Clowning around

Another week has come and gone and not much has changed. Seth is still unemployed. He's interviewed at several companies, and there's reason to believe that an offer will be forthcoming soon. I know I should be happy about that but lately it is hard to be happy about anything. Everything seems to take longer than it should, and I am weary from the waiting. Seth is also weary--and irritable. To make matters worse, my shoulder has been hurting for a week, my Maggie dog is sick and my pet rat died. This has not been a good week.

Today we were supposed to visit a pumpkin patch with our neighbors, but that didn't work out. The weather has gone from fall to winter almost overnight--it's cold and snowy outside with temperatures in the mid twenties. That's much too cold for corn mazes and pony rides, so we're all here at home, staying warm and trying to keep out of each other's way. I have been sorting through boxes of old photographs and came across these pictures from the summer of 1990. Even in my present unhappy mood, I found these pictures to be pretty funny so I decided to share them here.

I spent the summer of 1990 working at Lake Mancos Ranch which was located near the small town of Mancos in Southwestern Colorado. Lake Mancos Ranch is a guest ranch that specializes in week long family vacations. There was a pool, a hot tub and a fishing hole, but most of the entertainment centered around the horses. Every Friday, the kids would participate in a small rodeo. It would start with a rodeo parade.
That's me carrying the LML flag on the right.

The parents and ranch staff would gather outside the arena...

and cheer on the kids as they participated in events like pole bending, cone race and barrel racing.

To keep things lively, some of the wranglers would dress up as rodeo clowns and perform silly little skits between the events.My roommate Audra thrived on this. I, on the other hand, am really not a dress-up-in-funny-clothes-and-make-a-spectacle-of-myself type of person. I almost made it through the entire summer without putting on the clown suit.Eventually, however, I caved to peer pressure. Here are a few pictures from my extremely short (one day) career as a rodeo clown. That's me on the right with my fellow clowns Audra and Willie.

An action shot from one of the comedy skits. OK, I know the horse doesn't look real thrilled, but believe me, those ranch horses had a good life. They were well fed, well cared for and only worked three months out of the year. I could live with that!

The last picture--Is it me, or is this horse walking backwards?

Hope these pictures made you laugh, too!