Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. Hope you had a nice long Labor Day weekend. I am writing this in advance so I have not enjoyed my three-day weekend, but I do have plans. I am going to Ohio to watch my Buckeyes start their new football season against Oregon State, less their head coach (who has been suspended for three games due to his failure to report alleged spousal abuse by one of his coaches that happened several years ago). As of this writing, I am eight days away from that big weekend. However, I did have a big weekend last week. The Blue Angels were in the area, and we decided to go see them up close and personal. I have never seen them actually perform videos, but this would be the first time in person. The airport is an easy 40-minute drive from my house, so I figured leaving at 10 a.m. would leave us two hours to get to the noon start of the program. I knew it would draw a crowd but I never expected this kind of crowd. It was terrible. Three hours later, we could see the show starting with some of the older planes flying overhead. However, good news: I could see the airport sign, meaning we were close to making the turn that lead into the airport. However, the police had other ideas, and they made all the traffic drive right on by. Yikes! I made a U-turn and came back around thinking maybe I was in the wrong lane. Signs said two lanes were open for the show and we were in the far lane. So maybe we should have been in the inside lane for some reason? However, same results, and the police were not offering any advice other than ”Keep moving!” There were many others in the same boat, and they started to park along the side of road. Not safe. Police were not happy, but they couldn’t arrest us all…at least that was our theory. We parked the car and hoofed it another mile to get to our assigned tent. Actually, we were kind of lucky because some people who had made the turn before it was closed off were still sitting in their cars waiting to get a parking spot, and they had no place to pull off like we did. We found out later that due to the rains the previous night, some of the parking areas were too wet for parking, so they just stopped taking cars. We missed the first half of the show, but caught two big acts. We got to see the new Raptor F-22. That plane did things I did not know a jet plane could do. No wonder it is considered the best all-around fighter in the world. Then came the Blue Angels. I had bought special tickets, so we had up-front seats and a great view of their fantastic acrobatics. They put on a great show, and we forgot about all of the troubles we had getting in to see this show, that is, until we made the long walk back to the car.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“We are so busy watching out for what is ahead that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are.” – Dogpound Wisdom
OVERHEARD
“Just the usual first day of school anxieties. He was worried his lip ring would set off the metal detector.”
“Of course I like sushi. I just prefer it thoroughly cooked.”
“My wife and I looked at what it would cost to send our son to college, and we decided it would be cheaper for us to just support him for the rest of his life.”
That is a wrap. As always, be good, do good, play safe, and remember: we all only have so many days, so make them count.
– JR
