The Times Are A 'Changin'

The State Fair is approaching. Not on small little kitty-cat feet, but on the backs of multiple tires, creaking metal, blowing horses and the backs of hundreds of workers, both temporary and permanent. The grounds are getting their final grooming, the flowers are planted and hung and the ticket booths are in place. The final arts and crafts are being accepted and the varied food stands are being cleaned out, set up, and the food orders from the wholesalers are being firmed up. The Restaurant Depot, Sysco and US Foods will be busy for the next three weeks.

The trailers have started arriving and parking in the two trailer lots. These face the main street that I drive on 2X every day, so I get a good view of the population increases every morning and late afternoon. The first of the roust-a-bout's trailers have arrived. These are a bit different than the standard trailers or RV's that come and park. They have multiple exterior doors, usually either three or four, down the length of the trailer. Each of the doors opens to a small sleeping chamber that holds several people, usually at least two, but no more than six. A typical 3-door trailer will hold as few as three people, one to each chamber, to a maximum of 18 with six people per chamber.

In a way, this slowly increasing influx of people reminds me of the circus trains of olden days. The train cars, or in this case the trailers, come into town and begin setting up the big top or the rigging. The excitement begins to build among the populace seeing or hearing that the circus is in town. Before long they will be lining up to pay their hard-earned five cents (well, our admission is quite a bit more than five cents, unfortunately) and entering a new world. A world of wonders, color and sound, acts beyond description and daring. Their minds will be in a whirl, they will eat new foods and drink sweet or alcoholic drinks and, generally, will celebrate the fun of life as shared with hundreds of other people.

This is an older State Fair picture at the old entryway. It is a Minnesota tradition and one that I love even with the crowds.

The State Fair will open next week on Thursday. The combination of the State Fair and the Renaissance Festival are my twin demarcating events that signify the end of summer and the beginning of the fall season. By the time Ren Fest ends at the end of September, we'll have beautiful color in the growth along our hills and bluffs and the nights will be cool with the mild days that signify our autumn days here in the Upper Midwest. It is my favorite time of the year - a bittersweet time that I will be celebrating on the pages of my blog for the next few months. Have a wonderful weekend.

Research, Time and Laziness?

I had email notices from the Library yesterday that two of my interlibrary loan books had arrived so dropped by there on my way home from work last night. They actually had FOUR of my books there for me. I only get them until the 16th of September and they can't be renewed, but that just means that I'll be working on research when I have my coffee in the morning instead of just reading. But I'm SO HAPPY! Now I can get the chronology down pat, the geography nailed, and other things. I also looked at the three books that a friend had lent to me and one of the books is absolutely PERFECT! The other two offer some information, but the one not only has small synopses of each town I needed, but also included a topo map of the county that I am focusing on. When dealing with a mountainous topography, it helps - actually it is mandatory - that you know where the passes are and which valleys can actually be settled.

This picturesque mining shack is outside of Crystal, Colorado.

I downloaded Scrivner last night and got it installed on my main computer. I'll add it to my laptop at some point, but right now I'll take my notes and just save them onto Dropbox so that I can pull them over to Scrivner each night. I skipped my workout this morning in favor of an extra ten minutes of sleep and to watch the interactive tutorial for Scrivner to begin getting used to using it. A tool just takes up space if you don't know how to use it to its best advantage. With the books due back at the Library and my time even more constricted than usual because of Labor Day, the State Fair and Renaissance Festival, and Sharon's visit, I need to maximize my research time and results. I'm not expecting that I'll have the history 100% nailed, and I can always request the books again after NaNo is complete, but I refuse to consciously write the foundation geography and history incorrectly if I can help it.

Water provided power for the mines and the town of Crede, Colorado.

