LAZY WEEKENDS

This has been a nice quiet weekend. Happy hour on Friday, an Open House on Saturday (late afternoon)and I actually sang the prelude and benediction hymns with my old choir on Sunday. It felt really good to sing. I do miss it but do not want the week night commitment as well as the drive on the expressways in the dark. It was great to see everyone and it always makes me feel good to be received with such a warm welcome. I did sing with the choir for over 20 years but it has been almost 4 since I have sung with them on a regular basis. No golf for me this weekend. It felt cold and I wore a sweatshirt the whole weekend when in the house. I was able to get some reading in so I am content. The only negative was a few doors down from us there was a gathering and it was still going strong at 3AM last night. There was a big bonfire and lots of noise. I did shut the window and put cotton balls in my ears and luckily went back to sleep. There is not a lot going on this week but it is the start of the new television season and so my favorite shows are back on. I admit it, I love television. The DVR will be busy this week. It is amazing how some nights are filled with shows (for example Tuesday) and others have nothing that I like (Wednesday).

THE SIGNS OF FALL

Today was a great day to be outside. I played golf this morning and even though the greens had been aerefied and were barely playable the temperature was great and the fairways dry (great roll with your ball). Yesterday I was trying to find some fall pictures of the golf course and naturally could not. I did run across many pictures and it renewed my resolve to "try" to scan favorite pictures into the computer and then onto discs. I ran across this picture. It is the St. John's HS 1990 version of Kenny Chesney's song "The Boys Of Fall" If you like football, then you should listen to this song. The video is actually better and can be found on cmt.com (channel 63) or gactv.com (channel 102).

SEPTEMBER IS HERE

I realize that the title of this blog is lame but appropriate. With the coming of September the weekly calendar begins to fill up. Last week and the beginning of this week were and are exceptionally busy. We had our last major 2 day golf tournament of the year last week. It is a tournament that traditionally I do not excel in. The format is a point system rather than just strokes. I was middle of the pack the first day and finished 6th after the 2 day total. I was satisfied with my game and more importantly my attitude. Friday was cleaning day, Saturday I had an all day tax class and yesterday I played in a charity golf scramble 1 1/2 hours north of here. I played with a friend who is taking chemo to get her leukemia in remission. She played very well. Today I will be sitting with her while she gets some of her monthly chemo. She goes once a month for 4 days. Tonight I have my yearly turn at hosting the bridge club. Tomorrow is another free day and then Wednesday is golf and Thursday a luncheon. After that things settle down for awhile. I do not like the thought of fall approaching but do enjoy getting back to some structure.

AMERICANA

For those who are wondering if America still exists then go to a county fair, especially the livestock area. Yesterday was the Grand Champion live auction for the Jr. Livestock class. It began with the National Anthem (which was sung as well if not better than any professional singer), followed by the Pledge of Alligiance, the 4-H pledge and the FFA motto. Very, very patriotic and American. The auction began with introduction of local dignitaries and then began with the Grand Champion steer. That animal sold for $6000 - roughly about $4.70/pound. The Reserve Grand Champion steer was very restless during the bidding and when they tried to put a blanket on it's back and take pictures he bolted. My grandson was sitting in his first place chair holding one of his prize rabbits and almost was trampled by the steer. My son was trying to figure which way he was going to have to yank the chair, child and rabbit (all at once) to get them out of harms way. Luckily the steer veered away from them and all was well. Just a nice shot of adrenaline to keep us going. The pigs, lambs and goats were next and then came the meat pen rabbits. Our grandson was up first. His sister carried the banner, the girls next door and behind him carried the other two rabbits. Well these rabbits sold for $750.00. That is about $75.00 per pound. We were amazed!! We were delighted that we made the choice to go down and support him. We enjoyed the experience and it was a great way to spend Labor Day.

BLUE RIBBON GRANDSONS

I know that we all think that our grandchildren are blue ribbon quality. It just goes with the territory. During this summer, our grandson has been breeding and raising rabbits for a 4H project for the purpose of showing the rabbits at the local county fair. They have had 3 litters. The first 3 (there were 4) were too old. The next 3 (there were 6) were just right and the last 1 (there were 12) was too young, too sooty colored and only one. For the rabbits to be entered in the meat pen competition, there needed to be 3. The judging was going to take place between 4pm and 9pm. The temperature yesterday was 93. This was not something I was looking forward to but I actually managed to convince JR to go with me.