Gordon wrecks Little Cousin Jasper

The remnants of tropical storm Gordon arrived on Friday and stayed for Saturday. We were on the northern fringes of the area affected, so we got light rain and drizzle that lasted for much of two days. Because the rain was light, the ground was able to absorb it and the river has hardly risen. I am not sure how much rain we got.

Though the rain was light, it had a big effect on the Little Cousin Jasper Festival. Cold and wet are not ideal conditions for people to get out and walk around. The parade scheduled for noon on Saturday was canceled. Some booths never set up. It had to be very disappointing for the people who worked so hard organizing and preparing the festival.

 There was a car show on Saturday but I saw only about twenty cars. The weather must have affected this as well.

 Most or all of the acts scheduled were a go. Olga the violinist was terrific but her audience was small. Who wants to set on wet bleachers in the rain?

 The "win-a-bunny" booth was back. I talked to some kids who won a bunny but their mother nixed the idea of bringing one home.

The rain had stopped by Sunday morning and perhaps some of the people who had stayed home on Friday and Saturday decided to make a visit.  The Jesse White Tumblers from Chicago performed to a decent audience.

 On Saturday the annual Rensselaer Cross Country Invitational was held. At one time this was one of the big high-school cross country meets in northwestern Indiana but over the years the number of high school teams attending has gradually dwindled. As the high-school part of the meet was shrinking, the middle-school part was growing to become a major middle-school meet. This year the high-school races were eliminated and the meet became a middle-school-only meet.

Cool and misty weather might be bad for a festival, but it is not a problem for cross country. Cool weather is much better than hot and humid for runners.

The Rensselaer girls did exceptionally well.

The Jasper County Art League's exhibit, Through The Window, had its opening reception on Friday evening. The theme was windows and most of the pictures had a clear window theme—pictures framing the work or pictures taken or painted looking through a window. One omission I noticed was that no one used computer windows as the framing device for their pictures. If I had the talent to enter something, I would have done a picture something like one below.

(I like tessellations.)