Panorama Days Tractor Pull

The pedal power tractor pull was next on the agenda. Maxim was revisiting the scene where 3 three years ago, he went home victorious. Three years ago, I think he was one of 3 contestants. This year’s competition was full of people. It was “sanctioned” and the winners would qualify for the state championships in Marshalltown after Labor Day. Because we won’t be here on that weekend, luckily the boys didn’t win.

Click on this one. Maxim, "What in the world is this guy doing?"

Panorama 2011 Last day

Play set from Mike Smith

At home, our neighbor, John from Omaha, asked if I wanted his help putting up the playset. I had talked to him earlier in the day about it. He came over and we had success getting the thing together. I would have liked to have the boys help me out, but they were not much interested. Maxim was not even excited about the thing. Now that we have the basic thing there, I will be able to add on more equipment.

On the last day, we went to church and then to a classic car show. Next we saw the musical, “Little Shop of Horrors” that will be performed by the high school and a community theater. It was hilarious and the boys loved it.

Then we went to a new bike trail that is on a railroad line, and goes over a trestle bridge—it starts at Woodward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9x9uVX3EFk after biking, we planned to come back here and set off the smoke bombs and fireworks that we got in Washington State. Didn't get to the fireworks.

Panorama days 5K race

While the tractor pull was going on, the 5K race was set to begin. Previously, I had arranged from someone to supervise the boys while I was running, but I didn’t know the tractor pull and the race would overlap. At any rate, I drove down to collect my number and came back to watch Oskar. I had to jog down for the race so I missed Maxim’s performance. I ran into a couple we knew in Kazakhstan who have relatives in Panora. I finished the race in 22 minutes and 7.83 seconds. I felt great, but I wish I had asked Stan to bring the boys down to see the end of the race. It was another 2nd place finish. 2nd in the men's 40 -49 year old division. I found that out today (Wednesday) when I opened up my mailbox find the prize below.

Wouldn't I have liked to pin that medal on my high school letter jacket!

I saw the boys and Stan sitting at a picnic table near on the town square. They were chatting happily. Stan and Dorothy were very impressed with the boys. I think they are most comfortable with me, so they are not afraid to whine and complain. I am reminded of Yadav (or something) an Indian kid in Kazakhstan who for all my trying, I couldn't get him to voluntarily say a word in school. His dad told me he is loud and crazy at home. There were several inflatable games that the boys loved. They were fantastically expensive, though. I told the boys that is the reason we have a trampoline at home.

Yesterday, I woke the boys at 8:45, asking them if they wanted to go to a pet show. Oskar, of course, wanted to see piggies. He was disappointed that piggies are usually never in pet shows. The show featured only dogs that were up for adoption from the animal rescue organization here in Panora. I learned that they ‘rescue’ many dogs from Missouri. One woman told me that the most adopted pets are from “puppy farms” in the state of Missouri because, as she told me in a soft conspiratorial tone, “they have no regulations down there.” The added the words, “those hillbillies!” in unspoken character assassination.

Fortunately, we were there because I had been assigned to walk with one of the puppies in the parade. The dog was a lovely little dachshund named Louie, who loves everyone and everything. The boys were fighting over which one got to walk the dog until Oskar had to admit that he was a bit tough to handle. Even Maxim said he was tough to control in the parade. Luckily we were still able to eat a pancake breakfast at the community center. Oskar said, “This room is the cribbage room AND the breakfast room? Imagine his surprise when the same room turned into the venue for the free movie that evening.

cribbage and calk walk

I calmly sat at an open seat several minutes before the games began. This wasn’t an activity that relied on youth, vigor, and strength. In fact, most of the contestants were retired. How else could 30 people take time away from jobs on a Friday afternoon?

Assigned seats? No. A summary of the rules? No. Introductions? No. Simply, “OK, I don’t think anyone else is coming, go ahead and get started.” It was a cribbage tournament.

When I signed up, I asked how many games we would play.
“Depends on how quickly the games go.”
“I mean, how many will I need to win?”
“Depends on how the games go.”
I thought there would be brackets, winners, losers, semi-finals, everything associated with competition. Instead, we all simply played 5 games with different people.

With 121 being the winning score of every game, the maximum points were 605. After and enjoyable 2 hours, I turned my card in with a total of 596. Good enough for 2^nd place and $20—the winner won all five games.

Where were the boys during this two hour festival of brain exercise/luck/skill(ha)? Next door in the library reading and playing with interesting stuff.

While I waited for the totals of the tournament, the boys ran around outside, wrestling on the beautifully green grass. I came out to find Dave Arganbright, the man who put siding on our house, and then lived in it the first year we owned it. They were teasing each other.

Soon, the cake walk began. The boys had never seen a cake walk but they were eager to pay 50 cents for something, and if cake was involved, they were all the more excited. We paid for two ‘tickets’ which were actually not tickets, but simply the knowledge that you had paid--no body was checking. They stood on one of 20 numbers taped to the floor of the gazebo in the center square of town. The music started and 5 seconds later, the song ended. The announcer said, “Oh, wait, that was the end of a song, you can—oh, well, okay, I guess that’s good enough.” At any rate, the boys didn’t win anything that time.

I was afraid we would have to stand there all night until they won something, and I was out 10 dollars or something. I paid $2 more so they each would have the right to enter two more contests. When the music stopped the second time, Oskar was on number 3, and he was not moving. As it turned out, he needed to move one space over to number 4. He was not moving. He had been told to stay on one number and by golly he was going to stay there. After a few moments of indecision, steadfast stickiness, and persuasion from those around him, he did move. The announcer said there would be two winners each round. The first number was 12, and the next number was 4! Someone yelled, “Oskar!” (although they probably yelled “Oscar!” she got her point across.) I was surprised because I didn’t thing anyone knew our names. He won 5 cupcakes. Exactly what we needed. Easy to eat, not messy, and not too much. How lucky we were that the number he HAD been married to did not win.