Whoa! It was hard to wake up this morning.
We stayed up late watching the lunar eclipse, but my internal clock still
nudged me awake at 7 a.m. I didn’t get
up but still, I was awake…wondering what time would be appropriate for a nap.
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First thing this morning, Kim headed over to
the telescope corner to see how everything else fared in yesterday’s Big Wind.
Ever so hopeful that the scope didn’t sustain any internal damage when it fell.
Can’t tell until the sky gets dark enough tonight to use it.
Kim did have to fiddle with one of the
components that wouldn’t initially power up. He took it apart, did some things,
and put it back together. Took it down to the scope…nothing. Fiddled around
with it some more. Brought it back with a cord, plugged the cord into the wall
and bingo! it powered up. *Big sigh of relief*
And of course, the final test will be under a dark sky.
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By Arizona standards, the morning was chilly, and the forecast didn’t offer much hope of it improving. Threw a sweatshirt on and called it good. The sun played peek-a-boo through the clouds, but I put my piggy cookie out on the picnic table anyway. Took a bit longer to defrost and warm up, but it was worth the wait.😋
There were puddles around Coolidge that
indicated more rain last night than the ground could handle. Didn’t see any of
that in Picacho or Eloy. It rained a bit
this afternoon and again in the late evening. I keep thinking the rain will
help plump up the cactuses but maybe it’ll take more than we’ve been getting.
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Along
those lines, the chickens enthralled me. These were not ordinary egg laying
chickens, although one did do that in her cage. No, these were chickens with
style, dressed in the finest feathers and sporting some audacious hairstyles.
Some kids told me that most of them are not good meat birds or egg layers…they
are for show. Google describes most of the breeds we saw today as ‘ornamental breeds’.
I’d definitely go with that description. Who knew chickens could be so interesting?
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The fair has a mix of food smells coming
from the many food booths. Kim homed in on the smoked turkey legs almost
immediately while I was saving myself for a funnel cake… today. I stepped up to
the booth, saw the price, debated half a second with myself about whether I
wanted to pay that much for fried dough and ordered one despite the price. And
I went for the strawberries and whipped cream topping for an extra $3. I may
never eat a plain funnel cake again…if strawberries and cream are an option,
I’m sold. What a wondrous mix of flavors!
There’s also a modest amount of rides at
this fair which require a not so modest investment in tickets. I checked out
the prices as we passed the ticket booth and immediately decided that I didn’t
need to ride the Ferris Wheel, which is generally the only ride I do. Between food and rides, the fair can cost a
family a small fortune. I saw only one thing that might have been a game…there
was a tall marquee scrolling ‘Water Race Fun’, but I wasn’t close enough to see
what it was. There were lots of booths selling trinkets that parent don’t want
and kids think they absolutely have to have.
There was also a man dressed like a pirate
giving a parrot demonstration, which we watched for a bit. Two things I learned from the pirate about
parrots which distinguish them from the rest of the bird world: 1. Parrots have
zygodactyl feet (two toes facing forward and two back) and 2. Parrots have two
jaws: the maxilla or upper jaw and the mandible or lower jaw. If that’s wrong, take it up with the pirate.
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Kim managed to get his DSLR camera working;
he’ll be using that one with his Star Tracker and to take pictures when we’re
out and about. It’s too cloudy once
again to use the telescope, so he’ll have to wait until tomorrow night to see
if it was damaged during the fall over in the dust storm. The forecast says it
should be clear so hopefully all concerns about the scope can be put to rest
tomorrow night.
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