RIP Big Tex

I was so sad to see online a few minutes ago that Big Tex burned down, the mascot of the Texas State Fair.  I spent the first twelve years of my life *hating* to go to the fair-- it was always hot and dusty and there were too many cows and tractors and other boring things.

But somewhere around the time I started high school, my attitude started to change.  I have a whole section of my brain devoted to happy times at the fair, including several visits with our kids, and a visit to Big Tex was always part of the occasion.  I haz sad, as they say.

Probably if I dug through my photos I could come up with a pic, but if you google Big Tex, it will be much faster.  He was about 50' tall and had a scratchy audio voice that fired up about every half hour:  "WELCOME... TO... THE... STATE... FAIR... OF... TEXAS" that then went on to other assorted banalities that no one ever listened to. He was so much a part of the fair that the Texas State Fair website is bigtex.com.  He was a good man, Big Tex.  I suspect he will be rebuilt, but still it's a sad day.

Ah.  Here's the link to the story in the Dallas News, with pictures. 

In other news....  I can't even believe how much time I've spent with this dang puppy the last two weeks.  Some of it has been priceless, of course, but a lot of it is just me and her-- her wishing I'd pay more attention to her and me wishing she'd pay less attention to me.  She's a sweetheart, and she's pretty easy as puppies go.  But it has been a long week, with not nearly as much accomplished as should be.  (and major shout-out to Nell, who has taken over on the days I'm in UTown).

The sugar fast is going fine.  In fact, I haven't even really had any sugar cravings until today-- the main problem is just remembering that I'm doing it.  Four days down, three to go.  The only thing I've really missed is flavored yogurt.

Y'all have a nice weekend.