Busy, hot weekend

I finally have a chance to write something, so I'm going for it. Seems that everything and everybody have been working against me getting much time just to collect my thoughts and write for a while. Very busy weekend.

We (my wife and I) were at the firemen's tournament in Ironwood Thursday night and Friday, had a great time and got a lot of good pictures, some of which will likely turn up here in a few days. Wait till you see some of the shirttail parade stuff. The theme was "Tropical Inferno," and there must have been a run on cocoanuts at U.P. stores, from the evidence I saw. The photos will explain why.

It's gotten hot up here again, and my son has been hanging around our place both yesterday and today, constantly raiding our soda supply. I don't mind that much except when the stock of root beer gets depleted. Then I growl a little. Last night we watched part of "The Chronicles of Narnia" after a few Fatty Arbuckle comedies. Great stuff. Have to finish "Narnia" tonight.

He's hanging out here again today because his apartment gets hot when the weather does. And it's hot. On Friday, during the races, temperatures got into the low to mid 90s. For this area, that's pretty damn hot. I was running around (literally), getting pictures of the races most of the day Friday.

I got a little sunburn, on part of my neck and the back of a hand. My wife put it on, and she didn't do as thorough a job with the sunscreen as I do. She got sunburned around her neck and chest. I asked her several times, "Shouldn't I put some of this stuff on you." "No, I'm OK." The third time I asked, she said, "Yeah, I think it's getting hot now." But by then, the sun's rays had done their stuff. Fortunately for her, her skin is nowhere near as sensitive as mine.

Only after the races ended and we walked to the car did I realize how hot it had become. The car thermometer said 99 when we got inside. We took refuge inside a K-mart for a while and each had an Icee at their grill. That hit the spot. The car thermometer didn't fall below 95 until about 10 miles down the road. It was in the mid 80s by the time we got home.

But storms were following us. As you regular readers know, the rainstorms have routinely been passing north, south, east and west of us all summer but never hitting us. Friday night, hours after we got home, we finally got some rain and a little thunder and lightning. Saturday: sunny and low 90s, with storms passing east, south, north and west of us. Saturday night, it clouded up. This time the storms were only south of us.

It's been cloudy all day Sunday, and this afternoon we started getting some light to moderate rain. It's been raining for a few hours now. Not heavy at all. But it's finally rain for us, and it's also shielding the sun. That's cool!

It's a chance to prepare for Monday, when we enter the roaster. The forecasters are saying we may hit 100 (which would be the first 100 here since 1947!!!) and a heat index from 105 to 110. The low Monday night: about 74. It got to 97 during the rodeo a few weeks ago, but that was a dry heat and fairly easy to deal with since it cooled off nicely after dark. No such luck this time.

I know what some of you are thinking: child's play! But imagine temperatures close to zero and six inches of snow in Phoenix. That's how out-of-character this heat is to us. And my thick U.P. blood has a hard time adjusting to it.

It's forecast to be just slightly cooler Tuesday and Tuesday night. But the cold front is scheduled to arrive by Wednesday, and high temperatures will be back down in the 70s. It'll feel so good.

Late this week, my wife and I will be off on another trip. This time it's a mini-vacation. We're going into northeastern Wisconsin, to visit Green Bay, the Door Peninsula and Appleton. My wife is researching a few places she would like to see, such as a maritime museum and a old-time schoolhouse. Maybe we'll get to see the Timber Rattlers' game (Class A minor league baseball) in Appleton Friday night, including a fireworks show after the game. She seems willing to go, so ...

We're about to hit a major milestone. But I'll write about that later.

Tough luck at the rodeo

In my last entry, I used the collective term "cowboys" to refer to all the performers at the rodeo. In fact, women do have a limited role in the rodeo. I have seen a few competing in the team roping event, where all you have to do is ride a horse and throw a lasso accurately. (It's tougher than it sounds.)

The other event is the barrel racing. Imagine a cloverleaf, with a barrel stationed at the tips of each leaf. The barrel racer rides a speeding horse up the stem of the leaf, then veers right, loops around the right barrel, crosses over, loops around the left barrel and then loops the top barrel. Then, a sprint to the finish line, down the stem. In this photo, the racer is looping the left barrel--the top barrel is behind her horse.



