'scuse me while I drown.

Much of the East Coast has been trapped under a stalled front for the past 5-6 days. It has pretty much rained, or tried to rain each and every one of those days. To add to the fun, we've also got thunderstorms between the rainshowers.

The front is stalled slightly to the West of Philadelphia, I think that it has rained constantly on Harrisburg for the past 96 hours. In Philly and New Jersey, the sun pops out just long enough to remind us that it exists, heats up all the moisture saturating the soil, and makes things extra-extra humid. Thanks Sun!

The Monmouth reenactment took place despite these conditions, at least on Saturday. It rained Friday night, drizzled all Saturday morning. When Bill and I arrived at the battlefield it had stopped. They almost delay the battle as a thunderstorm cell was being watched coming in. It was decided that the battle could beat it out. But of course in the calm before the storm the sun came out and heated up the moisture in the ground. It got extra-humid, extra-hot. Joy.

The battle took place. My unclean musket refused to fire at first, then when we got positioned behind a fence it started to blaze away...only to become too hot to handle. The heat must have had no place to go in this weather and several of us had a hard time holding onto the hot muskets.

The battle was too long, a syndrome of this site. It looks rather goofy given the limited numbers. I took a hit on the last Crown forces charge and nearly took a nap laying on the ground. After a few moments ( and the Continental charge going past us) I could hear the thunder getting louder. The announcer stated that the battle was over.

Which was fine. I rose from the dead and returned to my unit. We fixed bayonets and marched past the crowd. That was nice, but the thunder was louder and the dark clouds very visible, and with bayonets attached and muskets at the shoulder we all were especially lightning-roddy. This would have been tolerable had they made every effort to get us dismissed. But some freaks must stand on ceremony and we had the full march back to camp, along with the stupid cheers for the commanders (fine in good weather, bad when you are watching pure darkness approaching). We made our way to the cars and about 5 minutes after we got there the heavens opened up. By that time I was in Bill's car, but even then got a bit wet. We made out way back to a local friends place to stay the night as there is another battle the next day. But at this point we had our doubts, this battle was sparsely attended, it promised to rain all night (it did). We ended up bagging Sunday's battle and went home in the afternoon.

I actually had the energy to clean my musket when I got home. I managed to pull that off on the deck between rain showers.

Dirty! Dirty Musket!

The Battle of Monmouth takes place this weekend.

I have just discovered that my musket was not cleaned since Fort Mercer...back in October.

Yuck.

Not an inglorious end, but almost one.

Last night was the final night of fencing practice at the church we presently hold the practice in. We were kicked out and had until the end of June. We have new space now, further up in NorthEast Philly, in MayFair, just two blocks from the Mayfair diner.

I arrived early, as I usually do, and found some of the fighters milling about in the parking lot, rapping on the door. Looking inside, it could be seen that the lights were all out. Nobody opened the door for us and they had taken our keys from us months ago. Such joy.

Our illustrious commander arrived and called the church rep. In the meantime we hung out in the parking lot shooting the breeze, and wondering if we shouldn't just bag the whole thing tonight.

In the end, the rep showed up and opened the door. Practice got going quickly and I had several hard bouts. I had a lot of energy considering that I biked to work this morning and it was very stuffy. I've had two good practice sessions in a row. Odd.

Meanwhile, SaraBelle gained two more ounces. Yay!

The Invisible Kitty and The other parts of life.

This morning SaraBelle was scheduled to go to the vet.

This morning, SaraBelle managed to hide herself so well that she was unlocatable. In a two bedroom apartment she managed to stay hidden from me for 20 minutes . Eventually I gave up called the vet to tell them I couldn't find her to bring her in. I worried at work that she might have slipped out the door while it was open , and was even more concerned that she might have made it outside while my new neighbors were moving furniture in.

It wasn't the case, however, as she was snoozing on a chair when I got home from work. Fuzzball.

In other news in my life, I finally sorta forced myself to send an email to one of the more interesting persons on a personals website. I've been down a lot lately and felt unintersted (partly becuase its the same group every time I search) in connecting with anyone. But, I finally figured that the reason I am in a rut is because I am in a rut. I have to pull myself out of it. If I can't, it might be unfair to the person I emailed, but I have to take a few risks. Besides, odds are that she's not going to write back.

Narf!

Don't Mess with Kitty!

Yay Steroids!

SaraBelle went to the vet yesterday, first time in four weeks. She gained four ounces! Woo-Hoo!! Since she went back on steroids she has had quite a hardy appetite, and she has almost never throws up anymore. She's been somewhat more active and the new vet assistant also described her as 'feisty' when trying to get her back into her carrier to go home. Its good to hear she is active, but what happened to my little girl that all the vet assistants wanted to steal?

Ahhhh.

Long hard bike ride home in 94 degree weather.

Open glass bottle of Vintage Black Cherry Soda.

Nothing better.