My first....

No, not that first.  *wink*


My friend Stephen recently gave us a story about his first pet, a rat.  My first thought was, "A rat? What an odd pet."  Then I remembered my first pet, and all of a sudden his rat started looking pretty good.  


When I was about 8 my dad took a friend and me to the state fair.  Somewhere in there amidst all the booths and rides and hucksters we found a vendor selling tiny little chameleons and dad bought us boys both one.  They had a string with a slip-knot on one end tied around the little lizard's neck, and on the other end was a safety pin.  You attached the pin to your collar and let the critter crawl around on your shirt....mine eventually taking up residence on my shoulder.  I can't remember if I ever even gave it a name, I say "it" because I had no idea if it was a male or a female.  Looking back on the whole episode there were two factors that made this possible at all.  One, my mom didn't go with us to the fair that year (no way in hell she would have let be bring a reptile back into her house), and two, this was before PETA.


When we got home my dad told me to take it straight to my room and don't tell mom.  Somehow mom found it anyway, and let us all know in no uncertain terms she was NOT happy.  I promised to take care of it, keep it in my room only, yada yada, and she agreed to let me keep him...er...her...er...  


Until she changed her mind the next day.  That's when I was called to the Principal's office to take an emergency phone call.  Well, at least it was an emergency to my mother.  It seems that my chameleon had slipped its knot and was loose somewhere in her house, and she wanted me home right then to hunt for it.  You would have thought a Bengal tiger had escaped from the circus!  Jeez, could that woman scream.   


Long story short, we found the poor thing several days later sunning him/herself on a window ledge in the den.  Right behind mom's chair.  *ouch*  I last saw it scurrying off into the shrubbery by the back door with my mother in hot pursuit,  swinging a broom.  Adios, amigo.


S

State Fair time

Yesterday K and I went to the State Fair of Texas.  We hadn't been in 5 years, but the weather was great and I had the day off and didn't want to spend it watching football, so we figured why not?  It was fun, eye opening, and exhausting.  


Basically the fair is just one giant food court interspersed with other stuff.  The theme of this year's fair is the same as its been for the past 20 years:  "Making fat people fatter".  If it can be battered and fried, it can be yours for only 8 coupons.  On several stages they had bands playing both kinds of music (country AND western) all day long.  *cringe*  And the people....OMG!  We saw people tattooed head-to-toe, people dressed in their favorite drugstore cowboy costumes, and even some little (and not so little) dancing girls greased up and rolled in feathers:

I behaved myself fairly well, scarfing down only one Fletcher's Corny Dog ('cause it's a State Fair tradition) and one order of genuine fake-cheese nachos with jalapenos, all washed down with some sweet tea.  For those that aren't as disciplined as myself, there's always relief via the "lunch chucker":

Speaking of the Midway, it was as gawdy and loud as ever.  Kids were bouncing around like monkeys on Red Bull, begging their parents for another $20 worth of coupons for just a few more chances to win that $2 stuffed critter, or one more turn on the Giant Human Slingshot.  It was actually rather nostalgic:

I thought I might talk K into trying the Texas Star, but she demurred:

We did make time between snacks to visit the several buildings that housed the new cars and trucks....and trucks, and more trucks.  (Hey, this IS Texas, you know!)

After all that we came home, showered to rid ourselves of God-only-knows what kind of cooties, and had a wonderful dinner of smoked baby back ribs.  Mmmmmm.  Sleep never felt so good.  :)

S

Another sign

This afternoon while walking the dog I saw this....

....an acorn, another sign that autumn is slowly-but-surely overtaking summer.  Before long there will be millions of these covering our neighborhood.  With our temperatures in the 60's in the mornings and the 80's in the afternoon, with the newspapers giving us teases about the State Fair that will begin soon, and of course with football everywhere, I actually think I can feel fall.  I like.


S