Book Festival and Cowboy Gathering

Although I have lots to do to get ready for our trip, here I am at the computer dragging my feet. It is a good thing that I work well under pressure.

This weekend Jesse and I were volunteers at a local book festival. There were over 30 authors hawking their books. Jesse took photos of the whole event while I helped with some of the kid’s workshops. There were adult writing workshops, but I did not get to attend those. I did sit in on some readings by a few authors. It was all fun and informative. The best part was just meeting and chatting with everyone. I met a retired military chaplain who had been at West Point and had written his memoirs. We had a mutual friend, which made things more interesting. I met a lady from Buffalo, NY, who had retired in OK. I met lots of other authors from all over OK, TX and KS. I helped with one workshop and author who wrote children’s books. She had the kids draw pictures and make a small book about the seasons. When the author saw a duck that I had drawn for one child, she teased me about my drawing and said that I should do illustrations. I never told her that I was an artist, because I was not sure whether she was being facetious or serious. Later I saw her books and illustrations and decided she must have been serious. I bought a book called Swift Injustice about a murder, which happened here in Duncan back in 1947. I was tempted to buy more books, but I’m a bit of a book snob it seems. The few times that I have bought books by not-well-known authors, they have been not-so-good. Being at the book festival was a bit like being at an arts/craft fair – I saw things that were very nice, but I thought, "I could do that." So I don't buy, but neither do I do – crafts or books. But, I think I could.

Jesse slipped out of the book festival and went next door to the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum where they were having a cowboy gathering. They had several chuck wagons and exhibits including a longhorn drive and working dogs. She took some photos of the cowboys and their animals. She was most impressed with the jumping mules. Apparently, mules can be trained to jump a fence, which helps during coon hunts. Here is one of the jumping mules. We did not stay for the mule-jumping exhibit, and Jesse was sorely disappointed. Back inside the book festival, one of the western authors told us that she had heard of jumping mules – that the 20 mule Borax team had mules that were trained to jump the chain in order to make tight corners. Read about it at the link. Interesting! Jesse seemed to have a good time too - especially since she met all of the authors and took their photos. It was amazing how many told me later that they thought Jesse was just wonderful and beautiful. Of course, I knew that :)

Sunday, we worked on the house. Our plan was to finish the soffit stuff. Yep, we were one board short – typical.