Vakkotaur

Saturday morning I set out for Albert Lea, MN (about an hour's drive) and went to the Big Island Rendezvous. I wandered about a bit not far from the gate, looking for rillaspins. Eventually I spotted her, or she spotted me. We went to see the oxen and after the demo, introduced us. I was invited inside the rope to get pictures up close. The hardest shot to get was one of the back of the head. The combination of a strange person and a thing that makes click sounds generated curiosity. The camera hog of an ox got some scritching.

The demo did not involve the actual oxen, but the fellow would pick out a couple teenage boys and have them play the part of oxen. The reactions worked well, keeping the audience entertained as he explained things. Sometime after the boys were yoked, he'd make mention of using a stick, and his words were calculated to make them nervous and the reactions were as expected. To the their relief he then pointed out that doing anything mentioned would be very counterproductive. A full grown ox can weigh 3000 pounds, and will neither forget nor forgive mistreatment. The stick (goad), he explained was use to tap gently to suggest which way to go when training and to reward with rubbing.

After we saw the oxen, Rilla took me around some of the site. Evidently she had misunderstood that this would be the first time I'd see Tanglefoot, not my first time at Big Island Rendezvous. We wound up at the stage where Tanglefoot would be performing and sat through at least part of the preceding act. Tanglefoot is that popular, you need to show up early to get a good seat. Or, judging by those in front of the front row, any seat at all. They're good performers though I'm not sure care for what they do. I can best describe the music as perhaps Modern Folk and Decidedly Canadian.

Once Tanglefoot's first performance was over I had lunch and wondered around a while. Since I'd met Rilla, seen the oxen, and seen Tanglefoot, the next thing was to find long leather boot laces. Fewer places seemed to have them than I'd recalled, and only one had sufficiently long laces in a good brown or tan. I rather doubt white would be a good match for the boots I wear.

During all this time, including during Tanglefoot's performance, there was a plane flying over, hauling a banner which read: SCREW THE OUT OF TOWNERS VOTE 4 THE SALES TAX NOV 8. I found it rather ironic, the out of towners by definition won't be paying that local tax most of the time, but the locals will. Also, the means of advertising didn't win any friends as it was a repeated unwanted noise.

There was enough noise as it was. The sound system in use wasn't too loud, but I wore my earplug when I was in the front row. But there was a crowd and that included loud kids, it was unusually hot (One of the members of Tanglefoot said it was strange to see the site above 35 degrees. It was in the 80s this time.) I talked with the fellow with the oxen a bit more, and then sat with Rilla and company for a while before leaving. Somewhere I got a nasty headache. I had planned on looking around Albert Lea a bit more, but it was bad enough I just wanted to go home, so I did.

Sunday was rather uneventful, which suited me just fine. About the only thing of note was that when I went to Subway for lunch I found out that a waitress that had been working at a restaurant in Sherburn was now working at Subway.

According to her, the restaurant in Sherburn is sold or will be sold soon. When the restaurant closes later this year, it will be for closed for the last time. It will be torn down and a gas station/convenience store put in. The site is near I-90, so that makes some sense. I've seen the restaurant as "Ma Faber's" (which was good) and then as "The Lighthouse" (which was not good) and then as "Our House" (which was good) and now as "Ma Faber's Lighthouse" (also good). Faber has been trying to sell the place for years now and if what I heard is correct, she finally found a buyer that might have a chance. Of course, the town, and the area, loses a decent restaurant in the process.

Earlier this evening we got a phone call. rillaspins had decided to take a detour to Fairmont on her way home from the Big Island Rendezvous in Albert Lea. She made it to Fairmont just fine, and had our address right, but since it's not all that obvious which house is which from the street a bit of information was needed to get to exactly the right place. I'd not really expected to see her this weekend, figuring she'd stay overnight in Albert Lea and maybe come to Fairmont tomorrow. If that happened, I'd likely be at work. But she decided to bug out of Albert Lea and come here.

