Summer is Half Over...

Now that the fourth is behind us, around here we say that summer is half over. The kids go back to school on the 21st of August so it is rather an accurate comment. We have been out of school since May 21st.

Back to the fourth, before it was half over, ours was low key. I worked and so did Ron; with his funky schedule that is not unusual. The kids managed to sport their own fun. Karlie worked and made time and a half, which made her sing. Carsten went to Strawberry Lake for two days and Lacy was around town. Which in Velva, a true small town, we have much Independence Day happenings, from a parade at 10:00 am to fireworks in the park at nightfall, and plenty in between.

Lacy had a really great fourth, especially when your only eleven. She slept out in a tent the night before with the girl across the street; went to the parade; hung out at the park; won $39.00 in the turtle races; then to Minot for the car races, and finally back to Velva for fireworks.

It was the $39.00 (at first I heard 50 bucks) that made for a special treat. Each year Velva has turtle races, which all the local kids go searching for - ahh, that would be the turtles. Some even more entrepreneurial minded kids see dollar signs and manage to get many turtles from the river that encircles the park. They are then sold for $3.00 a piece. This year there were 116 turtles entered.

Her little runner, which she named Lucy, took two 1st place events (heats) and the feature race was third place. Henceforth she came home with $39.00 skins. Had her little Lucy turtle taken first it would have had to be saved for the Turtle Lake (a town) races later in the month. The winner at Turtle Lake would then go on to some race in Canada. All I could say under my breath was "thank you, thank you, thank you!"

The next morning I asked Lacy what were her plans for the day? "Oh, I'm going to spend it with Lucy, after all she did for me, I owe her that much!" The gratitude lasted about 30 minutes. She hauled Lucy over to show the grand kids next door, and probably threw in some racing stories for impact. Back in the pail went Lucy and Lacy skipped off to other summertime fun.

Miss Lucy was returned to the wild that evening with her own harrowing racing tales to tell. Enjoy your summer. After all, it is half over.

Addendum: I had a still photo of Lucy, but it vanished ??? from my camera. I did have a flip video and put it to music, that was a first.