This is not unusual. Here in the Great North, we never know if Thanksgiving is going to be covered in snow or sunny and warm(ish). I remember Thanksgiving breaks when I was a kid in the '60s when we could spend our days off from school sliding down the front hill on our mini-boggins. I also remember staring at the brown earth and wishing winter would hurry up.
I don't do that anymore.
But then, I haven't been on a mini-boggin since Zach was a toddler, either. It's on of the worst signs that one is an adult: when you realize that sliding down a hill is not just painful but actually debilitating.
I remember a Thanksgiving morning back in the late 90s, when my parents still lived right off of Lake Harriet, when Jay, the kids and I hopped on our bikes and rode over to the big house in the morning. I think it was '97, since Josie was still tiny enough to ride in a baby seat on the back of my bike. In addition to being so lovely and warm a day, I remember it because the moment our cavalcade reached the lake bide path, a bird pooped right on my head. All the leaves had been swept up by the city by then so there was nothing handy to wipe my hair with. I couldn't clean off the bird droppings till I reached my folk's house. All four of the kids thought that was hilarious. Jay nearly fell off his bike, laughing. I laughed too but not as hard as anyone else.
The past few days were beautiful, sunny and warm. I walked the lake with my sister on Friday. We were in shirtsleeves. It was fine until we reached the far side and discovered that a gale force wind was now between us and her house. By the time we finished our walk, we felt as though we had walked up a mountain. The wind managed to strip most of the leaves from the recalcitrant trees. I don't recall an autumn where so many leaves were still on the trees in mid November. The color has been gone for awhile and those leaves that were left a week ago were just dried up, colorless chips, rattling on the trees.
Last weekend, a friend of mine had an art show opening up on the Northeast end of town but I couldn't go: it coincided with my oldest grand daughters school play. The opening was Friday night. Jay and I picked up BoopityBoop and met Tyler and his kids at the local supper club before the show. We all had a lovely, raucous dinner together. We were seated at a long table right in the middle of the dinning room, arms length from the bar and right in front of the very talented young musician who set up and serenaded us with his guitar. It was by far the best table in the place and it was completely wasted on me. Now, if I had been there with only Jay, we would have loved listening to the musician. But at my age, I can't hear a word anyone says when there's any ambient noise, so if I'm with a party, sticking me in front of the music is a waste of time. When I'm with 4 of my grandkids, every one of which wants to tell me stuff, all at the same time, I found myself wanting to turn to the poor guy and his guitar and asking him to turn it down. I didn't, of course. And we all sang along when he did his acoustic "Walk on the Wild Side".
The food was good, the place was packed and the music was good and I managed to lead a parade of grand daughters through the crowd to the ladies room and then back to the table without losing a single child.
We made it to the show in time to get pretty good seats. The kids all sat up front on the floor. The show was TERRIFIC. It was a series of hilarious skits, ala Saturday Night Live. Xena was in three of the scenes and they were all good. Two of them were about how modern technology can ruin your life. In one, their 'smart security' door locks them and all their friends out of the house and calls the police when one of them tries to get in a window. In the second skit, the same group of friends has made it into the house but the 'smart' salt grinder prevents them from enjoying their party and when someone tries to grind some salt, it calls 911 to report an assault. Xena also played a game show contestant in a later skit that was equally as funny but the funniest skit (IMO) was a beginners yoga class taught by a little old lady, whose 'exercises' consisted of the students calling her and inviting her to lunch. BoopityBoop had a blast watching the show with Kitten and Babalouie and they all ran around like maniacs while the adults congratulated the players after the show. It was a really good night!
I returned for the matinee on Saturday, with Xena's biggest fan; Grandma Punkin. Megan saved us a spot right up front, so Mom could see and hear everything and she LOVED IT. First of all, Mom loves watching her descendants do anything and second of all, silly farce is her absolute favorite genre of entertainment. She has a very fine tuned sense of the ridiculous. Xena was riding high!
But that was last week.
This weekend was the end of season banquet for the Whip & Spur rodeo that Megan and some friends started when covid shut down the rest of the world. They began with about 5 families and it has grown into quite a phenomenon! There are now nearly 40 families involved. They have 5 rodeos a season, in late summer and early fall. Xena, Babalouie and Kitten participated in 4 of them this year. They missed the kick off rodeo because we were all in South Dakota watching Xena compete in the 4H rodeo state finals. Our 3 horsecateers joined the rodeo in progress and had a blast.
Xena did more than have a blast: she blew all her competition out of the water.
These rodeos have 5 standard events: goat tying, pole bending, flag racing, barrel racing and breakaway roping. Then, there's a goofy sixth event just for fun which is different each rodeo. Every event is timed, with points awarded for the first four place finishers. Similar to a track meet. Each of the five rodeos have winners of each event but the points scored at every rodeo are cumulative and at the end of the season, awards are presented to the cowpoke who accumulated the most points for each given event. You may have the record for fastest goat tying but if someone else won the event more often than you did, they would have more points and therefore, win the overall event. Like the World Series: runs aren't enough, you gotta win games.
As all you rodeo aficionados know, one wins not trophies, but buckles. You can't buy those kinds of buckles, they must be earned. They must be won. Like a championship ring. Jay's got a few pretty cool championship rings.
The buckles at last night's award ceremony were for the first place finishers. Second, third and forth got some pretty cool swag, too. Prizes ranged from hats and sweatshirts to ropes, nets, tack, saddle blankets and other useful tools all cowboys and girls need and use. I was impressed by the array of prizes. Babalouie didn't take home any buckles but he did win plenty of swag! He took second in goat tying and second in breakaway roping!
Goat tying is when the kids ride up to a staked out goat, dismount and have to catch the goat, toss it on its side and tie its legs so it can't stand. It's a timed event and if the goat can get out of the tie, you get no score. Babalouie is very good at this.
Breakaway roping is the toughest event and therefore, where you can earn the most points. In this event, the contestant has to lasso a live calf from horseback. Sounds simple enough but the calf is running away from you as fast as it can, the horse beneath you is running as fast as you push it and the rope is the one you're swinging over your head. So many moving parts!! If you don't drop a loop over the calf's head, you get a 'no time' and no points. The winner is the kid who can do it the fastest. I can't believe anyone can do it at all, much less little kids! Babalouie took second place in this event. He's 9 years old.
Meanwhile, Xena demonstrated to the entire place why she's the Warrior Princess.
She won the buckle in goat tying.
She won the buckle in poles.
She won the buckle in barrels.
She won the buckle in flags.
She won the buckle in breakaway.
This girl absolutely loves rodeo! She rides every day that she can and she works hard on every skill involved and she listens to what her coach (Megan) tells her. As Vince Lombardi once said, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect."
If you want to be good at something, you have to do it every day. You can be okay at anything but if you want to be good, you have to do it every day. Xena works at this every day. Even though Babalouie was at the same rodeos his sister swept, he was genuinely surprised when he realized she had won 5, count 'em; FIVE buckles. He rarely practices anything; he just always has a good time no matter what he's doing. He's naturally good at everything so he doesn't see the need to work hard at it. In an attempt to get Babalouie to understand the importance of practice, Tyler asked him "what do you think you need to do to beat your sister?"
Without missing a beat Babalouie said, "Injure her."
So it came as a surprise to absolutely no one that the award for Best All Around Cowboy went to Xena, as well. In fact, after missing the first rodeo of the season, she won best all around by scoring nearly twice as many points in the remaining rodeos as the first runner up.
And last week she starred in the school play.