[Ansteorra] A modest suggestion...
Steve Scott (Dietrich)
dietrich.strobelbart at yahoo.com
Sun Jul 18 18:18:14 PDT 2010
Those of you that know me know that I am not, and never will be, a fighter,
mostly for health reasons. I am a herald; I get to stay in the shade most of
the time. I have no real axe to grind in the matter of whether or not we should
fight indoors. Personally, I enjoy getting outside in the fresh air, even if it
is hot. I just dress accordingly. But, at the risk of further irritating those
who have had their fill of the discussion about fighting in the heat, I wish to
offer a modest suggestion.
Among our members, we have some very inventive people. Mundanely, many of you
work, or have worked at NASA, or one of their contractors. A few of you may
actually even be "rocket scientists"! We have some of the smartest people in
the Known World living right here in our own kingdom! I am sure if we put our
collective minds to it, we could come up with some un-obtrusive and relatively
inexpensive ways to make armor cooler to wear on hot days.
As an example, at the 2009 Gulf Wars, a man showed me how he had installed two
rather small, but very powerful fans into his helmet, powered by a small battery
pack. He told me later that it had worked wonderfully, and kept him much
cooler! Another device I know of is a vest that has pockets all over it for
holding cold packs, worn by people who wear "mascot suits" in hot weather,
under their costume.
The point is, we have the technology, we can make it better, without making it
glaringly modern. After all, how many times have you heard it said that the SCA
is about re-creating the Middle Ages, the way it should have been? Without the
Plague, for instance. Well, why not without the heat stroke too? This is
Ansteorra; we fight outdoors; but we don't have to kill ourselves doing it!
I can just see it now, a knight in armor, in Ansteorra, in the middle of July,
dripping not with sweat, but with condensation from his cooling unit! ;-)
I'll climb down off of the soap box now.
Yours in Service,
Herr Dietrich Strobelbart
Who just hates to see people suffer un-necessarily, in service to a wonderful
dream!
Numerus vestri pluma!
Number your feathers!
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