It's a speed event, often decided by hundredths of a second. If the horse loops too far around the barrel, the rider loses a lot of time. But if the rider cuts too close inside and the horse's body knocks the barrel over, she gets a 5-second penalty, effectively knocking her out of chance for any prize money.

I saw something for the first time this year--a rider's horse hit the barrel and it was going to fall, but she alertly saw that and steadied it with her hand as she went past. The barrel didn't fall, and she had a good time.

That worked out all right for her. But sometimes luck just isn't riding with the cowboys (and girls). For instance, this bronc rider had a good ride until his horse decided it was time to unload his burden. This hurts just to look at it ...


And if you've ever had a bad day at the office (who hasn't?), just think about these two poor guys I'm about the show you.

The first one is a steer wrestler. If you don't know: In steer werestling, the steer emerges from a chute between two mounted cowboys, who chase after him. One is a "hazer" who rides his horse along the steer to keep it running straight. The other one is the bulldogger, who jumps off his horse onto the neck of the steer, brings him to a stop and then uses his strength to turn him onto his side. A good steer wrestler can do this in about 6 seconds. I've seen one do it in less than 4.

Well, this guy was leaning far out from his horse but not close enough to his steer. He is already beyond the point of no return ...

It doesn't look good ...

Now it looks worse ...

... and sure enough, the hazer and steer run on past while the cowboy eats the dust of the arena floor ...

As the announcer is prone to tell the audience in such cases, "Give him a hand! That's all that cowboy's taking home."

The other little drama played out right in front of me during the calf roping. Here's the skinny on calf-roping: The calf emerges from a chute, the mounted cowboy follows, catches up, lassos the calf and brings him to a halt. Then the cowboy gets off his horse, runs over, throw the calf onto its side and ties up its legs. (The kind of thing cowboys routinely do on the ranch in order to brand calves.)

But that's not what happened here. First, the cowboy didn't lasso the calf until he was more than halfway up the length of the arena. (Happily, they wound up right in front of me.) Things look fairly normal here--the cowboy is running up to the calf ...

But then the calf flopped down on its side. That's not good ...

The cowboy closes in with his rope. Note that the rope is taut behind him--his horse is trained to back up slowly to keep it that way ...

Next, the calf rolls towards the cowboy--not away from him, as hoped ...

And as the cowboy grapples to get a grip, the calf is getting its legs under it ...

... and starts rising ...

... and suddenly it's calf-riding, not calf-roping, that's taking place, much to the amusement of all the spectators ...

I have a heart. I ran the last picture in this week's paper, but I didn't include the cowboy's name. He's probably been embarrassed enough.

***

More excitement in the next two days. I'm heading off to Ironwood to cover the U.P. Firefighters Tournament. Our local departments have been doing very well in this competition in recent years, and our county will host the 2007 U.P. event.

They have a dress parade Thursday evening; a shirttail parade late Thursday night (which is as wild an event as you will ever see in the U.P.); and then the firemen's races all day Friday. There are five races (one kept secret until the final minute) that involve skills the firefighters do on the job.

It's going to be hot--close to 90 on Friday--and there will be plenty of action for the camera to focus on. So I've got a question: Do you ladies want me to try to get a few shots of firemen's butts?

(Rhetorical question, I know.)

Yippee ti yi yo!!!

OK, finally the rodeo pictures.

I spent a large part of the weekend working on rodeo pictures, both for the paper and for here. In my usual style, it'll mostly be pictures.

OK, do you want to be a cowboy? Here's some of the stuff they do. First up, a really wild bronc ride. First the horse arches his back ...


... Then his legs fly out in all directions ...



... and then he stretches out in classic rodeo style ...



... and the cowboy has to hang on and complete 10 seconds. This guy did a very good job.

Of course, sometimes the broncs chalk one up. One cowboy, going down!



Here's a cowpoke whose horse decided to be a pogo stick--he basically kept jumping up and down. And how about that hang time!



Even if the cowboy survives 10 seconds, he then has to find some way to dismount safely. That's where the pickup men come in, giving him a hand ...



One of my favorite events is the calf-roping, because it requires a lot of skill, both from the cowboy and his horse. Here, the cowboy has thrown out a perfect loop, and the calf is running right under it ...



In this one, the calf is still running, but he's about to reach the end of his rope. Meanwhile, the cowboy's horse has slammed on the brakes, and the cowboy is already dismounting. He had a good time on this one.



