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And maybe a disastrous one.
For the last several years I would make a point of meeting Gerry and his team of Belgian draft horses. When I went to MFF, I'd miss one of those times, but there was always another, until last year. Last year, for other reason, I did not go to MFF, but I did meet Gerry and the team that Friday night - and found he would not be back in a couple week as he had in other years.
This year I didn't go anywhere either, but I did not see Gerry. Last night would have been the second chance of this season as there was a holiday shopping event downtown. The news article mentioned a hayride, which was not what Gerry did, but he had a friend who did that sort of thing with another team. But I did not have my hope very high, which was just as well.
It was snowing last night and forecast to drop quite a bit. The forecast was wrong for Fairmont (which is a good thing, to me) but i didn't know that at the time. I saw the hayride setup. A few bales on a flatbed trailer, pulled by a tractor. For the belgian team and Gerry, I'd have stayed. For that? No. I came back home.
If that's all the problems of the night, it would have disappointing but not too bad. But it wasn't. I am glad I have the laptop and have it mostly working (I still haven't gotten the microphone to work under Linux, though I haven't found an external mic. to check everything, either.) and some significant stuff (though hardly all...) transfered to it. The main desktop machine froze up solid last night. And then... nothing. I cycled power and it won't come back up. The fans and drives spin, but it doesn't even make the POST beep. Any of the beeps.
I've pulled the all the cards, the RAM, and disconnected the drives so it's just the motherboard with CPU, power supply, and fans. Still nothing. That's pretty much, "It's dead, Jim." What I don't know is if it's the (just recently installed replacement) power supply, the motherboard itself, or the CPU. I have ordered a replacement CPU as it was only $10.99 and if that's it, it's a cheap fix. If not, I'm not out much.
I am of course hoping for the cheap fix. I expected to replace that machine, but have been hoping to put that off several more months at least. I'd like to have the laptop paid off first. I shouldn't be too surprised if it does come down to replacement. It's rather impressive that I've been using the same machine, pretty much, in nearly continuous service for nearly 8 years. But after the last couple nights, the conking out is yet another annoyance I don't need.
Non-MFF summary
24 November 2009 08:11
For reasons that can all be traced back to the current economy or lack thereof, I did not go to MFF this year. I did keep a bit busy anyway.
Friday night Fairmont had a parade that supposedly kicks off the Christmas shopping season, as if that hadn't really started a few hours after Halloween if even that late. In years past, the city kept the decorative lights off until the night of the parade. This year the light were on a few days early. Not sure if that was lack of caring about the setup or a ploy to say "start spending already."
I met up with Gerry Busse and his team of Belgian horses (Connie and Lynne were pulling that night) in the Harsco Track Technology (formerly Fairmont Tamper, formerly Fairmont Railway Motors) parking lot rather than the usual lot. He was about set up by the time I got there so I really don't do much of anything there other than supply his always-forgotten throat drops. The trolley had a couple changes. The brake is now a nice lever with a catch, the sound system has a wireless mic., there are lights that indicate the remote-operated steps are down, and the front string of Christmas lights is LED. There are also "ground effects" LEDs under the trolley, casting a reddish glow that reminded me of the looks of some college kids cars in the early 1990s.
The weather was decent, for the time of year in Minnesota, for once. No single digits and strong winds, but high twenties and an almost calm night. Gerry had position 20 in the parade and we found it without any real trouble for the setup. The girls on whatever float was ahead of us all stayed at the rear of the float to watch the team.
If I had gone to MFF, I'd have missed Gerry and the team completely this year. He won't be giving rides in Fairmont the first Friday of December this year. Instead whoever makes that decision had him stay after the parade and go until about 9 PM giving rides. I suspect it's again a matter of economy. It's going to seem quite strange that Friday without him around.
Gerry has a bit of a shtick worked up when things are ready to go. Instead of just going, he introduces the team (sometimes letting people see the names on the front posts... which are for Connie and Buttercup, so they aren't always right), says a bit about them ("They weigh about 2,000 pounds each, and when the trolley is fully loaded with adults, they're pulling about 14,000 pounds.") He then asks how to get the horses to get going and people suggest things.. one of which almost works ("Well, they thought about it.") and since I was up front I could see the gimmick. Before he rings the bell (rather than saying, "Team!" which also works) he quietly releases the brake - no wonder the team only "thought about it" earlier.
The shorter route he was using last year was continued. It lets people wait inside a building rather than out on the street. It also means Gerry has time for two Christmas carols and another short shtick, "How do you suppose we make the horses go faster?" A few suggestions are tried and then Gerry explain, "Horses are like kids... if you really want them to do something for you, you just give them a little kiss..."
