Things happening outside

First of all, let me show you how some of my tomatoes are doing:  It's the same plant in both pictures, but from different sides.  

Of course with all the rainy weather, blight showed up early.  Cliff said somebody told him I should take the blighted leaves off as soon as they appear.  

I'm pretty sure I remember trying that idea in the past to no avail, but since I have so few plants, what could it hurt?  I'll let you know how it works out in the end.  Those biggest tomatoes are already bigger than some tomatoes you can buy in the store, so I'm hoping for the best.

Yes, I'm still slacking as a blogger.  I hope I'm not going to fizzle out completely, like so many have.  Sunday before last, the day after our big concert by Ricky Skaggs, we went to Truman Lake Opry to see Gene Watson for the fourth or fifth time.  As soon as he came out on stage and began singing, I could tell his voice wasn't as strong as usual, although he still sounded pretty good.  "He's sick," I thought.  Before long, he apologized that he was having a bit of a struggle with allergies.  I'm thinking he was worse off than just "suffering from allergies".  He looked sort of flushed, and just wasn't his old happy-acting self.  Still, he was in the lobby afterward for autographs and pictures.  "The show must go on."

I don't know why I look five months pregnant in this shot, but just deal with it, OK?  Maybe I should go look at myself in the mirror and see if I look that way all the time!  Nah, then I'd have to do something about it, right?  It probably has something to do with bad posture, which I am constantly trying to correct (to little avail).  

Gene has a ridiculous tour schedule, especially considering he's my age.  I get a kick out of his bass player, who stands in the background during their shows acting like he's having some sort of seizures or fits while he plays.  I wish I had taken a brief video, but I thought I could come home and find a video of him on Youtube.  Nope.  That didn't happen.  I had Cliff take a picture of me with him, but to look at him or talk to him, you'd think he was the quietest, most normal person you've ever seen.

He doesn't even look like himself when he's not cavorting and twitching and clenching his teeth

Here you see him on stage, behind Gene.  His name is Staley Rogers, and I googled him every way a person can be googled!  Not a video anywhere.  You'll just have to take my word for it.  

I have a great idea for another entry, so stay tuned for a shocking story soon to come.

Unfaithfully yours, (ha!)
Donna

PS:  I'll try to get back to being a faithful blogger again.

We had a fun day

Yeah, I'm getting lazy again and haven't posted in awhile.  You try thinking of something blog-worthy when you are in your seventies and don't get out of the house much!  But yesterday, we had an eventful day, one that we thought was going to be ruined by rain, because our planned activities took place outside.

Our main priority was to attend a festival yesterday afternoon and evening, because Mo Pitney and Ricky Skaggs were going to be the main performers.  I had looked forward to the event for months.  It's called Rosefest, an event to help families of children with cancer in north Missouri with all the costs cancer brings with it; that's where all proceeds of Rosefest go.  The only thing they asked of attendees was a contribution toward that goal, however much you felt you wanted to give.

The tractor show at Lathrop was also happening on the same date.  I had suggested to Cliff that we go there first, then drive the fifteen minutes up the freeway to Cameron for the music.  Two birds with one stone.  However, he said the tractor show is pretty much the same every year and thought we'd skip that.

When we woke up and saw the forecast, my heart sank:  There was a high chance of rain in the forecast, with possible wind, hail, and perhaps a tornado or two.  Wow, all those plans would come to nothing, because it looks like it's going to get rained out!  As a matter of fact, it was raining when we got up.  We decided to just watch the weather and hope the forecast was wrong.  Around mid-morning the skies lightened up, the sun came out, and I formulated a "Plan B".  We'd eat our noon meal and go to the tractor show.  After spending time there, we'd do another weather check and if it sounded like rain would hold off, we'd go to Cameron.  Mo Pitney was scheduled for 6 PM, Ricky at 8.

The tractor show was enjoyable, as always.  I can't take the heat well at all these days: my stomach acts up and I start feeling sort of spaced out if it's really hot.  A couple of neighbors, Diane and Larry, were selling stuff at the flea market.  Larry said he was getting ready to go watch a bluegrass group performing at the old country church on the grounds, so I left Cliff shopping for nuts, bolts, and other rusty junk and went to see the music.

Their music was good, but the old church is so echo-y that it sort of distorted the sound.  There was air conditioning, so that helped with my heat problem.

The "Parade of Power" started at 3 o'clock, so I joined Cliff to watch it.  We enjoyed seeing so many kids in on the action.  Also one dog.

Yes, there is a child in the shadows on the seat of the tractor. 

As far as I know, that dog was sitting there with no restraints.  He was pretty hot!

As you can see, it was a lovely day with no sign of rain up to the time we left.  We bought ourselves some home-made ice cream and went to the car, heading for Cameron.

We parked in the satellite parking lot set up for the event at the Elk Lodge in Cameron and got onto a school bus (carrying our lawn chairs) a mile down the road to the place.  It was a nice crowd, and apparently they moved the whole thing back an hour.  Mo got on stage shortly after we arrived, right after a family got up and told what they went through when their daughter had cancer.


Mo Pitney was great.  We already knew that, thanks to Country's Family Reunion.  One of his brothers was playing in the band, as well as his sister.  She is a great singer too; she sounds a lot like LeeAnn Womack.  I didn't bother to take pictures, because they usually don't turn out well at an event like this.  I was amazed at how good the sound was:  So many times, music at outdoor events don't have the best sound.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I took two pictures right after Ricky and his bunch got on the stage, and that's it for pictures.  They turned out better than I expected.

Oh, and just as the show was ending, rain started.  We folded our chairs and got on the bus and it began pouring rain.  It rained on us most of the way home.  Cliff almost hit a deer that ran in front of us on highway 13, and Cliff is sort of night-blind, so he wasn't having a good time driving anyway.  

But we made it!