Kids

No range trip for me *sigh*

/ hsoi

I was planning on going to the gun range this morning.

Weatherman says we’ve got some ugly rain storms on tap. While normally that wouldn’t bother me too much, the Austin Rifle Club is located in a floodplain… thus rain at the range is NOT a good thing. The ARC leadership basically tells you that if you’re at the range and it starts to rain, leave immediately. You really don’t want to be at the club in the rain, because flooding and getting trapped (or worse) is always possible.

But just watch… I’m postponing the range trip, and it won’t rain worth a damn this morning. 🙂

I was hoping to not only do some pistol work, but also take the 6.8 out and recheck the zero issues. I was going to work with Oldest on this. You see, he’s had an aversion to shooting firearms larger than .22’s because he doesn’t like the noise. Understandable, especially when you shoot under the tin roofs at the range (far less problem out in the field). But he’s really itching to try out hunting, so he’s got to get used to shooting something bigger than that Ruger 10/22. Might as well have him work the 6.8, or maybe my .308 bolt action.

I’m not going to be upset about the rain tho. We need the rain. And frankly, that we’re still getting rain in June? That’s a Good Thing™. Just have to be satisfied with more dry fire this morning.

Woke up in a fright

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

You know what you don’t want to hear in the middle of the night?

Your children letting out panicked, blood-curdling screams.

*sigh*

Kiddos were “camping out”, sleeping in sleeping bags in the living room (it’s just something they like to do, and it’s harmless). Daughter reports that Oldest started to fidget and itch. He was groggy and not sure what was going on, but something was bugging him. He wanders into our room, wakes up Wife, and asks if she could look at his neck, if she might see anything.

She sure did.

A scorpion.

It was a striped bark scorpion, very common in Texas. We get them inside the house on occasion. Seems the scorpion was taking a midnight stroll across Oldest’s body. Once everyone noticed what it was, the screams and cries went out. Sure freaked me out to be woken up in that manner.

There’s a small welt on Oldest’s neck, another on his chest, and one on his hand. He’s doing OK, it’s just annoying him at this point. His siblings both got bad sunburns last weekend, he just got some light scorpion stings. Everyone’s happy. 😉

A Good Day

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Watching the local morning news, weather report comes on. I see stuff about Fredericksburg, TX and say to Wife “Want to go there today?” Just on a whim. And off we went. I’ve been wanting to take the family out there for some time, just because. It’ll be good to go in a month or two when peach season kicks in. But hey… we had time today, so seize the day!

Drove out. Stopped at Whittington’s for some of their awesome jerky. Wanted to stop in Luckenbach but opted to save that for next time (we were getting hungry). I figured if we’re going to Fredericksburg, we need to eat German food. Yelp seemed to have mostly favorable reviews of Der Lindenbaum, so we gave it a try. I’ve had some German food in my life, but despite my ethnic heritage (look at my last name!) not a whole lot of it — when Mom is in charge of cooking well, that’s why I ate a lot of Korean food while growing up. 😉  So really, this was a “first experience” for the whole family.

Everyone was pleasantly surprised, even Oldest got adventurous. I had a beef sauerbraten (made with raisins), Wife had a jager schnitzel, Oldest had some bratwurst, Daughter a cheese-potato soup (can’t remember the German for it), Youngest had a wiener schnitzel. Very good stuff all around. I loved the cheese in the soup, very hearty flavor but not overpowering. I really liked how the raisins in the sauerbraten and this red kraut (which was both clove-sweet and sour) mixed together. But for my money, it the jager schnitzel was the winner — I’m having that next time. But of course, I think next time we ought to try one of the other German restaurants in town.

We perused the shops. Wife found some nice clothing. Kids all found some cute toys in a toy shop. Me? I was just happy to be with my family.

On the way home, stopped into a vineyard. Which? We just picked “the next one” along the road (and one that I hadn’t been into before). This one was Grape Creek Vineyards. Did a tasting, 6 wines apiece. Wife and I overlapped on a few wines, but for the most part we tasted different things because we have varying tastes: she likes lighter, sweeter stuff, whites more than reds; I like more robust, drier, reds more than whites but I also like a good port. Now, I’m no wine snob or even all that wine educated… I just know what my taste buds and my nose like and don’t like. So with that….