And then there are the bulls. This was a wild ride, but the cowboy survived to the end of his eight-second time. The bull bucked, pitched, jumped, spun, but the cowboy hung on.



Two of our three performances this year were at night, and young Abe Lincoln (the one who became president) wouldn't have been able to read by the light of the fairgrounds lighting. Here's a shot I got Friday night, after dark ...



But thank goodness for digital cameras! A little work on the software, and here's the same picture ...



Now you can see that the cowboy is in a little trouble--his hand is still caught in the rigging, and the bull is, shall we say, displeased. The bull has a big size advantage and is spinning.

But riding to the rescue are the rodeo bullfighters, moving in to distract the bull and give the cowboy enough time to get free and get to safety. This cowboy got free and was able to laugh about it later.



Finally, I know some of you ladies wanted to see some nice sexy cowboys. But though it was in the 90s, cowboys wear long-sleeved shirts all the time. But finally I got my chance. During the bull riding Saturday night, one of the cowboys had to scramble up on the fence to get away from the bull. Presto ... one cowboy butt!



Well, he's a working cowboy. You just have to use your imagination a little.

***

I had a rather comic time of it Sunday night, trying to put together a little blog entry. It wasn't much: The past week, what we did (and didn't do) over the weekend. An anecdote or two. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But somehow I deleted a good part of it. Deleted the part that I worked the hardest on and liked the most, too. And by now it was beyond midnight and I was getting tired and I didn't want to make that great a mental investment a second time. So I just shut down for the night and went to bed.

I think it was a lot of excuses why I didn't write an entry for a few days. The last one is that TCM had a series of Buster Keaton shorts on late Sunday night, and I was distracted by them. I'm a major Buster Keaton fan, you know. And they were very good ones. And they distracted me. Enough, apparently, to accidentally delete a large part of that entry.

So in a paragraph or two: Went out to visit my mom on Saturday and got her a few things. She got her copy of "The Cutting Edge" with the English subtitles, so she can enjoy the witty repartee between the hockey player and the figure skater before, during and after they fall in love. It's one of her favorite movies, but she's getting a little hard of hearing.

Wife, son and I saw "Cars." It was better and more thought-provoking than I had expected. (But then my expectations were low; there was something for adults to ponder, after all.)

And we got a little rain in Sunday. Just a little, but enough to create puddles on the street. It was raining while I was trying to write that blog, so maybe that was distracting me, too.

By the way, I've got a few other rodeo pictures to show you. Just in case you think these guys have it easy.

Does "wild life" equal "mature"?

I stand corrected. It wasn't a "nature park" that I visited last week with my wife and son. It was a "wildlife park." So when I accidentally typed "mature" instead of "nature" earlier, I was totally off base.

We had a beautiful day for our visit. It's located just west of Minocqua, WI, in case you are in the neighborhood. Yes, I'd recommend it.

We first looked at the trout and musky ponds. They had coin-operated dispensers all over, where you can get feed. We threw some fish food to the trout and watched them churn up the water. I got a few pictures, but they don't show the fish that well. And, frankly, I've got too many pictures the way it is. This is a long post. But lots of photos, so it'll go fast. (Unless you're on dial-up!)

This was critter heaven. They have critters from all over, not just the north woods. We had been there over 20 years earlier, and it has expanded a lot. Quite a show.

Where do we start? Well, they had mountain lions ...


... and tigers ...


... and bears. Oh my!

The bear is drinking a bear soda. A vending machine nearby was selling them at $1 a bottle, and my son thought it would be a good investment. I got a nice photo out of it, and the bear sure liked it.

They also had a real burrowing owl. Never had seen one before.

Anyway at 10:30 the other night I go out into my yard and there's the Werzner kid looking up in the tree. I said, "What are you looking for?" He said, "I'm looking for my burrow owl." I said, "Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick! Everybody knows that a burrow owl lives in a hole in the ground! Why the hell do you think they call it a burrow owl, anyway?!" Now Stuart, do you think a kid like that is gonna know what the queers are doing to the soil?

(Sorry. The burrow owl brought back memories of a great Dead Milkmen song/rant.)

I like owls anyway. They had some great-horned owls in another cage, way in the back in the shade. I give a hoot, so I got my camera on manual focus mode and finally got a shot of them looking at me ...

Can you see the second owl?

I practically lurgled when I saw the llamas ...


And I was all excited when I saw the lynx ...

