Thom Stépan

What a crap couple of weeks. I copped a head-cold. Bec got very ill and even got tested for the Covid. It came back negative fortunately. But it added extra stress. Now things are settling down shopping wise Theo is getting fewer shifts and hours, his Supermarket chain [Coles] put on more staff just after the peak of the hoarding and now they have more staff than they need. Sigh. At least his direct manager loves him, as does the Assistant Store Manager and two other department managers, so they are trying to give him as many shifts as they can between them. I have been binge watching Supernatural. But not really doing much else. The headaches I get with head-colds have been making things tricky. Such is life. I managed to buy myself some plywood to make a kite shield and got a basic wood-burner so I can get back into that craft again. But haven't done anything beyond that. Bec decided this week that she is going to build me a bookcase. Which is nice of her. She is teaching the youngest three woodworking skills by having them help her build it. Which is really cool, and will make this bookcase even more special to me.

It is rather strange, I know. It is interesting many reenactors have studied various plagues of the past. Now we are literally living during one. As far as I know we have adapted quickly to the situation. Cancelling live events, and going online. There are a lot of new tutorials springing up on YouTube, others are using the time to update their kit, or develop their personas more.

Feel whatever emotions come your way. Spend some time reveling in the depth of those emotions. Be in the emotion, be that emotion. Then find your center again and be at one with yourself. That is what I did with the grief I experienced with the loss of my heart sister recently. I expressed my grief fully that night, now I am more balanced, centered and can act and move forward again. Do things for selfish reasons, if looking hot in that swim suit is what is motivating you, use it. I think we can in turn be both selfish and selfless when we motivate ourselves to take action. Especially when it comes to improving our health and fitness.

I am sorry to hear about Oz, may he be welcome in Freyja's Halls.

Quick update, my old computer finally died. Today I am working with my new [refurbished] all in one PC. Damn this sucker is fast and the screen feels huge to me. I had an old 17 inch monitor, that was nearly square shaped. This sucker is a wide screen 22 inch and I love it. For the computer nerds, this is a HP EliteOne 800, with a 4th gen i7 processor and 8 GB RAM. Yes I know it is older tech, but it is still a hell of a lot better than what I was trying to work with. @Chris-Tien Jinn, Lady de Lacy has a beautiful device. I am very lucky to have a local group. We were a part of the Shire of Bordescros, which is based in Albury-Wodonga on the NSW Victoria border, about two hours south of us. But over the last 4 years our numbers have grown and we are in the process of becoming a shire in our own right. We are the incipient Shire of Strathcorbie in the Kingdom of Lochac. The name has been accepted and now we are just waiting on an event with Crown in order to be made official. Maybe Fields of Gold will go ahead in October/November. This plague has been hard on our kingdom. On the plus side there are a heap of new training videos coming out so that is a bonus.

So far this week has been a bit dodgy, tried for a walk earlier this week. Made it to the corner before my knee gave out. Slowly made my way home. Walked a measly 350 metres, it took me 6 minutes. Not a grumble so much as a sadness as walking has become very hard and I enjoy walking so much. Anyway, such is life. This week I have spent a fair bit of time helping Bec, she has been a bit sick so I have helped with shopping and cooking at least one meal a day, usually dinner. Yesterday she went to the hospital struggling to breathe, asthma and cold like symptoms don't go well together. She got the full run down, but no check for the plague. Yes she has all the matching symptoms, but because she hasn't been overseas or in direct contact with one of the current confirmed cases. So she may or may not have it. She has to self isolate and act if she has Covid 19. She wanted me and Theo to move in with her, so I could look after everyone, and Theo could go to work from there. Only drawback is Theo can't work if he is living with someone sick. So I said I would spend the mornings doing my stuff and after lunch go around and help Bec stay and cook dinner before heading home. Yes, on my sore knee. Well that went down like a lead balloon. Apparently all I care about is money, I refused to engage in the argument she was wanting on messenger. Then she posts on facebook how the only person who could help her won't because he only cares about money. No I haven't engaged there either. Sigh. This morning I managed to do my leg strengthening exercises and a round of BBWW. 10 Wall pushups, 10 one arm rows with an 8 kilo kettlebell and a ten second plank. No lunges though as I am doing other stuff to strengthen the knee. Study has been sucky this week. On other things I am in the process of creating a persona for the SCA. Ansgar is a Thegn from Northumbria in the year 1054, he injured his right leg in the war with the Scots of Macbeth. Ansgar's father is a Dane who was a part of Cnut's army in 1016, Erik was awarded land near Tyneside in Bernicia. Ansgar's mother is Aethelflaed, a daughter of a Thegn from Bamburgh. Also I have been working on creating my device, SCA coat of arms, as well. I am loving the Heraldry stuff as it is a welcome distraction. Ignore the fluff around the shield. The blazon would go; Argent, chevron azure, three acorns azure. Nice and simple hopefully I can get it passed along with my name. Yes, technically such heraldry was not used in the early 11th century. But that is why the A stands for Anachronism.

