What I did on my summer vacation

Well now that things are settled down here, all the fires are out and I have caught up with the Gunwalker T-Shirt orders, I can tell you all about my 2 week summer vacation.

Readers will remember that I am a historical re-enactor. I spent my 2 weeks at a little get together we call Pennsic. This year we had 11,500 people camped out north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The SCA is a large organization with many facets. For a much better explanation of it than I could possibly give you, go here.

Pennsic is about 90 minutes from my parent’s house, so I even got to spend a day with them. There is a certain chipmunk who wishes I’d have just stayed away. He was caught by a .22 bullet after raiding the bird feeder.

I also got to spend some time showing my father how to use the Dillon 650 progressive reloading press he owns. He bought the thing nearly 20 years ago, but he never got it set up. When I bought my pistol, he had me set it up and use it, but he never learned how to use it himself. Now he knows how to use it.

Pennsic is our annual “War” between two of the “Kingdoms” in the SCA. It is the largest event we hold, and typically the battles run about 1000 people on a side. Yes, battles. And we don’t have some fat guy throwing beanbags and shouting “Magic Missile!” We hit each other with sticks, really hard.

The fighting is just one aspect of it, but it is a large part of what we do. One of the real draws of Pennsic, or indeed any SCA event is the people you meet. Here’s a photo of me with three people you should know. One is obvious who she is. The other two have asked me not to name them, but I can say that they are gun bloggers.

Breda apparently had a good time. She even danced. I do a bit of historical dance (the SCA time period is from 400-1600 AD, or thereabouts) so I taught her a few dances and we had a great time. The bread she baked for me was a huge hit. The other two were, as is typical of all my gunnie friends, really nice guys. How is it that you get a bunch of guys and gals, armed to the teeth, and they are the friendliest people around? Maybe Heinlein was right. An armed society is a polite society.

I had a great time. Even the drive home was great. The homecoming, however, sucked. Right after we left home, the power failed at the house. We came home to a house that was 90 degrees, and a refrigerator/freezer that hadn’t had any power for almost 2 weeks. We lost something like $400 worth of the finest beef and pork you can buy. (My farmer friend, who raised it, is also in the SCA) I tried not to cry as it all went into the trash. The power company sent out an emergency truck and he confirmed what my father suspected. The 110V still worked, but the 220V which powers the AC, refrigerator, and other large appliances, was off. They just cabled us into the neighbor’s power box. Basically we are running our house off a big extension cord. It’s pretty funny. But at least the AC works now.

Aside from that last part, my vacation was really good. During the time I was gone I got plenty of Gunwalker T-Shirt orders. Like I posted on Monday, I’ve placed the order for the shirts with the shirt printer. He’s promised them to me for the middle of next week. I’m back at work at my unnamed job. And in a couple of weeks I’ll be back up north for the NorthCoast Blogger meet in Ohio. Life is pretty good.

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