Slightly Off the Mark: Grandkids, Pooches, and Public Speaking

I spent most of the weekend relaxing with the grand-twins and their dog, Indy. The oncoming Big Weather Change and an attack of allergies made me feel like I'd come down with man flu, so relaxing is about all I felt like doing. But at least I wasn't schedule to work all weekend, like Emily was. (As I write this it's Saturday night, and looking like the Saddle Barn will be canceled by weather tomorrow.)

Indy's just a little guy, but, like Steve Rogers before he got the super soldier injection, Indy could lick faces "all day".

I mean, Steve was saying he could fight all day, not lick faces. Never mind.

This is fall break for the twins, and they spent most of it with us. The problem is they like to play a lot of video games, but one is into the fighting type, and the other is into the sports type. So they showed up with ... another TV!

Can you imagine? When I was that age my family had a console TV, and that wasn't going easily into anybody's car. Once, when I was about ten, someone brought over a "portable" TV, and we ran an extension cord into the back yard and watched it in a tent. Rabbit ear antennas. Eleven inches of glorious black and white!

This duel TV thing worked, somehow. The only problem I had was whether I wanted to concentrate on the football game, or the cowboys raiding through a blizzard. (Red Dead Redemption something?) Then one of them went to Fortnite, and what kind of craziness is that thing, anyway? I'm pretty sure I just saw someone blow up Scooby-Doo.

*****

That wasn't our only weekend activity. On Friday evening Emily and I drove to the Ligonier Public Library, where we put on a presentation about our book, Haunted Noble County, Indiana. We were met at the front door by a fun surprise: A Halloween display featuring the book.

We had a great turnout, and nobody threw any rotten fruits or vegetables. I did most of the talking (I lost the coin toss), and not a single person booed me.

In fact, of the ten copies of Haunted Noble County, Indiana we brought in with us, we sold nine. (Naturally, me being the paranoid person I am, we had more in the car.) We also sold a few copies of Images of America: Albion and Noble County, and Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving at All. Emily only put out our historical related books, including Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So With the Albion Fire Department, and I have to start using shorter subtitles.

It goes without saying that we had copies of the other eight books with us--just in case--but it was a night for history stuff. Maybe if I ever do standup comedy, I'll put the humor books out in front.

And now I have to start preparing for our next appearance, at the Community Learning Center in Kendallville--on Halloween Eve. Well, October 30. That's Halloween Eve, isn't it?

Yeah, that's us there on the bottom, although it could be argued that the end of October is the peak of the month. With a little more time to get ready, we're putting together a PowerPoint presentation for this one. Okay, Emily is. More info to come.

On rainy days like this, you can always look for a good book:

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