It seems like I just ended my last journal …
Because mere moments ago I did. I am still in Louisiana. This journal is two months late. I’m wearing “morning meeting†jeans and a t-shirt but have to get in the shower in ten minutes. Scarlett, Dakota and my sexy, sexy wife are chatting softly behind me on the couch. I’m going to try to knock out a few more paragraphs in the few minutes I have free.
The first few weeks of the tenth month of our final year before the Mayan Apocalypse does-us-in were jam-packed with travel and excitement.
Minnesota ended with a bang. I was ready to go. I was ready to leave our comfortable-though-expensive off-site campground. I was excited to be leaving the ever deepening, ever expanding moat-like parking lot. I was thrilled to make the only trip we have left anymore that we have to rush for – we left Minnesota Monday night and arrived after a bout of Scarlett car-sickness, two parking-lot sleepovers and a minor bit of damage to the trailer’s fiberglass panels by Wednesday afternoon. My ever-efficient wife set up her Souvenir shops in record time – I watched Scarlett and helped set up the trailer, tent and other “honey-do†tasks. Opening weekend, hell every weekend in Carolina was a breeze. I love everything about that place. Student days went off without a hitch; it was mostly pretty easy. My friend and construction partner/boss Jamie roped me into assisting him on a couple of roofs and other projects. I really didn’t have the time – but he needed me so there was no question. I was aggravated that it caused me to miss the Salisbury Zombie walk; such is life. We scaled back our plans and expectations for projects at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival; a flood will do that for you. Rather than spend two weeks with Just Jamie Harvey revamping the maze and installing a slide for the maze patrons; instead the team was all three Tortugas, Jamie Harvey and (because she was opening a new candy shop at the Louisiana Festival) for the first time Heather and Scarlett. We took off on an early Monday morning and made the too long journey to my Mother’s plantation in the Bayou. The trip was complicated by the fact that we’d loaded a large wire-spool rounder in the back of the truck to use as a display table for Heather’s new candy business. We were stopped not once but twice by state troopers on the route – occurrences we attribute solely to the attention that the giant lavender spool garnered from “Johnny lawâ€.
For the first time ever we finished a project under deadline and under budget.
Our primary focus was to rehab the dungeon earth floor, fix a leaky roof, clean, repair and rearrange all of the dungeon displays and set up the maze and candy tent… all while heather, Scarlett and I stayed at my Mother’s plantation to check on her and the boys stayed with our always-beloved Jamie Haeuser. We enlisted the help of three strong-backed jousters and wheelbarrowed most of a truck full of gravel into the washed out dungeon. Things went so well and so quickly that we actually got to send the boys home a day-and-a-half early; returning to their various secret hideouts in NC. Heather and I stayed on in the bayou as much to see mom return from a subsequent surgery as to continue to set-up her new business. The task was complicated by the fact that I left a major, machined piece of steel back in Charlotte; a three foot threaded rod that was literally the center-point of the tent. I engineered a replacement and Friday morning saw us returning to our own batcave in Carolina with all of our various ventures almost completely ready to go.
Upon our return to Carolina we took a quick breath and then hopped right back into the thick of things
Somewhere in all the madness we managed to perform five different shows a day for our devoted Carolina fans. We did a promotional show for the festival management at a local rock and roll station as the surprise guests for contest winners. Let me clarify that this wasn’t just another radio interview. We actually did a short-and-dirty version of our Swordfighting show in a room that turned-out to have entirely too low of a ceiling. We still somehow managed to shine like the slightly stooping stars that we were. We celebrated one of our family’s favorite holidays: Halloween. We have been a little lax on this the past few years but we came roaring back in 2012. We carved pumpkins and Scarlett got to go trick-or-treating three different times and places. I’m still stealing from her massive stash of candy whenever she’s not looking.
So many things to do, see and to be as October came to an end.
We managed to catch a few movies and even bring Dakota along for the show. Silent Hill was horrible, though I was awfully funny before, during and after – it may have had something to do with what I smoked on the way to the theater; who’s to say? We caught up on a bunch of our guilty viewing pleasures comprised of movies and DVR-ed shows. We had a high level meeting where we had ALL SIX TORTUGAS in the same bar. Awesome. We even managed another radio interview with a long-time fan of the Tortugas. Heather and I began the process of selling our drum business. I managed another shooting expedition with Byron and Super-Fan Big Mike Murphy. This almost made-up for the time we showed-up to another range and were turned away despite our Groupon deal. The Tortugas shot a costume changing montage in a Goodwill store for the xmas show, recorded a rehearsal audio track and continued to assemble all of the disparate parts of our sold out Xmas show. Meanwhile the Louisiana Renaissance Festival – and all of the businesses we run there opened to a stunning start! I think we never stopped or relaxed at any point during the entire month of October!
My talented and crafty wife also took on another project with fabulous results.
My wife is not only a hell of a cook but a natural-born hostess. Heather needed a little help in Bristol this year setting up her new clothing tent; the Jousters from the Hanlon-Lees stepped-up to help. As I wrote in an earlier journal, she threw a fun “Jouster appreciation party†as a thank you. They were so impressed that when Young Jack Cowan; Jack who we have known his entire life; the young, hot, buck who plays Sir Edgeron ot Aquitaine decided to get married in late October – they asked Heather to cater the event. Heather enlisted her “Hot-Babe Crew†Meggy, the much-written-about Dakota , and my super-pretty wife as team captain. They whipped-up a hell of a spread; pun intended. Scarlett was also enlisted to help in the ceremony in the time-honored role of Flower girl. My job was to watch my girls shine, eat some yummy food, and watch two dear friends of the family make their lives one. I did have a little help keeping an eye on Scarlett; her boy crushes, the Twin sons (no really) of jouster Matt Mansour were also in attendance… They’re great boys and they love my daughter. I still watch them like a hawk; it’s a dad’s job. I’ve already told Matt how sorry I’m going to be should I have to kill them.
That might do it for October
I think I might end on that up and happy thought. Besides being out of October events, it’s time for me to go drum up a crowd for our R-rated show here in Louisiana. I’ll start the last of my three-journal marathon in an hour or so when the day is done. Look for: Daddy in a basement, Scarlett on a tractor and the stupidest fortune cookie ever.
