Procrastination Powers Activate!

Back again, hooray sporadic posting!  I hope you all enjoy the Nurburgring webcam. 

This past Thursday at my College’s fencing practice, we had a tournament to determine the first ever Silva Vulcani Champion.  We were fighting outside and towards the end the light was failing fast.  The final three came down to myself, one other older student, and a freshman.  The other older student I know can beat me on a regular basis; he’s got incredibly long arms and is a master of feint maneuvers. We matched up and circled each other for a bit, with a few half-hearted shots here and there to test the waters. We were both losing our game to the failing light, so I took a shot; a deep lunge to his center of mass.  The shot landed dead center, and he was out of the tourney (he had already lost to the freshman). 

Therefore it came down to me and the freshman.  By this point it was dark enough that I could see him and the guard of his sword, but not the blade itself.  I had one large advantage though, I had kept my dagger.  (Participants in the tourney could only fight with weapons they are authorized with; the freshman is only authed with a single sword.)  For a tournament like this, and against a freshman, I wasn’t about to give up that advantage.  If it hadn’t been me in the final, I didn’t want a freshman to win.  I helped start this group three years ago, I wasn’t going to give him any advantage.  Again, we made some passes with nothing landing, we were both playing cautious.  I decided to make a move before my luck ran out (and my light) so I made another lunge; he twisted to the side but not enough to dodge my blade; it drew a wonderful line diagonally across his chest up towards his left shoulder.  I forget if I parried his blade with my dagger or if he just missed, but his sword was nowhere near me.  He called himself dead and I was declared the first Silva Vulcani Champion.  If I make to Pennsic this August, I’ll supposedly have some official duty to do….

            This Sunday will be even more fencing as we’re having a mini-muster.  The focus will be on getting more people authorized with different forms.  I need to get my authorizations with buckler (small shield), cloak (like cloak and dagger), and case of sword.  Case of sword is fighting with two, usually identical swords.  I have very little practice with this form, but the Regional Marshal wants me to have all the forms before making me a marshal as well.  So I’m going to more or less wing the case auth, huzzah!

            My dad came yesterday to tow my dead Pontiac home, a distance of about 300 miles.  Starting the car up to drive onto the two dolly was not fun, it’s most certainly a blown head gasket.  This means the motor will have to pulled….again.  As to whether this means getting another new motor or trying to repair this one, I’m not sure.  I suspect the current one is too far gone.

            In other news, check out XPSMcLaren’s page for some exciting races this weekend.