Midwestachon Report and Wrapup

Midwestachon (February 18-20, 2011, Columbus OH) was a resounding success.

Participants included:
DWD, Mrs. DWD, Barndog, Mrs. Barndog, Buckeye, stuckinlodi, bluesman, Feral, ifthethunderdontgetya, ms fahrenheit, batguano

Pets included:
Nikki the DWDs' dog, Abbie the Barndogs' dog,Wyatt the Giant Golden Retriever, Carmen the Border Collie mix, and Frankie the cat.

On Thursday night (Feb 17, 2011), Feral showed up at the Bat Cave with his gear and supplies.  He and I got him set up on the sleeping porch and then had a long conversation about this and that over a few beers.

Friday saw the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. DWD, then bluesman, then Buckeye and stuckinlodi, then ms f.  We ordered pizza from Dante's Pizza.  The afternoon was nice and warm and we sat out on the deck through the afternoon, chatting away.  I took the opportunity to wash the Carmen the dog, as she was a bit scruffy.  Wyatt could have used a bath too, but that would have been a huge undertaking.  Huge.

Eventually, the wind picked up and we went inside and checked in online.

Left to right:  bluesman, Feral, Buckeye, Mrs. DWD, stuckinlodi, DWD

bluesman brought several guitars, several amplifiers, and a keyboard.  It was getting later in the evening on Friday when bluesman and Feral started jamming:  bluesman on guitar and Feral on keyboard.  Here are a few brief videos of the scene, first with the two playing, and then Feral alone playing some Bach:

 

Later that night, we saw that there was an Electric Utility truck in the back neighbor's driveway, working on their electrical supply.  Then we lost electricity.  Out came the flashlights, candles, and oil lamps.  Happily, one of bluesman's amps is battery-powered, and so is his keyboard, so Feral and bluesman continued to jam.  You can hear them playing Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" in the background:

I chose this lights-out moment to take my first group pictures.  Here we are, snapped by the self-timer:

From left to right:  DWD, Mrs. DWD, ms f, Feral, stuckinlodi, bluesman, Buckeye, batguano

The power was out for maybe an hour and a half.  Suddenly the power snapped back on and the house was flooded with light.  Everyone let out a yell (except for Mr. and Mrs. DWD, who had gone back to their hotel), and I ran around turning off all the lights, except some back in the dim recesses.  We were back to candles and oil lamps, which was much nicer.

On Saturday morning we had coffee provided by Missouri Bird, and ms fahrenheit cooked pancakes.

ms fahrenheit makes pancakes

The rest of us were looking forward to breakfast.

stuckinlodi, washing the dishes

Buckeye

Buckeye, wearing ErinPDX's moose hat

Wyatt, wearing ErinPDX's moose hat

Feral, with The Young Turks coffee mug

Feral, with EschaCon 08 T-shirt

bluesman on guitar

DWD on guitar

Feral chose late Saturday morning to make ms f wear the cheese crown and cheese bra, because Feral's Green Bay Packers beat ms f's Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.

ms fahrenheit loses a bet

Then I conducted a brief driving tour of the Ohio State campus, with stuckinlodi, Buckeye, and Mrs. DWD. 

When the tour was over, we went over to the park across the street where bluesman taught us how to use the atlatl - a spear thrower.  He had a quiver of arrow-like spears with feathered ends, and several spear throwers.  He demonstrated the throwing technique, using a box as a target, and then he instructed Feral, batguano, and Buckeye in the spear-throwing technique.  Then after that, Buckeye, Mrs. DWD, the DWD dog Nikki, my dogs Carmen and Wyatt, and I, went on a walk along the ravine's edge, and then we went down to the brook.  It was a nice clear afternoon and the sycamore trees were white as could be.  The path was a bit muddy, but not too bad.

bluesman demonstrates spear throwing to Buckeye, with Mrs. DWD and Nikki looking on; Wyatt wants to walk

Buckeye throwing a spear with an atlatl; Feral is on the right and Mrs. DWD is on the left, with Nikki

When we returned from the ravine the Barndog family was just arriving.  Their German Shepherd made Carmen nervous, but there was no fighting.

Saturday afternoon was the time for the beef roast dinner and chocolate fondue.  We brought in an extra table from the back porch and put on some music and had a nice dinner.  We made a toast in Plantsman's honor.

The chocolate fondue was very picturesque

The chocolate fondue; and that's a bottle of Feral's Black Cherry wine

The DWDs and Buckeye and stuckinlodi said their goodbyes and left between 6 and 7 PM.  The remaining crew settled in to the online world, before going to that night's activity:  seeing The Spikedrivers at Dick's Den.  ifthethunderdontgetya called and said he would be joining us.  So the Barndogs left for the venue and we caught up with them later, without bluesman, who headed back to his hotel.

Dick's Den was packed, and they stopped letting people in soon after we arrived.  The bar is a classic old dive about a mile north of the OSU campus.  Dick's opens at 10 or 11 AM and closes at 2 AM.  The bar caters to an eclectic mix of locals, graduate students, undergrads, and dropouts.  That night's band (The Spikedrivers) is a jam band of sorts, with two electric guitars, a standup bass, drum kit, violin, and lead singer on acoustic guitar.  They played alt-country,  Americana, etc.  Here's a few videos of the band, taken by me and ifthethunderdontgetya:

The Spikedrivers at Dick's Den

We stayed for two of the band's three sets, and then headed back to the Bat Cave, and called it a night.

The next morning was the Breakfast Feast cooked by Barndog and Feral:  eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, fruit, and coffee.  The weather was not looking great to the north, where the out-of-towners live, and so we took some quick pictures, loaded up the vehicles, and said our goodbyes.  ms f had parting gifts to give the Midwestachon participants, and all went on their separate ways.

Front row:  left to right:  Barndog, Abbie, Mrs. Barndog, ms fahrenheit; back row: Feral, ifthethunderdontgetya, bluesman

A picture from ifthethunderdontgetya's perspective:

batguano and ms f take pictures

Everyone made it home safely.

My random observations:
* There was no shouting, arguing, or buzz-kills.
* Nothing spilled.
* We did not play any card games or Scrabble or chess - we were too busy talking or cooking or blogging or interacting in general.
* Everyone was polite and considerate and friendly and respectful

Special thanks:  Thanks so much to Feral, for bringing cots and a mattress, for his beer and wine, and for his food and musicianship.  And thanks to bluesman for bringing the musical instruments and spear-throwing gear.  And a big thanks to ms fahrenheit for providing a hostess's touch to the event, and for anticipating what I would overlook WRT being a host.

It was a difficult call to hold this event in the north in the winter, but the weather was kind to us (at the start), and we Midwesterners know how to drive in the snow, though we do not relish it.  I would recommend another event in the summer, maybe up in Michigan or over in Pennsylvania.

Finally - I was not surprised at how well-behaved we all are.  After all, we have the wherewithal to sit at our computers and compose cogent observations/arguments and are able to get along with each other, without all the body language clues people normally get.  So when we meet each other - and this was the first time I met ANY Atriot - we already have the politeness/contrition/forgiveness down; we are patient because we have learned to suffer Echo's slowness; and we are willing to listen and learn.

Thank you for making Midwestachon a success, friends.  :-)