The Delta Fair

Currently Reading: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Well now, if you've already seen CC's blog you know that we went to the Delta Fair on Sunday after I got off from work. Work, as you'll recall, was so very slow that day because of the holiday and I figured since I usually get out early on Sunday, that would be the best day to go visit the fair.

The fair itself is located just across the street from CC's office which is all of 5 minutes away from our apartment. If we REALLY wanted to, we probably could have just walked over there from the apartment but we'd have to cross a river and a cornfield to get there. Probably best that we drove instead. And, because we parked at CC's office, we didn't even have to pay for parking.

As far as the fair itself is concerned, it's pretty much like any other mid to large carnival you've ever been to. They have the usual assortment of vomit rides, rides that go around and around at high speeds with the sole purpose seeming to be to get you to throw up the over-priced hot dogs and sodas that you've eaten. Oh yes, and they have hot dogs and sodas naturally. I had a foot long corndog myself but here in Memphis for some reason they call them pronto pups. Guess they wanna feel different or something.

It reminds me of when I was working at the call center years back and we were doing a poll on the Mid-South Fair. One of the most popular reasons people went to the fair, one of the few things that got positive reviews across the board: pronto pups. Go figure.

Anyway, we had a pretty good time. CC said it was a little too carny for her which I got a kick out of. I mean, when was the last time you went to a fair or carnival and it WASN'T that way? Ok sure, you have your smaller, local carnivals which are better but when you start having the bigger rides and stuff, well you're in carny town.

We're actually stacking them back to back this year. The Delta Fair which I think just started up here in Memphis runs until the weekend. After that they'll be running the Mid-South Fair over in mid-town so all these people here will drive their carny trailers across town and set it up over there. Honestly, same people, same stuff, just more area on this side of town to set up so it doesn't look as big and doesn't feel NEAR as crowded.

One thing I did get a chuckle out of was the comparisons between the two in the paper. Most folks seemed to like that this new fair was over on this side of town mostly because it wasn't in a bad neighborhood and there was plenty of parking. Those are the big concerns at the other fair. The neighborhood just isn't that great and after dark you tend to get paranoid about things. Plus there have been a few gang-related incidents over at the other place too. And don't get me started on the lack of parking and the over-priced parking there. Everyone with a lot will be trying to rake in as much as 10 bucks a car just to park. It's crazy.

So, what did CC and I enjoy the most at the Delta Fair? Well here it is. Yes, that's right, we rode the mechanical bull. I went first. CC was a bit scared to go on but at the same time she kept telling herself she'd regret not taking advantage of the opportunity. So, I went first to get her going. That's me up on the bull there. I lasted quite a while thank you and that thing was bucking pretty good before I finally fell off. I lasted my 8 seconds that's for sure. I was a bit sore the next day though. Bruises on my thighs and my back hurts a bit but it was a LOT of fun.

And here's CC. I had some free time on Thursday so I thought I'd make HER bull ride pictures more interesting. Besides, she only took ONE of me :-)

And, so naturally I had to find some sort of video to bring all this together and wrap things up so we'll close with that 80's classic, I Wanna Be A Cowboy by Boys Don't Cry. Enjoy!

Just stuff on my mind.

Currently Reading: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

We've just passed Labor Day so that means Fall is right around the corner. I'm happy to say that the heat wave has also finally passed. In fact, last night it was actually cool enough for us to sleep WITHOUT using the window AC unit in the bedroom. Let's hope it stays that way. I've had enough of the heat for a while.

I had to work on Labor Day though. Nothing sinister about that, I just work on Mondays. It was REALLY dead. Kinda of makes me wonder why we bothered to open up. It's Labor Day right? That means those of us who LABOR aren't supposed to work. Somewhere along the way we got that all mixed up. Now it's the people who manage who get the day off along with all the office workers. But if you're tied to retail like I am, you probably had to go to work like it was any other Monday.

We're also coming up to the end of baseball season. Looks like there might be a little bit of action going into the final stretch. The Yankees and the Mariners were slugging it out for the wild card slot over in the American league so that might develop into something. We've still got plenty of time to go though for one of the leaders to have a major meltdown and change the playoffs. We'll just have to wait and see.

