Under the 24, there are men in armor

Last night, with the full moon (or fullish moon) out, I took a stroll through my neighborhood. I'd just enjoyed a nice day out in the Russian River Valley doing some much-needed wine tasting and taking in some rather breath-taking scenery of Sonoma County. So after we got home, I felt somewhat woozy and needed to get some light exercise to wake me up.

About a mile from my house is where Highway 24 goes through Rockridge on an elevated overpass. I was walking somewhat underneath that overpass where there is currently a parking lot and some open gravely areas. Suddenly, I heard the garrish sound of metal on metal. Let me correct that: sharp, heavy metal on sharp, heavy metal. I kind of looked around, confused, partly because 1) this is BERKELEY, and nothing so severe sounding usually happens here and 2) that's just not a normal thing to hear no matter where you are. It startled me.

I looked to my left, near the gravely parking lot area, and there I saw them: a troupe of maybe 10 armored men, looking very adorned and regal, in horned helmets and chain mail - some in full-plate body armor. There were shields, too. Swords about 4 feet long and 50 pounds a piece. The group looked like they just clocked out from a long day at the local renaissance festival, to be quite honest. A few minutes of observation led me to believe they were practicing their swordplay (for what, though?) in some type of tournament structure. So many questions came to me. Why tonight, of all nights? Why under the 24? Is this illegal? Do the neighbors complain? Who ARE THESE PEOPLE?

Then it hit me - it's Berkeley. People are weird and into strange recreation here. So I shrugged my shoulders, and kept moving ahead.

I need to be carrying around my camera at all times. There's great material to be had. Almost as good as the time I saw a man in a full-on white bunny suit drinking out of a paper bag in Berkeley on a Tuesday morning in the park on Hillegass Avenue.