  • 2008 Cuvee Blanc — Nice, crisp. I could see having that with say a light pork cooked with fruit, or a light fish.
  • 2008 Pinot Grigio — Sorry, but neither Wife nor I are fans of Pinot Grigio. We try, but we just can’t get into it.
  • 2009 Viognier — Surprisingly good. Wife liked it, but not enough to want to buy it (given we could only buy so many bottles and we preferred some other things).
  • 2009 Riesling — This surprised me. I usually don’t like Reislings but enjoy trying them. This was very peach/apricot on the nose, and went down very nice. Stupid me forgot to buy a bottle, because I could see enjoying a glass of this on a hot summer night after dinner.
  • 2008 Grand Rouge — Wife liked this a lot, we bought a couple of bottles. I didn’t care much for it, but it could be because by the time I tried a sip I had so many strong reds on my tongue (even after crackers).
  • Port — I didn’t like it. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but it’s just not my style of port. I forgot all the details the guy told me as he was pouring it, but for instance it didn’t use sherry to fortify it and didn’t have as much sugars as other ports. It wasn’t bad for what it was, but just not my preference. Wife isn’t a port drinker.
  • 2007 Bellissimo — Wow. This was fantastic. Complex but not overly so. Robust, full. Just great overall. Picked up a couple of bottles of this.
  • 2007 Mosaic — Very strong, their strongest, fullest, “biggest” red. It was too much for my palette. It’s not bad, just a lot for my tongue. I could see maybe having a small glass of this with a fine cigar.
  • 2007 Merlot — Picked up a bottle of this. A “light” red, but a very good flavor and still “full” and “strong”, just lighter than ones like the Bellissimo and the Mosaic.

Not a bad place really. Certainly one of the better Texas wineries I’ve been to in recent years.

Anyway, just a damn good day with my family. Life can’t be all work. And I got to spend it with the people I love most. 🙂

From open children to open carry

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

It’s raining.

For whatever reason, that’s caused more ducks than usual to congregate around our house. More ducks means more distractions for the kids. 😉  Plus, one mother mallard has 6 chicks (hatched probably just a few days ago), so the cute is irresistible.

The kids were outside tending to the ducks. I was in my office working. Wife was in the kitchen. Kids come back in the house to tell us that an Austin Police Officer drove up, rolled down his window, asked them if they were where they were supposed to be, “We’re homeschooled.”, “Alright.” and off he drove. Will it amount to anything? I don’t know, but I doubt it. We did have another talk with the kids about how to handle such situations. But what got me was what I found myself saying.

You see, Wife was saying how one of our homeschooling mentors always avoided such issues by running her errands after normal school hours. I can understand. We’re doing nothing wrong, we’re doing nothing illegal, but we are doing something that most people aren’t familiar with and “breaks the norm” of what’s expected… thus it has potential to cause trouble and bring headaches and hassles into our lives. So mentor’s approach was to just avoid it because she didn’t want to hassle. Wife doesn’t do that, we don’t lock the kids away and only bring them out when children are supposed to be brought out, but certainly Wife prefers to avoid the hassle.

I found myself saying that no, we can’t do that; we can’t avoid the hassle. Not saying we should flaunt it and invite it, but that if the hassle comes, it comes. What we’re doing is fine, legal, normal; it may not be mainstream, but how are people ever going to get used to it, acknowledge it, accept it, and not flinch or find it strange if we always keep it hidden away? If we always work to avoid the hassle, no one will ever see or know. How does that help or improve the situation? If anything, it could serve to make the situation seem worse because it’s being hidden away and not just openly done.

And I found myself thinking about Open Carry.

It may not be mainstream today, but how else are you going to get it to be mainstream unless you make it so? To hide it away isn’t going to help. Look at any sort of “civil rights” be it homeschooling or gay rights or women’s rights or various ethnic groups. You don’t get to sit at the front of the bus by always hiding at the back of it (by force or by choice).

Still trying to figure out how I stand on open carry, but this little experience certainly has influenced me a bit.

I was inspired to write this due to a comment made by Linoge on Uncle’s website. Thanx, Linoge.

Our Carolina Wrens

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Home Depot has these “kids workshops” on the first Saturday of every month. We went to one of them some many months ago and made birdhouses. These particular birdhouses had clear back walls, with the intention of mounting them on a window so you could watch what was going on.

We came home, hung one up, and I admit… I never expected anything to nest in them.

For many months that bore out. We’d look and see nothing in there.

A few weeks ago, Daughter came to us saying that something was building a nest in the birdhouse. Oldest did some watching and identified the birds as Carolina Wrens. We did some further investigation and sure enough, it was a pair of Carolina Wrens building their nest. A little while later, we saw 5 eggs and a dedicated Mother sitting on them. With a gestation period of about 2 weeks, we knew it wouldn’t be long before we saw something.