CC and I are going to see the Shaolin Warriors in November. There's a group that tours the country putting on a show and they'll be stopping here in Memphis. That's going to be a great one. Can't wait to see it. We've already got our tickets and the show is on a Sunday night so there won't be any problems with the schedule. CC will be back from her October training in Florida, it's well after our trip to California at the end of the month. Perfect :-)

Speaking of the California trip, we still haven't figured out all that we're going to do. We're for sure going to Disneyland and we'll be seeing CC's relatives but other than that, we're still open. I told CC I'd like to visit the beach at some point. It's been an awfully long time since I've seen the ocean from the ground. So at some point we'll stop by one of the beaches out there. What else? Who knows? We may not even decide until we actually get there.

Football season opens this week! WOO HOO! It'll be great to have the regular players back in for the whole game and the games will actually have some meaning again. On the other hand, it was nice being able to watch football from Thursday through Monday instead of just on Sunday and Monday. Maybe if the ratings were good they'll spread the schedule out a bit more. Then again, once the regular shows start popping up again on TV there probably won't be as much of a demand for fresh entertainment. We'll have to wait and see.

Oh yes, it's August

Currently Reading: Spook Country by William Gibson

So here we are, FINALLY almost through with August. I'm not seeing as many smoking thermometers in the little weather forecaster at the bottom of my Internet browser, the kids have mostly gone back to school now and I can only breathe through my nose at random intervals.

You see, no August would be complete without the annual flowering of the crepe myrtles. Oh yes, very pretty trees (or bushes if you keep them trimmed up short). Lots of pretty color variations. And they totally mess me up every year at this time. Actually, they're not flowering. They've BEEN flowering for a while now but whatever they do at the end of August, that's what messes me up. Popular trees here in Memphis. Two of them right in front of our building (one right under the window in the living room). Hate them damn things this time of year.

I got pulled back into high school week. Got a message from a guy I went to high school with about our 20 year reunion. There's a site up for it now and folks are posting pictures of what they're doing these days. The people who are there aren't particularly surprising, it's the people who AREN'T there that throws you. I look down the list of names and there are quite a few missing. Guess they've decided it's better to forgive and forget :-) It's either that or they just don't have time to mess around with things that happened 20 years ago. And there I will admit I have seen some creepy things at the site. There are some people who just can't seem to let go. 20 years gone by, LOTS of water under the bridge and they still can't let it go.

And speaking of water under the bridge, my high school flooded. Seriously, I saw the video of it. Lots of heavy rains down there in Texas and even though the area is on a low hill and there's plenty of drainage, still flooded. THAT'S how much rain they've been getting down there. It's the sort of season when you discover that your house is built in what USED to be a creek bed 100 years ago.

Anyway, I saw some of the local news video. The place hasn't changed much since I went there though I did notice some fresh paint on the lockers and the gym was a little more colorful. I heard they've built on to it at some point but they never showed the building from the outside so I have yet to see what that extension looks like. According to the newscaster, they had 4 and a half feet of water on the ground floor. Because of that, the school is closed, obviously, and everyone will be bussed over to the other high school in the district. Yeah, THAT'S going to be a really popular move.

All goes well at work though it's not going very consistently. On average it works out nice and even but what's been happening lately is one REALLY busy day followed by one really DEAD day. Sunday I had 9 dogs and was turning people away. Monday I had TWO dogs and I couldn't drag people in on a choke chain. That's just how it goes.

Ooo, allergy medication kicking in. Looks like it's time for me to veg out for a while. Enjoy!

PS: Almost forgot this . . .

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More Adventurous Than You Think

Currently Reading: Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

Now, over the years I have taken quite a few sarcastic remarks and assorted jibes about being a picky eater. The rumors aren't true. I'm actually not nearly as bad as people say but I have that reputation because some of the things I don't like are very popular. For example, seafood. I'm really not a big seafood eater. I just don't like it. I tend to refer to shrimp as critters and I've never been all that big on fish. I will eat some of it. I like tuna and salmon and from time to time I even eat eel but you'll never have to fight your way past me to get to the all-you-can-eat special at Red Lobster.

