Prom night

So I was shown some photos the other day. They were of someone's niece at home on the evening of a formal school dance (ball, prom ,etc). Now there were a handful of different poses and various family member combinations, but two of the photos sort of stuck out to me.
One was of the niece and her sister. They were happy and full of energy and smiles. The other pic that I took notice of was of her and her dad. While the older man seemed happy to be in the photo, the girl had the opposite reaction. It looked as though she just didn't like him much at all. It's nearly impossible for me to know of course. This is all speculation. Best-case scenario for her would be that it was really awkward to be dressed-up beside dad. Maybe she felt confident to be smart, formal, and elegant with her peers (and sister) but it was weird to pose with parents. She seems to be at that age that where she too old to be a kid and too young to be an adult. It can be the most trying time of anyone's life. Maybe that photo just managed to capture it.

See the original quick sketch

Smart or chicken?

So there's a dirt path shortcut through the park. Over the school holidays, I passed some kids digging it up and making a set of jumps. These are hardly the regulation construction that the pros get. This is the kind that is done by 10-year olds with some spare pieces of building materials. I recognized that right away since I remember the danger from the 80's. I've built jumps myself as a kid. Several of them collapsed under the weight of the bike making them instant deathtraps.

What we have now is that the kids are back at school and the jump is still there. I pass it every day. Should I take it? There's enough foliage cover around to conceal any below average attempts and preserve dignity. (But there will be no one around to help stop the bleeding if it gets ugly.) Is it smart to not take the jump since I know that it is not well constructed? I have plenty of experiences and scars that reinforce those points. Or is it that being older has made me chicken since I remember the possible consequences and decide that it's not worth the risk anymore?

Maybe I'll try it tomorrow...

The home team

So my neighbour was waiting outside the Lawnbowling Club with a bag as I was walking my dog. I stopped to say hello and found out that she was waiting for a ride. Her bowling partner was picking her up and then they were going to the championships in the next town.
Last year they made it to the finals and lost. They were scheduled to play the pair that they had lost the finals to in this year's first round. While she was very sportsmanlike, polite and generally just plain all-round nice, you could tell that there was a side to her that wanted to really go out there and get revenge. It was pay-back time for her.
I wished her well in hopes that she would bring the trophy back to our locality. Although I'm not much of a lawnbowling fan, it made me realize that you really can't go wrong cheering for the home team.

Kite Skills

So we just had a major windstorm with wind gusts up to 130kms. I saw these guys starting to fly a kite at the local school field just as the winds were picking up. Shaking my head, I put it out of my mind.
The next day, it was wrapped around the power lines in front of our house. You could follow the string from the kite up in the air and it was still attached to one of those plastic spools that you wrap the string around. It was also tangled around a different set of power lines about 5 houses away. The school yard is another block past that on the other side of a stream.

Moon for sale

So on the back of each of my grocery receipts are coupons for things that I usually have no interest in. This week was the same even though I'm blogging about it! 
Apparently for $20, I can own an acre on the moon. Sadly, I didn't buy enough groceries to get the whole ad. I only have a half of the first line of fine print which, on something like this, is where you can usually find the hilarity. It was possible to determine though that you would actually need $30 per acre. But this is totally legit! It says that this scam is "filed with the United Nations". Even if it was, if the United Nations can't keep the US out of Iraq, how will it in the future, enforce where on the moon a nation-state (or corporation) can build a suburban lunar colony? "Yeah we know you spent billions on your moon programme, but 64 years ago, some guy spent $20 (actually $30) and owns that crater. You're going to have to shift over to the next one."
It says that this is a "Great Gift for someone with everything!" I think that's true since this is kinda nothing.

[After finishing this illustration of the moon but before actually blogging it, the local newspaper put this story as a front page story. I couldn't believe it; I was scooped! Either I actually have some journalistic skills or (more likely) this city needs more scandals and crime to write about.]