Unfortunately, he wasn't.

They had some snakes and reptiles in one building--as big as constrictors and pythons. Don't worry, I didn't include any in this post.

On the other side, there was a sloth in a basket. I wanted him to stick his head up, and he was moving. So I waited. And waited. And waited. But he never showed more than a paw--how slothful!--so the photo mainly shows an old man with a camera running out of patience.


Those damn cages. I have a little autofocus digital camera, and I do as well with it as I can. But when I try to get a good focus through the wires, I mainly get a good, sharp picture of the wires, while the critter in the background is all soft and fuzzy. And not in that sense.

Fortunately, the cages around the tortoises were only about two feet tall, and some were wandering around at large. Isn't this one pretty?


They had deer running around all over the place. Big ones and little tiny ones. Here are a bunch of them lying in a grassy area--including some albinos.


They had a colony of prairie dogs nearby, and this one was particularly acrobatic. Nice balancing act.


Oh, my, did they have the birds there! Wow! This was my first-ever close-up look at colorful wood ducks.


They had peacocks and other exotic birds. Here's a close-up of a peacock's tail feathers.


I don't know what kind of bird this is, but it mesmerized me with its irridescent feathers of many different colors.


Well, there was a little "wild life" in the wildlife park. In the otter pools. These two were chasing around and rolling around with each other, in and out of water, while we were there. Maybe it was just play. Maybe it was Nature at work, making sure that there will be little otters in the future. You be the judge.


There was so many more critters, and I had a tough time deciding which photos to include here. I wanted a good one of the bison, but they wouldn't come away from the shade of their shelter. The cage wires frustrated my efforts at the timber wolf cages.

Goats were all over the place. Near the end of our stay, we sat down, and the goats were there. I had my camera out and got a picture of a goat licking my camera bag, and then another sizing up the buttons of my wife's blouse. In fact, I was trying to send a psychic message to the goat to go ahead and bite off the button. Now that would have been funny! Maybe next time I'll have to dab a little peanut butter on it. Signs nearby warned "Goats eat everything!"

They were chasing David around, too, trying to get the goodies he had. Maybe I'll have to write a supplemental "goat" blog entry. But that's enough for now.

***
Whew! I'm tired. I still have the rodeo pictures to come, but that will be in a few days. I got some good ones there, too.

Temperatures here are near normal again and forecast to stay that way for a while. Storm systems moved through the Midwest again--and again missed us.

That is the big weather story around here. We have a bad drought taking place here in the Upper Midwest, and it's getting worse. I'm getting worried about wildfires and forest fires if we don't get some rain here soon. We have lots of forests around here, you know.

Quiet night on the porch

I have been accumulating a lot of memories lately. I missed a little anecdote from rodeo weekend. Indigomoonarts' comment at my "thermometer" post reminded me of it.

The final rodeo show was at 7 p.m. Saturday, and I got home about 9:15 or so. After sitting inside for a little while, I went upstairs to shower away all the dust and dirt and the sunscreen from that afternoon. The night was a nice summer night. Plenty warm but not hot or humid. I took myself and my towel out to the back porch, deactivated the motion-sensor back light and cooled off/dried off there. I took a favorite brand of chips along (Wheat Thins veggie chips), and that lured my wife out there with me.

By now the final light of day was nearly gone, and it was dark. Dark enough so that the towel came off, as we sat together on the back steps. The rodeo street dance was taking place a few blocks away, and we listened to the music. That thunderstorm that blew up just as the rodeo was ending--it left us high and dry, of course--was retreating off to the southeast, and we watched the lightning flash as the clouds moved way.

She had taken a plastic cup along for some of the Wheat Thins, and we nibbled from that. But it was dark. So once when I reached for a Wheat Thin, I banged the cup out of her hand, and the contents spilled on the steps. The light had to be switched on for a few minutes as we recovered what we could. Then it was off, and we resumed nibbling and talking.

A breeze came up. It felt nice on my clean back. I pulled her shirt up so her back could also enjoy the feeling. A minute later, I thought her front would also like to feel cool. And a few minutes after that, I decided she'd like to be air-conditioned all over, so there went her shorts. In short, she was as naked as I was. (I think she was still wearing socks, so she wasn't, technically, naked.)

But it was dark, so who cares? We spent some time looking at the stars overhead--you can see many of them from our back porch in summer. Looked at the leaves on the trees, moving softly. Listened to the music. Watched the lightning. Talked about this and that. Life and death. What other trips we want to make this summer. Getting her a new job. Things I want to do before the fall sports kick in. After about an hour and a half--by then it was nearly midnight--we went upstairs to bed.

***

I'll pause that train of thought to climb aboard another. My wife had been working at a motel just out of town for the last 10 or so years. She worked part-time in the laundry. We get to know the owner, Sharon, and she became a good friend. She was smart enough to see that I'm not like everybody else, and she wasn't, either. She laughed at my jokes. Complimented me on what I wrote in the paper.

Sometimes when she'd call to tell my wife whether she would be working, I would "put her on." One of my favorite methods of putting people on is by "misunderstanding" something they tell me. It turns an ordinary word into a very different one, switching an ordinary remark into something slightly naughty. I got her giggling many times by doing that.

Sharon was a few years older than me, but (let's be honest here) I had "certain feelings" about her. I mean ... I certainly wouldn't have minded. If you know what I mean. I never told her this, of course. She knew I liked her, but that's all.

Anyway. Around last December, she got ill and went to the doctors, who discovered cancer--she was a smoker--and that it had spread. The motel closed around the end of the year. My wife started making a prayer shawl for her--after all, she had plenty of spare time now. My mom started knitting one, too, but she's not good with her fingers any more, so progress has been slow.

Sharon took chemo and she took radiation. My wife's prayer shawl was done, and I was after her to bring it to her. She said not yet. Sharon isn't feeling well enough yet.

In late spring, the time was right. We went to the motel and saw her and her husband, Bob, and talked. She looked frail and thin but happy to see us. I got a warm hug from a weak woman. She had to go after a few minutes, but she told us to harvest the rhubarb along the side of her house. Conveniently, my wife had brought her little knife along, so we picked rhubarb for a while.

On Tuesday, a week ago, we got the news that Sharon had died. She had been home until going to a nursing home for her final weeks. This Monday (yesterday), I left work early to go to her funeral. It was short--about 20 minutes--and small--about 20 people. And then she was gone. I was hurting, of course. I don't cry easily, and I didn't, but I felt the emotions. At the end, I walked to the front, kissed my fingers and put them on her urn. Goodbye, Sharon.

Not that I was sad. My prayers for her had been answered: Her suffering had ended. She is now free of pain and fear. I said what I could to Bob. But what can you say that makes any difference to someone who is hurting so much?

***

Back aboard that other train. Saturday night on the porch. The lightning flickering away and fading off. The cool breeze on our bare backs. The country music singer in the background. The stars overhead. We talked about Sharon. And put an arm around each other's waist.

I looked up at the stars. I wondered which one is Sharon.

What's your temperature?

The weather has cooled off a bit. Not in terms of temperature (mid 80s today, upper 80s tomorrow) but in humidity. Nights are a lot more comfortable again. The air conditioner stayed off last night; the fan was good enough.

It's even getting cooler upstairs, outside of the bedroom. It was still warm last night--about 84F. This morning, it was down to 79. Over the weekend, it peaked at exactly 90F.

The upstairs thermometer is a indoor-outdoor digital unit that had its exterior wire broken off--we had to get the probe outside so it could read the temperature there; we tried putting it around the door, which eventually sawed it off. I'm hoping to get a wireless digital unit before long. Digitals look nice and scientific but not as authoritative (in a picture) as the old, dirty dial in the last entry that read 97.

We got that thermometer somewhere. It's easy to read (and photograph) from inside the house. Before that, we had a "mercury" thermometer, with the little red line that expands and contracts with the temperature. But you can't read those from inside the house. So when I went to work in the morning, my wife and I had a little ritual. We have developed many little rituals over the years, and this was one of them.

When I got out on the front porch, I looked at the thermometer. Then I gave her the finger. Lots of fingers. This morning, it would have been seven fingers held up (five on one hand, two on the other) and then six fingers (five and one) to tell her that it reads 76. Clever, eh?

Of course, I got that system from covering high school basketball games--when a player commits a foul, the referee uses fingers--two fingers, then four fingers--to tell the scorer that the foul was committed by #24. If the number has a zero in it, he either holds his hand in a circle (thumb and forefinger) or else "draws" a zero in the air. He doesn't have to worry about numbers higher than five--high school basketball rules don't admit to the existence of 6's, 7's, 8's and 9's, so they aren't allowed on uniform numbers.

But in the real world, we are often at 6's and 7's, so if I was carrying something, I stuck it under my arm and used two hands. The left hand always said "five," so she could focus on the other hand (rather than adding 3+3 or 4+2; let's make it easy after all!).

Of course, where I live, the weather gets cold, too. So what happened in winter? I would signal "6" and then give a thumbs up, which means "above." If it's colder than that, "1" and a thumbs up.

The coldest temperature I ever relayed that way was "1", "6", thumbs down. And then I'd hurry and get my gloves back on. (For those of you that don't use Imperial measures, as the U.S. does: -16F translates into "really cold" in Celsius: -27C.) Of course, we've gotten way colder than that--but I didn't have to stand in it and relay temperatures.

That system was fun, but it came to a crashing end due to a summer windstorm that blew around garbage cans, empty Walmart bags, leaves, shingles and small animals. It also dislodged the cheap mercury thermometer from the porch pillar where it had been hung and sent it crashing onto the walkway next to the house. That was the end of that and led to the dial thermometer being purchased at a rummage sale. It's done well.

But the digital units are tempting me, and the siren call will get me before long. My ultimate dream (one of them) is to get a "personal weather station," that wirelessly relays readings from my yard to the internet and out into the universe. That would be way cool. I've got the broadband internet, but all the equipment costs about $400. So it won't be happening for quite a while.

My wife's "blue" photos

No, she (A) hasn't gotten really, really cold. And (B) she isn't sad. And (C) she hasn't joined the Blue Man Group.

But of the three, "C" is closest to the truth. More on that in a moment.

We survived rodeo weekend. Wasn't easy, as we had to deal with some profound heat.

Saturday was damn busy. I got pictures (for the paper) at a road race at 8 a.m. At 10 a.m., my wife and I went to the rodeo parade, where I got pictures (for myself). At 2 p.m., the first rodeo performance of the day. At 7 p.m., the second one. I was at both of them (plus the one on Friday night) and got pictures at all three (for the paper).

What were conditions like? After getting home from the afternoon performance, I looked at the thermometer on our shaded front porch ...



Looks like 97 to me. Don't know what the "official" high was, but it was the hottest day here in maybe 10 years. Fortunately, it was a "dry" heat--relatively low humidity/dew points--and that made it manageable. During the afternoon rodeo show, I was out in the sun, under a big floppy hat and a thick coating of sunscreen. Didn't burn, even a little. That's good, because there wasn't even a trace of a cloud.

I'll post some rodeo pictures in a few days. But first, my wife's adventure.

It was at that parade in the morning. We took some chairs but couldn't find a place in the shade--those places had been snapped up long before. But we found a nice place in the sun along the route, set up our chairs, and then I pulled out the secret weapon. Sunscreen.

I put it on my wife thoroughly. Both arms, the shoulders, her neck, cheeks, ears and nose. Then I pulled down her straps and did her back--and then turned around, pulled down her front and got her sunscreened there, too. (No matter that she was facing away from the sun. You never know. It's a long parade.) Then she did up my arms, my neck, cheeks, ears and nose.

We were all set. We both had bottles of water and floppy hats, so we were ready for some serious parade viewing. Here are some of the things we saw:

Lots of horses and wagons ...


A number of riding units ...


Giant livestock ...


And even a walking fez, courtesy of the Shriners ...


People on nearly all the parade units were throwing out candy for the kids to scramble after. I asked my wife, and she said it was too hot for candy. But she likes strands of beads, and she said if anyone is throwing out beads, be sure to get some.

A little while later, a class reunion float was passing by, and, sure enough, they were throwing out strands of beads...


She caught some, and I grabbed some. We wound up with three strands of blue beads and one strand of silver beads. She happily put them around her neck.

The parade went on, and we were enjoying ourselves. After a while I looked over at her and started laughing. Then I pointed the camera at her:



What happened is that the blue from the (obviously cheap) beads was coming off on her sunscreen. The pictures tell all. My camera's photo tag says the photo of the bead-throwers was taken at 10:43, and my wife's first "blue" photo was taken at 10:57, 14 minutes later.

She laughed, as did. We didn't let it keep us from going to the store to pick up a few things, then back to the car and then home, where I got this photo ...



You'll be happy to know that the blue came off easily with a little soap and water. She isn't permanently tattooed.

*****
The trip to the "mature" park last week went very well, and we have some great photos to share in a couple days. Also, some rodeo action photos are on the way. Sunflowers, too. Got a lot of writing to catch up on.

But Sunday was nearly as warm as Saturday--it got to 94 or 95--and more humid, to boot. The rodeo was over, so we took it easy at home. There will be more time to write in the next few days, after the heat lets up a bit.

Just a quickie

I'm taking it easy on the blog-writing for a while. Just doing that to give me time to do other things. It's been quiet since I wrote last.

Today's the day we are visiting a "nature" park about 75 miles away. (LOL: I almost wrote "mature" park. Not with my passengers along!) It's got critters of various kinds. My wife and son and camera are coming along--photos in a few days.

The big news here is twofold: (1) The rodeo is coming to down late this week. (2) So is the first extended hot spell. We're getting into the low 90s late this week. And that means the house will be quite toasty (outside of the bedroom with the room air-conditioner).

I close up the bedroom about 9 p.m. and turn on the AC unit. By the time she goes to bed at 10:30, it's a lot cooler. But it's noisy. Hard to settle down to sleep with the noise. Elsewhere upstairs (such as the room where this computer resides, it will be in the mid/upper 80s, even at night.

But you've got to understand that we get hot spells like this maybe a week or two each year. So a more extensive climate control system would be a waste of money--at least until the climate changes more than it has already. So, for a week or two we'll sweat and make do various ways. (I strip way down. My wife, of course, just suffers in her clothes. We're by ourselves, you know.)

I've also got to order a movie for my mom. She's doing well. Moved to a different room and now is rooming the best friend she has made at the nursing home. I'll be seeing her later this week.

Next week, we have a high school football camp in town, and the fall sports scene is starting to stir. Late in August, it gets real busy again.

Oh, we have sunflower developments, too. Photos to come. Maybe even some cowboys, too.

Madison trip: The Cattle Call Contest

OK, folks. On to happier memories: the cows that roamed around downtown Madison during our recent visit. Here is the link to the website about it. The cows will be in Madison until early October.

The dairy industry is, of course, still king in Wisconsin, and Wisconsinites love the dairyland humor. Check out these T-shirts in a shop we visited.


Second from right: "My farmer milked me today ... It felt pretty good."
Far right: "Who cut the cheese?"

And have you ever seen the cheeseheads at Green Bay Packers games? There's plenty more cheesy stuff to wear on your head. Fezzezzes. Cowboy hats. Sombreros. Firefighters' helmets.


So guess what? We're going to have a little contest. Here's a whole herd of cows. Which are your favorites?

Rank them 1-2-3 and leave your votes in a blog comment. In a week or so, I'll tally up the results and announce the King/Queen of Madison's Cows. Remember, I had a few cows in previous "Madison" posts, but most of them are here.

Ready? This one is "Cowpiary."


Meet "Full Tank." This is the back side. The front of the cows are on the other side. But this side explains the name better.


"Wisconsin Winter"


"Barnacles" Can you see why it has that name?


One of the best puns in the herd. "Pasture Bedtime."


"The Cows Are Out"


No fewer than three different cows honored this American artist. Here is my favorite of the three: "Georgia O'Cowffe."


Meet "Babushka Marushka, the Polka Dot Cow."


Here is "Bovine Blanket."


Care for some "Half and Half"?


Here's some "Animal Magnetism." I'm attracted. (Is that K on the left?)


This is obviously a "Bountiful Bovine."


And this is "Wisconscene."


It's morning: "Rise and Shine." (I do so love Van Gogh's artwork.)


Now it's night: "Moon Over Madison."


The other pictures that appeared earlier were:
Day 1 entry: Cow Lloyd Wright
Day 2 entry: Holstein Parade
Day 3 entries: Bobbin Yount of the Moowaukee Brewers; Fauna Folly; To the Moon

I could have kept going and going. My "short list" of entries for this contest was about 30. We had one covered with state highway maps. Several with scenes of Madison and the Capitol. Others with day and night sides of farm life. "Glinda, the Good Witch Cow." "Wisconsin Rocks": all covered with rocks, spelling "Wisconsin" on one side and "Rocks" on the other.

I don't know how many are posted here. I lost count. But look them over cast your votes for your top three.

Whew! I'm tired!