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Yesterday I felt tired and restless. And unfocused. I have focus issues anyway, but it was really bad yesterday. I dozed off in my "office" chair. I wanted to poke around with the couple of computer games that I play instead of actually doing, y'know, work.
This feeling lasted well into the night, until I checked Facebook just before 11 p.m. Apparently I've trained FB's algorithms that any post mentioning death or disease should pop up first. So I started reading Baron Rorik's daughter's update on how her father's surgery went today, and how things went wrong, and thus her father passed away.
Baron Rorik died. I still have trouble wrapping my head around the concept. And this has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic. In one of his last Facebook posts, he said he actually tested *negative* for the coronavirus, which he needed to have his procedure (something to do with his stomach).
I know Baron Rorik has been feeling under the weather from several ailments in the last couple of years. At one point he fell and broke eight ribs all at once. Ow. He also had some problems with slow-healing wounds and a tiny spot of a tumor on his liver. The last few times I saw him at events and asked him how he was doing, he would reply, "Surviving." I think he was 73 years old.
His Excellency was well known throughout our barony and kingdom and fought in SCA battles for many years. Decades, even. He also enjoyed the gentler art of playing cribbage, an ancient card game. He was also a huge science fiction fan. In fact, I remember seeing him for the first time at the Millennium Philcon Worldcon in 2001. He was wearing a Babylon 5 character's costume and had his gray goose, Fred, with him (not a live goose). When I joined the SCA a few years later, I saw him again and thought, "Oh, that's the guy with the goose from the Millennium Philcon."
Baron Rorik was also that guy who looked so much like George R.R. Martin that some Game of Thrones fans actually asked him (Rorik) for his autograph.
He was very happily married to Mistress Janina for 40-plus years and they had a grown daughter and son (who adore him) and many "friends who are like family." My heart grieves with all of them today. I often thought that if I could tell my father (who died in 1982) about the SCA, I would introduce him to Baron Rorik, who could explain all the different parts of armor to my Dad (who was a professional welder) and then they could play cribbage together.
Here's a photo of Baron Rorik from the 2015 Storvik Novice Tourney.
I know I have better photos of him somewhere, especially from the days when he and Janina served as Baron and Baroness of Storvik, but I think they are on my old and finicky computer, so they will have to wait for another day. Like that day when we will be free to gather and raise a glass to his memory.
This feeling lasted well into the night, until I checked Facebook just before 11 p.m. Apparently I've trained FB's algorithms that any post mentioning death or disease should pop up first. So I started reading Baron Rorik's daughter's update on how her father's surgery went today, and how things went wrong, and thus her father passed away.
Baron Rorik died. I still have trouble wrapping my head around the concept. And this has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic. In one of his last Facebook posts, he said he actually tested *negative* for the coronavirus, which he needed to have his procedure (something to do with his stomach).
I know Baron Rorik has been feeling under the weather from several ailments in the last couple of years. At one point he fell and broke eight ribs all at once. Ow. He also had some problems with slow-healing wounds and a tiny spot of a tumor on his liver. The last few times I saw him at events and asked him how he was doing, he would reply, "Surviving." I think he was 73 years old.
His Excellency was well known throughout our barony and kingdom and fought in SCA battles for many years. Decades, even. He also enjoyed the gentler art of playing cribbage, an ancient card game. He was also a huge science fiction fan. In fact, I remember seeing him for the first time at the Millennium Philcon Worldcon in 2001. He was wearing a Babylon 5 character's costume and had his gray goose, Fred, with him (not a live goose). When I joined the SCA a few years later, I saw him again and thought, "Oh, that's the guy with the goose from the Millennium Philcon."
Baron Rorik was also that guy who looked so much like George R.R. Martin that some Game of Thrones fans actually asked him (Rorik) for his autograph.
He was very happily married to Mistress Janina for 40-plus years and they had a grown daughter and son (who adore him) and many "friends who are like family." My heart grieves with all of them today. I often thought that if I could tell my father (who died in 1982) about the SCA, I would introduce him to Baron Rorik, who could explain all the different parts of armor to my Dad (who was a professional welder) and then they could play cribbage together.
Here's a photo of Baron Rorik from the 2015 Storvik Novice Tourney.
I know I have better photos of him somewhere, especially from the days when he and Janina served as Baron and Baroness of Storvik, but I think they are on my old and finicky computer, so they will have to wait for another day. Like that day when we will be free to gather and raise a glass to his memory.