I wound up leaving when the last ride was over but didn't stick around for anything else. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jmaynard had been putting off supper long enough and we both we hungry. I had expected to be home much earlier, but that was before I knew about the after parade rides going so long. In other years Gerry would give a couple rides if folks were interested and then pack up.
I spent most of the time either up front on the trolley with Gerry, or standing in front of the team when stopped giving them some attention and generally just showing that they were approachable despite their intimidating size.
Saturday morning was a bit of baking, as was Saturday night/Sunday morning. Jay made a double batch of Chex-only Chex mix (no Cheerios, no peanuts, no pretzels, just Chex or Chex-oid cereal) and made it a bit spicy with some Tabasco sauce in the mix. I made chocolate chocolate mint chip cookies, Special Dark chocolate chip cookies, and tried a microwave nut brittle recipe that worked out well with cashews.
Sunday was travel to Merrill for an early Thanksgiving (my schedule permitted it then, as Thursday wouldn't be good for me to get to Merrill) and that afternoon we had the Thanksgiving dinner and various things for dessert. The apple and pumpkin pies that had been made for dessert only got touched rather later.
Monday was mostly travel back home, with a stop at Weaver's Country Store in Fall Creek, WI to get a few things that aren't so easily found at decent price and quality elsewhere.
Between the parade, the baking, Thanksgiving and visiting, travel, and juggling my sleep schedule around, I was pretty much too busy to be much concerned about MFF. I miss it, but not very badly. Considering the concentration of people, the issues of cold, flu, and flu, maybe it was best to skip it this year. Maybe next year. Maybe not.
I had taken another equinity quiz and got a clydesdale result. That wasn't an option for this one.
( So, what is this different result? )
Last night was another Midnight Madness bit for the businesses on Downtown Plaza in Fairmont and as usually Gerry had his trolley and a team of belgian horses. The last couple years I'd seen the trolley parked in a lot earlier in the day and knew that Gerry would be around. This year I didn't see that until jmaynard and I went by to check after supper. The trolley was there and the horses were out, tied to the side of trailer.
When we got home I changed into what I hoped was warmer clothing, including my Inverness cloak, and went out to see Gerry. To my surprise things were about as they were when Jay and I had driven past. Gerry was nowhere in sight and neither was his truck. Considering he left the horses outside the trailer and left audio gear in the trolley I was a bit concerned. Gerry generally doesn't leave things unattended like that.
While I waited for Gerry to show up, I approached the horses who I figured knew me from earlier years. One did, the other was quite unsure of me. When Gerry, who had his daughter along this year, showed up he explained that tonight was Butterbiscuit's first night pulling. Buttercup, Butterbiscuit's mother, was also pulling. Connie got the night off.
It was clear that 'biscuit wasn't used to things, even getting set up. There was a lot of skittishness getting into position and one could just about hear Buttercup thinking "Oh, come on, just do it already, kid."
For first circuits of the streets Gerry's daughter and I stood in front of the team at the stop. She reassured 'biscuit some and I gave Buttercup some attention.
I noticed Gerry had a bit of a cough as he sang and so when he started another circuit I didn't ride, but stopped in at the nearby drug store and bought a bag of cough drops. Gerry seems to need them, and not have them, every year. I handed them up to Gerry and stood by the team until the next circuit started. Then I made my way to all the open shops and registered for the midnight drawing, and ate too many cookies.
That took me a while and when I got back to Gerry 'biscuit had settled down some, mainly from getting tired. Gerry had her pulling before, but only on his property. This was her first time out in the Big Scary World. She'd been avoiding stepping on manhole covers all night, but finally did step on one rather late - and then avoided them the rest of the night again.
At the very end of the run, 'biscuit got a lesson from Buttercup. When Gerry turned the team into the lot where the trailer was parked, Buttercup knew that the work was over, but 'biscuit did not and was being skittish again. Buttercup threw her weight around (and that's an impressive sight when a belgian does it) less than gently nudging, clearly saying "Get over there, you, dagnabbit. Don't you get that we're done now?"
After Gerry, his daughter (I've forgotten her name) and the team had left I waited around for the midnight drawing. I didn't win anything, but this year they at least set it up so there was more than one name drawn and more than one prize.
Gerry has the team out again today, in another town. Butterbiscuit will likely be a bit more easygoing. That will be partly from now having some experience but perhaps mainly from being a bit tired.
jmaynard pretty much summed up IRF: It was meeting with friends who happened to be at a faire rather than going to see a faire. I got to meet a couple ponies I hadn't met before, as well as a miniature horse who seems to have gotten quite used to people (he wasn't that used to people this Spring, I was told).
