1.

I’m taking a few days next week to drive to South Bend for a friend’s wedding.  I’m going to take the opportunity to explore central Indiana and visit the graves of two Civil War veterans that I’m related to.    I’ve gone a bit blog happy and created a special one to publish the war diary of my great-great-grandfather C. F. Nelson.   If you’re into history, feel free to peruse http://cfnelson.everythingesteban.com .  His diary is not enormously compelling, at least not in the early months of his diary, but he’s a great almanac for 19th century weather reports!

 

2.

I hate to mention the upcoming presidential election, but since I live in perhaps the reddest of red states, I feel compelled to tell you how ignorant we are of the media blitz being unleashed on the rest of the country.  We have almost no political ads on TV.  We see the occasional ad on some of the national programs, but those are, so far, few and far between.  I feel for those of you in battleground states, but I can’t say that I’m disappointed in the least.

 

3.

My parish does a fantastic job with its annual parish festival.  “MaryFair” brings the whole parish together like no other social event of the year.  This week, they are conducting an online auction.  Saturday evening will be a sold-out benefit dinner with a great live auction.  Sunday will bring everyone together again for a very large parish picnic.   My job has been to make some powerpoint/keynote presentations for the auction on Saturday.  Should be a fun time as long as the weather holds.  What am I saying?  It’s Oklahoma!  We’re doomed now.

 

4.

Several months ago, I committed to an hour of Eucharistic Adoration at 1am every Tuesday morning.  I am forced to admit defeat.  This hour of the night is just never going to work for me.  The 4am hour I had before was much more manageable sleep-wise.   I’ve tried napping before the 1am slot and I’ve tried staying awake.  Either way my schedule on Tuesday gets totally out of whack and I’m a zombie the entire day.  I think I’m just going to have to trade with someone who’s more of a night owl than I am.

 

5.

I just received stickers from the City of Tulsa (where I live) for garbage collection. The city is beginning a new garbage collection system which includes two new large wheeled trash carts, one for household garbage and one for recyclables. The stickers are for bags of household trash that won’t fit into the bin. Other stickers are for yard waste. No sticker, to takee. At 50 cents a bag, this is going to be oh so annoying.

One man was apparently so upset at not having the room necessary to store the new recycling cart that he used his chain saw to chop it into little bits and sent it back to the city.

Oh, this will be a fun transition for folks.

 

6.

Oklahoma has two state fairs each fall.  The State Fair of Oklahoma is in our capital city, Oklahoma City.  Tulsa, my fair city, has the Tulsa State Fair.  No one has ever been able to tell me how we get to have our own, but I do say it’s much better than the one in OKC.

I don’t go that often, but I do have all sorts of memories from my childhood.  One particular day when I spent an inordinate amount of money trying to win a bowie knife as part of some midway game.  I eventually won the knife (I still have it actually) but probably spent at least twice what it was worth.  I also remember one year when my mom went to the livestock barns to look at horses.  She came home with a Llasa Apso puppy.  Dad was not amused, although that dog continues to live in family lore.

I think I’ll go Sunday afternoon, in search of a funnel cake, or a corn dog.

 

7.

My brother is coming to visit this weekend.  I’m off to clean the guest room, arguably the best room in the house.  I’m always a bit jealous of those who get to use that room.  I would stay there myself, but then it wouldn’t be the guest room anymore, would it?

 

Bonus!

I love to take sunset photos.  I had to pull the car over at the top of a hill to take the fiery one you see at the top of the page.  Click here to see the whole image. AMDG!

 

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