Just to give you some idea of what I WILL eat though, to give you some idea of how wrong that reputation is, this is what I had yesterday for lunch:

Keema Matar: minced lamb cooked with fresh green peas, tomatoes and herbed spices
Chicken Curry: traditional dish cooked with boneless chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and curry spices
Aloo Matar: potatoes and green peas cooked with onion and tomatoes mildly spiced
Chana Masala: garbanzo beans with ginger in a specially spiced sauce

Plus rice and some sort of appetizer that I can't find on the menu but seems to be a sort of samosa. If you guessed we were eating out, you guessed right. You may have also figured that we were eating Indian food again. Yes, CC and I hit the lunch buffet yesterday at Bombay House, our favorite Indian restaurant here in town.

Bombay House is one of the places I will certainly miss when we move to Nashville. Everything I've had there has been good, EVERYTHING. Better still, we've been going there for maybe a year and a half now and nothing has changed. The food is still just as good now as it was when we first started going there. We've been to one other Indian place that's also popular but I didn't like it nearly as much. The quality of food just wasn't the same.

So, if you're feeling like something a little different, trek on over to Bombay House. Some of the dishes are spicy but I haven't had anything that's been too hot to eat. Spicy, in the good sense of the word :-)

I picked up the latest from William Gibson yesterday. He's the guy who's credited for coining the term cyberspace. Great author. Writes really complex stuff. Unfortunately, like a lot of really great authors he doesn't write quickly. He's not the type to churn out a new novel every year or every two years for that matter. It's not uncommon to go three our four years between novels, which makes them all the more enjoyable.

His subjects tend to be tech related. The only question is how far into the future (or in one case the past) he's going. His first big trilogy was set in a very high tech future. One of his short stories is the basis for the movie Johnny Mnemonic. You may have seen that one. It pops up on cable from time to time.

Not sure where and when this latest one takes place but I seem to recall it being set in the near-future. His previous one was also set in the near future and I've yet to find out if the two are related. His first three were, so were the second three so it makes sense that some minor character from Pattern Recognition will show up as a major character in this one and will carry over into a third. That seems to be his MO.

But before I get to reading that one, I've got to finish Children of Dune. And after I read the Gibson book, I'll likley head back to Arrakis for God Emperor which will bring me back to where I started some time earlier this year. And from there? Who knows. There are two novels due out in the fall that I have on my short list so I may have some more fresh material to work with soon.

Incidentally, the second of those awful Dune books is out now. It's a freaky attempt to link the whole Dune saga together with the really awful prequel and sequel novels that Frank Herbert's son has been doing. You'd think he'd have learned from the whole Chris Tolkien thing. Never mess with someone else's fictional mythos, even if it was created by your own family. Resist the temptation to try and build on that because it won't work. It would have been better if he'd taken all his ideas and just set them WAY WAY in the future. Use the same fictional world if he wants, just don't try and link up with the past like that. It always bites you in the ass.

Still hot here in the south. I'm seeing forecasts for today ranging from 104 to 107. Tomorrow it's going to cool down a bit. It'll only be 101. Then we get a MAJOR rush of cold air, dropping it all the way down to 96 on Saturday. I remember something like this happening in 2000, about the same time of year too. I was in Manila at the time visiting CC and it was actually MUCH cooler over there than it was here. I missed the entire heat wave. By the time I got back things were normal again. No such luck this time unfortunately. But that's ok. It just reminds me of summer in Texas.

Besides, it's hard to complain too much about the weather when there's actual football going on now. Yes, it's only pre-season but it's still football played by the NFL and not some lower level minor league wannabe kinda thing. I'm even getting to see maybe 4 games a week. They're playing at night and I don't work nights anymore so this is a good thing.

Well, time to crawl into the safety and coolness of the bedroom. I'll probably stay there until the sun goes down or at least until the dogs REALLY need to go out. Place just gets too damn hot here in the afternoon.

Oh yeah, August

Currently Reading: Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

So here we are, August. CC's back from Manila, things are moving at a decent pace at work, not too busy, not too boring. You think I'd be in a better mood as I sit down to the computer to post a blog entry this week.