We both need to remember anything is better than nothing. You did something, even if it wasn't the full amount you planned. Action is always good.

Sadly it was stolen along with a brand new chainsaw and several other items, from the farm as she was in the process of moving house. Just have to replace things.

Woohoo! Good to see you too, found your latest challenge and following.

Found you and following.

Update time. Kodi is home from the vet, with the cone of shame. Poor puppy, he is being such a sooky la-la at the moment lapping up all the extra attention. I spent a fair bit of time at Bec's on Sunday so she could sleep as Kodi was whimpering all night. Yesterday was a downer for me. I couldn't walk much without my stick, knee was way to sore. Resting today as well. I have been seeing a lot of FB posts from friends who are taking the time to enjoy their crafts and hobbies whilst at home. I realised that I can't do any crafting as I lost all my craft equipment when Bec and I broke up. Until the stimulus money the Aussie government has promised comes through, I won't be able to replace it. I also don't actually have anywhere to do my crafts either, except the lounge room floor. Woke up feeling a bit brighter. So at least I know it isn't a return of the Black Dog and his bloody trolls. Ansgar sat quietly in his small home, what to do? What is going on? He cast the runes, and saw something very troubling. No ordinary plague, but one created by a Daemon. Surely the Healers and Leeches would sort this out, and the augurs would be searching for the plague daemon, wouldn't they? Ansgar knew he had to do something, but what? He could read and learn. he could get ready, if the plague daemon manifested in Dancing Crows he would be ready to help. If not, then his actions would calm his troubled mind and spirit. "Better get to work, then". he said to himself.

Found you.

Yay for cool workout stuff. The uni work thing sounds like crap. I feel sorry for all my Uni lecturer friends at the moment. I feel extra sorry for my own lecturers, because they have to mark my drivel as well. Staff/Saber training sounds cool, what source are you using for this? I know a lot of re-enactors are posting lots of training videos on YouTube which is awesome. At the end of this there will be lots of fresh training material around. Glad to hear you are managing well.

Thank you both ladies.

Morning all, Thanks @DarK_RaideR, it is better to lose the pretty colours than to put up with the strikethroughs. My PC is slowly dying, but hopefully with the upcoming stimulus package I may be able to afford a new one that will be able to function reasonably well. Things have been a bit odd this past week. First with the social isolation and lock downs actually starting for us. We now currently have 4 confirmed cases here in Wagga Wagga. I have been walking every other day. Thursday my Theo started talking about upgrading our camping equipment and creating a bug out crate for food. I think between the fires and the virus he has been thinking more in terms of prepping for disasters. Which is a sensible thing to be honest, so long as we don't go too overboard. Then yesterday Bec called me frantically just after 8 am. Our dog Kodi, had a massive gash on his chest just under his left leg. I won't share a picture, it was bad. Not much bleeding though. So I ended up staying there for the day. Helping her feel calm, and watching the kiddos. My highlight was watching Frozen 2 with Elaina and Chris. After a bucket load of stitches Kodi is okay and has a drain in. The best we can figure out is he fell on a broken plastic outdoor chair that was left behind by the previous tenants. The chair was upside down in the wood storage section of brick BBQ. Goals for Zero week. Study the Daemon I have completed my first assessment tasks for both subjects and handed them in on time. My Lit one caused me the most grief. Part one was to choose any poem, song or ballad that I knew well and write 150 words as to why it was important to me. Trying to choose one was the hard part. In the end i chose a poem I had published in 1999, I doubt if more than a couple of hundred people have ever read it. But it fit the topic. Hunt the Daemon I have gotten three walks in this past week. Monday and Wednesday I walked 1.6km. A reasonable distance that got me out of the house and doing something. Yesterday I increased my long walk to 3.2km which is great. Going to leave it at that for a bit and improve on my pace slowly. I am currently walking 12.50's/km at the moment. My 3.2km took me 40 minutes. Yes I am very happy with my progress so far. Stronger than the Daemon I need to get started on this one. I haven't done anything this week. It started with rumours, as such things always did. People got sick and were dying. Nothing unusual about that, but there was something different this time. The Storytellers spoke of people getting sick in their hundreds, and scores of people dying. Something to do with bats. The stories were hazy, coming from a far off land to the north. Then people started getting the same illness in Koori country, and it started spreading. Some claimed it was a punishment for evil sent by their god. Others said it was a conspiracy or a hoax. Ansgar felt something different about this one. The Parliament declared that people shouldn't travel and to stay at home. Hospitals were struggling to look after the sick, People started fighting over suppiies in fear. Then the illness was named, the Crown plague. Early in the mornings Ansgar walked the empty streets of Dancing Crows. There was something wrong. It felt different to other sicknesses that he had seen in his lifetime. It was malevolent, with an intelligence of its own it seemed. The healers and leeches were overwhelmed, priests claimed that their god would protect them, then died. Now the Crown plague had come to Wiradjuri country. Ansgar gripped his staff tighter as he walked the deserted streets. How to survive this?

