All Work and No Play....

It just wouldn't be summer without at least a little fun. Not that Vacation Bible School isn't fun, you understand. It's a special kind of fun that looks and feels an awful lot like work and leaves you exhausted afterward. But I'm not talking about that kind of fun. I'm talking about the kind of fun that doesn't leave you feeling like last week's wet noodle.

I Come in Peeeeeeeeeeeeace!

Right after VBS we had a church picnic and swimming trip for the teen staff. It was such a nice change of pace to sit, chat, and relax before heading off for a refreshing swim. It's amazing the things you learn about others and yourself while you socialize. I learned I'm a lot more buoyant than I used to be---floating used to be more of a challenge than it is now. I learned Tiggy needs more practice with her underwater swimming and that Devon looks like an alien with a swim mask on. So does Tiggy for that matter, but I'm not posting a picture of her---she knows how to log into my Facebook page!

A couple of days later, it was time for our epic 3 day road trip. We were heading down to Fargo to see Laura and this time Tiggy got to go along. They hadn't seen each other since last September and have been very whiny about that. My mom came along for extra adult support (she was the Depends of the trip), and just so we wouldn't get lonely we brought Finley and Jackie.

They're truly multipurpose dogs, since not only did they provide hours of entertainment and frequent opportunities for exercise, but they also kept us from being cold. Just in case we got cold in 96 degree weather. To ward off that possibility, they kindly shared their hair with us. And our clothes. And our pillows. We had to shave before we went out into public or we might have started rumors about the mythical North Dakota Sasquatches. Next thing you know, those super-annoying people from "Chasing Bigfoot" would have been skulking around the state, talking to each other in exaggerated whispers audible from space.

We had a nice time and a nice visit. The two hick dogs had never stayed in a hotel  before, so they had to smell EVERYTHING, but they behaved themselves reasonably well. Nothing was watered, if you get my drift. You can't trust the big, wicked city, however, and Jackie stayed on the alert constantly. At one point she spent over 5 minutes defending my mom from a menacing man in the next car. The creepy guy kept staring at her, and no matter how much Jackie bristled, growled, and barked, he refused to back down.

Because "he" was a shirt and tie hanging in the window of the car.

We headed home mid-morning on Thursday. It was a hot, HOT day, and my car has a charming little foible. The AC works when it is fair to middlin' hot, but anything too hot and it overheats the car. So if it's comfortable already, I can run the AC. If it's hot, we have to turn it off. We drove across the state with the windows open, periodically scraping our melted bodies off the seats to head into a convenience store and get  cold drinks and ice. The dogs' tongues were so long they were mopping the floor with them and every time they turned their heads, drool would fly off like water from a bikini model at a photo shoot. Only a lot less "oooooooooooooh" and a lot more "EEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW"!

We stopped at Steele before heading north on the little known scenic Highway 3.Steele's claim to fame is the World's Largest Sandhill Crane statue. Of course we had our pictures taken by it. I say "we" in the sense that I was in one of them, but I looked awful, so you won't get to see that one!

We also stopped at the World Famous Sinclair Dinosaur statue. The dogs seem underwhelmed.

Since we got back we've had a little break from life's hectic pace. I've actually gotten to work in my garden some. The heat's been great for the vegetables if nothing else, and they're about to take over the world. I didn't have enough cages for even half of my tomatoes, and they've been vining about like creatures from a horror movie. Desperate times demand desperate measures, so I've gotten rather creative about supports. Besides sticks and branches, I've been raiding the trash pile. Turns out that old TV antennas work very nicely in a pinch.





Now everything looks so nice and neat. At least the parts of it I've done. The rest looks like Tarzan's jungle! My mom's taken to whimpering every time I head through the door with another bowl full of squash. Yesterday I caught her digging a moat, but that's just her way of expressing delight at all the delicious bounty I'm bringing her.

Fulton Montmorency III, the Formerly Feral Feline