Fair Season: Marion County Fair

Fair Season is upon us. Just this Saturday I attended the Marion County Fair in Salem, Oregon. The weather was pleasant as I walked around and enjoyed the many exhibits. I was pleased to find a whole wall of animal rescue groups lined up including OSCAR (Operation Safe Canine Animal Rescue) and Operation D.O.G as well as the county shelter seeking volunteer dog walkers. Then there was a section where the local writers were sitting and selling their books, which included a sci-fi series, historical romance, and kids books.

The best part though, as I discovered last year at the Oregon State fair held on these same grounds, is the evening concert was free with admission. This Saturday I got to enjoy a concert by Diamond Rio for the cost of my entry to the fair, $9. As I listened I realized I knew almost all their songs. I snapped a few pictures.

Marion County Fair 2017, Diamond Rio

Marion County Fair 2017, Diamond Rio

Marion County Fair, Diamond Rio

The evening was capped off with a spectacular moon view over the sky chairs. I did my best to capture this image, but at night, without a tripod, the photo came out a little fuzzy.

Moon at 2017 Marion County Fair Grounds

Now I must save up to go to the State Fair so I can enjoy some other top name bands.

Plane Photos

By now, if you have paid any attention to my blog, you will have noticed I like to have a window seat when I fly in a plane. One of my main motivations is I enjoy taking photos while hovering miles over our planet.  Of course, given airplane windows are double paned  and often have dings in them, the photo quality isn't the best. Then of course, there are the times

when the window seat one gets is by the wing and you end up with the wing dominating all you photos.

Regardless of all this, I just did a flight from Oregon to New Jersey and back. Hogging a window both directions, I took several photos along the journey. Here are a few of them I thought you might like.

Sky and Clouds

Mt. Hood

Great Lakes

Midway Airport

Chicago

Airplane hanging from airport ceiling

Mythical Battlestar Galactica Snow Globe

For yahrens (years) I have known of it's existence, but had never seen one. Frequently I searched yard sales and e-bay with no luck. I only knew of one person who owned one, actually four to be exact. Finally after decades of waiting and searching, I am proud to say I have added the Universal Studios Battlestar Galactica souvenir snow globe to my sci-fi collection.

The item retailed back in 1986 for a $1 (the sticker on the bottom says so). The one I now possess has no water left instead, but that doesn't surprise me given BG went off the air in 1979 (I don't count the other two shows at all).

The toy is amusing as it has two cylons sitting on a teeter-tooter.  I hope it amuses you as much as it does me.

Battlestar Galactica Universal Studios Snow Globe

Backyard Archaeology

Spring has arrived and so has the time to pull weeds and garden. I have discovered as I do so, I find many usual things in my yard, clearly left behind from earlier settlers of my current home. Some of the items are small and some rather large. Most I know what I have unearthed, but a few I really have no clue what they are.

Each year the rains seem to produce a new batch of discovers. Here are a few of the items I have uncovered in this past two years.

This next batch I found just three days ago.

I am still trying to figure out what the little blue rubbery square with what looks like a moon in the corner actually is. It isn't an eraser.

This week I will be out in the garden again. Who knows what else I will find.

Urgent Petition to save Dogs and Cats in the USA

On Change.org I discovered this petition and found it disturbing to learn that in 44 states in The United States of America dogs and cats can be eaten for meat! With so many people outraged over the Yulin dog festival coming up in China, how is it we still have that as a possible reality here in the USA?

So, I am encouraging all who love and care about dogs and cats to go to Change.org and sign this petition.

https://www.change.org/p/ask-congress-to-outlaw-dog-and-cat-meat-in-the-u-s?recruiter=68162505&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition

Pumpkin Soup Recipe

Earlier today I was speaking with a friend that needed to make dinner for a whole family that was sick.  My suggestion was pumpkin soup as pumpkin balances the bodies digestive tract by loosening or tightening as need. That is why pumpkin is often recommended to give dogs when changing their diets.

Years ago I created a very simple pumpkin soup recipe that only has three ingredients and everyone in my family enjoys it. Thus I will share it here.

1 can of pumpkin
1 to 3 cups of milk of some sort (I use rice milk, but you could use cow's milk or soy milk)
1 fennel bulb

-Dump the contents of a can of pumpkin in a pot
-Add the milk: if you want a thin soup add up to 3 cups, if you want a thick soup add just 1 cup
-Chop up the entire fennel bulb into very small pieces (I toss mine in a chopper that attaches to my blender)
-Turn on the burner to medium
-Add the fennel to the pumpkin and milk mix
-Stir until bubbles and then server

Besides the benefits of the pumpkin, what I like is you get a great vegetable in the fennel and you get some calcium from the milk.

Enjoy

Random Thoughts

This past week I've been wanting to blog, but haven't settled on an idea to write about. Yesterday I thought about writing a few words about May the Force Be With You Day, but I think lots of Star Wars fans did so, so I skipped that idea.

Then I thought to write an update on my writing, but much is still the same. I'm writing one novel, editing another, and waiting on a third to be published.

I could write about this strange weather, rain, sun, hail, rain, sun, but I anyone who has a window to the outside can see the weather is off this spring.

As for the rest of my thoughts, they've been will the weather warm enough to steam clean the carpets? When will the rain stop so I can pull the weeds from the backyard? When will that novel be published?

Then my thoughts go to I could write about my birthday trip with my mother to Seven Feather's Casino (which was relaxing and fun), or about Easter. Yet, Easter feels so long ago now, though it is just a few weeks back, and the only significant event was the great dog cookie hunt in the backyard.

There are also all the petitions I sign in order to protect the planet and animals, but anyone who is interested in those can find them on my twitter account.

These are my random thoughts, and none of them really are worthy of a blog of their own.