Beneath the Surface

Winter Camping is over (last person left this morning) and I guess that means I'm back :). They had pretty good weather for it--the blizzard didn't hit until yesterday, when everyone was taking off anyway--and it seems to have been a success. A lot less stressful on my end as well, since I didn't cook for it this year :).

Next weekend = Frey study group and margarita party.

Well, I guess the revel was a success. We had something over 30 people show up, which considering that we live out in the boonies is pretty impressive; I guess there are a lot of new folks interested in the group this year. One of the good things about being in a college town is that you do get an influx of potential new members every fall; one of the bad things, of course, is that every four years or so you lose a bunch of people. I suspect that's one of the reason my SCA interest tends to be quite low--I've been here since just about the start of the group fifteen years ago, and since then have seen group after group of people I liked a lot leave. At one point I was a bit envious of non-college groups with a comparatively stable membership (at this point it doesn't matter much to me). And with each change the new people are relatively younger. Of course it's not the difference in age, it's the difference in life--freshman college students and parents with kids tend to have different schedules, different priorities, etc. The students are almost uniformly nice people, though. SCA tends to draw them. :) Currently about 1/3 of the group is made up of relatively-long-term local members, a considerable improvement over the past.

I had a chance to talk to someone who had expressed interest in taking over as chronicler; she's reviewed her schedule and doesn't think she can commit to it. Fair enough, and I'd rather she not take on more than she may be able to handle. It does mean that I need to start looking for someone else to do it--I'd much rather be able to hand the office off to someone else than to just drop it.

Just waiting for our isp to get email working again...

I'm looking for ways to cut back on some time-consuming things, since I plan to be busier come fall. I'm hoping to spend a fair amount of time studying, and I'm going to home-preschool my 4-year-old (she'll be going to public school for kindergarten but that's not for another year), which could be fun or could be not, depending on how well I plan :).

So I've decided to quit the office of Chronicler (person who does the newsletter) for our local SCA group. I'm only barely, marginally involved in the group anyway. True, it doesn't take up a great deal of time but every little bit helps. I might possibly have someone interested in taking on the office, but even if that doesn't work out, I'm not going to be doing it. At some point in the last ten years or so, I'm not sure when, I developed the ability to say "No." It's been useful. :)