khamilton's blog

Nate Tyler wants to invite you to "the dark side."

Tyler, an SCA alum and one-time Google spokesperson, is taking on global warming with Lights Out San Francisco, a grassroots campaign to get locals to turn off their lights between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 20. Landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the TransAmerica Tower have all agreed to pull the plug.

I have seen a lot of SCA crews in my time.  But this one -- and I say this with all due respect to the many in our ranks who wear their hard-earned grime and stench as a badge of honor -- was the most putrid I have ever encountered.

I'd like to say my recent visit to Voyageurs and recollections from The Summer of Love prompted my brief Fourth of July camping trip to Bridgton, Maine but in truth it had been scheduled for weeks, as my work schedule and that of my wife allowed only for a long weekend.

I've been traveling a lot lately and I enjoy long plane rides if only because they permit me to read. Lately I've encountered numerous stories about 1967's "Summer of Love" (SCA's 50th isn't the only anniversary going on).

I did the evening drive to Voyageurs at, shall we say, warp speed. In fact, as I navigated northward the lightning bugs glancing off my windshield could have been phaser blasts deflecting off my force field. If, you know, such things were real.