For many reasons Pennsic 39 was a wash out for me this year. There was still a possibility that I’d be able to go out alone for the middle weekend, but that shriveled like my manhood under the gaze of a woman who would not be scorned. So, instead of simply sitting around drinking beer and sulking, we decided to sit around drinking in our tent and sing instead! Good Times were had by those who attended our mini Pennsic, I think. The “event” started for me on Thursday night, myself having taken off Friday to prepare the yard. By Friday afternoon the tent was set up and skulls and candles were in place for night time festivities. That night was nice, with only one friend and his kids making it out for a little pre-Pennsic party. Most of the fun happened Saturday afternoon into Saturday night as several of my similarly Pennsic-pitying friends showed up to share story and song supplemented by fine food and strong ale. We found many analouges to Pennsic in my back yard, though the town runs were much shorter and we didn’t have to wait for the honey wagon to clean Mr John. We all commented on how what we really missed about Pennsic the most were all the people who are really almost extended family who we miss very much. We also enjoyed star gazing and the Perseid meteor shower as the night grew older. I spent almost all Sunday out in the tent listening to Ceol na nGael with Eileen Ivers as guest host which made for an absolutely fantastic show and a perfect cap to my personal Pennsic. Finally got the tent down and stowed tonight after work

A friend and I were kicking back in easy chairs in my home office recently, sipping some wonderful Cream Ale that my friend had brewed when the girls burst into the room pointing at the window. “Look! Look outside!” one yelped, “I see our next door neighbor with a camera!” said the other. A bit groggy from the ale, we forced ourselves out of the comfortable chairs and stumbled to peer out the window. “What is it?” I asked. I saw nothing out of the window, but the clamour in the front room told me they were probably seeing something out front now. Making our way in there, we were lucky enough to spy the object of the girls’ excitement – a male Indian peafowl (a peacock) strutting around on the lawn. Peacocks are the national bird of India and Pakistan, and while there are a few in sanctuaries on the Island, as far as I know there aren’t any communities living in the woods hereabouts. Grabbing our cameras we caught some images of this most impressively arrayed fowl, but weren’t lucky enough to see him fan his brilliant plumage.

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The girls enjoyed their introductory ride at CP yesterday, but I still needed to get my own ride in. The skies were threatening, but the weather maps looked like I’d have at least a few hours before anything serious was to roll in so I suited up and headed up to Rocky Point [map in pdf]. This was my first trip over to RP this year and I didn’t intend to do the whole thing. If you do every single black diamond and optional West Side loop its something over 20 miles which for me is a 2 hour ride. I skipped the West Side, did a few of the black diamonds (the Moguls and Campsite), then bailed down Firestone Road for a total of 11 miles in 1 hour 10. The trails at RP are nice and smooth track, without roots and you can get up serious speed at some points.

Firestone Road isn’t a fire break – its a road that was used on the RCA property to connect the main powerhouse building of Radio Central with a smaller building to the North (currently only marked by a small area surrounded by a chain link fence with a Hazardous Materials sign on it). When I was younger…

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Only one good thing came out of today’s Buzz ugliness with Rob Scoble (note to self: don’t feed the trolls) I discovered some good comedy. Anyway, apparently he’s got deep seated enmity for a video blogger named Loren Feldman – who, from my nobody perspective seems to have a much better handle on how to entertain than Mr. Scoble. If you’re into technology and like a sarcastic NY wit in your comedy check him out on his website at:
http://www.1938media.com/author/admin/