[Loch-Ruadh] Gulf War Missive - Day Five

[Pádraig Ruad Ó Maolagáin]

Another fine day in Gleann Abhann.  The weather has been very good to us
so far this year, aside from the snow the early arrivals had to drive
through to get here.  Vivian has been taking interesting classes; first
the mustard making calss, then a sausage making class, and on Thursday,
she learned how to make cheese.  So let her know that we all expect
homemade mustard, sausage and cheese at our gatherings from now on.  I
still have not armored up, as I don't feel I'm physically up to it and
prefer not to hurt myself out of stupidity.  I want to fight, but not at
the expense of my health.  Thursday was another somewhat lazy day, but I'm
glad that I stayed in camp a good portion of the day, because the people
whose wedding I'm supposed to perform finally showed up.  They arrived on
site later than they intended and have moved their wedding to Friday
evening at 6:00pm.  They had misplaced my contact information, and could
only remember "Padraig from Ansteorra, who is a minister and a bard", so
they went from camp to camp asking until they found someone who knew me
and could direct them down here.  The lady, Lisa, had brought her 6-month
old grandson with her, and he was willing to come see old grandpa Padraig,
so I got a little bit of a grandson fix (I miss my grandsons, in case you
hadn't guessed).  Like most little ones, as soon as I picked him up him,
his hands went straight for my beard, which I don't mind at all.

Rumors went through the site of approaching stormy weather, so we tied
things down in preparation, but although the wind did pick up for a while
we never got the thunderstorm that was threatened.  We cooked our second
communal meal of the week, 10 Can Soup, which went together quickly and
disappeared even more quickly.  I was scheduled to sing at the Green
Dragon from 9 to 10, so Polydore, Cormac and I headed up that way about
8:40.  The group who was performing before me ran a bit long, so we sat
and enjoyed their music until they finished, and I started singing about
9:30.  No one was scheduled after me, so I continued singing until almost
11:00.  I was about to finish up when Sir Elesar, the owner of the Dragon,
brought me another beer and encouraged me to keep singing, so I played and
sang for another half an hour, until my finger tips were getting too sore
to continue.  We made our way back to camp and lit the campfire we had
layed out earlier, and sat around it just chatting until it finally died
down sometime after 2:00am.

Friday I must finish my gift shopping on Merchant's Row, go do the wedding
ceremony at 6:00pm, and then hurry back to camp to change and head to
Ansteorran Great Court - there are rumors of one of our Shire folk
receiving an award there, and I want to make sure I am there to see it. 
More about that in tomorrow's missive.

Already looking forward to next year, when hopefully many more of us will
be here together.

Padraig
-- 
Nunc est bibendum.
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Politicians prefer unarmed peasants.