The Relay

Well...the Relay is over for another year! It was HOT HOT HOT yesterday and it took a lot of "the starch" out of me, but I was able to walk the "Survivor Lap" and then later walked a few laps during the Luminaria Ceremony.

Russ, Bonnie and Lorraine showed up early. Way early. So they walked the early rounds and Russ took pictures. I met up with Joyce and Bill in the Survivor's Tent and we had a nice chat. Then Ginny invited me to walk with the banner at the start of the walk.

Steve showed up early and did a lot of walking, in the hottest part of the day. I sat under Janet's EZup and sweated a lot. Anne came and brought her famous brownies, Leon ran errands and Cindy and I sweated some more.

It was a good day but the heat got to me later. I went home around 4:30, staggered into the shower, collapsed into bed and slept for two hours. Sweet Bubbles let me sleep that long...even though they usually get fed at 5:00...she let me go an hour and a half longer!

I went and got Joyce at her house and we went back for the Luminaria ceremony. It was nice. We walked a couple of laps and then sat and watched the pictures on a big screen they had in the middle of the field. There were two good pictures of her and one of me...that they had taken in the Survivor's tent.

Hung around to see if I won anything in the raffles....no, but Leon won the "booby prize"....free salsa and chips with purchase of entree at Chili's! SOME PRIZE! It was a coupon with an August 31st expiration date...like someone cut it out of a magazine. We laughed our asses off at that one. Earlier we had been making fun of this "prize"...like "who in the hell would spend $20 to win that?" and "what cheap skate donated that one?" We found out the answer to question one!

Leon protested that he put one ticket in the bin for that prize...and it was a mistake since he thought it was for the $35 gift certificate to Chili's that was right next to the coupon one. Well...Leon's name was called again...he had won another prize. We all waited eagerly to see what he had won....it was ANOTHER damn coupon for "Free salsa and chips w/entree." OMG...more laughing!

After that I brought Joyce home and went home myself and crashed. But I couldn't sleep, multiple bathroom visits....interspersed by periods of lying there, wide awake.

So, I got up early and got back down to the Relay to close up shop this AM. Leon and Cindy helped pack stuff up and Janet, Jess and Jeremy came down just as I was running out of steam and loaded everything into the car for me. I went home and crashed for four hours, with my puppies sleeping with me.

Job well done, by all.

Sandy fixed the leaking waterfall situation. I had done a few things to it to try to stop it from leaking into the garage...at the filter site. Nothing had worked. She fiddled around with it and now it's not leaking AND the waterfall is running very good. The strongest it's run since we moved in. I think there was something plugging the line that slowed the water down to a trickle and it suddenly freed. We finally have a good looking waterfall...the fish will be forever grateful. It gets hot out there and they need a good flow of water to keep the pond oxygenated.

So, now nothing big going on until the trip to Sweden, just a month of playing, picnicing and kayaking (I hope!).


Thanks to all who contributed to my walk in the Relay, who walked the Relay and who helped our team in any way!

Later!