Jon finished the front porch but still has to clean up his tools - so not pictures yet. And Dad will see the first pictures via an email before I post on my blog since he helped with the demolition and spent a ton of time sanding and scraping the porch. I'm so ready to put the furniture out there!
Today is the best I've felt in almost a week. I've been dealing with headaches again because of my physical therapy and working the nerve that is out of whack. Yesterday when I talked to my physical therapist I talked about my pillows and said that I'd had them for at least 20 years.....I thought Blake was going to fall over. I'll take a picture of them tomorrow when I take the pillow cases off to do laundry - my pillows are in s-a-d shape. Mike was horrified that I was still using them like 10 years ago. So Blake told me to shop for a "side sleeper" pillow since I sleep 95% of the time on my sides. He told me how he and his wife had pillow shopped for over two years before they found their side sleeper pillows - for $60.00 (that's when I almost fell over). So after the Fair today I headed to Bed Bath and Beyond with my 20% off coupon and found a decent side sleeper pillow to try.
Also Blake had mentioned last week that he wanted to tape me - my shoulders - the next time I was in so we did this yesterday. We go into the treatment room which was as cold as the North Pole and he put cold stuff on my shoulder/back before putting the "under layer" of whatever and then the actual tape to keep my shoulder in correct position. He put three strips of the tape on my shoulder/back and said if I could keep it on for 48 hours that would be great but if it hurt or anything to take it off. I took it off about two hours ago - which was challenging in the middle of my back that was hard to reach - but anyway.... I told Blake as he was taping me that I felt like an athlete - getting taped and all :)
Last night was Frasier Friday and the episodes are toward the end of the series when Niles and Daphne finally get together - and it's so cute to see them together. But it reminded me of Mike and made me sad and I cried some wishing he was here.
Today I was out the door and parked within two blocks of the Fair (you can't park in the first two blocks by the Fair) by 7:30 a.m. I was pumped - that was the best parking spot I've had in years. And I had my two extra tickets to give to a family to carry on Mike's tradition of random kindness - unfortunately there weren't many going into the Fair at 7:45 a.m. so I told myself to be on the hunt for a family on my way out of the Fair. And the weather was awesome - it was almost cool today.
I headed to the horse barn first thing and it was EMPTY!!!! I couldn't believe it so I headed to the office in the horse barn to ask what the deal was. Last night was the Cattle Queen function in the horse barn (or something like that) and they had to clean the whole barn to get ready for the miniature teams and Belgians to come in starting at noon today - the horses were in the west end of the sheep barn - so off to the sheep barn I went. I was in heaven petting horses and saw one boy that was 17.3 hands - he was to TALL!
I got on the tram hoping it would take me into the campgrounds. Dad and I, and then Mike and I had always enjoyed the shuttle ride (note the two different modes of transportation) through the campgrounds but last year I couldn't find where to board the shuttle - it had moved from in front of the Agriculture Building. I lucked out the tram dropped me off right as a shuttle was heading to the gate to enter the campgrounds. I had a huge smile on my face riding the shuttle through the campgrounds saying to myself that today's ride was for Mike and Dad. One little girl sat down next to me and said something to me about the empty shuttle going the other way. I looked at her and told her that the shuttle was my favorite ride, she smiled and her mother and grandmother chuckled and knew exactly what I meant.
At 10:00 I was at the Maytag Family Theater to watch "The Year of the Cat - Feline Conservation from Around the World" by Pella Wildlife Company - check out the photos at the end of my blog. It was a good presentation and had some cute "kitties" to see. I sat by two of the cutest little boys - maybe 5 or 6 years old - that kept talking to me about the cats before the presentation. It makes me sad to think that there are animals that are extinct and other species - like the tiger (yes the tiger) - that could become extinct very easily. I think that has to make God sad to see what Man has done to this planet and destroying some of His beautiful creatures.
I stopped by the Iowa State Blue Ribbon trailer to purchase my Butter Cow pin - this is the 100th year of the Butter Cow at the Fair. Next to the trailer was Nadine Hawbaker - a local, reknown Iowa watercolor artist that had done an Iowa State Fair print that I purchased and she personalized for me - see photo below. I had seen Nadine at Kenneth Paul Gallery a few times when I worked there part-time several years ago. She didn't remember me - which I knew she wouldn't - but she was so friendly to chat with. She loved that my personalization was "Fair Memories" and I told her about how Dad and I used to have our day at the Fair, and that Mike and I used to have our day at the Fair.
By then I wanted to head back to the horse barn to see if any of the Belgians were coming in early and stopped by my favorite Wonder Bar vendor - where you get the real Wonder Bars. Well not this year - instead of the square Wonder Bar on the round stick I got a regular ice cream bar with nuts on it with the tongue depressor stick - poop.
I found a shady bench to sit on outside the horse barn and waited and waited and waited. I saw three or four teams of miniature horses come in but no Belgians. I finally left because I had other errands to run and it was almost 1:00 p.m. by then. It would have been awesome to see some of those big horses unloaded though.
As I walked to the car I told God to lead me to the right family to give my two tickets to and there wasn't anyone. All the families were on the other side of the street. And it just hit me a few minutes ago that next Saturday when Chrissy (my niece) and I go for our day at the Fair - which kind of replaces Mike's and my day at the Fair - that I don't think God wanted me to give those tickets to anyone today. I'm supposed to find the family next Saturday to honor Mike's memory.
Nadine's watercolor print of the 2011 Fair.
This little guy is the second smallest cat species in the world - from South America. His name is Lightning and he thinks he's as big (and has the energy) of a tiger :)
This is Dipstick (check out his tail with the little spot of black), a young Bobcat.
Inside the crate are domestic Bengal kittens with Buddy, a 10 month Cougar in the background.
A baby Percheron! I've never seen one.
Loved this miniature horse trailer for the miniature horses :)
This guy cracked me up when I asked him to stick his head out the window!
Final shot of the Fair - until next Saturday. Trying to show how congested Grand Avenue was - I needed to be at the other end of Grand Avenue, on the hill, to get a better shot to show the crowd.
