So, I got to rediscover that I’m not 18 and able to be wildly productive after two nights of badly interrupted sleep. The storms that came through Sunday and Monday mornings (as in 0100 and 0300 mornings) get credit for my feeling a bit fuzzy (Monday afternoon).
It got a bit moist Sunday morning.
The crowd was lively, the writing was good, and aside for the Morning of Moisture (which was NOT my fault, all claims to the contrary aside), we had a very good time. A huge hat tip and thank you to OldNFO who had put the thing together for April (April Fool’s weekend, thus the name), and then managed to keep it mostly intact at the new date. It was supposed to be in the 100s and sunny. Texas weather struck again.
The photos were taken from the porch of the gathering building, as the rain was sort of considering tapering off ish on Sunday.
As you can tell, the current was strong. No, that had not been a creek on Friday or Saturday. Yes, there was much fussing about the water, and wading to breakfast, and “The kids took the umbrella out of my car,” and “I’d thought about bringing a raincoat, but no, I changed my mind . . .” I was just happy that I’d taken the life-sized Tay the lemur back to the hotel the day before, so he didn’t get wet.
I got 6 pages of a short story written (longhand, which attracted attention) and a scene for a different story done. Many tales were told and yarns spun, information exchanged, search-histories compared (“No, I’m more likely to have someone come visit, because for the last book I was looking up . . .”), firearms sighed over, and so on.
Alas for my peace of sleep, the way the window on the hotel room was designed, a westerly or north-westerly wind made it howl. As in banshee or jet engine howl. It wasn’t something I could sleep through, so even though the storms were not all that bad Monday morning (bow-echo and 60 mph winds, the worst of which skirted east of where I was), the moaning and crescendo-decrescendo wailing lasted for over an hour.
In lieu of further content, an interesting article from Norway about pre-Viking Vikings. Perhaps. Maybe. https://sciencenorway.no/archaeology-bronze-age-ships/was-there-a-viking-age-in-norway–2000-years-before-the-vikings/1698522
Cat Rotator's Quarterly 
And the pre-Vikings never had to wait at Customs. Ah, for the Old Days!
Any chance of working some of this into the Familiar series?
Quote from link:
Why were people in Norway 3000 years ago so focused on ships?
*looks at map*
*looks at article writer*
*looks at map*
That said, the article writer is good at building the article like a story– I was wondering if they had any actual, y’know, boats, or just a pretty lady saying “everything else in the pictures is real, why not the boats?”
There are plank boats that were found in England that date to the Bronze Age, so the possibility is there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferriby_Boats
There’s also a Danish find from 350 BC/BCE. https://www.visitsonderborg.com/sonderborg/information/hjortspring-boat-gdk1085967 I don’t recall off the top of my head how old the two boats I saw in Schleswig were. I think one was “only” 1,700 years old.
Combine that with the one that he introduced in the middle– I’m actually figuring on having my kids read this article, it really is nicely set up to pull the reader in. (as opposed to the “here is an article that assumes you already know what’s going on” type articles)
OldNFO posted a pic of the epic showdown between Tay and Wendell T. Manatee, which ended in a strategic draw. I can imagine the amount of laughter that caused.
Should something happen to Sho’s studio, it might turn out to be covered under an insurance rider on someone else’s policy. Tom Stranger might explain that Wendell liked his portrait that much, he covered his source of special gifts, to include exorcism and reconstruction at current costs. Of course, the mechanics of doing cross-universe visits would depend on the whim of the ILOH, ensconced on his mountain.
Like!
Glad you made the trip down. And you missed the kids ‘wading’ knee deep in the water until parental unit caught up with them (and not happily)… LOL