Best Story From The Box Elder County Fair Parade...Part 2

 

Day 2 of what I considered the best thing we saw at this year's Box Elder County Fair Parade. 

I call it, "The Face Fish Fake-Out."

The float was from Miller Gas Company. Apparently, they've been hooking people up since 1928...quite a legacy. I wasn't sure what their "hook" was until after the float passed. It was then I spotted a little girl throwing a fish to the crowd. Then, the fisherman would quickly reel it in so no one could take it.

It was literally, the fish that got away from everyone.

I don't know if I've ever seen a parade where more candy was thrown. There was so much candy, even though kids lined the street, there was still candy on the road as float after float passed adding even more candy with each vehicle. We also saw each kid with shopping bags full of the colored sugar treats. Their haul rivaled a Halloween cache.

We sat near the front of the parade route. I didn't see anyone "catch" the fish. I'd imagine that in the mile or so they had to travel, it's likely someone got a hold of that fake fish. 

If they did, they'd surely have a tale to tell.

Best Story From The Box Elder County Fair Parade...Part 1

 Yesterday, my family went to a parade. I'm not the biggest fan of parades. Usually parades are held during the hottest part of the year. I prefer not to be in hot weather. Parades are usually too long and, well...in a word, boring. 

Full disclosure--we went to the parade yesterday because my daughter was in the parade. The gym where she works had a float and we wanted to support her. We're glad we went. I took several photos of the parade, of the horses, the tractors, the high school floats, the grand marshals and basically all of it.

There were, however, two floats that my family and I felt were the best. This is about the first one.

We hired Mike Norr Plumbing to put in our water softener. They were great, professional, timely, and their work came at a fair price. We noticed a classic van headed down the parade route and I spotted the company logo right away. But, it was what the employees of Mike Norr Plumbing were doing that really sealed the deal. Instead of candy, the employees were throwing out...

Toilet paper.

Classic!

In fact, we loved it. 

I didn't get a chance to make eye contact with one of the throwers (as everyone parade goer knows, that's how you get stuff thrown to you...) so we missed out on taking home a much more practical and useful treasure from the parade. Sure, there were tons of candy thrown along with frisbees, beer can coolers, t-shirts, even fly swatters, but the TP was the best.

Tomorrow, I'll include our second choice for best story from the parade. The first one was pretty darn good.

Time To Bring Out The Big Gun...

 Funny how I don't remember things that happened just last summer. Take, for example, bugs in our backyard. It couldn't be as bad as things are this year. Then I remembered trying to manually turn off our irrigation water after a storm...

The mosquitos...

They attacked, just like they're doing this year.

Yes, because of the wet summer we've had (and I'm SO grateful for the rain...), the mosquitos have been terrible. Things have changed in our backyard this year. Because of the fence, we're able to have the dog outside with us. Because our dog is very intelligent, he guilts us into going outside to play fetch every night and since we enjoy playing fetch as well, we go outside each night.

That hasn't been the case this past week. We step onto the lawn and they swarm, biting pesky mosquitoes attack which sends us and the dogs running.

We bought a product that says it works for twelve weeks. We sprayed and saw an immediate reduction in bugs. That lasted about a week. We got a few storms and, bam--back came the bugs. I spotted a bug zapper at Costco and we decided it was worth the price to try it, to try anything.

The jury's out on the zapper's effectiveness. We know it's working because it traps the bug corpses beneath. But, will it do the trick? We hope so.

Because we didn't get to the garden in several days, our cucumbers exploded. They're supposed to be picked when they're three to four inches long...not three to four inches thick. Of course, in time, the bugs will no longer be a problem. By then, it might be too cold to play outside...

Except the dog. He'll always want to play.

Sorry County Fair...I Needed More Time

 It's all my fault...I should have known better. I should have known it would take more than a weekend to have someone take the digital photos I wanted to enter into this year's Box Elder County Fair and create submittable entries for the event.

I take total responsibility.

I blew it.

We go to fairs. We're a fair-going family. We tried to go to every Davis County Fair when we lived in that particular county. It was free, after all (you just had to pay for parking...). 

Funny how things are looked at differently depending where you live. Now, there is no Davis County Fair. It has ceased to exist. It's now called the Davis Heritage Festival, but it's no fair, not the way I remember the fair as it was once held at Lagoon, and then at the fairgrounds a few miles away. 

