Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Thoughts Flung By Trebuchet

I just changed the font for this post to "trebuchet." Until a couple of years ago, I didn't know what a trebuchet was. It wasn't until my sons began to get interested in medieval history -- and, being boys, medieval warfare, that the word entered my vocabulary. Then, suddenly, it appeared to be everywhere.

What amazes me is that I have always had some interest in the middle ages. I love books and movies set during that time. The romantic notions of knights in shining armor, quests and crusades, and of course, princesses in tall castle towers often filled my daydreams as a little girl. I figured I would make a great damsel in distress, if I could just find a good hero willing to risk life and limb to rescue me.

Weapons and warfare, however, were not my thing. Daggers and swords, okay; long bows and cross bows, got it. Then there are the long jabby things -- spears and pikes and what-have-you. Yeah, yeah, stuff to kill each other with, and break down walls... Excuse my big yawn. (Sleeping Beauty fell asleep listening to the prince talk about an upcoming onslaught. It wasn't so much his kiss that awakened her, as his removing his helmet and focusing on something other than military might.)

For a while, with my boys, it was trebuchet this and trebuchet that. We want to build a trebuchet that will launch water balloons. A trebuchet could make taking our dishes to the kitchen much more exciting. What if we EACH had a trebuchet and could fling our dirty underwear at each other? That would be so cool!

It has actually been a while now since either boy mentioned a trebuchet. Right now they are more interested in Greek and Roman mythology than medieval lore

I don't remember what I was thinking about when I opened this blog today. I thought playing with the font options would give me an idea, and instead it sent me into a reverie. Well, that makes as good a blog topic as anything, doesn't it?

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