Fall Festival

The West Union Fall Festival was today. The weather was nearly perfect. The crowd was one of the largest in some time. I think I heard someone say they served over 900 dinners.

The Ruritan had its annual wood cutting contests. In the event below the goal was to start with your hands on the log, at go start your chain saw, and cut 3 blocks from the log. The winner did it in under 15 seconds.

Later the Fire Department held its second annual Firefighter Challenge. In the event below 2 firefighters unroll 2 coils of hose, connect together, put on the nozzle and connect to the truck, pump water, and try to knock over the barrel with a stream of water. The goal is to do it the fatstest.



Other events includes a water ball fight and a dummy drag. Now, in the heat we sometimes have for this event the question is which end of the rope the dummy is on ...


Yes, it really is that dry here. That is the WU Park behind the Missile. Here is a photo from last year's water ball fight. Look how much greener the grass is.

I didn't get photos of this year's water ball fights, the ARCH helicopter that landed, the car show, or the various vendors. But they were there! There was good food, lots of fun, very good entertainment, friends and family, overall a great fall festival.

BumpusReunion.info

Ever just jump in and do something and then wonder why you did it? I got a newsletter from GoDaddy.com with a promo price on xxx.info domain names. In a burst of "That's a Great Idea!" I registered and paid for the domain for (our family)reunion.info . So now I have to figure out what to do with it. Right now it is parked for free by GoDaddy.com

But fortunately I have family geeks who can deal with that part of the problem.

Well, I better wind this up shortly. It's our Fall Festival tomorrow (I know, August is not fall) and we old guys need our rest to get ready for the FireFighter's Challenge. Here's me last year

2007 family reunion

We did it! We survived another annual family reunion ... and no broken bones or other severely damaged body parts. Well, there was one bee sting incident, but no professional intervention or prescription medication was involved.
Jillbee Curlysis, and the Blonde One all made it and a good time was had by about everyone. But looking through not nearly enough photos this one is my favorite of this year.



However, to give you a real taste of what our reunions are like, these 2 photos are very representative. The first is family members just setting around talking. You might notice a camper or two in the background. Our family reunion is a multi-day event at the old home place. This year we were down a bit, with under 100 people, a few tents, and about a dozen campers involved. In the past we have had nearly twice as many campers and over 30 motorcycles there.

Some of our activities may go late into the night. But rest assured food is definitely involved at some point.

Well, I must go recover some more. Later Y'all

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

That's Romans 8:25. 89 times in the Bible the word wait is used. Wait for the Blessed Hope, wait for each other, wait for the Son. I got my practice in waiting last night...and we're still waiting.

Friday evening I was getting ready to take my evening drive and check irrigators before dark when the phone rang. It seems #1 son missed the train so he was driving here from Madison. Mom was not pleased, but he is over 18 and it was his choice. While we were discussing that they dispatched the ambulance to an address a long way east of West Union. If you are not familiar with my neck of the woods a long way east of West Union is 3 miles. Much more than that and you end up in the Wabash River. The call was for a deer / vehicle accident with one injury. Since I was heading that direction anyway I decided to see what was going on.

Turns out my friend Kip hit a deer on his motorcycle. 2 wheels and 4 feet are not a good combination. He hit the deer about a mile up the road and had to walk to the nearest house. He's fortunate someone was home, because the next house is a 2 1/2 mile walk. The ambulance crew was taking care of him, and he asked me to go get his wife and meet them at the hospital.

I went back to town, told her what was going on, and went home and switched the pickup for the car. Picked her up and discovered we were ahead of the ambulance. So we waited for it and she rode with them. while I followed along to the hospital. I called Preacher Dave and told him what was going on . He didn't beat us there, but he made it before the paperwork was done.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally they decided he needed to be transferred to Terre Haute. But the receiving hospital made them wait for some time before OK'ing the move. Then we waited for an ambulance to come pick him up. And before it arrived it was decided the gentleman in the next bed was more critical so "our" ambulance went to Vincennes while we waited for another ambulance.

Eventually the next ambulance arrived. So Preacher Dave took Kip's wife to get her car so she could go on to Terre Haute, while I waited with Kip until he was loaded up. Then there was another problem and it was a half to 3/4 hour wait before he was released for transport.

So everything is going well, I come home ... to wait for #1 son. Whose Mother dearest has been waiting all evening for me and him.

Well, some of or waiting is over. He just called (6:50 AM). He stopped at a friend's house and fell asleep in a chair. Now we are waiting on him to get here from there.

Oh By The Way, I am still learning about this blogging thing. I discovered I have to sign in and approve comments before they are posted. So if you made a comment and wondered where it was...it's been WAITING.

Saturday evening PS: More waiting. Kip has more injuries than thought originally. So now he is waiting in the hospital in Terre Haute to be transported to Indianapolis Sunday or Monday for surgery early in the week.