon it.
I suppose that they might be considering our superiority.