Some Warhammer-y goodness, or foulness considering the image.

What the? Strike throughs on everything I just wrote. Bloody technology.

As I am working on this challenge my theme is starting to take on more form. With the whole Corona virus pandemic I think it is ideal to use this as a way to add flavour to my challenge. I am not exactly sure how the challenge will develop. After all the pandemic is going to be part of our lives for the next six months at least, so it's not like I can kill the plague-bearer daemon in one challenge. Maybe it will involve me hunting and tracking it down. Or just surviving the effects of a plague daemon on my world. H'mm I may even get back into some creative writing with this challenge. Let's see how I go. So my goals for this challenge: To Defeat the Daemon one must Study the Daemon Study with the uni going into shut down there will be no more on campus classes. I need to focus on maintaining my study habits and get my assignments in. I am studying two subjects and it is recommended to spend 10 - 15 hours per week on each subject. So that is my goal, ten hours per week per subject studying. To Defeat the Daemon one must hunt the Daemon Walking I love my walks they help clear my head, and help me feel good in the mornings. Ideally walking daily is best, however as long as I get a minimum of three times per week I will be okay with this. To Fight the Daemon one must be Stronger than the Daemon Bodyweight Workouts I have been a bit slack with my physio exercises for my knee. Which is not good. I need to get these going consistently. This goal is vital not only for strengthening my joints, but also with the lock down it may become the primary means of exercise. I also need to start doing some upper body and core strengthening exercises as well. This is a good time to bring back the NF BBWW routine. The goal will be three times per week.

I shall endeavour to keep up with your thread.

I am still able to go for my morning walks, for now. My advantage is that I usually head out around 5.15 am, so no one is around.

So update time. With the knee pain I have cut back my walking to three times per week and walking 1.6 km each time. I am finding that more comfortable at the moment. I think next challenge I will add some strength training on the days I don't walk. Not sure yet. I have a couple of 8kg kettlebells kicking around, so might use those. We have officially started lockdown here in Australia, although schools are still open, food outlets are takeaway only with many fastfood joints going to drive through only. My Theo is busier than ever, being a retail worker at one of our local Supermarkets. When I picked him up from work at 12 yesterday it was sort of surreal. The foodcourt of the Mall he is in was pretty much empty, but Coles itself was as busy as ever. What surprised me was that considering the foodcourt was meant to be closed so people don't linger about a third of the tables had people sitting and eating at them. But that was like Bondi Beach over the weekend, thousands of people went to the beach even with the threat of the Corona virus. Idiots. Bec's anxiety is through the roof because of this thing. I am being supportive as I need her calm[ish] in order to keep the kids calm. I am very glad that she is only 6 km away rather than the 90 odd that she used to be. We are sort of working together for food and toiletries. Trying to maximise purchases within the limitations. On the plus side, our government is moving to increase unemployment benefits by an extra $550 per fortnight. That is almost doubling my income, for the next six months anyway. Already over 95,000 people have tried to access Centrelink to get on the Jobseeker payments. They crashed the online system. Jobs, ha that's a joke, not going to be much work around outside of retail and delivery work. Through one of the mobile app games I used to play I know someone in northern Italy. It is bad there. She said they can't even go two hundred metres from home unless it is an emergency. If we get that bad, there goes my walking. Sleep has been an issue for me lately. Over the weekend I woke up several times in a tight ball with muscles tensed up. Which won't be helping my knee any. I think I need to look at my bedtime routine. Make sure I am going to bed mentally and physically relaxed.

Tagging along.

Glad to see you are still doing well and surviving. Sorry to hear about your cat. Re: gardening on clay soils. That is most of Australia. I suggest straw bales. You can either plant directly into the bale itself [can be tricky to create the starting hole], or you can open the bale and layer it on top of the clay. One bale per square metre is great as it gives you plenty of depth. Add a bit of blood'n'bone or dynamic lifter [chicken manure pellets] or both, and your good to go. Easy way to create a no dig slightly raised garden bed.

Studying has been good. Knee has been hurting a bit. I twisted it getting out of my car the other day. I didn't walk yesterday, and only walked 1.6 km this morning. Things are going okay fitness wise. The panic buying is getting ridiculous here. supermarkets are about one third empty at any given time. Basic staples are as scarce as hen's teeth. Spuds, dunny rolls, rice, pasta, noodles, frozen veg, meats, tinned foods. Bloody stupid.