[TheForge] Hello, all ;-) Back from the Wars...

[Michael]

Hi Phlip,
Glad your back; Dan Brewer and I both enjoyed meeting you at ABANA 2006.
Mikey

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Saint Phlip
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 7:01 AM
To: Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: [TheForge] Hello, all ;-) Back from the Wars...

Glad to finally get a chance to take a breath. Will finally have a
chance to listen to y'all, again, after a very busy few weeks.

As to what I've been up to, at the end of June, I went over to the
Left Coast, as many of you know, to help a friend with some household
remodelling. While there, I was able to attend the big ABANA
conference, and meet several of you, as has been mentioned. I
particularly want to say a big Hello to Steve Kayne, who is posting
again- keep it up Steve- I enjoy your postings too, ya know ;-)

I also attended the An Tir Coronation the following weekend, with the
Mastermyr Project in my custody- need to hear from Bill Clemens ASAP,
to send him some money. The Mastermyr is still in Seattle area- my SCA
folk are fascinated, and are holding on to it, to show at as many Left
Coast SCA events as they can before Bill needs it back for other
borrowers. I covered most of this in an interim email, before I left
again for the Pennsic War. I will, however, publicly thank our guys
from TheForge who made the ABANA conference so much fun, including
Ries and his cooker and oysters, etc, as well as the folks who rode me
back and forth, so I didn't need the bus. I love you guys, THANK-YOU.
Also, I want to thank the SCAdians who got me to Coronation, provided
me with a tent, cot, and sleeping bag, not to mention Lotsa Good Food
and general hospitality. Lovely treatment for someone so far from home
;-)

Rest of my trip to Seattle was essentially uneventful, although
extremely annoying- my friend's girlfriend was a shrieking, squalling,
she-dawg. Hope he gets rid of her, but I doubt it. I was at least able
to manage to produce a fair amount of work for him, despite her
interferance and annoyance. But, OTOH, I most certainly learned a lot
about Patience ;-0

Got home August 1st, but had to get ready to leave for Pennsic.
Intended departure was evening August 3rd, since my gotta-be-there
time was Aug 5th at 8 AM and it's a 10 hour drive and I prefer to take
long drives at night- cooler, and since I'm dealing with driving
across New England from the eastern end of CT, many fewer idiots on
the road. Unfortunately, a head gasket blew on the Jeep SUV I was
supposed to take, was unable to be fixed in time, so I hadda do
Pennsic Light- stash everything I needed to take in a VW Jetta. That
meant that I could take a minimum, with a very few smithing items-
hammer, a project, rather than my smithing/camping tent and my forge.
Did get there on time, 7 AM Sat, and was immediately fed a lovely
Stout I'd never tried before, as well as tastes of two different
meads, before I'd been there half an hour- yes, guys, there IS a Deity
;-) Dealt with the necessary paperwork, etc, to set up our emcompment,
set it up, and a campmate arrived, offloaded all his stuff, and got us
firewood. Cooked dinner over an open fire, and died, about 10 PM. Next
day, went over to the storage locker we keep with the campmate and his
p/u truck, and brought back assorted goodies, including our kitchen
tent and many supplies, tents, etc for our campmate who flies in from
Ansteorra (Texas), as well as set-up for Johan ( John Husvar) who
camped with us this year, since he wasn't merchanting.

Rest of the week was setting up camp, and getting my First Aid and CPR
certs in order (they'd expired) so I could help at the War as a
Chirurgeon (medic/first aider). Did, however, have a couple
experiments in camp, cooking in period style pottery over an open
fire, and hustled a donation of Moose for one of the experiments-
first time I tried it- quite good ;-)

Friday, I worked my first shift as a Chirurgeon- only patients I
treated were a couple of our supply wagons, for which I aired up the
tires. Saturday, my (mumblyeth) birthday, I worked another shift, with
two Chirurgeons in training, who happened to be experienced Trauma
RNs- very excellent folks- as a full Chirurgeon, I was in charge of
them, and was very impressed by their potential- was very happy to
give both of them high marks. That evening, Johan drove in, we had a
nice dinner, and relaxed in camp, enjoying the Pennsic ambiance- over
all a lovely birthday.

Next morning, I got up, we ate, and we headed up the hill. I was
getting ready for my usual Noon to 4 PM shift. As I approached
Chirurgeon's Point, preparted to do my usual, "I'm here, about to
clean up, is there anything I need to know from the last shift"
routine, and was informed that:

Chirurgeon's Point was closed- had been so at midnight
No one was to wear their Chirurgeon insignia, upon pain of being
thrown off site.
No one was to discuss the situation, upon pain of being thrown off site.
EMS was taking over. No volunteers wanted.

In short, the Lady Mayor had determined that, for reasons known to no
one, the 13,000 people at Pennsic 35 were to be serviced by 12
inexperienced (with SCA) members of the EMS service (rather than with
12 EMS members and our usual 200 or so volunteers), and that anyone
who mentioned this, or disagreed, would be thrown off site.

I was NOT amused. If anyone wants to see how _I_ helped get the
information out Sunday night, go to www.florilegium.org  .  Always
wanted to be a knowledgeable anonymous source when I grew up....

Anyway, Hel's been a poppin' ever since, and I'll be spending time
dealing with this situation. At this point the best I can do is
contact the appropriate parties, including our Board of Directors, and
see that This Person, who caused the problem, receives extreme
sanctions. Anybody wants to read my statement when I'm done, post me
privately, and I'll be happy to send it along.

And in the mean time, I am _SO_ happy to be back home, amongst a sane
group of... blacksmiths?

Love to all,

-- 
Saint Phlip

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.
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