And today — Mother’s Day — we see something. 🙂

Just a few minutes ago Daughter came running in saying she sees something in the nest. Sure enough, there’s a baby! It must be only a few hours old given how just a few hours ago I checked the nest and saw nothing.

What a wonderful thing, and on Mother’s Day to boot. 🙂

It’s hard to tell but it appears that 2 eggs have hatched. I certainly see one hungry mouth and I am not sure about the other… I *THINK* I see another body in there, but I’m not sure what the deal is. Is it actually another body? Is it sleeping? Alive? Dead? Hard to tell, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out in time. My understanding is the wrens lay one egg a day, so I would guess that over the next few days we’ll see the rest hatch.

We did most of our observing from inside the house, but I went out and looked through the “door” of the nest box. I heard the tiniest little chirp, so high-pitched, so soft… but it’s all the little guy can muster right now at this early stage of life. It’s very cute, and very humbling to listen to.

How neat!

I would love to share some pictures, but there’s no way I can get anything useful right now. And while I may try to get some pictures, I’m wary. It’s my understanding if we approach the nest too soon it could cause the babies to fledge before they’re ready, and I certainly do NOT want that to happen. So, pictures will happen if they can, but I’m not going to risk anything.

Now… let’s see if we can finally get some of these Muscovy Duck eggs to hatch. We’ve had numerous nests but for one reason or other nothing went all the way. The current momma duck is very dedicated, so we’re hopeful that within the nest few weeks we’ll have ducklings.

Ignorance is the best policy? *sigh*

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

The Commonwealth of Virginia is seeking to establish a gun safety program in their public schools. It would be based around the NRA’s highly successful Eddie Eagle program.

Naturally, some people are freaking out about it:

“It’s not the wisest thing because, for instance, [my daughter]. She doesn’t know what a gun is. But, if she sees gun safety, then now she’s curious about it,” says Nery Washington, who lives in Harrisonburg.

So what you’re saying is, your daughter is ignorant, which is understandable for a child, but what’s not understandable is why you as a parent think ignorance is acceptable and the best way to keep your child safe.

Do we keep our children ignorant of the chemicals and cleaners we keep under the sink? Do we keep our children ignorant of “stranger danger”? Do we keep our children ignorant of electrical outlets? Do we keep our children ignorant about running on wet floors? These are all things that are potentially dangerous to children, and we go out of our way to teach children about them all in the name of keeping the children safe.

When you tell your kids about the chemicals under the sink, does Junior go and decide he now needs a Windex cocktail?

“Nothing about this program should make children curious about firearms, and we don’t encourage children to own a gun. So, as to any of those kind of fears, I would say they’re totally unwarranted,” says Alexa Fritts, a spokeswoman for the NRA.

I do take odds with such a flat dismissal. Yes in fact a child could become more curious about firearms as a result of this program. If so, why is that horrible? Any topic we introduce to our children could be met with massive indifference or whole-hearted curiosity. Is that reason to not discuss the dangers of drugs and alcohol? Is that reason to not discuss sex? Yes, discussion of these things could lead to increased curiosity and experimentation. My take as a parent? Don’t ignore the subject with your children. Raise them in an environment where they can learn, explore, and freely ask questions of their parent. Don’t make them scared to come to you, else they will sneak things when you don’t want them to. That’s when the danger can truly start. We are to teach and guide our children, so foster an environment where that can be done.

So yes, if your daughter becomes more curious about firearms, teach her honestly and guide her well. Ignorance doesn’t cure curiosity.

How To Train Your Dragon

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

I’m not really high on Dreamworks’ “animated children’s movies” because well… they’ve sucked and have a pretty poor track record.

My rule is simple. When you see the commercials/trailers for the movie, are they pitching the movie and the story? or do they work on promoting the “star power” of the “voice actors”? Pixar? They don’t advertise that so-and-so does the voices, even if they’re not really good voice actors and are just doing their normal voices. Pixar knows story is king, and that shows in their movies.

But with Dragons, Dreamworks well…. now that I see WHO the people are that did the voices well, it’s not like it was massive star power there anyways. But that’s just fine! There was less focus on the glitz and more focus on making a good movie.

And good it was.

Sure it was a story you’ve heard/seen a thousand times. There’s really nothing new to the base story. It’s the telling that changes, and I think they told a good story. I found the movie most enjoyable. Comedy, action, suspense, just a hint of innocent romance, some emotional heart-tugging moments. Sure you know how things are going to go (tho I thought the end um…. thing that happened to Hiccup at the end of the movie, that was a cute touch), sure you know “happily ever after”. But still, I enjoyed myself.