We didn't go out to supper with anyone from faire, which was a bit unusual. On the other hand, there supposedly was some gathering scheduled to start at 8:00 PM Saturday that was "only about 10 minutes away." Even with a long wait for a table, Jay and I were finished with our meal by 8:00 PM. And the next day we heard someone say that "10 minutes away" was more like 40.
The first year Jay and I went to IRF we went for just one day, returned on Sunday, and did MNRF on Monday. Something like that might happen next year. Neither of us really sees a reason to spend two days at IRF. One day seems sufficient to see all we care to see and then some. Whether we do MNRF that weekend is open. It might be good to have a full day of not doing much of anything.
We stopped at a comic shop in Mason City so I could pick up a copy of Looney Tunes 118. This issue is all Duck Dodgers and all written by Earl Kress, one of the few folks I don't mind writing everything in an issue. The interesting thing is that the stories don't strictly follow the Classic Era and previous comics line. Instead, they use some elements of the Duck Dodgers television cartoon. I need to find out more and maybe start taping that show. I'd also like to ask Tom Minton a few things about the show and the comic - I figure there can hardly be a more authoritative source than the producer-director... who also writes for the show.
Lately I've seen quite a few references to what I assume is a game of some sort, City of Heroes. I keep misreading it on first scan as City of Horses and wonder, for a moment, just how that would work.
Q: What is it about horses that makes you identify so strongly with them - or what horse attributes of a centaur?
A: This post might explain some of it. There's probably also an element of wishful thinking that is common to role-play and such. Horses are big and I'm not. Horses are fast and I'm not. Horses are strong and I'm not. And I do just plain like how they look. I'm not around them all that much and I didn't grow up around horses. If I had, maybe I'd see things rather differently.
I suppose, also, that I often have felt misunderstood. Sometimes cut off before finishing a sentence or thought and the wrong ending put in place ("Dammit, let me finish!"), which I find exasperating - usually as the person incorrectly filling in the blank goes on to explain why I'm wrong when I never said what they substituted and know very well what they substituted was wrong and why it's wrong and could they please spare me the lecture I don't need and actually listen? Sometimes it's just a complete miss. More than one horse trainer has stated that problems with horses tend to be communication problems of people not understanding them to start and if the communication problems aren't taken care of then things get worse. I've had similar experiences, and unlike a horse, I can talk and yet the same thing can happen anyway. So there is some.. is it sympathy or empathy? There is some identification with that, at least.
"That guy"
22 November 2003 19:49The Fairmont Glows parade was last night, and Gerry and the team were in it again. And this time, so was I...
The Iowa Renaissance Festival has come and gone again. I won't go into too much detail, I think. It was nice Saturday, and rained or at least drizzled for much of Sunday. Saw a few acts. Noted the absence of a few. Mainly talked with people I knew already. It seems I do less and less shopping and watching performances and more and more simple visiting.
One act I did see was the Shattock Schoole of Defence. I think I saw all three shows they did, and one was one I hadn't seen before. Based on Alice in Wonderland and it did have that quality to it though I didn't pick up on the reference(s).
Also met the ponies (Talon, Peanut Butter, Snickers, and Rowdy - who lives down to his name) and their owner. I found out why I hadn't seen them at ARA (Osceola). She'd loaned out the truck. "And it didn't come back in time?" I asked. "No, it came back. On a flatbed. Threw a rod." was the reply. Ouch. And right after other work (brakes, transmission) had been done. The ARA organizer was there and I did manage to get the folks together (or was it me?) and so things seem to be worked out for next year.
Saturday night was the usual (for smaller faires) supper gathering. Reservations had been made well in advance and having a room to ourselves worked nicely. Heard the tale of how a couple friends got a new, or at least different, vehicle. It was quite an ordeal of trying cars and finding faults for a couple weeks until they finally bought a vehicle from their mechanic rather than any of the dealers.
The big surprise, to me, was nothing to do with the faire at all, but once we got home. There was a poorly recorded message on the answering machine. Turns it out it was a reporter with the Christian Science Monitor who had come across the COLT while researching. He only wanted to confirm the sequence in Dripalong Daffy where Daffy bursts into the saloon... and gets completely ignored. He was using that to describe how Arnold is being ignored in the California recall. He had already submitted the story so it wasn't much help, but I did confirm he had it right about Daffy. I'm not so sure he's right about the rest of it. I suggested michaelmink's Warner Bros. Cartoon Companion and he said he had looked through it.
