Tuesday June 30th, 2009
20 Years of Squiring
(6/30/09) I am relaxing on the love seat with my feet up on the ottoman at the moment. Linda's on the couch with her laptop playing Sims 2, and we are both watching THE DAILY SHOW. As she is beginning another turn in her game, she asks me if I have written this month's UFT entry. I tell her "no", because ... well because I simply forgot.
Unusual for me to say I realize. Used to be a time where my journal entries were worked up on schedule. Truth is, the time I normally allot for doing my journals has been going into drawing sketches for my “365 Days of Drawing” project. I am also finding that Facebook & Twitter have been quick fixes for my need to write journals as of late, making the writing I had been doing seem far too arduous. Problem is … not everyone uses those social networks. That, and I have been getting complaints about my lack of new entries on my website.
Sorry. I promise to return to a regular schedule again.
RENAISSANCE FAIRES
In May, our local renaissance faires occurred. They came … and went. Once Warhorse Farms stopped being the jousting team at the local events, we lost interest in being at them. For me this is just fine as I was getting sick and tired of the weird belief that the local renaissance faires needed to be in May. Had I attended both events, I would have missed Free Comic Book Day AND the Artist Jam, which would have seriously pissed me off.
In June we attended both the Siouxland Ren Fest & the Duluth Ren Faire. Thanks to some slow healing wounds on my legs, I was not able to attend either event. While the gang did their usual great job and had a lot of fun, I was stuck at home with a pack of petulant, upset cats. When I am gone, they could care less. They are used to that. When Linda is gone … holy crap, panic ensues. The world has come to an end for the cats.
Both the Siouxland & Duluth faires were back-to-back events, so some of our squires made the road trip from Sioux Falls to Duluth to spend a week visiting the sites and local tourist scene. We had access to a condo in Duluth, and were in comfort for the entire time.
Meanwhile, I was a ren faire widow, nursing some wounds and consoling the cats.
The wounds hadn't healed fully, and had i gone, i would have been exposed to all sorts of stuff that could have started a terrible infection. Trust me, having experienced that in the past i never want that to happen again. However, being that i made a promise to be there, i felt like i should be at the faire regardless. Linda, on the other hand, thought otherwise, and argued me down into not going.
MY 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF SQUIRING
20 years ago, I was recruited by my friend Matt Bowerman to attend the Renaissance Faire of the Midlands. He was part of the group that eventually became the Squires of Goethos, and showed me a lot about what it takes to do squiring. I was bitten by the ren faire bug hard, and found a new lifestyle that I enjoyed. Over the next 20 years, we became a solid, professional group that’s known for our reliability and being responsible for the safety of the joust. We became part of Warhorse Farm’s group, and have instructed hundreds of people in the art of being a squire. It is something that I have been very proud of, and am very, very thankful for the hard work everyone has done to help us succeed.
So, after all of this time this may or may not come as a surprise. This is my last year as the head of the Squires of Goethos.
My wife will succeed me and lead the group. I will be helping with my knowledge and experience, and I will still attend some of the ren faires with the group. Linda has collected a group of wonderful people who take time from their lives to make the joust safe and fun for everyone involved. Her dedication to furthering our group’s reach is unquestioned. If not for her dedication, I would not have been able to organize anything these past few years, thanks to the demands on my time as of late.
In these past twenty years, I have had the fortune of being a part of something important. I am so thankful for everyone past and present who have come to the faires and helped make the tourney safe for our knights and for ourselves.
20 Years of Squiring
(6/30/09) I am relaxing on the love seat with my feet up on the ottoman at the moment. Linda's on the couch with her laptop playing Sims 2, and we are both watching THE DAILY SHOW. As she is beginning another turn in her game, she asks me if I have written this month's UFT entry. I tell her "no", because ... well because I simply forgot.Unusual for me to say I realize. Used to be a time where my journal entries were worked up on schedule. Truth is, the time I normally allot for doing my journals has been going into drawing sketches for my “365 Days of Drawing” project. I am also finding that Facebook & Twitter have been quick fixes for my need to write journals as of late, making the writing I had been doing seem far too arduous. Problem is … not everyone uses those social networks. That, and I have been getting complaints about my lack of new entries on my website.
Sorry. I promise to return to a regular schedule again.
RENAISSANCE FAIRES
In May, our local renaissance faires occurred. They came … and went. Once Warhorse Farms stopped being the jousting team at the local events, we lost interest in being at them. For me this is just fine as I was getting sick and tired of the weird belief that the local renaissance faires needed to be in May. Had I attended both events, I would have missed Free Comic Book Day AND the Artist Jam, which would have seriously pissed me off.
In June we attended both the Siouxland Ren Fest & the Duluth Ren Faire. Thanks to some slow healing wounds on my legs, I was not able to attend either event. While the gang did their usual great job and had a lot of fun, I was stuck at home with a pack of petulant, upset cats. When I am gone, they could care less. They are used to that. When Linda is gone … holy crap, panic ensues. The world has come to an end for the cats.
Both the Siouxland & Duluth faires were back-to-back events, so some of our squires made the road trip from Sioux Falls to Duluth to spend a week visiting the sites and local tourist scene. We had access to a condo in Duluth, and were in comfort for the entire time.
Meanwhile, I was a ren faire widow, nursing some wounds and consoling the cats.
The wounds hadn't healed fully, and had i gone, i would have been exposed to all sorts of stuff that could have started a terrible infection. Trust me, having experienced that in the past i never want that to happen again. However, being that i made a promise to be there, i felt like i should be at the faire regardless. Linda, on the other hand, thought otherwise, and argued me down into not going.
MY 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF SQUIRING
20 years ago, I was recruited by my friend Matt Bowerman to attend the Renaissance Faire of the Midlands. He was part of the group that eventually became the Squires of Goethos, and showed me a lot about what it takes to do squiring. I was bitten by the ren faire bug hard, and found a new lifestyle that I enjoyed. Over the next 20 years, we became a solid, professional group that’s known for our reliability and being responsible for the safety of the joust. We became part of Warhorse Farm’s group, and have instructed hundreds of people in the art of being a squire. It is something that I have been very proud of, and am very, very thankful for the hard work everyone has done to help us succeed.
So, after all of this time this may or may not come as a surprise. This is my last year as the head of the Squires of Goethos.
My wife will succeed me and lead the group. I will be helping with my knowledge and experience, and I will still attend some of the ren faires with the group. Linda has collected a group of wonderful people who take time from their lives to make the joust safe and fun for everyone involved. Her dedication to furthering our group’s reach is unquestioned. If not for her dedication, I would not have been able to organize anything these past few years, thanks to the demands on my time as of late.
In these past twenty years, I have had the fortune of being a part of something important. I am so thankful for everyone past and present who have come to the faires and helped make the tourney safe for our knights and for ourselves.