So, what's got me all fired up this week? The weather for one. It's hot. DAMN hot. It's Texas hot. Hello, Texas? Yes, we have your weather. Please come pick it up and take it home. Seriously, this is how I remember summer being all the time and you know what? I didn't like it then either :-)

Just walking down the stairs to the truck is enough to make you break out in a drenching sweat. And don't get me started on the climb UP. Then picture all that with your arms full of groceries or similar shopping bags. Oh yeah, it's August alright. Thank goodness this sort of thing doesn't last very long.

And just for the record, I haven't gotten spoiled by cooler summers. It really IS hot here. Today it's going to be 99 or 100. Tomorrow, 101, Thursday, 101 then it may cool down to a brisk 97. All of this combines with the usual Memphis humidity. Lordy you'd think with it being this hot, some of that moisture would burn off.

You've also got to remember that we don't have the best air conditioner here in the apartment. I'm not really sure how high it's rated but it can't be rated for anything bigger than our current 1100 square feet. Honestly, I'd be surprised if it was supposed to handle THAT much space. Right now, running the usual appliances, central air on, the coolest I can get this place in the middle of the day is 85. Were I at work, I'd be obligated to shut everything down and move the dogs into a cooler part of the store. Seriously, we don't let it get any higher than 80 back there.

Because of our AC, I broke down last night and went out and got a window unit for the bedroom. I can mostly function in a warm space during the day but I have a hard time sleeping when it's this hot. I get restless and sticky. So I drove over to Target and picked up an AC to keep the bedroom cool. Funny thing is, I wasn't the only one who had that idea. When I got there they had only two left. Just two. Didn't matter what size you wanted, they had two. Now they have one :-) Like I said, it's a bit warm lately.

Now, you might say that it was a waste to get a window AC. It's only going to be this hot for a few weeks. I should be able to tough it out, blah blah blah. Yeah, well I slept good last night and after I finish this up, I'm going to have a shower and take a nap in my nice COOL bedroom. Maybe watch some TV when I wake up. Far as I'm concerned, that little AC is worth every penny we paid for it :-)

Speaking of sleeping, I had my sleep disturbed Monday night. Caught some sort of stomach virus and it really messed me up for a bit. Don't worry, I'll spare you the gory details. Besides, I'm sure at some point you've had a stomach flu or food poisoning or something like that. You know how it goes. Come to think of it, I'm still probably running a little slower than usual right now. Then again, that could be the heat.

All of this awful weather really does add to the whole Dune experience. I'm reading the Dune books again, admittedly in the wrong order, not that it matters. I read the last two in prelude to that awful new one that came out. After I abandoned it, I decided to go back and read the rest. Needless to say when the book describes someone dealing with the heat, I can really FEEL it :-)

Tomorrow is Thursday. Yes, I know, that much is obvious. Who cares right? Just another hot Thursday in August right? No, not quite. You see, tomorrow starts PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL! Ok no, again, not quite. It actually started over the weekend with the hall of fame game but unless you get the NFL network, you didn't get that game. Just as well, that game usually sucks anyway. Tomorrow night though, Dallas plays the Colts! WOO HOO! I can only hope, for their sakes, that they're either playing indoors or someplace where it's not as hot as it is here. You could seriously injure yourself playing in weather like this. Hell you can injure yourself just walking down the street in weather like this.

Speaking of injuries, why didn't anyone bean Barry Bonds before he broke the home run record? Seriously, you'd think someone would have done that by "accident" before he got it. Whoops! That pitch just slipped right off my fingers. Sorry Barry, didn't mean to slam a 90 mile an hour fastball into your knee. Darn, looks like that one might end your career. Aww shucks.

But nope, didn't happen. Why? It's bad enough the single season home run record is in question. Let's face it, even back when Mark McQuire and Sammy Sosa were going head to head for the record we all had to wonder about it. These guys sure do look a whole lot bulkier than they did a few seasons ago.

Maybe we should have TWO sets of records. One for the juiced players, one for the non-juiced players. Then again, at this rate the only non-juiced players are the ones coming in from Japan. You can tell they're not juiced. Same with some of the others actually. All you have to do is look at them when they stand next to one of the juiced guys. Remember, baseball players are NOT supposed to be built like linemen.

Ah well, I'm done with my rant. I'm hitting the showers and having a nap. Stay cool everyone. September is right around the corner!