Kendallville Apple Festival

Last spring it seemed March would never end and now it is already almost half a year later and I realized the Apple Festival is coming round again. I’ve been to a lot of them; I especially remember the year it spit snow and I had on leather soled shoes and my feet were freezing when I ate my apple burger.
apple burgers
I also remember the year the temperature was almost 90 and the apple fritter cookers could only do 10 minute shifts over the vats.

They used to have trolleys that ran from the Main Street area to the Fairgrounds, but they had to go to enclosed buses because some jerks decided to yell out obscenities from the open air trolleys. Yeah, that was cool.

We – meaning a changing number of people from the PBC & R – usually walk over and make our decisions on the spot as to eat something depending on the temperature and the crowds. The Swine Barn, is home to scores of crafters and in the center, with bales of hay for seating, is the performance area. I see Wes Leninkugal is coming again and so I will probably make a point of being there at that time. A couple of years ago I bought his CD that included various stringed instruments. Unfortunately, later I stepped on it.

The Wellspring Fiddlers were a family and I don’t think they come any more – which is too bad. I took pictures of one of the years past, however, showing the group and Mother, Summer and Alison,

fiddlers 3

singing family

singing 2

apple festival one

apple two

So Der Bingle is a great uncle

That’s great uncle as in the son of his nephew. The nephew is Eric and this is his new son, Jackson Rodney. I, of course, am a great-aunt only because I married someone older than myself.

eric and baby

And here is a picture of the little guy with his grandmother.
kathy and baby

Oh, and the middle name of Rodney? Well, that’s because the baby is named after his grandfather, Rodney, who is Der Bingle’s brother. Yes, he has more brothers than just the infamous LZP; in, fact, there were six boys in all – Der Bingle is the oldest and Rodney is #5. LZP’s number is classified by order of the Gnome Alliance.

Sigh, just sigh

Yesterday we took Robert down to the ortho doctor because the ankle he demolished in 2006 is acting up again; he is wearing his orthopedic boot now and when he sits down, it sticks out if front of him. I knew this and yet I walked past the loveseat on the porch the way I normally do and tripped over it.

I went down hard and squarely on my kneecap and it hurt and then it didn’t hurt much anymore. It looked okay and continued to do so until about three this afternoon when I looked down at my knee and thought, “Is that a ridge growing out of it?” I called to Alison who came out and said it was growing and that you almost expected it to start talking to you. So, since it was Friday afternoon . . . well, I went to the ER, in a peg-legged sort of way.

I had x-rays and found out nothing was cracked, broken or dislocated. It is severely contused they say and I have a prescription for pain medicine because I believe they think in the middle of the night, it may feel different than it does now. So here I sit with my leg in a compression bandage and instructions to stay off of it as much as I can for a while.

I suppose I should have fish for supper . . . because I’ve got a fine kettle of them.

Maybe not the shark

So, I think I was a little loose in my description of my state of craziness, or, perhaps, what could be called my craziness aspirations. (See Previous Post) Pottermom mentioned the jump the shark reference going back to Happy Days and, so, I went and looked it up too. I guess when you jump the shark, you do something so gimmicky that you start to decline in your essence. Well, something along those lines . . . whatever.

What I really meant was that I felt my craziness was reaching a really high level, breaking boundaries. I meant, I think, it was going sublime.

sub·lime (s-blm)
adj.
1. Characterized by nobility; majestic.
2.
a. Of high spiritual, moral, or intellectual worth.
b. Not to be excelled; supreme.
3. Inspiring awe; impressive.
4. Archaic Raised aloft; set high.
5. Obsolete Of lofty appearance or bearing; haughty: “not terrible,/That I should fear . . . /But solemn and sublime” (John Milton).
n.
1. Something sublime.
2. An ultimate example.
v. sub·limed, sub·lim·ing, sub·limes
v.tr.
1. To render sublime.
2. Chemistry To cause to sublimate.
v.intr. Chemistry
To sublimate.
[French, from Old French, sublimated, from Latin sublmis, uplifted.]

I was thinking I was forging new pathways of crazy. It is possible that I just jumped for that high, unreachable star and didn’t make it and fell into the shark’s mouth. Yes, that makes sense.

Finished reading Dan Brown’s book – Inferno

I don’t review books as a rule, which is probably good, since my reading includes snatches of Tabloids while I am standing in the check-out line at the grocery. I’m not going to do it now. But . . . I am going to start re-reading this book to see if I was* careless in following who was saying what. I know that’s an irritating remark to read if you are like me and want to exclaim, “Well, what?” This is one time, however, when it would not be fair to say anything more . . . for at least a couple of days.

* My granddaughter and I had a discussion about the subjunctive case and I know usually, you use “were” with if. However, this is not referring to something hypothetical, but something that I actually did. I’m thinking of an example of looking at an old map and seeing where the barn definitely was located and then looking around and remarking, “Well, if the barn was here, then the house had to be there.” In the case above, I am thinking I would definitely have been careless, otherwise I would not be going back to check. So probably I should not have wondered about being careless in the first place, since apparently I have decided I was from some reflection after the get-go of that sentence in question. I could just go back and rewrite it . . . (Aside from Rose: AmeliaJake, stop now.)

Lordy, this is how I spend my time?

A sea change

Oh, it seemed like a good idea, that choice of a common phrase for a post title. I feel myself shifting this fall in attitude; tickling the back of my consciousness is the Oliver Cromwell command to the Long Parliament: You have sat here too long for any good you are doing . . . In the name of God, go. Well, he said something like that.

Now, I’m not talking about just standing up, letting everything fall where it may. It’s more straightening up and getting things organized and then standing up and taking some steps in a different direction, being certain I have left maps behind for others to use if they want, or to ignore if they do not.

Actually, this is positive . . . and it’s a climb, so it will be slow.

WordPress nags me

Okay, I carelessly misspelled frivolous in the last post title, but no dotted red-line showed up. And why was that? Huh? Quite often there will be an update and they tell you until you cave and go, “All right, all right, all right, I’ll do it now.”

Then there is the matter of new themes to make your writing visually better and adaptable to all media forms . . . Quite frankly, what I need to do is get some content, discipline my mind a little, focus. Nah, I probably don’t want to do that. I am still getting used to the fact that I can sit on my porch and without being wired to anything, type words that are sent out to be read.

Actually, that’s scary. It is another pitfall for people who tend to fume and stew about stuff and maybe mouth off a little. Think about it, you don’t even have to get a piece of paper, pencil, string and a brick to hurl something through a window. Just type it and SMASH.

Like this:

Joe Biden is a Jerk.

Frivolous wish

I just looked at a picture of a lady with a lot of short hair; that is to say she sort of looks as if she stuck her head in a bowling ball. It is thick hair, not an afto-type – just a lot of hair nicely cut and tapered around her head. My hair is thin and fine; I guess I would be the 8-ball. On the other hand, when I see this lady, I think of Mars Attacks and I try to catch myself before I visualize the splat. frivolous