Daughter approves as well.

Oldest and Youngest… well… fisticuffs in the morning meant no movie for them in the afternoon. *sigh*

Anyway, an enjoyable movie. I’m sure it means a “Dragson 2” is already brewing… not sure it should be done… sometimes I think it’s good to just let good things stay as they are, we don’t need to milk it to death. But you know how it is… there’s money to be made and ideas to run into the ground. 🙂

Small win for APD

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Going to give some kudos to Austin Police Department here. It’s a small thing, but it’s little things like this that add up.

As frequent readers know, we have a lot of ducks that hang out at our house.

Well, about 45 minutes ago my kids saw some random Rottweiler trotting across our lawn. I was called to come see, and so I went and saw. He was perked up, looking at something. My guess? The ducks, but a few houses down and out of sight.

I go back to work.

A minute or so later I hear my kids screaming in terror. The Rot was attacking a duck.

Granted my kids understand nature and life, but they are very fond of the ducks… so injury to these ducks is like injuring a member of the family.

I tear down the stairs and run outside looking for the Rot. He was behind/under a truck… apparently it was just some guy driving through and he saw things too and tried to do something about it (I guess… I really didn’t know, my only exchange with him was “That your dog?” “No.”). I chased the Rot, shouting and yelling. The Rot broke off his attack and retreated back into a yard in the cul-de-sac. I don’t know what happened to the duck, but I did see him waddle off… I don’t know his condition, but it is what it is.

The Rot eventually stopped and laid down. I took out my phone, dialed 911, explained, and they said police will be dispatched. My wife was also on the phone to 311 and they took the animal control call. Yes it’s just attacking a duck but my thinking is 1. it’s a Rot, 2. if he’s showing a penchant for attacking things who knows what else he could attack, 3. no collar so who knows if he’s a pet or feral. Who knows. My brother-in-law has a Rot and she’s a sweetie. I know Rot’s aren’t evil, but there’s no question there’s a legit reason for their reputation. I don’t want some unknown Rot wandering my neighborhood.

About 10 minutes after the call goes in, 2 APD cruisers pull up. We point out the dog, explain things, they drive over to the dog. You could tell there was some joking “you get him, no you get him”. A third cruiser pulls in, and that officer had some leashes in his trunk. A little figuring out of who will do what, tasers at the ready, and the third officer approaches the Rot. He tries calling him over and the dog obediently comes, a little unsure, but obeys. Leashed up, “good dog” petting, and into the back of a cruiser. Some handshakes and thank you’s to the officers, and what’s done is done.

My take

I don’t feel bad about what I did. Granted, as the event wore on it was evident the dog is fairly well-behaved. He’s certainly someone’s pet (tho lacking a collar, but hopefully not a microchip). He did show signs of submissive behavior, but he was also constantly alert. That’s good stuff, when it’s your dog. But again, I have no idea about this dog. He demonstrated attacking behavior, and well… I just can’t allow some unknown and potentially dangerous dog to be trotting around my neighborhood with other pets, small children, and people around. No apologies for what I did.

APD took about 10 minutes to show up, and my guess is they were there that “quickly” due to the fact the dog was seen attacking. I can’t fault them… it’s not like there was a cop right here, they did have to drive to get here, so 10 minutes is reasonable. But as with all things, it shows what response time can be.

I did have my gun on me. It shows that situations can happen suddenly and you have to run with what you have. There was no time to run and get my gun or get anything… I ran outside barefoot. If the dog was a problem, yes I had no problem shooting it. I wanted to avoid that at all costs of course, but if someone’s life was in danger (because again, I knew nothing of the dog’s demeanor, other than he was attacking a duck) well… that’s how it goes. While standing off with the dog, I asked my wife for her pepper spray, as that’d be my preference. I had a prior experience with dogs and wishing for OC. I still don’t have OC on me, because I haven’t found something suitable (even tho GT Dist has some decent options).

I do hope the dog has a microchip and can be reunited with his owner… and his owner is a little wiser for the experience so it doesn’t happen again. He was a good looking Rotty, and seemed to be a “good dog”, so I do hope there ends up being a happy ending to this story. But again, dogs are what they are, and I’m not going to take a chance.

APD did well. Took care of things. Thank you to the local Boys in Blue.

