County Fair

My dad and I went to Fair yesterday evening.
The weather had fortunately cooled down--I was very glad to be wearing jeans, as the coastal wind picked up around 8 and we were sitting on the bleachers.

We wanted to see Lady Antebellum at 8--were worried about being able to get seats, so we went at 5:30 and also saw a country group from California, Whiskey Dawn, perform. They were pretty good, did several classic country songs.

We wandered around, looked at my stuff in the 4-H building--my water-colour of a maple leaf (extremely detailed) got Champion, as did one of my photos, which I was excited about as the judge had not seemed terribly enthused about it on judging day! I'll post pics after fair is over.
Then into the animal barns--well, really just the goat barn. I saw people from my goat 4-H club, and the mum and sister of one of my dear goats.

Lady A was very good--I do wish I'd known their songs better than I did.
The traffic was dreadful, took about 15 minutes to get out of the parking lot. One the way out we saw two random guys fencing with what appeared to be real fencing swords, and of course I had to hoot and wave at them. Not the sort of thing one sees every day!

h e a t

It is so hot. About 95 now, I should say, and it's 6 pm.

This morning we worked at grandmother's again, moving 2x4s and plywood. Grandma exhorted us not to work too hard. I swilled water.
Went to town, ran some errands, bought a ticket for County Fair, bought a watermelon. Came home and drank more water.
Cucumbers and their larger cousins watermelons are a true boon to the person attempting to subsist in a hot climate. Not that Oregon can be described as "hot"; it is rarely above 90, and almost always a dry heat. I've experienced Virginia and, to a lesser extent, Midwest heat and we are balmy in comparison.
The lower 1/8th of the sky has turned an indecisive shade of pale tan.

I have true sympathy for those comrades of mine who I know are even now engaged in preparing their animals for County Fair. Tomorrow and Wednesday are supposed to be over 100, and fair week is the hottest we are likely to have this summer! Just the thought of sweating at the Fairgrounds, feeling the tarmac radiate heat, wearing showmanship clothes, trying to stay in the shade, and, if you are lucky, perhaps locating a puny whiff of hot air terming itself a "breeze"...
I'm going to Fair on Thursday evening....there is a country music group performing that night, Lady Antebellum, which has received various accolades.

One can stay bearably cool if one does not move.

We harvested our first tomato yesterday: very passable.

Do pardon the extreme lucidity of this post; I have just been reading the authoritative Eats, Shoot and Leaves and that, combined with a reaction from writing my extremely casually-voiced story, has made me feel very wordy.

And now 'tis off to read Rochelle Blue's post here about unschooling: an education philosophy to which I must admit considerable leanings at times. Aren't I lucid?

I like that word, lucid. I used it at a shoot for The Rose of Gondor, the movie I filmed last summer. It was at the beginning of the shoot, and I was telling someone to "Allow me to elucidate what you will do in this take". The other: "What was that--hallucinate?" with a look which implied as much.

ANYWAY....

Never put off til tomorrow...

4-H judging is in 3 hours and I am still working on my photos. And in case you're wondering why I am typing this, it's because a photo is printing right now and there's nothing else to be done for a bit.

Notice the quote at the bottom of my blog.

Good-bye.