On another positive note, Renaissance Festival starts tomorrow and will go on every weekend through the end of September. We'll be there on Sundays - it's our opportunity to be outside for at least one day a week. This weekend is Italian Carnivale weekend with a Bocce Ball Tournament, Spaghetti eating contest (not for me at all - too messy) and an Arabian Horse Show. Next weekend is one of my favorites - Royal Ale Fest with the annual BBQ Competition and Vendors. We save our money for this one - the BBQ is always exceptional! Oh, and there's a tattoo competition that day also. I might consider entering my one tattoo, but the other one....no. The only person who gets to see that one is my DH - LOL. Happy Friday...I'm off to study some more...

Mission Accomplished

So my errands list got mostly completed. I wasn't able to trim the trees at the small house because it was raining and I didn't get my eyeglasses ordered (that was bad, but I still have to save up a bit more money before I order those). I did get five loads of laundry done, finished reading "The Catch Trap" and bought all of my State Fair tickets and coupon books in preparation for Sharon's visit on the 30th. Aearwen and I had a lovely, if shortened, conversation and I spent more than an hour deciding which exercises I wanted to concentrate on with the BowFlex as well as running through them once to make sure I understood how to hold my hands, what arm or body motions I needed to do, etc. Now I'm alternating my days between the treadmill and the BowFlex. It will take me longer to reach Rivendell, but I'll be in better physical condition - LOL.

I've decided to try the 30-day free trial of Scrivner for my NaNoWriMo project. I've exchanged several Emails with the developers and think it will do what I need, there are also many NaNo authors who have recommended it to me. Basically it's rather like a virtual white board and bulletin board mixed with a virtual index card and organization feature that will allow me to work on things out of order, research and notes, and illustrations, and throw them all together into the final.

Big Bang has started signups. I'm not willing to commit to a 20,000 word piece when I'm focused on NaNo, but I think I'll sign up for artwork. I had a great time doing the artwork for Binky's lovely story earlier this year, and the deadline would be early 2013 so I would have the time to pull it together after the author has his/her text completed or close to completed. But I won't be writing for this one. Nope, no way, no how. Have a fabulous day - think sunshine and lollipops. (While looking for a video for Sunshine and Lollipops, I came across this short that used to have it as the soundtrack but had to remove it because of copyright infringement. But it was cute, so...enjoy.)

And Hans, I love hard science fiction. It used to be all I read. Now I've bracnhed out a bit but it is still near and dear to my heart :-) *hugs* to you and Ann.

Day Off? What a Joke! Too Much to Do.

It's Wednesday my "day off" and I have a list that will take me all over town, cost me lots of $ and keep me running all day long. I will be driving all over town, clipping rogue trees at the small house, buying all of my extra Renaissance Fest tickets for Chickie and Sharon (we all go out for one day together) and my less expensive pre-purchased admission tickets and Cheap-skate books for the State Fair. I need to make a doctor appointment for my DH, get some measurements on my eyes so that I can order new lenses for my eyeglasses, and call my accountant to make sure that an extension was filed for a tax return. I also want to drop by my broker's office (I've never visited there) to find out why I can't order checks for my savings/checking account and get some extra dollars transferred in. I need to renew my DH's car license and make an ear doctor appointment for him. And I have to continue cleaning my house - only fifteen days left until Sharon arrives and I want my house cleaned up. Whew!!! Too much to do!

This Trapeze poster is from 1899. These were the days of canvas "Big Tops" and open air circuses traveling around the country on an annual schedule.

I've been engrossed in "The Catch Trap" by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I've been reading erotic and gay literature for the past few months to get a better feel for handling sexuality and relationships in my own writing. "The Catch Trap" and "The Front Runner" by Patricia Neil Warren were recommended to me as early LGBT literature along with "The Charioteer" which is well known and which I still haven't found on e-book, although I keep looking. I'm almost 1000 pages into "The Catch Trap" of 1500 pages and I hate anything that forces me to put the book down. I know her writing from other books of hers that I've enjoyed for many, many years, but hadn't heard of this one. Even though it is early Zimmer Bradley, it doesn't disappoint. The characters are deep and conflicted in ways that would be reasonable. The timeframe, research, and attitudes of that time of history ring true. Generally, I highly recommend it if you are looking for something different to read.

