I love it whan a plan comes together...

Everything is falling into place for the vardo project. I have construction space lined up (hooray for parents with large garages!), and it looks like the first three weekends in December will be clear for construction. I'm really hoping that the basics will be done after two good, solid weekends and that I can start on painting and the like on the third - I'm ridiculously in love with this project and want to have something cool to show off to whoever happens to be around for Christmas weekend!

I was a bit worried about the total lack of response from Mr. Lemke at amvardo.com - I'm starting to think that he may be out of the caravan business - but it seems that one of the folks in the local Shire (Lord Eirikr, to be precise) should be able to do the cutting on the large pieces that have had me so worried. I'm still hoping to track down the template set, but having an experienced carpenter type helping with those end panel and bed frame bits should save me a lot of time, plywood, and swearing!

It's been a while...

So I'm still here after all. Yay me!

Life continues as usual. I'm still bulldozing through school, and the graduation-shaped light at the end of the tunnel grows ever closer. In the very near future I'll be sending out resumes and beginning the serious job hunt...

This summer has been a whole lot of nothing, generally. It's been too wretchedly hot to go to SCA events, and the spare cash for fencing gear has been terribly elusive. Next month should clear that up, though, and as it turns out the Thorngill fighter practice isn't prohibitively far away. In the meantime, unless the weather sucks I'll be doing a daytrip to Red Tower next Saturday; I lost track of time and didn't manage to get a full weekend reservation in, but it's the 20th anniversary of my first event and I'm certainly not missing out on that!

Planning for the vardo project has really picked up over the last week or so. Right now I'm planning on assembling the materials in November and spending the first couple of weekends in December doing all the assembly other than putting the roof layers on, and setting up the wiring for the RV park hookup and internal lighting and outlet.. A few weekends after that should let me deal with the basic painting and decoration, and sanding and varnishing the interior bows and runners. Then the roof can go on and by late February (freezy freezy cold!) everything should be ready for a pre-Gulf War shakedown cruise.

Miscellaneous Meanderings

Two weeks and a bit since my last post, all with nothing interesting going on. The new work schedule is turning out to be very nice since I got my sleep schedule beaten into submission - more hours equals more money, and the morning shift has turned out to be much more to my liking. Of course, the rest of my life isn't much to brag about at the moment. School is going well - this term is going by VERY quickly - but I'm really ready to graduate and get on with life. Work is boring - hopefully this will change after graduation as well. And my love life is confusing and complicated and possibly driving me insane, but that is something that this blog is definitely not about.

Planning continues for the vardo project; construction should begin this fall after DragonCon and hopefully after the weather starts to cool down a bit. I've located a source for the trailer, and am planning to find someone local with the wood-related tools and skills that I don't have to cut the large, complicated bits. I'll definitely be attempting to order the template set; the assistance from that in dealing with the cutting and especially in the drilling of pilot holes will be well worth the money. Hopefully I'll be able to get in contact with the designer regarding this; otherwise I'll have to start searching for someone who built their own and still has the templates. I'm still pondering some ideas about the interior that I won't be sure about until I see some better pictures than I've found so far; I really want to set the side benches up with storage compartments, and do the same for the bed platform. Should be possible, but I'm still trying to work out the details.

Off to visit the family this weekend and celebrate America in proper style by grilling ot and setting of fireworks. Next weekend is probably a one-day visit to the July Feast SCA event (it's just too wretchedly hot for me to want to mess with state park cabins right now), and later this month is the annual Royal University event. I'll probably hit that for the whole weekend - air conditioned dorms FTW! Cool classes, too.

Anyways, back to the graph paper I go...

Scheming and Daydreaming

Much to my surprise, my Amazon order was waiting for me when I got home last night - two days ahead of the projected delivery time. I'm certainly not going to complain about that. The tin whistle book is pretty much a collection of most of the stuff that I want to learn to play that isn't in any of the books I have already (other, of course, than "March of Cambreadth" - I need to break down and shell out the small fortune for the complete Heather Alexander songbook), and I finally have "The New Gypsy Caravan". The obsessive planning can now commence at full throttle...

Looking over the diagrams and assembly instructions, it looks like the basic construction isn't going to be terribly difficult. I'll have to be very, very careful with measurements but that's a good idea with any sort of project. It occurred to me that, especially with the lack of response to my email to Mr. Lemke a couple of weeks ago, that I should look into local options for having the complicated bits (the end panels and bed frame parts, mostly)fabricated; that could work out to less than buying the kit, and would avoid the no doubt very high cost of having the kit shipped. I'll start looking into that Monday.

