Late September: Looking back, looking forward

In general, I've had a good month of September. The SCA is never far from my mind.

I began the month with a totally non-SCA road trip to Florida, which actually started in late August, because the goal was to witness the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on August 30. Which my friends and I did from an oceanside beach called Alan Shepard Park. We also visited the Kennedy Space Center and other fun sights. It's been a long time since I traveled for reasons other than the SCA. It was, quite literally, a blast!

I've done a little bit of weaving -- not much, and I made a couple of mistakes in my pattern, but I have a lot of empty warp left on my loom. The instrumentalists in Laydes Fayre have started on a few new pieces to perform at a later date.

Events: Last Saturday I enjoyed my trip to Stierbach's Baronial Birthday, and this coming weekend I will attend Fall Coronation, where Laydes Fayre will perform at lunchtime.

The Laydes also will sing at Battle on the Bay, which this year will feature the investiture of Storvik's next Baronesses. Yes, our next Coronets will be two women, Lady Orla Carey and Maestra Tirzah di Nola. They are best friends, and both have contributed in many ways to Storvik over the past decades. I just don't know yet whether I will be able to join the Laydes at this outing, as I am waiting to hear whether I will be serving as an early-voting election judge (Maryland's fancy term for "poll worker") for eight consecutive days centered on the same weekend as Battle on the Bay. I really hate to miss the event, especially as baronial chronicler, but I need the money.

I've formulating plans for a couple of other SCA projects that are bigger than the tasks I usually do, but I'm not ready to write about them publicly. Stay tuned!

And now I need to work on the newsletter....

A Tale of Pennsic: Lighting the Dream (Part 2)

To continue the story of the Great Power and Water Outage of Pennsic 53:

While I was teaching dancing that evening, the head of the Blue Feather Ball and I had a young man serving as a "runner" between the Great Hall and the dance tent to help us figure out what to do.

When I called an end to the dancing, I dismissed the musicians, but then I headed over to the Great Hall. I wasn't sure what to expect -- maybe a few dozen people standing outside the building and noshing on whatever they could grab in the near-darkness.

Instead, I was amazed.

During my dance lesson, Joshua (the fellow running the ball) had sent word out through various Facebook groups and (probably) other social media: Bring Lights!

And people did exactly that! Ball attendees brought every sort of battery-powered illumination imaginable. Flashlights. Lanterns. String lights. Little LEDs embedded in plastic tubes. Faux torches that gave off a flickering yellow glow. Artificial candles. I saw a string of multicolored lights wrapped around the frame of a rollator.

Tamerlane Yurts, which sells a lot of beautiful metal-and-glass lanterns as well as Mongolian gers, donated dozens if not hundreds of strings of battery-powered "fairy lights," and a young woman handed them out. I gratefully took a string to join in the fun.

Here's what the scene looked like. I hope I'm not invading anyone's privacy with this photo.

And here's what I looked like at the event:

Photos don't really do justice to the event.

Beyond the obvious -- rescuing an event that might have disintegrated into a disaster -- I was thrilled at witnessing a marvel of chivalry, cooperation and teamwork ... dare I say The Dream that we in the SCA all revere?