Tale of a Friday

Made it to the County Fair with Hambet today. He seemed to enjoy it, at least some of the time. I love fairs but I don't like crowds and I hate intense heat, which poses a bit of a problem because fairs tend to attract crowds and have this strange pattern of always being held in the late summer.

So I have developed a plan. I try to arrive very early and park close to the street that divides the agricultural part of the fair from the hated midway. First I take Hambet to see the fire engines (this year, three pumper engines, but alas, no tower engine or inflatable slide. Thanks to Firefighter Mike who let him sit in the cab.) That way I can get through the midway before it starts to open and avoid having to deal with it.

Then we start looking at the animals. We saw the goats and sheep, and then went to the petting area, where Hambet got to offer treats to the sheep and the greedy llamas, who snarfed up all the kibble in the cup and then ignored him as soon as they saw we didn't have any more. While we were there, we saw a small, gravid goat who was walking around loose and casually eating her fill of kibble out of the big barrel. It was uncanny watching her enormous abdomen -- it stuck out a good eight inches on either side, and she was a little thing -- dramatically change shape as her fetus changed position. It was like some kind of CGI effect.

A pony ride, which delighted Hambet, and then more animals. By now it was starting to get hot. Some Kerry lackey offered me a sticker; I probably should have exercised a bit more charity in my refusal, or used that line I keep thinking up and forgetting about but I'm an anti-choice extremist! The Republicans had a booth too -- this weird idea of having two political parties seems to be gaining a little traction in Maryland -- but they really need to get better doo-dads. The Donkey team had big boards of buttons, but all the Republicans had were lame bumper stickers.

Right to Life of Maryland had a great location for their booth this year, right on one of the main paths, and had a genial lady working the booth today, drawing in passersby by offering balloons to the kids. So I signed up for the mailing list.

Paul really liked the National Guard's booth and had a great time checking out the howitzers and the Humvee. He really wanted to walk the Boy Scout's rope bridge, but he got too timid at the top of the ladder leading to the end of the bridge. Maybe next year.

I could spend hours and hours at the fair just gazing at the quilts and the livestock. I'm always surprised that Hambet isn't more interested in the animals, but I guess when you're so little there's only so many sheep in pens you can look at and not get bored. He was a good sport about looking at the quilts, maybe because we were looking for a quilt that a friend made and exhibited. (It took third place!)

I was amazed at his interest in the antique farm machinery (my mother will be so proud.) The "Old-Timers" had a blacksmithing demonstration going, and he really liked that.

I love seeing the little displays that the 4-H kids make to go with their animal pens. I was surprised, though -- usually every year, every other pig has an elaborate spider web made of yarn decorating its pen, complete with "SOME PIG" woven into it. But no Charlotte's Web themes this year! Maybe the advisors were tired of it.

Two pens, though, were completely decked out in a purple-and-silver "Hoggy Potter" theme, with the pigs named Hermoine, Ron, and so on. In another barn, a delicate white goat bore the name Galadriel (complete with a rune-like decoration around her label, though I wonder if those were Dwarvish characters and not Elvish? I would have to look it up.)

I didn't haul home too much in the way of pamphlets and freebies -- just a couple of pencils and a coloring book. We did indulge in a little fair food -- just ice cream and lemonade. Call me a heretic, but I just can't get excited about funnel cake. And someone is going to have to explain to me what an Oreo gains by being dipped in batter and then deep-fried.