Thursday, August 25, 2011

I love this photo

Watching Steer Wrestling
This was taken at our county fair a few weeks ago.  We had so much fun looking at all the exhibits, going to the rodeo and then the midway at night.  The CO Boy and I rode all the rides and I am officially too old to do this anymore.  By the fourth ride I wanted to throw up and he just wanted to keep on going.  Also, my chiropractor was none too happy with me afterward.  Nothing like being thrown in three different directions on a big hunk of metal put together by carney folk!

I know many people don't approve of rodeos, citing mistreatment of animals.  I have very mixed feelings about them.  I grew up with them and didn't give it much thought until I was older.  That said, the boy is sort of like me that way.  He hates the goat roping because we (he and I, NOT the RD) look at goats as pets.  And for me, I still wince when they do the tie down roping with calves.  They are babies, after all.  But the bronc riding and the steer wrestling and the team roping don't seem to bother me.  That might be wrong but there you have it.

The CO Boy heard angels sing and trumpets from heaven the first time he saw the bull riding event.  He is sure he wants to be a bull rider or a steer wrestler.  I've tried to explain to him that steer wrestling is a big man's event and he is highly unlikely to grow into a six-foot-something adult, given the genes of his two parents.  As far as the bull riding goes, I got nothin'.  I just keep stressing how dangerous it is.  But that is probably part of why he likes it.  We've tried to steer him (no pun intended) to team roping but he really wants to ride bulls.  ugh.  Yes, he will only be nine in October, with plenty of time to change his mind, but still.

My hockey mom sister says, "Let's put him on the ice.  That's safer!"  Right.  Because flying on a slab of ice at double digit speeds while other guys are trying to trip you is much safer.  True, no bull involved.  But still...she's crazy, I tell you.  And if our fears are realized and he ends up riding a bull, she will be in the front seats with all the stats on the bull and the other riders.

But my boy is growing up way too fast.  I see the time just racing past and I'm a little sad.  He is such a joy to be around and I will miss these days when he is older.  Riding bullls.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Library Love - The Little Stranger and Halcyon Crane


I've been listening to this audio book in the car.  It's one I've been meaning to read but decided to give it a go in the car so I could finally get to it.  I love it.  All the gothic ingredients that I love so much.  Dilapidated house, in thise case Hundreds Hall.  Family secrets, don't know what they are yet. 

Sarah Waters is a wonderful writer and her ability to describe makes the narration even better.  Simon Vance is the narrator.  I understand he is a popular narrator for books, but this being only my second audio book, I didn't know that when I began listening.  Here's the back cover blurb:

One postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country physician, is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall.  Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in it stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine.  It's owners - mother, son, and daughter - are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as with conflicts of their won.  But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life?  Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.




I'm reading this one.  It's actually pretty good.  At times, I'm not in love with the writing the way I am with Sarah Waters, but the plot is very intriguing and keeps me going and she isn't a bad writer, just not as descriptive in the same way as Waters.  Here's the blurb:
When a mysterious letter lands in Hallie James’s mailbox, her life is upended. Hallie was raised by her loving father, having been told her mother died in a fire decades earlier. But it turns out that her mother, Madlyn, was alive until very recently. Why would Hallie’s father have taken her away from Madlyn? What really happened to her family thirty years ago?

In search of answers, Hallie travels to the place where her mother lived, a remote island in the middle of the Great Lakes. The stiff islanders fix her first with icy stares and then unabashed amazement as they recognize why she looks so familiar, and Hallie quickly realizes her family’s dark secrets are enmeshed in the history of this strange place. But not everyone greets her with such a chilly reception—a coffee-shop owner and the family’s lawyer both warm to Hallie, and the possibility of romance blooms. And then there’s the grand Victorian house bequeathed to her—maybe it’s the eerie atmosphere or maybe it’s the prim, elderly maid who used to work for her mother, but Hallie just can’t shake the feeling that strange things are starting to happen . . .

Work has been stinky as we have a big event coming up this weekend, so I've been dealing with that.  Additionally Cub Scouts is starting up and lots to do there.  So the reading/listening is a lovely escape at times.

 


Friday, August 12, 2011

Gershwin in Cartoon Form



I've recently discovered these delightful cards.  I love them.  They remind me of Gershwin, full of mischief and a bit jaunty.




Thursday, August 4, 2011

The end of the road can't come too soon

Photo by Clifford Oto

I'm pretty much right here in terms of accomplishing everything I need to accomplish.  Sort of overwhelming and I'd like to just sit down in the middle of the road to be run over but, alas, one must attend to all commitments. 

School begins next Wednesday and I am beyond sad.  I do not want it to start and I mean that in the larger sense.  Everything becomes crazy once school begins:  School, homework, religious education classes, scouts, and then continuing with horses and guitar.  Somewhere in there, I'm supposed to clean my house, do the laundry, make dinner and go to work, as well as work at the tea room.  And then there's the Nissan Sentra-sized tire around my waist which needs some work, as well as the writing I long to do.

I think I need an attitude adjustment to get me through the next two months.  True, everything will still be at a frantic pace, but certain aspects of our lives, such as scouts and religious ed. will be off and running. 



I believe this will be me very soon.  I will send myself to bed and just read.  I'm due for one of those days/weekends.  A Pajama Day is coming soon.

But tonight we go to the county fair where I shall ride the rides with the CO Boy and watch the rodeo.  Sounds like fun to me!  However, I've scheduled an appointment with my chiropractor for tomorrow so he can undo the damage on my poor bones after being tossed around on the rides-:).