Long Saturdays and happy Sundays

Watching the high school football team win their first two home games is a strange and welcome experience. I've worked on the "chain crew" for all of the seven (?) years here and this is the first year in that time the team has done well. In fact, the first three football seasons I worked, I didn't see them score, let alone win. It was a double overtime victory, but a victory nonetheless.

Saturday, I was back at the high school to serve as scorekeeper for the home freshman volleyball tourney. That lasted from 7:30-7:00p.m. that's a whole mess of volleyball. Fortunately, the day went by quickly.

 I regret missing my oldest son's first soccer game because of my scoring obligations. His team won and he even scored a goal! That's an auspicious start.

When I arrived home Sat. night, I had the two oldest boys help me to build a little campfire in our outdoor fireplace for us to sit around in the cool fall evening until bedtime. I watched the first hour of Saturday night live by myself and it was funny for a change.

Sunday I made a bit of a hodge-podge breakfast that would have made my dad proud. I browned and seasoned about a half pound of leftover ground beef, then made cream gravy of it to pour on top of toast. It was good. It must have been for the boys to eat some of it. It reminded me of what my dad's dad said they served in the Navy far too often. The sailors had a name for it, though it was chipped beef gravy, or corned beef gravy; something besides ground beef in other words, but still served on toast. He called it "shit on a shingle"! That's not how I sold it to my family, though. I called it something like cowboy toast to make it sound legit.

Once the kitchen was cleaned up, we all attended the Antique Engine and Tractor Show at the park. It was the final day of the three day event and we were told three quarters of the tractors were gone. Still, there were probably 250 or so tractors of varying brand, condition, and purpose. I particularly enjoy watching the demonstrations of the old, old machines which relied upon the belt drive system: a separate implement is parked at a distance from a parked tractor and the two are connected to the parked tractor by a big flat belt, and the spinning flywheel on the tractor, when engaged, serves to power the additional implement. Even though they were no doubt huge labor saving devices at the time, it is apparent operating them required a great deal of work in and of itself. They also look fairly hazardous; most machines are missing guards and have exposed moving parts which threaten to catch loose articles of clothing and pull a person into them where a limb could become mangled or amputated or cause death. If you like crusty old men in overalls and work boots, pliers, and restored old, obsolete tractors, then you might attend next year's event. It's a pretty good deal. Admission is two dollars apiece for adults and allows entrance for all three days.

Little bit of moisture today, but probably not enough to help the farmers.

That's about it for today. As always, you are in my prayers and I speak blessings in huge measure on all of you and yours and all our enemies, too.