Poem for Thursday and County Fair

Bed in Summer
By Robert Louis Stevenson

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

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I did chores and folded laundry in the morning, and Paul came home at lunchtime so we could go to the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair in the afternoon. Wristbands for all-day rides were $10 off on Wednesday, so we figured this was the day to go so that Adam could go on the Freak Out and Fire Ball as many times as he wanted. We went to the midway when we arrived, then spent a couple of hours visiting the animals in the barns where they reside when they aren't on display or being judged -- goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, pigs, cows, horses, plus some more exotic animals -- and at the pig races, where small goats and big ducks also race and terrible Southern music is played. (Because Montgomery County is so diverse, one can find Peruvian folk music, African folk music, and lots of pop music as well as the inevitable country music.)


Pot belly pigs race around the track at the pig races. I was chosen to lead the cheering for the pig in red, but the pig in orange won, thus thwarting my opportunity to be the 4 p.m. Pig Queen.


Eggs in the chicken barn are placed in an incubator where they can hatch. The eggs are labeled with the date and mother, I suppose so the chicks can be banded when they hatch.


Newly shorn and cleaned sheep were ready for their close-up, waiting their turn to enter the show ring.


This goat, however, was more interested in nibbling on Adam's hand.


There were also a few more exotic animals, like this two-month-old camel.


This mouse was working at the fair -- people put money on various roulette options and whichever hole the mouse crawled into was the winner.


On the right, Adam is flipped sideways by the Orbiter...


...and at bottom left, being tossed upside down and backward on the Freak Out.

Daniel bumped into some friends from school, some of whom are also going to Maryland. We had lemonade and funnel cake, because it's not a fair until I have white powder all over my shirt, stopped in a few of the vendors' tents, then went back to the midway so Adam could get on some more rides before we came home, where we had Welsh rarebit for dinner because we had a big chunk of cheddar cheese. Then we watched Secrets Beneath The Ice and Masters of the Arctic Ice on PBS, both of which are about how global warming are affecting the poles (the first about a drill probe studying how the ice shelf may be melting, the second about studies with CritterCam of how ring seals, polar bears, and narwhals are affected by the melting polar ice.