Yipee Ki Yi Ya

In lieu of doing nothing over the long holiday weekend, Harry and I ventured north yesterday morning. After visiting my dad at Medicalodge, eating lunch at Subway, and Harry fixing cars and sink drains while I basically did nothing but visit with Mother, we all set out for the Longford Rodeo.

It had been years since I had been to a rodeo, but I have always enjoyed them at least moderately. This one was no exception. I could do with the announcer who talked incessantly and I much prefer the days when the clown was not wired for sound and had to do physical comedy, but there is excitement in the competitions themselves. There were assurances that the stock is well treated but I still struggle with that. I know sheep aren't that smart, but I still doubt they would consider having a five year old trying to ride them as "well treated".

Very few cowboys (I also struggle with the fact that it continues to be a male dominated sport with women only being allowed to do barrell racing) were able to wrestle their steers or rope their calves, but it was exciting to watch them fail. This was a PRCA rodeo, so they were professionals. But I have to bear in mind that a really good hitter in baseball is only successful 1/3 of the time, and in rodeo the cowboy has little control over the behavior of the steer or calf.

The two biggest drawbacks to the rodeo were:

1. I can only sit on bleachers so long before my back protests by becoming very uncomfortable.
2. Mother could hardly see anything. Her catarac surgery has helped her ability to read but her macular degeneration is bad enough to really limit her vision at things like this. Add to that the fact that the horses and cattle were mostly the same color as the dirt on the arena floor and she really could not distinguish details.

Still, we enjoyed each other's company and it was nice to do something unusual. We had several good stories to share with Daddy when we went to see him this morning.

We're hoping to get in a round of miniature golf tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

Holidays are great!