Is this thing still on?

Umm . . . rather a long hiatus, eh?  Since mid-April . . .

(Writing this in bits and pieces through the day, to be posted
tonight, since blogger doesn't play nice with my iPhone and I haven't
migrated to WordPress - a painless process, but I haven't poked at my
personal blog to figure out customizing colors, etc.)

Well, Otter has been napping since then.  Suffice it to say that
MuseCon ate my brain, and Ron's.  Ron was convention chair, I did
publications, signage, and (theoretically, anyway), public relations.
MuseCon Zero was this past weekend, August 6th through 8th.  I'm
recovering.

At some point in the last month or so I'd started to feel guilty about
neglecting the business, but realized there was no hope until after
MuseCon.  So I decided that I'd wake Otter back up once MuseCon was
over.  I've succeeded so far, yesterday morning I dug out some soft
pouches in progress and finished not one, but two; they're just the
half-soft size, and one already had the flap done, but I'm pleased
with myself.

We'd done a presentation about "Leather for Costuming" at MuseCon,
which had helped the waking-up, because I had to root around and find
a selection of tools and materials, so I knew where to look for the
bits I didn't take to the convention.  Last night I dug out the rest
of the soft pouches in progress, tonight I may see what I've got going
on with hard pouches. And I may see if I can get a couple more soft
pouches ready for assembly - I've got three or four cut out, but no
farther.  Heat and humidity provided, or by moving up to the
air-conditioned bedroom.

A month from now is the Fox Hunt and Ayreton Investiture event - most
of the greater-Chicago-area groups are amalgamating into a Barony, and
that event is the official investiture.  I figure it should be a good
event - Fox Hunt is usually decent, and there should be plenty of
extra people for the investiture.  Plus it's a bit south-ish
(Earlsville, IL), a direction we only go lately for Fox Hunt.

The problem is, on the way home from MuseCon Monday morning the
Durango had a close encounter of the crunchy kind with a semi truck.
Specifically, the rear end of the durango and the nose of the semi did
not successfully share space/time.  The passenger side rear quarter of
the Durango is a mess.  A big mess.  Hopefully the frame is not.  No
humans were damaged, only the semi, the Durango, a cooler, and a
cardboard box.  We are very happy with that state of affairs, as it
could have been much, much worse.

If this was a small fender-bender I wouldn't be worried about getting
the Durange back in time for Fox Hunt. As it is, I have concerns.
Yesterday I checked on the list prices of cargo vans from Enterprise
(where we've currently got a rental car from) and U-Haul.  $200-$225.
Unless we can swap out the rental car for a van for that weekend, or
otherwise get the rental of a van covered, I don't forsee doing Fox
Hunt.  But I'm trying to wait and see what we hear from the shop (had
the Durango dropped off by lunchtime Monday - no point in waiting) and
the trucking company's insurance company.

Going through my Weaver catalog I've found a couple new hardware bits
I'm drooling over - a 1-3/4" strap keeper, and a T-junction piece used
in creating the ear loops on bridles.  Both are the fancy engraved
stainless steel with black accents like some rings and buckles I get
from them.  The T piece is caaalling to me, I need to figure out
something to do with it.  There's also some very inexpensive harness
bellies on the odd lot list that I'm trying to ignore, that would be
great for pouches, if they have any left.  But I have to at least wait
until payday, probably best to wait until September.  But I don't
wanna!  Want to shop and play with new bits and pieces!