In all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane

We went to the State Fair on Sunday. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the place was packed. This year we did not ride any rides, but we did walk and eat. The wife enjoyed the midway freak shows and we played a few of the midway games. She won herself a plush toy for only $25. She was stoked.

I have not been to a fair for years. In fact, I do believe the last one I attended, and for sure the last Florida State Fair I attended, was with the Red Queen when we were young and brash. Well, me and the Red Queen, and one of her cousins or friends or somebody who seemed nice enough at the time, but bad mouthed me later. She cast a permanent pall on an important relationship of mine, so you'd think I would remember her name. But I don't. Proof positive that time moves on.

Have been enjoying a week off. I have done some home repair, light yardwork, started some seedlings to get them ready to transplant next month, and laid out in my chaise lounger soaking up the sun like the lizard-boy that I am. I am thinking to go putt-putting down the Alafia River just for the beauty of it, but will probably just end up back in the chaise.

----- A few days later-----

I am tanned and rested and all packed up for Alaska. I took only sweaters instead of shirts. Seemed somehow prudent.

Life comes in short, fast bursts. And mine, thankfully, like an Asian menu. Yep, my life does sweet & sour. My aunt died yesterday, and after promising to make the funeral, I find that I can't. Plus I had the wife in the hospital last night, all drugged up and crying over took blood. She's is so pitifully childlike when the needle comes out. She was told that she needs to remove her gall bladder soon. Which she will. But she was adamant, the surgery will come AFTER the citizenship test. Even if she hurts so bad that I have to roll her to her appointment in a shopping cart. That's sweet. And an old, old friend contacted me and noted that she had stumbled across, and begun reading, my blog. Just that one simple mention literally made my week. I don't know how in the world I would find it now, but this girl was very, very talented and I have a picture to prove it. She could shoot you the bird with her toes! Take that, America's Got Talent!

I have 2 hours at Tampa Airport tomorrow, plus both a Dulles and Phoenix layover, so I may blog tomorrow too. I had a lot of stuff I wanted to cover, but events the last couple of days have zapped me of my "want to". Not gittin' 'er done, you might say. So instead, I will post these pictures that, as always, git bigger. I will use my new camera in Anchorage, which has 8.1 mega pixels, as opposed to my current camera's 3.2. Hopefully I'll get some good stuff for you.

Later daze, out
Ramblin' Ed

Wife. Fair. People. Warm. Food. Cool.

Try it, the sign said. It's bacon. Dipped in chocolate. Well, that did sound interesting. And anything with bacon or cheese on it IS, by default, instantly a gourmet treat. So what's to think about? What, our arteries? Nope. I don't think us and our arteries have been on speaking terms for some time now. Come to papa, little piggie!

Not for the ladies on the left. Not for the large-bottomed, scooterized northern snow clam, a species that drifted down to Florida in he 1960's and has multiplied so fast it has nearly pushed out all native species No, what caught my eye, what brought out the Gary Larson in me (google him if you don't get the reference), was the sign: LONG DOG ON A STICK. That'll get your mental images rolling, now won't it?

He was just a cowpoke. Nobody special. He slept on the lonesome prarie, with just a bed roll and a memory of his long gone Greta, to keep him company. The wolves howled in the distance. Haunting and forlorn, as if they shared his heart's emptiness. In the darkness, he pondered his existence. His past and his present. Life is short, he mused. If you want something out of it I guess you just got to go out there and grab it. And it was there, unde the twinkling desert stars that the idea of line dancing dogs was born.

This young lady, with the skirt slit up to there, was about to have her head either removed or levitated, by the stereotypical carnival barker to her right. He brayed on and on and on so much that I kinda quit listening to his speil, hence...yes, hence... me being unclear as to what was happening, temporary decapitation or levitation. Although it would seem that they are more or less the same thi.... man, that skirt is slit up to there!!!!

Rutherford was definately rethinking the wisdom of chili dogs, nachos and licorice milk shake right about now. Still, spinning nauseatingly above the crowded fairgrounds, he found the humor in the situation. "Hmmmm. look at that new Mercedes they're showing down there. Unlike an investment banker, I bet can make a deposit on it."

Okie Dokie, now I am stoked. I found a lady, in the back corner of an exhibit hall who had GIANT PIXIE STIX. And salt water taffy, watermelon, banana and vinilla flavored. Oh yes, I want to have me that. And I did. I bought the GIANT PIXIE STIX. And salt water taffy, watermelon, banana and vinilla flavored. And yes, that certianly is a Little Feat T-shirt. How observant of you to notice.