This poster from 1890 shows several trapeze moves under the canvas of the "Big Top".

I also noticed that Barnes & Noble dropped the prices on their NookColor (the style of E-reader that I used) as well as their two NookTablet versions by up to $50. All I can say is if you are in the market for an E-reader, I love my NookColor, use it every day and have for more than 1-1/2 years, and would be happy to answer any questions you may have if you're curious. There's just something wonderful about carrying more than 200 books in the palm of my hand and using it to compose original fiction on, surf the web, and listen to music are just extras, but very nice extras. Well...time waits for no woman and it's time for me to dive into my day. Have a great one!

Practice and Cracking the Whip

Why does it sometimes seem that life is only practice for the real thing? Everything we do seems to be practice. When I awaken in the morning I have to force myself into my running shoes and onto the treadmill, but the rest of the day I think longingly of doing exactly what I am now forcing myself to do. That's practice, it perches in the brain. When I was a cellist, I forced myself to sit down each afternoon and practice for 2-5 hours a day. I hated it. But when I was away from the instrument, I was thinking about it and what I wanted to accomplish the next time I sat behind the polished wood with my bow in my hands. So much of my life is like that...

My writing is similar - an anguish to do but something that I think about all the time when I can't sit at my keyboard. It's enough to drive me crazy. So many things try to get my attention. Art projects run around my head. Stories and plot lines vie with characters to try and get my nod. Different media jump up and down saying "time to bead", "time to paint", "time to draw", "time to work with the kiln". And somewhere in all that cacophony I have to crack the whip and decide what to spend my limited time on.

CRACK! I've been working on character sheets for the characters in my o-fic. It's slow, but once each one finds their voice, then the character starts to live. I still have so many doubts about this novel - whether I have enough plot to make a book out of this, whether the characters are strong enough to hold interest, and whether my own skills are up to the task. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. I'm keeping the whip cracking - exercise in the morning listening to Lynn Flewelling, writing or thinking about the story for the rest of the day, working on my research and background work for NaNo. Will I succeed in November? If I can sit down and give it my best, knowing that most authors have several novels in their bottom drawers that will never see the light, I can feel comfortable at lest trying my best. We'll see...November is still a couple of months away...

Thank You London

The Olympics are over for another year and a half until we convene in Russia for the Winter Games. Sochi should be quite amazing. The next summer games will be in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Some of you will be relieved that your normal television shows are once again in play, others will miss the daily athletic events that had taken over the airwaves for two weeks. They were memorable in many ways, not just in the gold medals won, but in the athletes who competed.

Every one of the 204 participating nations had at least a single woman on their team and almost half of all medals were won by women. Girl Power! I was really proud of all of the athletes. To just get to participate in the Olympic games will be a memory they will never forget. I loved the pure determination that each athlete showed, even though they knew they were not at medal speed. But they went out there and gave it everything they had. Bravo to each of you.

The faces of the Olympics for me were Oscar Pictorius running on his cheetah legs, coming in last in the 4x400 relay, but as an individual athlete, gaining the respect and love of his fellow competitors. The hugs that the equestrian riders gave to their horses as they handed them over to the grooms - there was devotion and thanks transmitted through those hugs. An acknowledgement of partnership that gave extraordinary performances. The cycling made my heart soar. I'm not fond of velodrome competition, but they made it fun to watch, and the mountain bike competition on the final day was amazing! The water sports - all of them. The swimming, the diving - what fun! Basically, I loved all of it.

And the Royals. The younger Royals were present throughout the events. William and Katherine were at many events, often with Harry, and when William was called back to duty, Kate and Henry often appeared. They didn't miss a single day and cheered for everyone, not just Great Britain athletes. It was a wonderful gesture and so human as they celebrated along with everyone else in the stands.

Yes, I love the Olympics. I have loved them for as long as I can remember, remaining glued to the television for as long as possible, watching every event I could. I send out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who made the London Games possible.