Episode #181: Glutton For Chewy Mugginess

Flashback to an Extravaganza from years gone by. Funnily enough, this was the most popular "ride" at this year's Extravaganza.

This past week our wonderful state has been inundated with a plethora of mugginess, a multitude of t-storms and cloudless, breezy-less sunny skies, and last Saturday was no exception. Instead of taking advantage of the aforementioned weather and do something smart, like hike in the mountain, we decided that we were going to walk to and fro to the Extravaganza. I figured I would kill multiple brain cells with one ginormous opportunity to actually partake in some town festivities {aka, be not Uncle Social}.

Well, to put it mildly, I did kill lots of brain cells with my 4.96 mile walk that day, and probably lost a pound of fat in the process, but man, let me tell you something. I was not very smart in the execution. Yes, it was hot. Yes, there was no breeze. I mean, no breeze whatsoever. I looked at the tops of trees and no leaves were moving. No clouds. No shade. Yes, I realize this was not very smart of me, but my part of town, as well as the center, is particularly devoid of any trees that are not located near the street. So....yah.

Even though the walk to the center fried my brain cells, along with some epidermis {yes, suntan lotion was used}, when I got to the actual park for the Extravaganza, I did notice that one, the same old same old was going and two, the town actually used their collective brain cells and became proactive.

To whit, while they had the usual assortment of overpriced food vendors, they actually put up about a half dozen large tents for people to cool off while partaking of either food, music or alcohol. They did not have a beer garden, but did have a nice stand that required a wristband to purchase beer or wine. They did have the usual rides and what not. What they did not have there in the park were non-food vendors. Even though they had the chalk grid laid out, due to the t-storms that rolled through the previous day, none were to be had.

But, this is where they had the foresight to do it right. Now, I'm guessing that this was a decision made earlier in the week as a back up plan, but what they did was to create an outlet-mall style shopping plaza in the newly renovated town hall/police station parking lot. So one could go up one way, turn the corner and head back down, with a small turn up the front of the lot where there were six more tents.

At one of the tents, I met a writer who was kind enough to give me a crash course in picture books and the MG genre (that's middle grade). She had a very nice display of about one dozen titles of cat-centric stories. We swapped business cards, got to talking about adult fiction (she's getting ready to release a non-fiction book of stories about adopting pets), with the pros and cons that comes with self-publishing.

Overall, it was the highlight, at least for me, of a nice visit to the town festival. Met some friendly people, got caught up on some town referendums and had a genuinely good time. But the walk back was exceptionally brutal. I had lost at least two of my planned pit stops due to things like the festival (library was closed for the festival, so the parking lot was being used for the festival) and remodeling (our local Stars of Bucks is closed), so the walk back was going to be bru-tal.

How brutal?

Lots of sun, no breeze, no shade, no clouds, negative popularity points for tolerance of anything remotely un-normal. It was a very slooooooooooow walk back home, because there was absolutely no spring in the step, no pep in puppies and no brain cells for thinking. Pretty sure one of the podcasts I was listening to didn't actually register into the subconscious. It just went through one ear and out the other with absolutely nothing solid to stop it.

I think I've come full circle for stupid walking trips. One winter pre-pandemic I went for a walk where the temps were in the teens and the wind chill dropped it even lower, so it took me quite some time to thaw out. Now, I done did this walk, only instead of freezing my butt cheeks off, I cooked my bald, yet properly covered, head while walking on legs with the consistency of soggy pizza.

Yes, the proverbial this is your brain on the veggie lifestyle.

But in general, it was a good day to actually play nice with peoples. And that is something one should do. Just not every day. Maybe a few times a week. When you don't have anything better to do. But definitely not in the muggy heat of the day. Unless you do it in a shady mountain top. Then you certainly can be left to your own devices. And meet various peoples. Who will definitely give you a semi-wide berth.

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved