24 busy hours

From an email I sent to Betty last night. Parts of it will undoubtedly be reconfigured into an official blog post ...

SNIP

Well, it's been a pretty eventful 24 hours since we last talked. I decided to skip tonight's rodeo show as a result. Just a little worn out with everything.

I'll get back at it Sunday morning. For now, it's R&R for the rest of Saturday.

In brief---

--The country music show Friday night was pretty good. Jamey Johnson was the headliner, but I can take just so much of the modern country boy sound. For my money, the lead-in group, the Kentucky Headhunters, were much more fun. They play a mix of southern rock/blues/country/heavy metal. They rocked hard, and I imagine a few people left the concert talking more about the Headhunters than Johnson. I obviously enjoyed them more.

--Home to bed. Then up at 7 a.m. to get pictures at a road race, which had its start-finish line just a block or so away, behind the former middle school. Not much to report. Got pictures of the start, and the first finishers. I was there for about an hour.

--Back home, then Janet and I went off to see the rodeo parade, The parade was pretty good. A number of horse groups. We each got a big peach from a local supermarket giving stuff out along the way.

--After the parade, we went to the store, where they were having a brat feed. Between the two of us, we had three brats.

--A little time at home to rest, then I left (about 1:45) for the rodeo. A chance of light rain was in the forecast, but all we got was just a little sprinkle that ended about as quickly as it began.

It was a bad day for the cowboys, though. Several got shook up pretty good from riding on the horses and bulls, but the worst incident took place during the saddle bronc event, when one cowboy couldn't get his hand free from the rigging on the saddle--even after the horse bucked him off. So here's this poor guy, trying to run alongside the horse, which is galloping around. He did his best to keep up, but he couldn't keep his feet, and the horse dragged him around the arena 1 1/2 times, while the other cowboys tried to stop the horse long enough to get his hand free.

(Of course, the saddle bronc riders try to get as tight a handgrip on the saddle as they can, so they don't get bucked off so easily.)

They finally got him loose, and called for the EMTs (who are always at these events). The cowboy was soon sitting up, but he had broken a leg along the way, probably when the horse stepped on him as it dragged him along. He went off to the hospital in an ambulance--sitting up and sipping from a water bottle as they carried him into the ambulance. So it could easily have been much worse.

I tell you, I've been covering this rodeo for just about 30 years, and this was the worst wreck I have ever seen. I have seen many bull riders get hung up in their rigging, but just for a few seconds. Bull riders have two big things in their favor--there are two "bullfighters" nearby, ready to run in to the rescue, and bulls can't run as fast as horses.

--Meanwhile, I had something else on my mind. When we got back from the brat feed, there was a message on the phone at home. It was from an aunt (my dad's younger sister) living in Kingsford--one of my uncles has died at the age of 91 (he was my dad's older sister's husband). I tried calling back and finally was able to talk to her this evening. She also told me that my dad's younger brother broke four ribs recently, is in the VA hospital in Iron Mountain, and they are afraid of pneumonia.

I had been wondering whether I could drive the aunt to the funeral--but she told me it's going to be on Monday, and there's no way I can be spared on Monday.Besides, it's taking place about 500 miles away, near Lansing, so we would have had to leave early on Sunday in order to be there for a Monday funeral. Not going to work.

So that's what my last 24 hours has been like. With all that stuff going on, I decided to punt on the rodeo tonight and will take it easy at home, probably watching something with Janet.

It's just about 8 p.m. now, so it's time to go down and decide what we can do.

UNSNIP