On another happy note, my search for a trailer may be finished. Tractor Supply sells exactly the kind of bare-bones 4x8 that I need for $350 - a nice bit lower than I'd been expecting. It doesn't have side rails, which are apparently more useful for the vardo than I'd expected, but I'd imagine I can more than compensate for that with the help of a local welding shop. I'm starting to think that I may be able to do this (exclusive of the decadent interior and the battery system I'm considering for interior mock-period lanterns and a fan) for under $1000. Can you tell that I'm getting even more excited about this??

Whoohoo! I win!

The latest round of the Battle of the Schedule has been fought and won, with a resounding victory going to me. More hours, morning / early afternoon shifts only, and no Saturday or Sunday nonsense. I can actually start going to SCA Shire meetings, and cook dinner every night, and count on being able to get to events....happy happy joy joy!

My "New Gypsy Caravan" book will allegedly be arriving Monday. I'm looking forward to really getting down to business with that.

Changes, perhaps for the better...

Alas, I have no new adventures to report on since the 5th unless my Tau army's valiant but losing struggle in a three-way battle against Chris's Orks and Josh's Imperial Guard counts. They lost this time, but the Glorious Peoples' Revolutionary Space Militia won't be down for long!

I'm still waiting for my New Gypsy Caravan book; I hadn't realized that the free shipping from Amazon involved a three day wait for the stuff to ship in the first place and then a long, long wait for the Postal Service to get it from Kentucky to Auburn. On the other hand, though, it's not exactly time sensitive - and thanks to the free shipping for orders over $25 I got the wagon book and a cool looking tin whistle tune book for about $2 more than the wagon book and better shipping would've cost. Hopefully the book will have suggestions about finding the trailer component...everything I've found so far is only 5'x8' or has so much junk welded to it that it would be very difficult to use.

It's a bit odd to say that half the people at my part time job getting fired is a good thing, but they did (there seems to have been much providing of free beer and cigarettes to friends and family members, and drinking of beer in the cooler during the work day) and it looks like it may turn into a very lucky break for me. It'll be a day or two before I know, but it looks like I may get morning shift hours in the future rather than afternoon / evening. This would be really great - I'd much rather be home in the afternoons for school stuff (go go distance learning!) and in the evenings for proper dinners and hobby time and, yes, the occasional World of Warcraft raid. And, most importantly, I apparently may get to keep my weekend time off. That's the part I'll get sticky about if I have to; I just got the SCA part of my life back and I am NOT giving that up without a fight. July is definitely fencing gear time... Anyway, fingers are crossed on this one.

And so it begins...

Finally, a small but real step into the vardo project. I was poking around on Amazon.com last night waiting to be sleepy enough to go to bed, and I noticed that they were down to one copy of "The New Gypsy Caravan", so I went ahead and ordered it. I know I still have better than 11 months to my self-imposed final deadline on it, but it'll be great to finally have the construction details on hand and be able to start really planning. I still haven't made it out to look at that trailer, though...the stupid weather has not been cooperative this week and my work schedule has been chaotic.

Blah

I am not having a fun week. I'll probably miss "All Things Middle Eastern" next weekend thanks to a cash crunch and there isn't another event in reasonable driving distance until the second week in July. I'm stuck working Friday night this week, so I'll miss the D&D game restarting after a month off. And I got hit with a larger than expected power bill that ate the cash I was saving for fencing gear.

Like I said, blah.

On the bright side, if it's not pouring rain tomorrow I should be viewing a possible trailer for the vardo project. Yay!

Minor Updates and Boredom

Life is boring. Housesitting for my parents, keeping an eye on their Great Dane who is currently refusing to come out of her room, is boring. I have spent most of the day watching NCIS episodes on Hulu and painting Tau Fire Warriors for Warhammer 40,000. There is nothing better than NCIS on TV, my laptop doesn't have the horsepower to run any decent games, and everyone I know around here (not even all that many people anymore) is busy this weekend. And I am stuck like this until Wednesday. I'm glad to help my parents out, but this is....urgh.

