Last night the leader from my old re-enactment group, Giles, stopped by the house. He had tried calling earlier while I was waging war with the lawn. When I tried to call him back he was in the basement waging war with his �toys�. He had heard a rumor regarding a friend of ours upcoming wedding. Someone had said we werenÂ’t going because he was going. He wanted to come over to make sure that wasnÂ’t the case. It wasnÂ’t the case at all.

Our friend, Chastity, was originally supposed to get married on May 6th, Boopie's birthday. I was planning on going to the ceremony and cutting out early from the reception with Boopie for his own celebration. A relative of the brides was killed and the wedding was postponed due to the funeral. We were then notified it was going to be this weekend, Memorial Day weekend. We have a re-enactment this weekend that we really enjoy doing, Boopie will get to live fire his rifle here, and we get to see some friendÂ’s we only see at one or two events a year.

Now, that being said, I would blow that all off for a friendÂ’s wedding. Even if the friend is a re-enactor and should have known better than scheduling a wedding on a re-enactment weekend. Just kidding! She sometimes reads this blogÂ… had to get the dig in. The real reason we are still going is that at our last re-enactment we ordered a bunch of stuff from a merchant that is retiring from re-enacting. This is the last event that we will both do together. I told them that I would be there to pick up and pay for the items. They didnÂ’t charge me up front because theyÂ’ve known us since we started re-enacting. In fact weÂ’ve bought a lot of supplies from them. These arrangements were made PRIOR to finding out the new date of the wedding. Actually they were made prior to finding out the original date was postponed.

It had absolutely nothing to do with any bad blood between Giles and me. We talked for two hours and straightened out any perceived problems there may have been. This, like most things is just a serious of bad information and misunderstandings. Although while speaking with him, I did feel myself getting hot under the collar. Not at him, but at the bullshite that was going on. It was this precise line of rumor, innuendo and malicious behavior that started issues I had last November. It seems that there are people in the world that live off of others strife. If they arenÂ’t getting what they want, they manufacture their own. That may not be the case here, it may just be a misunderstanding, but you never know.

As far as IÂ’m concerned, Giles and I are good. No issues, no problems. HeÂ’s welcome in my home and camp. Now if Chastity can only learn to schedule things on non re-enactment weekends. (The first date fell on another re-enactment. Bloody Lake.) Women!

I'll bet there are not too many people hooked on crack that can play the bagpipes.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:39 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 530 words, total size 3 kb.

I am not dead. Maybe MIA, definitely neglectful, but I am NOT dead.

IÂ’d love to tell you some grand story of where IÂ’ve been, but thereÂ’s nothing to it. Sunday was motherÂ’s day. The boys bought Ktreva a computer game she wanted, so I relinquished the computer to her for the day. Hey, itÂ’s her day. The least I could do is let her play her new game. That and I forcibly had to make sure she didnÂ’t do anything that came close to what might be considered work. IE no laundry or anything. I made her take the day off and relax. I handled the childerbeasts.

As you may recall we were in a drought. I say were, because we are no longer in one. In fact we are now in the surplus of rain. It seems my re-enacting luck jump-started the rain here in Northern Illinois. The down side is that it has rained every day for the last week and a half. Hell, if I didnÂ’t know better IÂ’d say I was at a re-enactment last weekend. In fact it is raining right now. This has caused me two issues. A) My lawn is growing at an alarming rate and IÂ’m not able to get out and mow it. 2) I canÂ’t get outside to do any of the exterior housework that needs to be done.

Hopefully all the rain comes and is gone for Memorial Day weekend. I have a re-enactment that weekend that I enjoy, and the boys are both looking forward to going to this one. However, for the last three years we have been rained on at this event.

The van is back in the shop for warranty work. Once that is finished IÂ’ll give you an update on that. Yes, I took it back to the same dealership that caused me all the trouble the last time. ItÂ’s warranty work and IÂ’m limited on where I can take it.

In the meantime Ktreva has yet another rental car. She has driven five different vehicles in the last month. Fortunately she only damaged two of them. >ducks under the swing of a cast iron frying pan<

However, I think the biggest news in my life right now is that Ktreva and I are thinking of changing the era we re-enact. We think we might leap forward to the 1830Â’s and do the Black hawk War. ItÂ’s local history, it was the last major Indian war in the Midwest, and it would make it historically accurate for me to have a wife and kids with me at the events. Right now, some of the re-enactors that know me may be dropping their jaws in disbelief. I was one of the people that really wanted to get into the French and Indian war era re-enacting. As part of a group it was easier to get away with huge discrepancies in my presentation. Now that we are on our own, it is much more difficult. Sure there is going to need to be some costuming changes, but that isnÂ’t much. I need to do more research into what I need costuming ways, but the rest of my equipment will be just fine. In fact my Wall tent will be more accurate as they where actually starting to use them around that time.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:32 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 528 words, total size 3 kb.