Oh right... the weekend...

The weekend was spent performing at The Northern Catskill Mountains Renaissance Faire in Cairo, NY. It's about an hour south of Albany, I used to go to school 30 min north of Albany. It was great fun. The show's producer took amazing care of us. Hotels, food, etc. I performed with GBU and squired for Paragon Jousting. Was fun as we had Scott back in the GBU lineup and I hadn't done so much with Paragon in a while. I had felt out of the loop and such so it was good to get back out there and be part of the team. Meanwhile, M was performing with The Sherrif Bracken Show. I watched her throw her all into a ton of street work as she revived her character "Anne Hardy". Because there was no actual cast, and all the performers appeared to be ATP or Paragon, we were handling most of the street work. I was street worked out by early the first morning. It was mostly Bracken, Hardy and the mud beggars working the streets.

First day was rough. I hadn't got to sleep until 2am due to caffeine and arriving really late, and the heat of the day was oppresive. We got to bed early on Saturday night and both had way more energy for Sunday. The fight shows take a lot out of me but I found after a brief rest, I was ready for the next show, which involved squiring. Then a rest and food and the next show. Between the heat and being out of shape, I was not doing well, but I felt find at day's end. The downpour which hit right after the final joust may have helped with that. We left late after schmoozing and conversing with folks. M slept most of the way home leaving me to listen to the radio and deal with the rain. I was wide awake but no sooner did we get home then I was dead asleep. Since I'd taken Monday off from work, I slept until 8am. In a rare stroke of reversal, M was up before I was. I slept late... 8am. (Yup, that's late for me these days.) We both had a great time and just had a kind of lazy Monday.

I'm looking forward to returning next year.

That was close...

Narrowly averted being involved in a multi-vehicle accident this morning on the way to work.

What happened you ask?

Well, I was driving in heavy traffic down 128S/95S, just before where 95S splits off when I could see debris hitting the road, looked like something was falling out of the back of a car ahead of me, and I hoped not to hit it, I took my foot off the gas in anticipation and then noticed the dust of breaks being hit, so I hit mine (I just got my ABS fixed last week), coming to a stop several feet behind the car in front of me, then hoped to hell I didn't get rear-ended. I didn't.

I got out to find the debris had actually been a motorcycle. The motorcyclist was up and leaning against the Jersey Barrier. Several people were attending to him, including one shook up young lady who I assumed had been involved somehow in the accident. I don't know if she hit him and he went down, or he lost control and then was struck. I didn't wait to find out. I called 911 and then proceeded to call work and then helped in any way I could. Turns out one of the other cars was a doctor who began attending to him. I laid out my big black and red cloak on the ground for him to lie on and bunched up my grey cloak to use as a pillow (more on this later). Then I proceeded to keep traffic moving until the police arrived.

Two state troopers arrived and I was dismissed. I didn't actually see what happened so I was kind of useless in that regard. So I left, no sooner did I leave then I realized I'd forgot my cloaks. No problem, I'll call the state police when I get to work.

So, I call the state police barracks in Framingham and have to explain to the receptionist what a cloak is. She transfers me to a trooper who I also have to explain to what a cloak is and he calls the troopers who responded. Describes it as "personal property" instead of "$400 work of cloaks" but hey, whatever works. I can hear the conversation (as best I can recall).

Trooper1: I've got a motorist who left some personal property at the scene of that 16 on 95. Do you know where it is?
Trooper2: On the other side of the Jersey barrier.
Trooper1: Can he retrieve it?
Trooper2: Negative, *mumble*
(speaking to me)
Trooper1: He's going to move it to where you can get it. You can check back there later.
me: Can he just bring it back to the barracks when he returns?
Trooper1: Let me check.
(to other trooper)
Trooper1: Can you secure those items?

I couldn't hear much more of the conversation after that, but it kind of pisses me off that they didn't think of this on their own. Helpful motorist loses personal property helping an injured motorcyclist doesn't sound like good press to me. And kind of pisses me off. Once again I am reminded that no good deed goes unpunished. Doesn't make me feel bad about doing something good for someone else, but it does bother me when it kicks me in the ass in the end. Anyway, I asked where it would be brought to, the trooper said to call back. Asked if he wanted my name, he said, "Why not." Just the whole attitude I get after helping doesn't give the warm fuzzy feeling of wanting to help again. One of those cloaks was custom made for me and a lot of it is sentimental value, even though I rarely wear it anymore. Anyway, I need to call back around noonish and find the whereabouts of my "personal property."


EDIT: Called the state police and the trooper was kind enough to pick up my cloaks and will bring them to the barracks in Framingham. I can pick them up any time after 11pm tonight... which probably means tomorrow.