Back to Work

It's been a long week, and things are starting to slow down a bit.  I'm not saying I had a lot to do, but I've gotten behind doing stuff, in addition to doing a couple things.  So before I fall out of the habit too much, I better post a new blog.  It will have some cards included, but its mostly other pictures.

Today was the town parade for our yearly Rodeo.  We have two parades a year, one for Christmas and one for the Rodeo.  The parades usually run about 5 minutes long but since this is an election year, it ran close to 30 minutes but it could have been shortened a bit if there wasn't so much space between the entries, but that was mostly due to the political people falling too far behind their entries.

I decided I would post a few of my favorites on here.  So here are a few of my better shots.

Our town is between 700-800 people, and these are the firetrucks we have.  They are older than crap, and have been wondering for years when we'd get a new truck.  I was surprised when I saw this.

I first saw it yesterday and was curious when we got it.  I assume it will be mainly an out of town tanker, but I'm glad we have something newer.  The older ones still run fine, but at some point, a truck from the 60's shouldn't be used for something so vital.  I'm okay if they use it mainly as backup and parades though.

This entrant was celebrating somebody's birthday.  I don't remember seeing this before, so it was kind of cool.  I like when we have entries that we don't see everyday.  In the background is the Co-Op which is one of the biggest employers in town.

Most of the floats or entries this year was related to elections.  I am fine with that because its the biggest chance to meet a lot of the local people running for office, and possibly some of the state wide candidates.

The thing is though, most of the entries, this year or any other, rarely have any connection to the rodeo or have a theme in general.  That's fine for the most part, but I liked this one since they actually combined the rodeo theme with the float, I think it might have made a lasting mark for the candidate.  They also was one of the only candidates to hand out something besides a card or candy.  They passed out little cardboard fans, which always used to be something you always saw, but not so much these days.  Another candidate handed out buttons, which was nice too.

What is a rodeo parade without a horse, cart, or something of the ilk.  On non election years, the horses make up the bulk of the parade, so with so many politicians this year, it seemed like there weren't as many horses this year.  Another possible reason could have been because I believe there were 3 or 4 other local rodeos this weekend, which I've never realized before.  The Pilot Grove Rodeo is always the third weekend of July and has been for the last 60 or so years ago.  I haven't attended the Rodeo in a better part of a decade, but I might one year.  I stopped going partly due to it being more or less drinking in a field, and not being one to drink, it seemed pointless.  The other reason was because it seemed the same people competed each year, so if you saw it once, you saw them all.  I also find excuses not to go when the weather gets too hot.  As is the case this year.

We had a celebrity in the parade this year.  Well, he's been in it for years, but it is always a nice touch to see the Rodeo Clown in the parade.  The reason he is a celebrity goes back a few years.  His name is Tuffy, and he has been the clown at our Rodeo for quite a few years.  He was also a Rodeo clown for the Missouri State Fair too.  That is however until he was fired for what many considered a controversial stunt he pulled at the fair a few years back.  He was doing his normal clown duties at the fair when he decided to put on a mask during the performance.  Just as he had done many other times, and most of the crowd loved it.  He did it a few years earlier when he donned a George W. Bush mask, but this time when he put on a Barack Obama mask, some people complained.  They posted pictures of it online, and it spread.  They complained it was wrong to make a political statement at an event at the fair, and some even went so far as to accuse him of being a racist.  Many others supported him and justified it (rightfully so) that there was no outrage when he wore the Bush mask, but the people in charge of the State Fair caved and they fired him.  In most cases, that would ruin his career, but not Tuffy.  To this day people still write on the Missouri State Fair Facebook page to have them bring him back.  At the time this happened, he even was able to fill his calendar due to the new found publicity.  As he had before this incident and every year since, Tuffy has been the Rodeo clown for the Pilot Grove event, which is just a few miles from the Missouri State Fair.

I posted other pictures on my Facebook page, in fact I have a picture of every entrant in order (some have multiple pictures) and total about 80 images.  If you would like to see them, here is the link.

So as I mentioned, its time to get back to blogging.  I'm working on a new layout for this page, and I've also started some research for some new articles for my Missouri Sports History blog.  I found a couple interesting things out yesterday and dug into research, and hope to have them up soon.  In the meantime, I will still be testing out new designs, and should debut a new look on here at the end of August.  I just can't find one I'm in love with, so if it comes down to it, I might make a small change and do a bigger one when I find the perfect one.

I stated I had some cards to post, and I will close with them I guess since I don't have nothing else to showcase tonight.

How about some Royals.  Belcher and Chili belong next to each other, and when you need relief, who better than Monty?

These came from someone on the Trading Card Database.  I was blindly sent a message on there asking for my address because he had some cards from my wantlist.  He asked for nothing in return as he was trying to thin his collection down.  Since he is one of the nice guys on there (most are, but he is one of the nicest) I sent my address and about a week later got the cards.  He also sent a note.

So if you are reading this, I already thanked him on TCDB, but I wanted to thank him again.  It was a very nice gesture especially for someone who really doesn't seek out trades or anything on the database.

I need to continue sorting some cards so I can send some out soon.  I said I would once I got them all in one place, and now that I do, I've been putting them off.  At least with the extreme heat coming this week, it will give me a reason to stay indoors and do something.  Plus my trial to Netflix ran out so I have more time now.

So with that, I will conclude today's post.  thank you all for reading and I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Mine will be spent probably on TCDB or something, or I might try out the Xbox 360 since its been a while.  I might play some Golf on there.  Anyways, have a great one.


EDIT:  I wanted to thank everyone for the condolences on the passing of my grandma.  It was a long week, but if something good did come out of it, we might have planned a get together around what would have been my grandma's 90th birthday next month, so that is good.  Again, thanks to everyone for the well wishes.