A Year In A Day

May 9, 2009.  363 days ago. It has been a long and busy year.  I know you guys aren't out there reading this, but I'm writing anyway.  A lot of goals have been achieved in various forms.  Crystal Mountain is doing well at the shows and while I know the fans are out there, we only just signed up for Facebook yesterday and the fans that are 'friending' have just amazed us.  87 in 36 hours!  So that is what prompted me to write an entry.Erika, brave Erika, is heading back to Tennessee this weekend.  She will tell us all about it after she gets back.  Officially the show started last weekend, but we won't count that, with all the flooding and all.  The show was open for a whole 2 hours of what was suppose to be a 3 day weekend.  Well THAT was a bummer!  And with no disrepect for those whose have lost so much in the flooding, because to put it mildly, they had a bummer weekend too.Melissa is learning to turn our wooden aromanecklaces and she is really getting into the lathe work.  Her creations will be presented at the Colorado Renaissance Festival this summer.Misty has moved on.  She is engaged to Charlie and her heart really lies in tattoo art, which she is persueing.  Erika is making more smoking bottles and leatherwraps, Debbie is cranking out the wirewraps and stonewraps, and Larry is still building big things.  Me, I'm just working on keeping it all centered and going forward.Can't wait to hear about Erika's weekend.

Spring....uh, summer actually

Winter has been good this year. Larry is coming along great and is back to work with a few limitations still in effect. Spring lasted the traditional 3 days here, and now it is summer. Normann was great again! Thanks everyone! Spring Pecan Street was a normal ok. Looking forward to doing Tennessee next year. Anxious to get started on Colorado and our new booth.

We bought Michael DeVeny's booth "Alchemaille". It isn't a big booth but we don't need a lot of space. or those of you who go to Colorado it is on the left as you come in the front gate just past Lloyd Studios the awesome bone carver.

Been busy working with the shows and the usual mail order and such. It was a bit busy while Larry was recuperating, but that's over with. A lot of my time has been taken up with a new business that I'm trying to get off of the ground. www.nickersandsnorts.com. I've always wanted to do horse art so I'm giving it a go. Over the next 2 years you will see more and more of Erika at Crystal Mountain.

I hate to post and run, but there isn't a lot of news. Once we get to Colorado I'll post some pictures and introduce you to our Christmas present.....

This winter has kept us busy and then this.....

One should always be prepared to go with the flow of life. Sometimes it isn't what we want, but the ability to accept what is happening and face it head on allows us to take control of it and make more choices in the results. My cancer episode. Now Larry.

Back in January Larry THOUGHT he had a hernia. For several days he tried to ignore it. It had sorta bothered him for several months but finally he went to a doctor to see if something could be done. It wasn't acting like a regular hernia so we weren't sure, but it sure hurt. While there the doctor of course wanted to run some bloodwork and Larry was cool with that because he has been wanting to know what his cholesterol was. The results weren't nice. His cholesterol was 279 and his tryglycerides were 500+. Doc says go see a cardiologist.

Cardiologist does a echocardiogram. Nothing found there. Then has Larry run a stress test. Larry does so-so on that. So Doc says he thinks larry has some blockages and sends Larry off to do a CT scan. CT scan shows what was suspected and unwelcome. Blockages. Two about 70-80%. Doc says it's Larry call to put in some stents. We think about it for a week. Larry had a heart attack in 1989 due to too much fun (cocaine induced) and had a angyoplasty done then on one artery. So he is taking this seriously. We decide to do the stents. After all, the procedure is a day surgery and only mildly invasive. We feel like we are in control and taking care of things. Kinda like keeping your oil changed regularly.

So Larry goes in for the day procedure and while in surgery the doc discovers from the cathe lab imaging that is done prior to inserting the stents that Larry was worse that they thought. Three blockages - 75%, 95% and 100%!

So the Doctor won't do stents with blockages like that and says bypass is the only thing. That was a blow. It took us a week to research that and think, but Larry decided to 'getter dun'. Better fix that now than risk a heart attack later.