Star of Texas Fair & Rodeo

/ hsoi

Yesterday I took my family to the Star of Texas Fair & Rodeo. It’s an annual thing in Austin, but this is the first time we went. I’m so glad we did. Weather was perfect, time was right.

The Kid In Me

I went to county fairs and rodeos all the time when I was a kid. My Dad had to campaign in various counties in Nebraska, and county fairs were good places to meet with the public. So Dad would be there all day pressing the flesh, and we kids would get to run around and enjoy the fair all day. I’ve got lots of fond memories of those times, from all the midway games I’d play, to the rides (I still will not ride The Zipper… not into things that make me throw up), to even the people I’d meet. A lot of the same carnival groups would be at the various county fairs, so I got to see a lot of the same carnies over and over. I got to actually know a couple fairly well because hey… I loved the “pop gun” booth (little pump rifles that shot small corks out the end… you’d shoot the corks at these little wooden stands and when they flipped off the back of the rail you won the prize) and spending so much time at that booth I got to know the lady running it. I also recall that’s how I learned about the band Bad Company; talking with another carnie, he told me to check out their album (their self-titled) and eventually I did and glad I did.

And of course, growing up in Omaha, there was Peony Park.

So with many fond memories in my head, I always wanted to take the kids to some sort of fair. There’s frequently a fair running in town, but I can never find out when they’re here. It’s one of those where I’m driving in town, I see it in the distance, “OH man!” and then we can’t go for some reason. But now we had a plan!

The Joy of Mobile Internet

Of course, I look up the fair online and find out they even have an iPhone app just for the fair! The iPhone app had a few rough edges, but it was pretty useful. I thought the best part was how they used the GPS services on the map to say “here’s where you are, and here’s where you want to go” to help you get around the fairgrounds. Nice!

But the real treat? I found out you could buy a carnival wristband for $20 online, which included the gate entrance fee. Sounded like a winner to me. But when I got there, yes it was an online-only deal. If you bought at the fairgrounds, $7 for adults $4 children to get through the gate, and $25 for the carnival wristband. Man… that online deal is a deal. So I went back to the car, sat down, pulled out my iPhone and purchased online right there in the parking lot. 🙂 That saved some money… or so I thought. It’s only saving money if you’re going to ride a lot of rides. Most rides cost 3 tokens and each token was $1. So you’d need to ride 8 rides or so to make it worth it. Was it worth it? No, because we didn’t ride that many rides (more on that shortly). The thing was, I was under the impression you could only do the carnival if you had a wristband. That is not the case. The wristband is only good for carnival rides, and you can pay tokens for rides as well. So if you’re all about the rides and expect to ride a lot of rides, a wristband can be the way to go. Else, just pay tokens as you go. Live and learn.

The Rides

For me, a big part of a fair are the rides. I did not know what to expect with my kids… would they like these rides? Would they not? The first ride? The Tilt-a-Whirl. That’s one of my favorites. I have many fond memories of riding that at Peony Park with my Dad while growing up. All 4 of us climbed into a car and off we went, tilting and whirling. I saw nothing but smiles on the faces of my kids. We have a winner!

I saw on the other side was a “scrambler”, tho this one was called The Scorcher. We climbed into that one, Youngest and I in one car, and Oldest and Daughter in another. Off it went. This one went a bit faster than I remember them going, so the G-forces were pretty strong. It was fun, we all enjoyed it, but we all also had the same thought: geez… this is getting boring, can you stop now? It just got old because it ran for quite a while. But I was happy the kids enjoyed it…. tho Oldest didn’t like it as much as he would have because well… I told him to sit on the out-side of the car so he had his sister squished into him the whole time. 🙂

Then… the bumper cars.

I’m glad this wasn’t a “modern” bumper cars where everyone was told to just drive in a circle and not run into each other. Yes, I’ve encountered those and what fun are those? The whole fun about this is to bump into each other. Head-on collisions are what makes bumper cars fun. 🙂 Daughter climbed into a car, Oldest into a car, and I took Youngest in a car with me. I gave them a briefing on how they work (e.g. press the pedal down and don’t let go, if you turn the steering wheel all the way around you’ll go in reverse), and off we went.

So while the kids and I were having fun bumping into each other, Wife was standing at the railing taking pictures. And boy, was Wife taking a lot of pictures. She was heavily interested in taking lots of pictures. Why? Because the carnie working the bumper cars was being very friendly with her. Not too friendly, but friendly enough that Wife did her best to be polite yet tried her best to make it clear she was more interested in her big husband than him. Oldest got mad that some other man was trying to hit on his Mom but he saw me laughing and not worried about it… but I can’t argue with my son’s desire to defend his mother. That’s a Good Thing.

