Derby

I had a big weekend. It began with a public showing of The Wizard of Oz, which I haven't seen since I was a little kid. I could never get past the flying monkeys so this may have been the first time I watched the entire movie. I didn't remember it being so funny. For example, the Cowardly Lion, when turned away by the Wizard's doorman, complains that he just had a permanent in his mane. That's funny.

On Sunday, I ran a 10 mile race. It's certainly the farthest I have ever run. And I did it in 1 hour and 34 minutes, which is 6 minutes less than my goal of running 10-minute miles. I'm pretty happy with myself, though my blistered feet could be in better shape. I'm now going to try to do a similar race over Labor Day weekend.

In between the Wizard and the running, I went to a Demolition Derby on Saturday at a county fair. It was great and worth every penny of the admission price. However, I have to confess that I left a little early. Who knew that watching cars and trucks (and busses!) smash into each other for 2+ hours would become repetitive? I have uploaded some pictures below because my
descriptions could never do the "demo" justice.

Sarah, Chris, Emily, Trevor, Christie, and Amanda anxiously await the first heat - 4X4 Trucks.

The vehicles would line up at the beginning of each heat to receive a blessing from the Emperor before they would fight to their deaths.

Tires popped. Cars caught on fire.

Shafts cracked and broke. Engines smoked.

Like the Highlander, only one vehicle would remain at the end of the heat. The rest were dragged from the arena.

Christie reacts to the carnage.

And then the busses arrived!

They were fun to watch for a while, but then eventually it was like watching old men beat each other up. The busses would limp across the arena on less than 4 wheels only to dent the others.