Ho! Ho! Ho!

Time once more for:

 

Five Smile Inducing Events This Week

• Running into a pair of Santa Clauses and having them ask me to join them. They are part of a local group of professional Santas who have started a charity called "Santas Of Sterling" to raise money for kids at Christmas. They said my beard was white enough, but I'd have to let it grow longer to be fully acceptable. In their expert opinion, my belly already jiggles appropriately. (The Santas serve as far away as New Hampshire during Holiday season. Our town might very well have the highest percentage of professional Santas of any town short of the North Pole. It is always interesting come November to hear where they are going to be serving [some are local only, some travel the U.S.]).
  

• Watching the young lady who was smaller than her dog exhibit perfect control of said dog. I'd guess she was no more than 7 or 8, but she had that Great Dane wrapped around her little finger. When she said sit, it sat. When she said heel, it heeled. And when it sat, she and the dog were eye to eye.
  

• Sharing the radio studio with some of the Fair/Rodeo Royalty as they came in to help publicize the County Fair that runs for the next week or two. Seems impossible to me that I was ever that young. {*grin*} I still have no good  answer to my question: Why are there so many barrel racers in the Queen and her court each year?
  

• Watching the price of gas continue to fall. A drop of 10 cents in the last week or so here. Everything goes better when gas stays well below the $2.50/gallon mark.
  

• The fact that it rained and has been refreshingly cool since Tuesday. If I didn't know better, I could believe that September was here already. I figure it will either be hot and miserable or rainy and cold next week when I have to man the EMS authority booth at the fair. Nothing like sitting out in the cold rain for 5 hours to make everything hurt.