"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

So, if I'm going to be in one place for a while, which it appears I am, I aim to get back to some of the things I was putting off until I was settled.

One of those is reenacting. While I've tried other periods and found their charms, Rev War is still my favourite. My old group, sadly, is gone. john_arundel and gr_c17 have found a new, very similar home; but, despite it having people in it that I'm fond of, I have a feeling that I wouldn't get on with some of the other members they've told me about.

So I'm casting around for a new group to join, and I'm open to suggestions.

• British (including regular or Loyalist), please.


• I spent a decade in a group that was broad-tent, family-friendly, "let's get the basics right, but we're not asking anyone to live rough". I'd be OK with that, but I'd also be open to a more "progressive", authenticity-oriented group.


• I'd prefer it to be a welcoming group (as discussed by Kelsey Freeman at Historically Speaking), just because that's the sort of atmosphere I'm more comfortable with.


• One that's social both at events and away from them--and by "social" I mean more than just "gets hammered every Friday and Saturday night".


• And preferably one that doesn't do a tremendously "exceptional" impression. By which I mean that I think there are plenty of groups doing light infantry or riflemen or grenadiers or fusiliers or Highlanders or rangers or left-handed Roman Catholic Swabian jaegers. There aren't enough bog-standard hat companies (regular or Provincial).


• Oh, and, of course, it would be good if their level of activity doesn't put me in for a stroke first time out. I'm working to get fit, but if you need to be triathlon-fit to play, I'll be the guy everyone in the section is waiting for to catch up.

Whew! Got my taxes done (far too close tot he last minute!) And a nice bit of cash to come back, which maybe The Teacher and I can use for some of the trips we keep planning for our spare time (ha! as if we had any of that!)

She and I had a delicious dinner with C& M last night. She really liked them a lot (as who wouldn't) and everyone seemed to get on well.

I got the latest car tuneup accomplished after about 3-4x as long as it should have taken, nuking most of my day.

Also had a very fun game of Battlefront over the weekend with some of the lads, followed by a game of Agricola. I'm almost sure my hairsbreadth victory had nothing to do with forgetting to tell them important rules until near the end of the game. (Which john_arundel swears is part of my fiendish MO.

Speaking of him, The Teacher and I also went out yesterday to see the MTT field at Marietta. Master Arundel was there with Sir Geoffrey Peel's Company, all looking prosperous and healthy despite the rain Saturday. We stopped and talked to people from several other groups, including fellows from The Ship's Company, who had erected a slice of a ship's gundeck as their camp. Also some WOTR chaps, a group of 1er REP, an East German infantryman, and some early Byzantine types. Oh, plus lads of the 84th RHE (Rev War) and a motley group of Jacobites. :-D

Ebay on reenacting, courtesy of john_arundel.

soccer_fox and I went to hear Ellis Paul on Friday night; he did a wonderful concert! Then we went down to my mum's on Saturday and came back yesterday. In between, we helped do a little more clearing of the mass of detritus that my dad left behind, did a few odds and ends of tasks for my mum, and took her out to dinner at her favourite restaurant. We also drove up to Williamsburg and spent an hour or two wandering around the British Army encampment that was the focus of their annual "Under the Red Coat" event. john_arundel has a great summary of the event in his journal!

I heard that my niece Sarah is off to graduate school in Wales, that my sister Victoria is thinking of moving out to New Mexico, and that my sister Cornelia and her partner have been taking their dachshund around to pet adoption fairs in hopes of finding a dog he will like to adopt so as to assuage his separation anxiety following the death of their other hound. Of course, since it's them, the one it sounds as if they have settled on has multiple chronic physical and mental health problems...

Traffic was awful going down, not too bad coming back. We talked a lot in the car, making plans and discussing all sorts of random topics: friends, public policy, books...

After we got home, we walked over to the county library (as opposed to the town library) and I got a card and we checked out books and CDs, then walked back through the park. The far end of the path runs past a number of migrant labor dormitories apartment blocks patronized by young Latino men, some of whom heckled us and shouted sexual innuendos at us as we walked past. Nice. Classy. We had dinner (NJS made a delicious salad with bacon and mushrooms and spring onions) and watched "Hear My Song", a movie I love that she had not seen before. The weather was lovely--cool and breezy evening following a warm but not humid day.

I'm feeling very out of sorts. The weekend was nice, and I was really happy most of the time. But at some point last night a great funk settled on me, and I don't quite know how to shift it. Work seems depressing and boring, nothing seems very happy and cheerful; I just feel like crawling into a hole and pulling it in after me. Not good. Hopefully I will snap out of it as suddenly and mysteriously as I snapped into it.

So, I was looking for different reenacting groups in Europe, and I came across this picture.

Yes, for those of you sufficiently endowed with Napoleonic geekitude to be awed, that is a Dutch-Belgian Napoleonic reenacting unit standing in the yard of the Chateau of Hougomont!

( Read more... )

But it's time to kilt up and go down to Alexandria for the annual Scottish Preview at the Lyceum. I anticipate a lot of very chilly, erm, knees, as various faux Scots talk to passers-by about things Alban. Two or three of us will be there representing the 18th century Highland regiments. I think in view of the cold I'll be in my 77th Foot kit today (the waistcoat and coat are good, heavy wool...)

Edit: Oh bugger. I won't, either; john_arundel still has it. "Temperate" 42nd uniform for me, then (the one with the thin coat and the linen waistcoat...)