One thing I like about Lei-Leen is that when you ask her to do you a favor, she will cheerfully say, "Ok!" When you explain that favor involves her posing for a picture in which you are pretending to kick her in the face, she will nod understandingly and again say, "Ok!" You don't even need to explain why you need her to do it. It's nice.
Similarly, when you ask her if she wants to go to the backhoe rodeo in Manor with you on her one day off, she'll say, "Ok!" And Dan will also be amenable. I am not even kidding when I say that a source of great wealth in my life is having the kind of friends who like going on absurd field trips.
I hate to say it, but the backhoe rodeo was kind of a bust. I had expected cheering crowds, a display of lightning-fast reflexes, slalom courses, and rapid-fire announcements. Maybe some guy making balloon animals or something.
(photo by Eric)
Sadly, it was just a few guys on stationary backhoes grimly concentrating on their appointed tasks, all of which involved picking something up and putting it back down again. If they messed up, they would grimace, shrug good-naturedly, and cede the backhoe to the next contestant. Pick up. Put down. Pick up. Drop. Shrug. Pick up. Put down.
There was no crowd to speak of, just a handful of spouses and kids sitting listlessly under the food tent while hours-old funnel cakes petrified on a table and a man apparently unused to public speaking announced an endless stream of raffle winners. It was fine, but it just wasn't quite what I had in mind.
We also didn't expect the not-quite-hostile looks we got from several people there: What the hell are you doing here? It's true we weren't exactly in our element, but if you advertise an event on television, you shouldn't be surprised when people, you know, attend it.
Well, that was their problem; we had a pretty good time anyway. Eric and Dan got to take a million pictures of heavy equipment, with Eric homing in on the wonderfully dispassionate yet graphic stick-figure warning labels on each.
I got to marvel at this beauty, so dark and gleaming with menace.
(photo by Eric)
Best of all, once all the little kids cleared out, I got to play on the mini backhoe. The guy who showed me how to run it was very nice and also kind of hot. Fantastic.
After an hour or so, we wandered back to the car and drove back to Austin. Eric and I capped off the night with sushi, a trip to the bookstore and Goodwill, and some quiet reading over beers. It was a fine day off, and I didn't even get to kick anyone in the face.