THE RODEO IS IN SAWYER!!!

Before you start reading this, hit play on that white "play button, " to your right, you'll be glad you did.

My first task as i showed up to work today was to disperse a band of angry rodeo cowboys from the hotel lobby where i work. apparently, the hotel bar closes at midnight and these rope-swinging, cattle-dancing, herders were not gonna have it. especially on a FRIDAY NIGHT!! Rodeo night, to boot (cowboy boot)! I tried to explain to them that i don't know how they do things in Houston or Albuquerque, or Lonesome Dove, but up here in Sawyer, where the population of people is about the same as the amount of wild horses that need to be roped in the U.P., people are usually in bed by midnight. even on a saturday night. even on rodeo night. its not a very lively community. in twenty years when the fifteen people that live here move on to the lovely military base in the sky, Sawyer will probably cease to exist.
After a few griping comments, one handlebar-mustached cowboy noticed i had a copy of The Mining Journal (marquette's newspaper) sitting on the desk. I handed it to him and they all spent the next fifteen minutes looking for the "write-up" on the Sawyer Rodeo. For pictures, I assume. Then, they went to bed. There was no write-up in the paper. I sure hope this event won't ruin their ropin' tomorrow.

In other news, today, Stacey and i took our first swim of the summer in Lake Superior. Though it was 87 degrees most of the day, I'd be exaggerating if I told you the water was in the mid-50's. About ten feet out, it was tolerably warm--really, not bad. But after that, it was bitter cold. So, like little kids at the beach, we splashed around and swam in thigh-high water, enjoying every minute of it. I love Marquette.

Also, in case anybody was curious, the Stampers, my raggled group of english grad/softball players came out of last night's game with a 25-5 victory. It was beautiful. We had lost our two previous games in extra innings by only 1 run. We wanted this one badly, and I think it showed.