Vardo plans are still developing. I've had no luck locating a new 4x8 trailer, and my email to the New Gypsy Wagon guy has not been answered (something that worries me a bit), but a guy at one of the places in Auburn where I was looking has a used trailer the right size that I'll be looking at Wednesday. If it's right for the project I'll negotiate price and try to come up with at least a deposit on it.

Two weeks from today is "All Things Middle Eastern", my second SCA event since I decided to get back into that. I'm really looking forward to it; hopefully I can corner a rapier marshal and get some ideas about training.

Life is Boring.

I need more excitement in life. I'll be VERY happy next month when I can pick up some gear and get started on SCA fencing...

It's the closest I'm ever going to come to walking the Glory Road, but I think it'll be enough. I hope so, anyway.

"I wanted a Roc's egg. I wanted a harem loaded with lovely odalisques less than the dust beneath my chariot wheels, the rust that never stained my sword. I wanted raw red gold in nuggets the size of your fist and feed that lousy claim jumper to the huskies! I wanted to get up feeling brisk and go out and break some lances, Then pick a likely wench for my droit du seigneur--I wanted to stand up to the Baron and dare him to touch my wench! I wanted to hear the purple water chuckling against the skin of the Nancy Lee in the cool of the morning watch and not another sound, nor any movement save the slow tilling of the wings of the albatross that had been pacing us the last thousand miles.
I wanted the hurtling moons of Barsoom. I wanted Storisende and Poictesme, and Holmes shaking me awake to tell me, "The game's afoot!" I wanted to float down the Mississippi on a raft and elude a mob in company with the Duke of Bilgewater and the Lost Dauphin.
I wanted Prester John, and Excalibur held by a moon-white arm out of a silent lake. I wanted to sail with Ulysses and with Tros of Samothrace and eat the lotus in a land that seemed always afternoon. I wanted the feeling of romance and the sense of wonder I had known as a kid. I wanted the world to be what they had promised me it was going to be--instead of the tawdry, lousy, fouled-up mess it is".

That was Robert Heinlein, in maybe the best passage from Glory Road, one of his best books. I want a good sword, a damsel in distress, and a damn Adventure.

Curses...Foiled Again!

My clever plan has met with a minor setback. I should've been a clever lad and taken my notes with me yesterday when I was looking at trailers; the ones I found were 4'x6', and the vardo design calls for 4'x8. Alas, this is a size that Lowe's and Home Depot don't seem to have. The other obvious possible sources in the Auburn / Opelika area were closed today for the Memorial Day holiday; I'll check 'em out tomorrow and see what's out there.

I'm in one of those restless moods today. At least I'll have classes to burn up some of my excessive spare time now, but I'm going to be pinned down this weekend house sitting for the parents (and, also, temporarily broke!) when I really wish I could be off to another event or something. At least "All Things Middle Eastern" is just a couple of weeks away if I can ever get the reservation information; I forsee much drumming and many fine dancers at that, both things that Friar Thomas appreciates mightily.

I can haz trailer?

Today I started looking into the utility trailer part of the future vardo. As it turns out, Sunday in semi-rural Alabama is not the best time to shop for things of that nature; Home Depot and Lowe's were open, and both had something that was at least close to what I'll need, but the other three possibilities weren't. Hopefully one of them will work out better; the version that both places I looked today was acceptable pricewise ($537 at Home Depot; $498 at Lowe's) but had features I really don't want. I have no need for a metal grill deck, and especially for a drop-down ramp. Also, I'm not too fond of the high side rails. I suppose they'd look OK painted to match the vardo body, but I'd rather not have to mess with them at all.

My ideal for this, after looking at construction pictures and finished examples online, would be a trailer with just the basic frame, towing setup, and lights. I know I've seen ones like that in the past, and hopefully I'll be able to find a "bare bones" version like that. It might even save me some money over the fancy floor-and-ramp version, and that would let me put more into finishing and decoration. This is going to be a terribly decadent tiny bedroom on wheels by the time I'm finished...

In other vardo developments, I'm leaning toward a dark green main body with red trim (as a reference until I find the "proper" terminology, Dark Angels Green and about the same shade of red as a Swisher cigar box), and possibly a red roof if I can find the right sort of canvas tarp. Painted decorations will be gold, as will some woodwork trim ideas I'm slowly planning out. I'm not sure about the interior paint yet, but I certainly have plenty of time to figure it out!