So that's the story. Yep, it was like having a freight train run over you. After all, surgery on your heart is about the most invasive thing you can do. Of all the risk factors from this type of surgery the doctors said Larry had none of them. Larry is healing fast and will soon be back to normal. Already he is noticing some differences that he didn't even realize. The effects of circulation can be very subtle and you don't even notice it.

So (you've heard this before!) eat right and exercise. It is all about quality of life not quantity. And appreciate life.

Election time

It's a cinch to see I'll never make a living writing daily editorials. When I was a kid, writing was never my cup of tea. Drawing was. I was also the one getting into trouble for drawing horses on the side of my math test. Funny tho, I don't draw these days any more than I write. Too busy making the aromajewelry it seems, or just doing business paper work.

TRF opened with a bang. The weather was great all weekend and Saturday the crowds were excellent! 26+ I heard. It was the best opening weekend we've had since Hurricane Rita came through in '05. And, since we have more perfect weather forcast for this second weekend, it looks like we are in for a very enjoyable TRF 2008.

For all of us who make a living doing renaissance festivals and art shows, the ecomomy is the most important item on our list this election year (health care being second). Obviously, the more expendable income the masses have, the more likely we are to also make a good living despite the ever increasing cost of basics like fuel, good and utilites. Larry and I are fairly devoted political junkies. Yep, we've watched all 4 presidential and vice presidential debates this year. We are excited. This has been a great campaign this time around. Politics by nature are mud slinging, platform-ranting episodes. But some are way worse than others. Take the Jefferson-Hamilton-Van Buren wars of the election of 1800 (yea, I know, some of you are old enough to rememeber them....). I think that both Obama and McCain have conducted themselves impressivly this year in staying above the mud slinging and sticking to the issues. None of that Swiftvote lies and deliberate misleading that so dominated the 2000 & 2004 elections. So, our hates are off to you, Barak and John, for showing this country that if we really put our minds to it, we really can get back to what we all SAY we want. The American dream of hard work and success, honor and fairness. Some say America is past it's prime and on the downslide. But just like this extra 15 pounds I've put on in the past few years, I don't have to just sit back and accept it. I can certianly keep working on loosing it. Only time will tell if we've worked hard enough and correctly to achive what we want.

It really IS important to vote this year. It's your right and your responsibility.

Summer musings....

Summer is half gone. That's hard to believe. Surely the biggest reason Larry and I do what we do is so we can live where we want to live, and that is in the mountains at Whitehorn. I've noticed a lot of rennies and artists we know on the circiut live in Colorado. But driving back and forth to CRF every weekend it seems like we aren't at Whitehorn as much as we would like to be. We noticed that last year when we stayed on site all during the fair. At least this summer we are getting in about 3 days a week at Whitehorn. We do get some work done - weather permitting. Life is simple even here. The internet is my only distraction, and living off a generator I don't get enough time online here as I do in the winter in Toon Town.

And the faire is half over as well. It has been a great faire and I feel totally at home here, even tho it is only my second year at CRF. Although Larry and I aren't totally involved with the rennie community, I have come to realize that it is my family. Living in Toon Town and on site make me realize how wonderful it really is to have such an oppurtunity. I'm sure there are lots of other close communities around the world such as the rennie life. But somehow I just fell into this life and I realize that, strangley, I have achived much of my childhood dreams. I get to make my living off of my art, I get to travel and meet all sorts of people, and I get to live in the mountains. The only part I haven't accomplished yet is how in the world am I going to manage to get those horses I always dreamed of having.........

Thoughts at Waffle House

It's Monday morning and Larry, Misty and I are sitting in Waffle House waiting on breakfast. I love Waffle House, maybe because I love eggs. We had a really killer opening weekend at the Colorado Renaissance Festival and Waffle House is a common treat after a good weekend. Certianly I don't want to cook and clean up on Monday mornings. Actually, I'd rather sleep all day but the nature of our business dictates that I get up and get orders made, deposits deposited and plans for the week sorted out so that the next weekend runs smoothly. WEDNESDAYS are for sleeping in.

