Barking at shovels

Baitcon XVI

It's Monday, so of course the sun has come out. I'm starting to get really cranky about the weather here this spring cum summer. This has been our fifth consecutive weekend of nothing but rain, followed by lovely Mondays (except, of course, for Memorial Day weekend, which had torrential rain on the holiday Monday and a lovely Tuesday), and my second consecutive rained-out camping trip. Last week with Anna we just wussed out and stayed in a motel -- at the Baitcon jamboree we were more committed, so tenting it was, monsoon or no. ("Fifty percent chance of showers," my ass.) Mostly my tent's waterproofing held up -- I'm very glad I applied a new coat last week before going -- but owing to a minor tent-pitching error and the absurd amount of water in the air, I slept in a damp sleeping bag anyway. Am pleased to report that the down bag's performance was everything I could have hoped for, keeping me decently warm regardless.

Thus ends my pathetic weather rant. On the upside, it was not windy, the Baitcon geeklords had an exceptionally well-engineered set of tarps, shelters, and guerilla rain-guttering set up outside the lodge, and of course the lodge itself was a nice retreat in the evenings. Also, there were hardly any bugs -- I think on Sunday, I didn't even bother to apply repellent.

There was music and great cooking, clever puzzles and games; stream engineering, naked mud fights, and a propane-powered hot shower by the creek, delightful as an Irish Spring commercial; fun with liquid nitrogen, and sixty-nine inventive flavours of homemade ice cream. There was the classic Cocoa Moose and French Vanilla Bean, wonderful Lemon, delicate Brandi Alexander, creamy-sweet Thai Tea, pungent Ginger Cubed, spicy Dragon Chocolate, tart Blood Orange, experimental Fig Surprise, my personal favourite, the triple-threat Coconut Lime Habanero (lime tartness forward with the reverse-mounted habanero explosion as you swallow) -- plus many, many more.

It was a damned fine weekend, and the thing about all the rain is this, that a bit of adversity really does serve mostly to imprint the memories more permanently. So there.

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