Of course, what trip to a fair would be complete if there wasn’t a ride that was a little too much. There was a ride called The Orbiter. Didn’t get a picture of it, but this Wikipedia entry is close. The cars were more enclosed cars and it didn’t go 90º (maybe 45º??). The thing was, when we saw it earlier it seemed somewhat gentle, so Daughter and I went on it. Youngest wanted to go but Oldest didn’t and you couldn’t have single riders, so only Daughter and I went. Well… that was a mistake. The sensation was really weird and the G-forces very strong… because of the angles you were put at, the resulting angle of the G-forces just did not sit well with Daughter and she was most unhappy. I just cradled her to keep her from banging into the car, and eventually the ride ended. Cross that one off the list for the future. Me? I thought the ride was OK… it did mess with my equilibrium a bit (I had “sea legs” for a short while after getting off the ride), but how could I enjoy a ride while my child was hurting? Ah well… it was a good experience no matter how you slice it.

The Food

What can you say? If you can fry it and put it on a stick, it’s carnival food. Oh, and expensive too.

Actually the food was pretty good. Of course fried, greasy, salty, huge portions, and just horrible for you… but no question it was delicious. If it wasn’t so darn expensive we would have eaten more.

The one bummer? I didn’t get a funnel cake. I love funnel cakes. But at $7 a cake? Sorry… my wallet was hurting. I had to pass this time around. *sigh*

Attractions

There were a lot of cool fair attractions.

They had some small bands playing free shows on a back stage. There was a ZZ Top cover band called Cheap Sunglasses that were playing when we arrived. They were actually pretty good! I enjoyed them a whole lot. Later that evening another band was playing… I don’t know who they were, but they were doing a horrible job butchering Bon Jovi’s “Bad Medicine” and I couldn’t stand it.

We wandered through the livestock barn. Lots of cattle and pigs, a few goats and rabbits. Spent a little time watching the judging of a youth cattle show. All I could think to myself was how much tasty beef was out there. Eventually we had to leave as the smell was overwhelming everyone.

Of course, there was a petting zoo with llamas, goats, sheep, some sort of deer… and again, I just kept staring at those deer, finding that kill zone. Now that I think about it, I should have used that as a time to talk kill zones with the kids! I mean, I had a live sample right there and could have walked right up to it and pointed everything out! Missed opportunity.

Concealment, not cover.

There was a cowboy shootout. Not a lot of action, but the comedy was funny with 3 bumbling robbers and eventually the sheriff coming to break up the party. They shot blanks, which were pretty loud so everyone would jump when they shot. I did think it was cool how they ended it tho: having all the “dead” robbers get up to show that no one was really hurt. But they also talked about how they used blanks and that blanks can still be dangerous (they shot an empty soda can pointblank and you got to see it blown apart). Then saying to be thankful for the police so we can live our lives today without us each having to carry around 6-shooters ourselves. Uh huh. 😉

One more thing on the shootout. Those guys had terrible trigger discipline. But I’ll chalk it up to old-time realism because Jeff Cooper wasn’t invented yet. 😉

We missed the “Swine Sprints”, but we did catch Whiplash. Whiplash is a little money dressed up like a cowboy that rides on the back of a dog. The show actually started off with a young man doing roping tricks, which was pretty impressive. Then onto the show. A little money, in a cowboy suit, on the back of… a border collie. That’s important. What was the show? Three sheep were released into the area and Whiplash the monkey cowboy (or is it cowboy monkey?) herded them around. But the reality? The monkey was just the attraction that put the butts in the seats. The real work was the dog, and the dog was on. The moment those sheep were let out of the carrier, the dog was locked onto them. It was so cool to watch how tuned in he was. And the sheep were huddling together, because they knew there was something out there with fangs. And the dog went to work, and the monkey just held on. Wife and I didn’t care about the monkey, just the dog. He was awesome.

Heading Home

So a long afternoon and evening spent at the fair. No, we didn’t get to see any actual rodeo, because that cost a lot more money. Apparently there’s a rodeo in Marble Falls in July and we may go check that out.

But still, we had a good time. Got to see animals, got to see some shows, got to ride rides, got to learn all about carnies, got to eat terrible but delicious food. The kids had a great time, and Wife did too (tho she wishes she had worn her Ariats and not her Luccheses). For me? Reliving some childhood family memories and making some new ones with my own family? All worth it.