Happy Star Wars Day! I had two options of things that I could do today to celebrate the end of the school year. One of them was to go to the local Comic Con with Jasper. I had bought two tickets, one for him and one for me, as a birthday present to him. I had fully intended to go, until I learned that today would also be a special day at the faire, on the very last weekend.
What to do? I gave both Con tickets to Jasper so that he could take a friend. I gave up my chance to pay $40 to get a selfie with Kevin Sorbo. And I went to the faire, because I really wanted to see this guy:
Lary has been the piper at almost every faire I’ve gone to in the last 20 years—and I’ve gone to a lot. He once even offered to give Walter a bagpipe lesson for free—but Walter never followed up.
Last year, Lary was diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer. The treatment he received began to shrink his tumors—but it was also killing him. So he asked to be put on hospice, where he would receive just palliative care. He was admitted to a hospice facility, and then a funny thing happened—he started getting better. As the months have gone by I have followed his journey on social media, as he went from a guy at death’s door to a guy that can play a few notes on the pipes again and is working on walking a little more each week. He’s a miracle man.
When I talked to him today, he told me he’s hoping to be released from hospice so he can go back to living in his camper and having some kind of more enjoyable life for however long he has left. His presence at the faire today brought out all kinds of people from the old days, and it warmed my heart to see them showing up to hang out with Lary. Here’s a photo of Lary performing ten years ago and wearing the same kilt!
That was the first thing I did—visit with Lary before a line formed. Then I listened to a couple of music acts and went to the birds of prey show. When this faire first opened, I really enjoyed the birds of prey show. They had a lot of great demonstrations of hawks going after lures and flying through people’s outstretched arms and so forth. But a few years ago, that all changed. I know for sure they had one very tragic mishap where a hawk was killed when it landed on a transformer.
Now all they do is parade various birds around while telling you information about them, and at the very end they have one bird fly from one handler to another, over the heads of a few audience volunteers. It’s not nearly as engaging.
While I was watching a different show, a man approached me as I stood up to leave. He had noticed our last name written in large letters on the back of my cumbersome folding chair, and wanted to know if I was related to Walter. Turns out he used to work for Walter many years ago, and remembered him as a good boss.
Along with Lary’s presence, another draw at the faire today specifically was a performance by the Rogues, a Celtic pipe and drum band, who also used to perform back in the day at the other faire.
While we waited for them to start, we as an audience were mesmerized by activity in the pond (the stage is right on the bank of a pond). There was a snake swimming across it, and it was heading toward rather than away from us. Around here, any snake you see swimming, you have to assume is a cottonmouth. I operated on the assumption that it would prefer to avoid large groups of noisy people.
Just as the Rogues performance was starting, my friends Carrie and Tim arrived with their whole family, so after the show I got a photo:
I can’t believe how much their grandkids have grown! I remember when the oldest was just a little baby at the faire! Carrie and Tim are rockstar grandparents. They do stuff with their grandkids all the time. I’m more than a little envious.
You may wonder why I make no mention of the joust. They do have one, but I have very limited tolerance for theatrical jousting after all those years of loving sport jousting. So I didn’t go. Instead, I listened to more music and spent a few minutes talking to Tim about his house building project.
Then I went into the one booth that kind of tempts me. Going to the faire has changed a lot for me over the years. When the kids were still at home, it was a major expedition. We bought advance tickets because they were cheaper. We packed enough food to feed an army, because any money we had after paying for tickets was spent on weapons, not food. Our house was very well armed in those days.
Now, I don’t really need any more weapons than I already have. I mean, if I have my handbag with me, I have at least three knives on me at all times. But this one booth has baskets and handmade pottery, and pottery is a huge weakness of mine. They also have snap jewelry, and I am always on the lookout for new snaps.
Since this was the last weekend of the faire, all pottery and baskets were the same low price, regardless of size. So . . . I found a pretty bowl I couldn’t live without, and a ceramic chicken roaster:
I’ve been wanting one of those forever, but couldn’t justify the price. Today’s price was perfect. And when I went to pay for my items (plus a couple of snap charms), she threw in a free basket!
By then my enjoyment was waning due to the heat. All week they were predicting that today would be cool and rainy. Instead it was hot, sunny and humid. I can take only so much heat before I lose my will to live. Yes, I know that 85 degrees is actually nice spring weather in East Texas, and that three months from now it will be considered a cold spell, but by the middle of this afternoon I was done. I saw everyone I wanted to see, heard some great music, and got a chicken roaster! So I absquatulated. I struggled back to Quicksilver hauling my chair, my pottery, and my basket, and cranked up the air conditioner.
I came home to an empty house. Jasper was still at the Con, and Walter had a yard job to do. I got out of my sweaty garb and put on some cooler clothes and sat down with a restorative cup of tea. And as I was sitting there enjoying my tea, I was thinking about how today is May 4th, not in the context of it being Star Wars day, but in the context of it being the day before May 5th. And May 5th is Sammy’s birthday. Yikes! How could I forget?
I vacated my chair with alacrity. It was too late to change my lazy dinner plans, but I could at least make a cake. I managed to throw together a chocolate cake with cream cheese and coconut icing before Sammy arrived for supper. Walter showed up a few minutes later, after working graduation at the university this morning and then yardwork in the afternoon. And then Jasper showed up. Jasper had to wait for Walter to take his shower before he could take a shower, and then once he was clean, he left to spend the evening with friends.
So it was just Walter and me and the birthday boy for supper. After watching a video on it this afternoon, I tried poaching a couple of eggs to go with my supper, and although they tasted just fine they, uh, lost their structural integrity.
After supper we watched the eagerly-awaited first two episodes of the new season of Clarkson’s Farm, stopping between episodes for cake:
Tomorrow is Sammy’s 33rd birthday. He is exactly two weeks younger than our daughter Mary.
Parting Shot:
Favorite t-shirt seen at the Faire today.
My Midlife Menagerie 