Earlier this afternoon my desktop PC got hit with a power fluctuation and no longer wants to start. This sucks in that I'll need to have it fixed eventually, thus taking money away from the vardo project and other more entertaining things, but it may be a blessing in disguise. No high-power desktop means no World of Warcraft, and removing that particular temptation for a while will let me concentrate better on things like class and tin whistle and exercise.

One final note...it occurred to me that this vardo is going to serve something of the same purpose for me that medium size boats do for, well, people who are into boats. I'll be using it to go places on land rather than on the water, and I really doubt I'll be fishing from it, but the spirit is there. I think that it needs a proper name, like a boat would get. So, unless I come up with something better before it finally hits the road, I'm thinking that she'll be named Festival Wind after a Heather Alexander song that does heinous things to my anti-wanderlust self control. The song can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23AHlvy8x9Y;don't listen to it if you want to be happy sitting in your living room watching TV.

In which I begin my Small Adventures

Since I set up the basics for this blog and promptly forgot all about it, my life has changed more than a little – and, for once, almost entirely for the better. I’m only a few semesters away from wrapping up my long-delayed bachelor’s degree and moving on to a “real” career, I have more friends than I think I have at any point in the last ten years, I’m slowly getting back into decent physical condition, and I’ve returned to the Society for Creative Anachronism after nine years away.

Last weekend I attended the Shire of Talmere’s “Lusty Month of May” event, back in harness as Friar Thomas the Penitent. It was like going home after far too long away, and it felt wonderful. I met (or, in a few cases, re-met) many very interesting people, developed a burning determination to gear up for rapier combat and swash some bucklers, enjoyed the most excellent feast, caroused mightily, and even started getting my extremely rusty flirting skills back on line (although, alas, not enough to keep a certain scoundrel from making off with the lady I was hitting on in a too-subdued fashion). In a lot of ways, I feel like a part of my life that I’ve been missing for a very long time is back where it belongs. I’ve already dug my tin whistle stuff out of the depths of the closet, and I’m even fiddling about with calligraphy and other things that a proper medieval clergyman should know about.

Anyway, when I started planning for this I worked out a long-term plan for getting properly geared up. When I was in the SCA the first time around I always wanted to have a good looking, more-or-less period campsite at big events but never had the resources to do anything about it. Now, with a bit more financial flexibility and much better planning skills, I’ve been looking at Panther tents and the like…expensive, but good quality and the kind of stylishness I want. Sometime during the Saturday late-afternoon laziness last weekend before feast setup, when I was occupying the side porch at the main hall people-watching and “guarding” the ice machine, I had an Idea. It was one of those ideas that stuck in my head, even though I ws pretty certain that I wouldn’t really be able to do anything about it. However, after looking into things it’s apparently not going to be impossible at all. More expensive than a Panther, but cooler in many ways and not necessarily nearly as expensive as I thought it would be – especially if I get my old scrounging skills kicked back in. And, best of all, it gives me a major project to work on over the next year. I’m always happiest when I have something cool cooking.

With a bit of luck and a lot of work, this time next year I’ll be hitting the road to medieval events and the interesting weekend trips that I love so much with my own Gypsy Vardo. The design from The New Gypsy Caravan at http://www.amvardo.com/caravan/ seems like it’ll be absolutely perfect – lightweight enough to haul with my truck or its eventual replacement, very cool looking (and I’m already combing other vardo sites for trim and decoration ideas), more comfortable than sleeping in a tent or most state park cabin beds, nice and dry in wind and rain and other unpleasantness, roomy enough for myself and a lady friend should I happen to find one, and the best thing ever for the spring wanderlust that I always end up with. I’m going to make a game out of rounding up materials as inexpensively as possible, although with my lack of power tools and the skills to use ‘em I’ll almost certainly be going for the kit version. The actual trailer part is going to be a challenge, but that’s where the scrounging skills come in!

So, from now until the vardo is finished, painted, and on the road that’s going to be my “big” Small Adventure. One of my goals for this project is to make some sort of progress on it every week, even if it’s just going to be research and pricing materials while I get some operating funds built up, and I’ll be sharing that progress here. In between I’ll have plenty of other adventures too – I’m jumping back into the Current Middle Ages with both feet, and there’s plenty of other stuff that I’d like to do this spring and summer. The Festival Wind is blowing, and it’s most definitely time to roam!