I Remembered!

Nope.  Haven't forgotten I've got a blog to run.   This road trip has raised such a level of irritation and frustration in me I don't want to spread it around.  The deerhound specialty last week was fun, and was finally an event that rain didn't hamper.  Oh, it rained, and it rained hard, but not during any of the events we were working.

It made me forget the mess that was the II.  At least I think I was at the II.  Activity at the storefront seems to be indicating I may have been elsewhere while it was going on.  It's making the decision to retire look real good lately.  

Anyway, enough about the past.  Got 114 Rhodesian Ridgebacks to shoot this weekend. 'Least that's how many have been pre-entered in the ASFA trial.  So while you ponder in wonder those numbers, here's a little chuckle for the day.  (HT  Shirley, who always finds the funniest stuff... when she isn't finding things that break your heart.)

see more Funny Graphs

Why?

That's right.  Why be content to get stuck where a mere little Kubota tractor can help you effect your escape from the muddy clutches, when there's a really deep boggy situation just waiting down the road, and woe unto you if you venture a little too right or left of the hard pack.

And that's the situation we found ourselves in last Thursday.  First we tried the tractor again.  Not this time, sport.  The more it pulled the further right the Express wanted to slide until it was tipping precariously in the really soft stuff, and leaning on the chain link!  This also blocked the normal exit we call a "door".  Out the window, take the ladder off the back so Margaret could exit gracefully and head to Hugo to upload the II pictures.

Meanwhile, I called our road service provider, because we were going to need something bigger; much bigger.. than the neighbor's Massey-Ferguson.  We were going to need the big boy, because how do you extract a 20,000 pound behemoth that's heeled over against a fence, a foot and a half in the soggy earth... without damaging the awning, and the coach finish?  Watch and learn, kids... watch and learn:

These ol' boys were really good!

Vertigo

Don't let the perspective of this shot mess with your mind.  This is a 4-shot "stitched" panorama of the parking area at Windyglen after all of the vehicles had left.  At the left is the front of our motor home, and at the right is the real of the motor home, as taken from the middle of the roof, so it's a 180 degree view with West to the left and East to the right.  Looks like the vestiges of trench warfare.  Sorry the image is so small.

Why Not?

That's right.  Why should we be any different from everybody else.  Just in time, too, as the skies opened up yet again right after we got it back on terra firma.

Rare Ducks at Windyglen.

Black Bellied Whistling Ducks.  As the map at the link shows, these guys are way north of their usual range. (We're on the Red River in SE Oklahoma).  "Very un-ducklike" indeed.  I thought they were something altogether different when I first saw them.

Look at all that green.  A bit different from what's been posted here recently, eh?

Nobody Got Hurt. (OK, one turned ankle)

Many readers will get it, but for some people, this is considered "fun". I'll try and have Margaret stitch together a panoramic shot of the aftermath. I'll go up on the roof and shoot the "aerial" version, now that everyone but us is gone.

This, friends, was the 2009 ASFA International Invitational Swimming and Diving Meet.

Infernal Road Trip

We are into week two of a 7 week road trip I really didn't want to make.  For starters, despite the fact we left Deming, and are now sitting in Bos.. Bogwell, OK we've already logged over 1700 miles. (Look at a map!).  That's because we first had to go all the way to Gray Summit, MO's Purina Farms for an event that featured rain, along with running dogs.  We then backtracked over 500 miles for a big national event here, which featured more rain.  Way more rain.  6 inches or more last Wednesday, followed by 1-2 more inches while I was trying to work (accompanied by wind, of course), then to add insult to injury, another couple of inches before midnight to make the field really fun on Sunday.

I'll have photos soon of the tractors extracting the cars and RV's at the conclusion of the festivities.

Later this week, we'll depart this garden spot and return the 500+ miles to Purina Farms for the Scottish Deerhound national specialty.  The 10 day forecast is for: rain.

At the end of the month, we'll be in Michigan for the Rhodesian Ridgeback specialty.  We'll also be able to load up more stuff from the storage unit, and have a chance to visit my brother, (my much younger brother) who, I found out, spent much of last week in the hospital replicating an episode of House.  If he gets his wish, he'll have a shiny new pacemaker by then so he can continue to ride and run, which is what he was doing last week when he suddenly found himself face down on the sidewalk.  The implications for me in this medical mystery, is that what he has is possibly genetic.  Oh joy.

By the way, it will probably rain while we're working in Michigan.

Then we will head to the Saluki specialty in Lexington where, experience tells us, it will definitely rain.  Usually with spectacular lightning and high winds.

Meanwhile, back home in Deming...

Now why would any sane person want to give up our lifestyle for that? (Yes, that's being facetious).