I’ve added a few more things to this site, mostly just a couple of feed widgets in the side bar.  So, check them out.  I know I don’t post enough, I think of things all the time to post, but lately, just been too busy to get them out and up.  Anyway …

I’ve gotten busy with a few things.  I’ll be down at San Jacinto this Saturday and this time I get to participate.  I have been jealous of one of my friends who goes out and does re-enacting all the time so I’ve decided to go and try it out and join a group.   They play mostly the Mexican solders at the Texas Revolution events and well that sounds like a lot of interesting fun for me playing the bad guys and such, so I decided I had to check that out.  I signed up for the Civilian camp for this weekend, so I mostly will be running away from them this time.  I imagine I may want to be a Texian for the most part if I do get involved, but I feel it would be fun to be flexible so to speak.

I went out to the George Historical Park on the 10th, in the rain, and got to meet these people.  Lots of nice costumes, pretty uniforms and shiny guns.  I’m a sucker for weapons.  I have a collection of swords and knives I just couldn’t part with.  I suppose if I do get into this, I may invest in a gun or two.  I only am interested in historical weapons, and I can’t imagine myself with anything later than 1865.  Just no interest in that sort of stuff.  A Black Powder weapon makes a huge bang.  I have a hard time with that, but at the same time, it’s a lot of fun.  Much like a roller coaster.  Scary yet fun at the same time.

I mean I did have family actually involved in the Texas Revolution so it does also fall in to the honor the Ancestors thing with me.   Honoring the past is very important to me and that may sound weird to some people and what I say to that is, deal with it.  :P  Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.   Times and tech may change, but people are still people.

No telling where this will lead me.

Anyway…  Did an over night on the Elissa this Saturday.  We had boy scouts, they were fun.  The weather was excellent and the kids were mostly cub scouts.  They were very rambunctious, however, we had more parents than kids out there so we had a lot of hands to hold on to them.  Got into a lot of fun conversations about ships and the navy and various other shippy things with the parents.  It’s a great cause.

Thirdly, I will be doing some poetry reading on the 15th at Barns & Noble.  You don’t want to know just how nervous I am about this.  I have no clue what I ‘m going to read yet.  I may just print it up and read poems I’ve written at random by opening books and reading.   I got into this by promising that I would  be a featured poet.  It just seemed like a far away future that would never come.  But it did, gawds…  here I am.  I’ve published most my stuff on line, in little unknown chap books and in SF magazines and news publications  for alternate religious organizations that no one knows about in the general public.  I will need to talk to the person who’s organizing this thing and see just what kind of time they expect of me.  I made  a promise and I intend to keep it, no matter how much it scares the crap out of me.

To finish on a completely different note, here’s a poll that has nothing to do with ships, re-enacting, poetry or anything else in this post:

If you love folk music of any kind, that is sea shanties, mountain music or English folk music, you don’t want to miss this!

Hurricane’s a’ comin’ we are all going to die
Hurricane’s a comin’ we are all going to die
Storm surge is a risin’ yet there’s not a cloud in the sky
Hurricane’s a comin’ we are all going to die

I’ve tied off the boats ma’am and filled up the tanks
The water’s already lappin’ up top of the pier
The rain has yet to come but the floods already here
Hurricane’s a comin’ and we are all going to die

I’ve taped up the windows for what good my dear
I’ve dragged in my tables and chairs and the dog
The cops are a knockin’ tellin’ us all we’d better be gone
Hurricane’s a comin’ we are all going to die

The wind is a howlin’ and sea’s a slamin’ the wall
Murdocks is now a pile of wood and debris
And now its a’ sitting on Seawall boulevard
Hurricane’s a comin’ and we are all going to die

Oh my beautiful beach house sitting on the gulf
Is now in pieces in a mound on Smith point
Along with my TV’s and furniture and stuff
Hurricane’s a comin’ and we are all going to die

Write your number on your arm if you plan to stay
So we can tell your mom when we find you in the bay
The coasties won’t go out when the storms here today
Hurricane’s a comin’ and we are all going to die

Ten feet of water flowing down on the Strand
The live oaks are poisoned and the everything’s dead
But Elissa is floating and doing just fine
Hurricane’s a comin’ and we are all going to die

Payco marina has been smashed into bits
Hundreds boats are now on all over the streets
Who’s going to clean it, the City or the State?
Hurricane’s a comin’ and we are all going to die

The water has been gone and power is still down
It’s been three weeks and we are still in the dark
FEMA has been passing out MRE’s and ice
Hurricane’s a comin’ and we are all going to die

It smells of fish and my carpet’s in piles
I’ve shoveled out three feet of mud from my house
Insurance informed me they won’t pay for the flood
Hurricane’s a comin’ and we are all going to die

Hurricane’s a’ comin’ we are all going to die
Hurricane’s a comin’ we are all going to die
Storm surge is a risin’ yet there’s not a cloud in the sky
Hurricane’s a comin’ we are all going to die

It happened over the weekend.  The sorrow I feel about this is overwhelming.

The fact that my Dad is coming down for that weekend too doesn’t help matters either.  There will be a lot of festivities in Clear Lake next week for the 40th annaversery of the Apollo 11 lunar landing and my Dad will be in town for it all.  Looks like I may be running around with him for a large part of that and I need to clean up the boat and make it nice for his stay.  All the hotels are booked.  I warned him.  I have the AC in the companion way and it will be a pain to go up to the bath house in the middle of the night.  It will be fun to catch up with him and I’m looking forward to it.  But boat living isn’t for him.  Oh well.

Nothing like it in the world.  After we were done and the kids were getting to bed, me and the crew went down to the local pub for a drink.  The captain of the Seagull was down there.  He can’t drink alcohol so he was drinking odd non-alcoholic stuff.  He’s a quiet guy from Rhode Island and pretty much fits the stereotypical Yankee sea captain down to the costume and accent.  He bought me a drink, and I chatted with him a bit.

Afterwords, I got back to the ship and tried to sleep down in the hot hold.  I didn’t want to drive back quite yet because that was a lot of beer for me in a short time and I didn’t feel right about driving just yet.  I woke up around 5 am and got my stuff and drove home.  Not much sleep was had.  I only got a couple of hours sleep when I got back home and then got into the shower and off to the Gulf Coast poetry meeting.  Late I may add, but had a good time.

Boat is still hot even with the tarp I’ve added.  I am almost thinking of moving the ac back into the companion way.  Off to bed.

Oh that’s right, I won’t be coming home tomorrow.  I’ll be going to Galveston and doing an overnight at the Elissa.  I went so far as to volunteer to be an officer, 1st mate.  That means staying up all night tomorrow night and sleeping in the daymen’s cabin.  And.. getting up in the middle of the night to go stargazing with the Girlscouts.  I’m actually looking forward to that bit.  I should print out a few star charts.    I really need to concentrate on learning how to use a sextant.  It would be fun to show it off on the overnights.

I was hoping to go to a poetry workshop on Saturday, but that will all depend on how dead tired I am when I get home, if I can get home in time to shower.  I was really looking forward to that too.  Oh well.

In other things, there is still ice in the freezer, but it looks like it should be done defrosting in another day or so.  I’m tired of having to buy ice.  At least I have a good 5 day cooler.

I’ll have pictures up tonight, possibly, but more likely tomorrow.  I have a little more ‘editing’ to do.  I took quite a few as well as video over the weekend.  I didn’t make it out to San Jacinto.  Had to meet with the grove.  And then, make it to the ship to attend to the 48 Girlscouts due at 6pm.  They were sweeties, mostly brownies there to spend the night on the ship and learn about knots and ship lore.

The videos I have suffer from not having a mic but, it works.  Unfortunately, I handed the camera over to someone else and he forgot that you don’t want to keep tilting a video camera like a still camera to better frame the picture.  So, I had to do a little editing to make it watchable.  lol!

Nice camera tho.  It’s a Canon with 12.1 Mpixels, HD video and about the size of a small cell phone.  I think it has more features than my old Canon A1 I had back when I graduated from high school.  Disadvantages are:  No interchangeable lenses, no mic as I mentioned before.  No variation in file format.  But.. it does do SD cards, and I have a reader on my computer and phone and hand held for those.  Needs blue tooth though.  It is small enough to fit in a pocket.  The charger finishes in around an hour and a half.  All good things for what I wanted it for and that being able to take good quality pictures on the fly.

Again, pictures forthcoming.