While we are waiting on our food a young man walks by going to the restroom. He is dressed in a t-shirts and nice shorts. But he has tattoos and is wearing a funky bone necklace. Looks like one of todays youth to me. Then I thought about the previous Friday. The faire site was busy busy busy with everyone getting all the last minute setups done. Right in front of us this year is the Mongolian Embassy. Royce and his crew are typical Rennies I guess. Long hair and beards. Funky jewelry. Tattoos. Often funky clothes. So many rennies wear skirts and pants that obviously didn't come from Walmart. Rennies make a striking image when we are in the local King Sooper shopping for food. Yet as Royce finished his work and was starting his truck to leave, it occured to me (not for the first time) that while we don't look like your standard 9-5 office workers, rennies are amazing business people and extremely hard workers. We work as hard at our jobs and buisnesses as any plumbing contractor or insurance agent.

My eggs have arrived. Time to eat.

carbon footprints

As I watch CNN in the evenings it seems that the only topic they talk about, besides the campaign, it the cost of everything. Even if W is your boy, it seems that just about everyone I talk to is not happy with the direction things are going. Price of fuel fuels the price of every thing else. The 3" x 12" ziplock bags that we use for incense has tripled in the past 5-6 years. Why? Plastic is petroleum related. And everywhere there is advice on how to ease the crunch, or how to help soften the global warming threat. As I sit here on the Texas gulf coast today it would be awfully hard to convince me that the world isn't warming up. It sure-dang-nab-it is hot here!

So it got me to thinking. The price of everything is hitting most of us. Even if you have more expendable income than I do, you're still paying the same price for gas and groceries as I am. For the past 20 years I have lived amongst a sub-culture we call 'rennies'. We are artists and performers who travel from show to show to provide you - those we call the masses, aka "patrons" - whom work 9-5 jobs and careers - with a place to escape your world and enjoy yourselves. A place to forget that you have car payments, mortgages and electric bills to pay. We live on the road most of the year. Some of us live in nice 5th-wheel trailers pulled by Dodge cummins diesels (some drive Fords), or we travel in a Ford Econoline and pull a box trailer of our stuff. We set up incredibly creative camp sites (including Dave Love and his famous yurt - I'll have to do a chapter on him some day). We use propane for cooking and heating, plug in when we can for lights and water, use the local shower house for showers and dishes. Tons of us are online with wireless laptops. So I wonder what our carbon footprint is? We don't pay as much for electric and water as most brick home owners do. We pay a lot more for fuel to do our traveling than most office bound workers do. But here is where I think we do good. We travel with the seasons, like the native americans did. When it's cold in Minnesota, we aren't there. We're in Florida or Arizona. In the summer, we aren't in Texas.....we're in Michigan, New York or Minnesota. While we may drive a 1000+ miles to get to work once every 8-10 weeks, we like summer where it's cool and winters where its warm. Larry and I are packing up this week to head to the Colorado Rockies for the summer. It's humid and 90something here in Texas from now until fall, and this time next week we will be whiffing our first breaths of that mountain air where it will be 70something during the days and 30something at nights until Labor Day. Then it will get cold and like last year we will wake up some September morning and find our water frozen again and look at each other and say "yep, it's time to head back south".

And as for carbon footprints, during the summer since we live in the mountains, we don't use AC. We use some propane for heat, we haul our water from town once a week and run on generators for our computer and TV. Which means we don't run the generator 24/7. So we are doing what we can to keep it simple. It's it strange that simple really is the solution to all this global warming yet I can't imagine life without the internet (and I'm old enough to have grown up before the internet - I graduated in '78 and Larry in...well....longer ago). To really live simply, take an example from the Afghanistan tribes. We say 'primitive' but they live simply. And India and China - we use to revere their simple philosophy but kept edging them on to not be so "backward" and "primitive". And this is what we get. They DO want to be like us, and now we are all paying the price for global US-like consumption.

But with all this, take heart to what Carlos Mencia said "Don't worry about it until the mexicans DON'T want to come here"

*"Fear is temporary, regret is permanent"*