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:

Never the less, this last gasp of the remains of winter is a welcome cooling down before I must fire up the air conditioner, probably next week sometime.  I am not looking forward to that day.

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

That is the yearly traditional stipend for the new British Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.  She will hold this role for 10 years.  We have a Texas Poet Laureate, Larry D. Thomas, but Texas doesn’t typically give them much more than a cool title and the recipient only gets to hold the title for 1 year.   So, no 600 bottles of sherry per year.  Dang.