Navan Fair, cont'd.

I went back to the fair on Sunday for more horses and to get my fill of rural/suburban activities. My parents' house is close to the fair ground, less than 10 minutes' walk away. So there's really no excuse not to go. (Except I didn't on Friday... wiped out from eating and grocery shopping and seeing my senile/Alzheimers'd granny.) Did I mention that on Saturday my mom and I went and saw the "pet parade"? This was children (12 years and under) with their pets, mostly dogs. There was a baby goat (cute!) and a cat and a hampster thing. We really, really like dogs. Especially big dogs. There were some nice ones. We were like the creepy old people just there to look at strange dogs, without bringing our own. But whatever. DOGS!

Anyways, back to Sunday. My mom and I are not good at leaving the house, apparently. But once we got to the fair, the horse pull competition was still happening. I had never seen one before. There's not much to see. Basically, 2 big horses get to pull concrete blocks. Teams get points for how far the horses pull. And there are different rounds, each one will a heavier load. I don't quite understand the details, but the horses were nice.

There were more horses in the arena. We sat and watched a bit of the western horse show. But it's not really up my alley. Guys (and gals, and kids) on horses trying to gallop ever faster around a few pillars. Glad I saw, but no need to stay very long. Michelle Wright was scheduled to perform at 5pm, so as the hour approached we got some junk food and made our way over to where the music happens . . . and then it started to thunder, and then there was lightening, and then we decided to leave, as did probably everyone else. On our way home it started to pour with rain! I ran most of the way home. The weather cleared up pretty quickly, but we never did hear anything more from the fair grounds, so I didn't head back. Just assumed Michelle Wright never played. But the internet now tells me otherwise. Damn!

Bah, so well for country music. Back to my regular stuff.

Ottawa break.

I didn't blog about my weekend at all, and here we are nearing the next weekend. My bad. Rest assured that I enjoyed No Shame, OPOPO, and Wavelength (the music bits), and was pleasantly surprised by excellent live music on Friday at a party completely unrelated to my indie life. (I promise a few more details about that when I get back to Toronto.)

I'm in Ottawa at the moment . . . well, a suburb called Navan, southeast of the city centre, visiting my parents, the dog (Xena), and itching to hit up the Navan Fair.

I didn't hit up any shows Monday or Tuesday, and travelled on Wednesday, but tonight my brother's band is playing a set at Maverick's, a downtown Ottawa venue. I've never seen him perform before, so yippee!

Random!

While I was at Massey Tuesday evening for the junior fellow lecture, I met two guys who were taught by both my father and grandfather back at Ashbury College in Ottawa. They graduated high school in 1990---8 years before I did---and both also attended the junior school, which is where my dad and granddad taught. It was so random meeting those two.

I introduced myself to one of the men because he was an unfamiliar face, and he was sitting with a friend of mine. Then I saw him later and asked him again what his name was, because of course I had forgotten. It turned out that he was just visiting the college with an alum friend of his, who presently appeared. We introduced ourselves to each other. The man's first name was familiar.

See, at some point in the recent past I noticed that one of my father's old students seemed to have a connection to Massey. (I think I saw that he became "friends" with Masseyites I knew on Facebook.) I'd heard this guy's name a lot growing up: my dad was very fond of him and he was very bright, etc. So I remembered his uncommon name and noticed it. Then when I heard the friend's name, I asked him was his surname was . . . and, sure enough, it was him! "You know my father, DP!" "Yes, Mr. P! He was my favourite. Actually, we both know him, and his father too." Crazy!

They proceeded to tell me a few stories, but by then the lecture was starting, and as an organizer, I had to dash off. I got the men's business cards, and later e-mailed my dad to let him know. He will get a kick out of his happening, for sure. (My grandfather died in 1989, and he had Alzheimer's, so I don't remember much about him. But he made a big impression on the two guys I met last night. It was nice to hear.)