Catching Up

This blog tends to veer wildly off the road. I was amazed that I hadn't updated it since my brother died. And so very much has happened since then!

Housing: We bought a house. Much like romance and relationships, the house we bought turned out entirely differently than I had planned. We now own a pre-fab modular home on 2 acres of rural land. We have a septic system, but public utility water. We have a wood stove that we use to heat with in winter, although we do have regular PG&E as well -- it's just damn expensive, so we don't use it. We have chickens, and probably more to follow on that subject. We are growing some of our own vegetables, and plan to grow more. Crazy, I know. I still love Streng Bros. homes, and modern house design. We just couldn't find that in the area we were determined to live in. Plus, Miach was never crazy about the modern homes and he's a lot happier here. And it's weird, but we KNEW this was the place the minute we laid eyes on it. It wasn't a flawless sale. Other buyers put money down on it first. But it turned out they didn't buy it, and eventually things worked out. The big problem here is that there is no garage. We built a little barn/shelter, and there is a workshop. Since we threw so much willy-nilly into the workshop when we moved, it needs to be re-organized and then it will probably actually be functional. And we just need to move a bunch of stuff down to the storage area of the barn and get it out of our spare bedroom.

Gaming: At first, our internet up here was so unreliable we gave up online computer gaming. Miach likes console games, anyway. He and his Knight, Gunther, have a semi-weekly gaming night on Thursdays where they play first person shooters into the wee hours.

Eventually, though, we ironed out some of the more aggravating internet connectivity issues, and we've been able to resume playing Lord of the Rings Online. I'm not really "into" it, although sometimes it can be fun. I tried Eve Online again, and frankly it's not much fun to play without Miach and he has no interest in it. What I like about Eve is the player-based economy and skill tree, which is very complicated and fascinating and individual. But it's lonely out there in the huge expanses of intergalactic space.

Social: So, Miach has gotten really good at this whole SCA heavy combat thing. He's been on numerous Court guards and was the Lord Defender of Cynagua. I've been on 3 Courts, and learned a lot. I'm now the Cynagua Chirurgeon, too. We've discussed all the political and social aspects of the whole SCA experience ad infinitum and ad nauseum, and we're feeling pretty darned responsible and reliable when it comes to holding The Dream matrix together for the enjoyment of everyone. Miach came very close to winning the Coronet in May. We were both feeling that it was almost fated to happen for several reasons, and while it would be rude and arrogant to not feign shock and surprise, I actually was neither. Since accepting the loss in Finals, Miach has had trouble getting back into the groove due to ear infections and now a really severe bone bruise and possible muscle tear to his left elbow. We'll just have to see how it goes. But if he recovers and regains his momentum, and he has every intention of doing so, we feel well prepared should he win Coronet in the future. We actually have A Plan on how to manage it financially. Socially, we're really quite prepared: Neither one of us is a Drama Queen, both of us have worked professionally with all types and levels of mundane society, and we're both rather good at diplomacy. We both truly like other people most of the time, know what people to stay away from or to be very cautious around, and have a fairly well-honed sense of propriety.

In the long view, it IS shocking and surprising, because when we first joined the SCA we had no intention of ever getting to this level. But Miach discovered he really likes fighting; who knew?

Every time I say "the blog is going to head this way" it heads in a different direction. And since it's mostly a journal, and very few people have ever read it, that doesn't matter so much. But if I was to hazard a guess, I'd say that I'm going to be writing a lot now about trying to live a simpler life, chickens, vegetable gardening, etc. and SCA issues on a more Principality level, vs. a Shire level. And if I had to hazard a guess as to which topic would possibly get some actual traffic, I'd say "chickens". 'Cause they're fascinating, and more and more people are beginning to raise them.