Fair Weekend 1 (continued)

Contacts at Faire

Sunday morning one of the young couples was about to put in their contacts. They are one of the good couples. That is, they fit. They make a cute couple. They even use the same contact solution.

They use the hydrogen peroxide stuff that has to sit for six hours to devolve. I've heard it works well and I would use it too if I wore my contacts every day.

Both their little containers got knocked over and the fluid did not work properly. One of them put in the first contact and it burned like fire. I had some regular contact fluid, even though I cannot ware my contacts at Faire any more. The dust is just nuts. Most people can get away with it with a bit of care. Some folks put their contacts in at home before they come out and do no take them off until they go home again. That is an option for some I suppose.

So many people ware glasses of the modern variety at Faire for just this reason. For non-participants it goes pretty unnoticed. People who work there seem to find ways around it.

My feet hurt

My feet hurt to the point that it worries me. One of the early signs of diabetes is foot pain. The soles of my feet start to hurt if I stand in one place too long. My ankles start to hurt if I sit for too long. My knees start to hurt if I lay funny, or sit Indian style. Indian style sitting is for the young. My feet may go numb if my pants are too tight when I sit Indian style.

Standing around is what kills me. Walking is not so bad, but I have to go at a pretty good pace. The walk of death (from camp to the front gate and back) feels good if it is not too hot. By the time I get back to camp, I'm ready to sit down, but feel better.

Hopefully I just need some new insoles on my boots.

Splitting wood

I had no idea my newly acquired wood splitting knowledge from Ike would come in handy so soon.

I was passed out in the large after walking Faire on Saturday afternoon when I hear this thump thump thump noise coming from our camp. Accompanied by cussing. Manic "Die! die! Die!" cussing. I stumble from the air mattress and the oven of  a tent, stumble to the court yard between the pit (kitchen trailer) and the GP large.  Shawn and Tim are there pounding on a single piece of wood. The wood looks like it has put up quite a fight. They have been hitting it with an ax for twenty minutes.

I would love to say that I split that sucker in one swipe. It took me a dozen. I used the ax to make a slit on the grain. Then Used the wedge and sledge to split th wood. Their trouble was they had the log on the ground. When They hit it, it just bounced. I set it on a high dry spot and leaned it up against a large log. No one cuts logs flat enough with chainsaws to sit them up on edge so you can split them.

Nat said she was proud of me. <smiles> Thanks Dad for the instruction.

Pictures

I'm very distracted by taking pictures. I left the real camera at home this weekend. I will take the real camera to Faire this season if I can. I do so enjoy snapping pictures up there. The snaps from this past weekend are just that. Snapshots. Nothing special. I had to modify some of the pictures to get contrast. Some look a bit cartoonish. They are better now than they were before. The smoke and dust were so thick that the flash lit up the floating particulates better than the subject.

Every one else got the good pictures. I lugged the camera around and only got normal snaps. I missed Heath sleeping on the cooler for one.  Oh, well. Next weekend.

TRF added a feature. It is a climbing wall in the shape of a castle tower. That is too cool. The only trouble is, I want to go up in the tower and take some frigging pictures. Alas, it is hallow with no way to get up the middle. They could have put a spiral stair case up that thing and charged people to take pictures. BAH!!!!