Once here, Rilla dropped off a few items. The computer that had been mentioned at MNRF, as well as items needed for Jay's next costume. That, or parts of it, are still in progress and she got a look at some of it. She also got a quick tour of the house, and noticed all the Animaniacs stuff around, as well as the various computers. I wonder whether more time was spent in the house or out by her rather fully packed car. I think more time may have been spent out by her car. The visit was rather short, but quite pleasant.

It seems like I spent most of the day talking to, or listening to, rillaspins but there was more to the day than that. I might not have done all that much in the way of watching acts, but I had fun with what I did do.

I got started a bit later than planned, so I didn't see how the opening ceremonies were done without the King, but I'd heard later that it was pretty much the same concept as last year, only with just the Queen. Also, the trumpeters supposedly actually played some music rather than just fanfares. I might try to see (and hear) that at least once this year.

Once inside, I was making my way to Rilla's grove and encountered the unicorn as I did. I had to play a bit and scritch the unicorn and "kiss" her hoof - that got a good reaction from her. I don't know if anyone was watching, so if there was any more reaction, I didn't see it. This was repeated later in the day when I saw the unicorn again and I was told that was the new person learning how to go about things. The second time we weren't in a crowd and I heard the handler compliment the unicorn on her silent interaction. I did not try to make off with the unicorn as in a previous year...

I had the feeling that I had forgotten something. I had. There were some photos from Siouxland that I intend to give to Mistress Bawd. They completely slipped my mind until I was talking with Rilla. I'll have to find those photos this week and have them ready for next weekend.

There was a new street bit this year. Or at least I saw one new street bit yesterday. There might well have been much more, but I was in or near Rilla's grove most of the day. In this bit two fellows hold up a canvas hung from a horizontal pole. On this canvas is a picture of two large draft horses who've been dubbed Chestnut and Buttermilk. There are two cutouts so it's a bit where you can get your picture taken (your or your friends' camera) as a horse. But that's not all, folks. Then they turn it all around and it's a picture of two horses from the other end, tails up flying in the breeze. It's surprising how many people are willing to have their picture taken that way. There were a couple couples who wanted their picture taken but didn't have a third member of the party and one person can't hold up the canvas alone, so I got drafted into taking a couple pictures. One guy tried to tip me (did I look like part of the bit? I may have.) and eventually I just accepted - and then put that in the tip basket since I wasn't part of the bit, at least not officially. Not that I didn't have my fun with it, too. When it wasn't too active I'd look out from behind the canvas (when it was front-side out) and ask people who came by "Is this my good side? Would you like to see my other side?" but that didn't seem to get much. Rilla had brought out some carrots and celery for a few folks at one of the picnic tables near or in her grove. I was offered, and accepted. I did get a couple good reactions (looks, a smile or chuckle) when I stood behind the canvas and looked through it (again, front side out!) and ate a carrot. I got Rilla to take a couple pictures of that, but I have quite a bit of that roll of film to shoot before I get it developed.

Later I made my way to Sunrise River (they say they'll have their web site better in a while...) and was looking at (and sniffing) the varieties of soap displayed. The layout is such that my back was to checkout area. As I was looking I heard from behind me, "That's the wintermint guy!" and a quick explanation that I bought a lot of their wintermint (wintergreen and peppermint) glycerin soap. A moment later a young lady addressed me, "I bet you're looking for wintermint." Surprisingly, I was actually looking for something else, which I was told they had, but it wasn't wrapped and ready for display. That didn't stop them from making a sale, however. I was offered what I wanted, and asked if not being wrapped and labelled would be a problem. I assured her it would not be. She also told they were discontinuing the wintermint glycerin soap. They would still have wintermint, but in the lye soap form. I took advantage of this to buy most of the wintermint glycerin soap they had at a steep (at least 50%) discount. When checking out I expressed some disappointment at the change and was assured that the new version would be as good as the old. I replied that I'd be the judge of that. They laughed and told me if it wasn't, I could special order a batch of the glycerin version. We'll see. They did not have the new, lye version yet, so I won't know for a while if it really is as good.

That was pretty much the day, at least as I can remember it.