The Rock Wall

Picnic here. At least the rides are – parked everywhere all over town.

Wednesday night the Street Dance with Rekoil will kick off the festivities. We’ll have an Eagles Burger to prepare our innards for three days  of Picnic food.

I just asked Kimball if we had any Class Reunion pictures scheduled for the Picnic. Came back, “No, halleujah.” That was a real battle in the heat making 10, 12 or 15 appointments as fast as we could go particularly on Saturday. I won’t pretend that the little cell phones and punch and clicks with no flash can do as good a job but they certainly are a lot easier for those who use them.

-I spent a lot of time on the photo computer Monday working the Land O Lakes Youth Fair photos I shot. One shot was so subtle that I didn’t know I had it: Avery Schiereck whispering to her grand champion heifer to keep her composed in the ring, I guess.

Then there were Kimball’s photos at Owen Elliott’s retirement party.

– I called Adrian at noon Tuesday to see if excitement was starting to build in Baton Rouge. It is. They land at KCI about 5 p.m. Wednesday. Davis, Erica and Ben will meet and pick up Adrian and Van. Tuesday, Cain was in one of the Carolinas on business.

Kimball and I are scheduled to take them back sometime Sunday.

This will be the first time Adrian has met her new sister-in-law, Erica, and nephew, Ben. It will be Van’s first meeting, too, but everything is still a first for him at eight months. He will meet Kimball and me for the first time even though we have photographic evidence to the contrary.

Don’t you just know our two cats, Bella and Caddeaux, can hardly wait? Van’s dad is allergic to cats so we are waiting to see if Van inherited that trait.

I’m thinking that the Picnic will just be noise and lights for Van. About what it is for the rest of us, but we happen to like it.

– I had a question the other day about the origin of the name Baton Rouge. That’s French for the Red Stick that marked the boundary between two Indian tribes.

-As I left the office Monday evening about dark thirty, I noticed that the lawn chairs were in full array in the Park. We’ve never got into that tradition since we have the office and full time employment taking photos. But we know where to find a bunch of our friends and family.

-Rosie Rosbrugh told Kimball and me at noon Monday that the Lions Club is having a hard time staffing their food wagon but it will be in the regular location just with reduced hours. Catch them when you can.

-I just realized that Van’s initials are RV (Robert Van). Guess that means he will love to travel.

We have a good friend, Gayle Ann Bell, who lives up to her initials. Bet I hear about that one.

– It looks like we will be with you at the turtle jump, frog crawl and the rest of the Picnic kids games. Not sure who will brave the heat when.

Anybody have a favorite rain dance to cool things off?

– I do look forward to seeing you at the 137th annual Picnic. I hope you get to see Adrian and meet Van. KL