Rain Rain Go Away
I’m sitting here, in my pink pajamas (I never wore pajamas before we had a daughter) and a swanky fur-lined cap (gift from my wife) at 230 pm ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON! It is the fourth weekend of the AZ faire, and the game has been called due to crappy weather. I have an arrangement with my fellow Tortugas, I cover the Saturday cast call (though they are often there) and they cover the Sundays. I received from Jef the bad news of the fair’s cancellation while still in my pjs (and have made it my goal to remain in them all day) - It wasn’t so much the rain, as the overly saturated ground that called for the fair’s closure today… the desert is so wet as to be unsafe. Fourth weekend, and three of them have been effected by foul weather.
Winter play-time is over – we go back to work
The AZ fair opened, and I was surprised at how much fun it was to be onstage, doing-our-thing again. The schedule and the weather have made things anything-but-comfortable; A beautiful opening Saturday followed by a rain, cold and Superbowl-plagued Sunday… slow! A Thursday with thousands of middle-school students, followed by a three-day weekend for our second… Three days of great weather and great crowds. Another Thursday, this time with thousands of High-schoolers, and on its heels weekend three devastated by rain and cold and (again) SLOW! The fourth Saturday was forecast as bad – and wasn’t… it was a great day in all ways; and now today
Sigh.
It is a good thing we’re not trying to make a living off of this line of work eh? We’ve had to scale back on a few things… winter was tougher than we planned (unexpected trips to the dentist, and the Veterinarian only adding to the woes…) but we’ll be fine… we always are.
Scarlett had her second birthday… Several times!
Scarlett’s second birthday fell just before the show opened; before the day even arrived presents from all over started to appear for my tiny youngling. First on scene: Scarlett’s first motor-vehicle A gift from our dear friend and Fan-club honcho Sharyn. The first picture in the series shows my little speed-demon-to-be beginning the process of mastering the task of driving.
We had a small and private celebration on the actual day – Scarlett is still a little too young to know what the hubbub was about, but she certainly has present-opening down, and as photo number two shows she will never turn down cake!
My newly-acquired sisters also sent a super-cool bunch of gifts… Photo three shows Scarlett instantly fell in love with the shopping cart, AND the framed photo of her cousins!
The Wednesday before the first Student Day saw Scarlett’s public birthday party – Held in our courtyard party area which we have now lovingly dubbed “Spice Traders Café”. Scarlett’s nanny made me a joke t-shirt to wear depicted in the fourth photo… Though we told everyone gifts were unnecessary; photo five shows a very concerned Scarlett preparing to open yet another gift…. I think my favorite might have been a tiny t-shirt from “Hooters” with “My very first hooter’s shirt” on the front. My poor child, you may not be able to escape my white trash heritage!
It was a relaxing, and fun afternoon. The café was even fuller than the sixth photo indicated – we had over thirty people visit throughout the day…
I wonder if you are bored of my kayaking photos yet?
Especially since I’ve noticed that I always seem to be wearing the same outfit! My seventh photo is from my first (of two so far) kayak trip. I guess I’ll balance that photo of my mug out by showing you a slightly blurry photo of dinner date Heather and I had with our dear friend, and hot babe, Nancy. . The dinner was at a phoenix restaurant called Barrio café, and while expensive, was quite scrumptious.
But enough of that; More Kayaking photos!
The second trip Byron and I took we were accompanied by a friend named Chris. Three boats made for a crowded truck-bed, and since his boat was faster, and more stable than my little bubble… I was a tad jealous. On both trips Canyon Lake was beautiful – though the water was murky from all the rain. We paddled into caves, discussed what we would do with our lottery winnings (if we played) and our future home. I do ask you to look at the tenth photo and try to determine the answer before reading any further…
I’ll wait.
The eleventh photo answers the riddle… "What caused those weird marks in the mud?”My clumsy ass! Carrying my boat to the water’s edge, I decided to use the ramp instead of the rocky shore. No sooner had I read (and thought I understood) the sign warning that the ramp was slippery than boom! Down I went. Misery loves company; I want to point out that as we were leaving the lake, I saw a very nice lady fall flat on her ass in the exact same place.
Ha!
Each Renaissance Festival has its own social “Feel”.
Arizona is no different. Our drum employees live in the area occupied by the Blue team trainees last year, (in a different, but similar trailer) our shared courtyard, as I wrote above, is called “Spice Traders Café. We’re contractually forbidden to drink here; so at the end of each faire day we have a “Tea Party” where on Saturdays I tend to consume Corona “tea”. AND Scarlett has loads of friends and visitors. I can only try to explain the twelfth photo… . You may know her as “Esmeralda” mistress of the whip, or even “Dakota” beautiful friend of the family… but ‘round here she’s often referred to as “Aunt DaKitty”. She is Scarlett’s playmate, and (occasionally) tormenter. The photo is the “after” in a sequence that involved DaKitty, Scarlett, and Inari hiding under the carpeting. No really. At one point the three of them were completely concealed under the carpet. Maybe I should have vacuumed them up?
Finally! The family gets to go boating as well.
Our “Tall Ships” friends; Dave and June also have a boat here in the desert, and they invited all Tortugas to a day on the lake. Jef bowed out… But Riki, my family and I were happy to go. Happy that is until Scarlett determined she didn’t like the life jacket. At first, she was unfazed by the vest, and I found the handle convenient . But as Photo 14 shows before long vest equals tears for Scarlett She stopped crying (for a bit)once the boat started going – but once we were up to speed, the wind, cold, and noise only added to the vest misery. She spent a significant portion of the “go-fast” huddled in anguish.
Despite the pain I felt seeing Scarlett uncomfortable, I had a good time. I mean hey – “I’m on aboat!” The scenery was amazing, even before you added oh-so-beautiful-scenery like Riki and I . June and Dave were great guides (it was also amusing to hear Dave teach Riki about radar, and compass headings, stuff I thought everyone knew.) we saw eagles and bat caves, rivers and stone walls. We ended our trip with a visit to a friend of June and Dave’s, and hisTHREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR HOUSEBOAT! (Mansion-boat is more like it.) An interesting guy, this friend; (Doc I think), who had photos on the walls of his palatial floating domain featuring him posed with everyone from Jenna Jameson and Tyson to O. fucking J. Simpson! The 18th photo was taken on the third storey of the floating mansion . I envy “Doc” his boat, and his view – moored in the marina in the state park. .
So it is 517 pm. Still Sunday, I should be almost finishing the r-rated show about 100 yards from here. Instead Scarlett and Heather are napping behind me. I’m still in pajamas– though I did make a trip, pajama-clad to retrieve dinner from the spare refrigerator across-the-way. I’m going to leave after two more entries; first we performed at a television promo with Pat McMahon… what a fun gig! I’m sure Jef will post the video – but I wanted to include a photo… and finally check out this link… and learn to spell!
Coming soon: AZ Meet & Greet, Vodka Party, Funky Formal, and maybe a new video shoot!
Ronn