Where we now live the fair is so important, they do not start public school until after the fair is over. When ANYTHING trumps public school, it's a big deal.

When we went to the fair last year, we admired the photo exhibits, among other things. There were many excellent photographs and this year, I wanted to join their ranks. I picked out a couple of photos from the previous year, then I went to see if I get the photographs printed and mounted before the deadline. The only problem is, I waited too long. It would take a week for them to print and prepare the photos. I only had days. In fact, the deadline for submission has just passed...it's officially too late.

I decided to learn from this experience, learn to do more research, to be more prepared. I don't know if I can use the same photos I planned on submitting this year. If so, I'm good. And who knows? Maybe I'll take better photos in the eleven or so months until the fair flags fly again.

Looking For Beta Readers...Anyone Wanting To Have Some Fun

I'm looking for people who might be interested in reading an as of yet unpublished original work. I started it probably a decade ago and finished it last year. Since then, it's been doing nothing but sit in my computer, and I'm sick of having projects just sit when they should be worked on and released to the public.

A little about the story--it's about a newly-called Relief Society President, a mother of small children, a Canadian now living in the United States. The title of the story is, The Ward Witch. If you're familiar with my religion, the calling and the title of the book mean something to you.

Yes, it's about a witch.

Yes, she's in a ward.

Hopefully, I have piqued your interest. If so, and you'd like to read it and give constructive feedback, please let me know, either as a comment, or as a direct message from the various social media sites where I link my blog posts. As far as timelines, I'd love to get your feedback as soon as possible, but I understand we all have lives and responsibilities that take priority.

Be ye warned--the story has not been professionally edited, plus, I have grammar and spelling issues (this may not be new information if you've read my posts on this blog...). Add to the fact that the subject matter may be a tad, shall we say...controversial--this may not be something you'd like so I can understanding on passing.

But, if all those things sound fun and you enjoy a challenge, please let me know. I hope to get you the story out in a few weeks for your reading--and critiquing--enjoyment.

The Ward Witch...a grand adventure.

 

Give Thanks...For Wild Turkeys

Yesterday morning my wife and son were driving across the county when we came across a flock of wild turkeys crossing the road. Yes, it was turkeys crossing the road, not chickens. I'm still confused as to why. As we approached, they returned to the tall grasses.

I don't believe I've ever seen even one wild turkey, let alone a flock of turkeys in the wild. I said this to those in the van, to which my son said, "Why do people live in the city when it's so great here?"

Of course, it's one perspective.

And I can think of millions, if not billions of people who could see the very same thing we saw and think to themselves, "Why do people live in the country when it's so great in the city?"

Of course, it's another perspective.

It got me thinking. It's actually not about where you live, but how you accept where you live and accept the life you have. 

I'm glad to hear my son likes where we live. We made the decision to move a couple of years ago and without other options, they sort of had to come with us. Luckily for us, they looked forward to the move and have enjoyed living at the top of Utah (latitudely speaking...) ever since. We can ask them if they like living here and they've said they do, but they could just be answering the way we want them to answer.

I'm grateful for the wild turkeys (not the liquor...). It was fun seeing them and finding out what seeing them means.

Missing My Sister...On Her Birthday

 It's strange how you cannot know the future, no matter what some may say or think. In May of last year, we gathered as a family at the cemetery, a tradition we've done every year for decades. We didn't know a year later, instead of visiting just my parent's graves, we'd be visiting my sister's grave, too.

Today's her birthday, the first those of us left behind will experience without her. 

In the little more than a half century I've been on this planet, I've lost parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, close friends, and now a sibling. I know dying as as much a part of life as being born, but it's strange still on this side while others are on the other.

It's a new reality for our family, spouse missing a spouse, children missing a mother, grandkids missing a grandma, friends missing a friend, brothers missing a sister. 

We began with five of us, dad, mom, and three little kids. We lost our patriarch shortly after we three kids joined the group. We then went more than thirty years before we had to plan a funeral. In those thirty-plus years, we never knew when our visit to the cemetery would be the same or different from year to year.

It's my sister's birthday today. We are missing her today, as we have since she passed. And we'll continue missing her every single day.