High Times at the Rodeo

Sometimes we really get a kick out of the huge and obvious differences between here and home. Since we’re from the West Coast, we’ve actually a.) seen horses, b.) ridden horses, c.) been to rodeos, d.) and in T’s case, taken part in an amateur rodeo or two (!). So, when we heard that the University vet school was going to put on a rodeo, and had several of our friends tell us about it, we knew we should mosey on over.

We should have figured it would be NOTHING like your average Western rodeo. Oh, there were horses — Clydesdales pulling carts, even, with their bobbed tails and massive hooves, and there were kiddie rides and even a guy on a polo pony. But there wasn’t barrel racing nor calf roping and the only bronco riding was on a mechanical bull – in an inflatable kiddie corral. Where one took off one’s shoes and landed on padding.

Well, on the up side, you didn’t have to hear the jeers of the crowd when you fell off… mostly it was the hoots of small children, waiting their turn…

Duck herding. Ferret racing. A bird of prey display. These aren’t the things you do at every rodeo, but what the heck. There were no clowns (thankfully) but there was face painting, a petting zoo, and a reptile tent. The event had more of the feel of a dog show or a 4-H day or a county fair — the ubiquitous “bouncy castle,” craft tent, tea tent and merry-go-round helped a lot with that. The guy with the chainsaw making animal figures just gave it a sense of the surreal…

Mostly, what we saw at the rodeo were dogs — all sizes, all breeds, all temperaments. Glaswegians adore their dogs, and at this event, they even adored picking up after them — thankfully. The rolling grassy hills were perfectly safe to walk on, which is something we wish the rest of Glasgow would figure out how to do.

Probably the best thing about the whole day was meeting another American friend-of-a-friend, sampling her freshly baked — still warm from the oven — cinnamon buns, and strolling around in the sunshine. Even the falcons with their mad, beady, eyes, the lines of huskies, tongues lolling, and the pink-eyed albino corn snakes couldn’t compare with that. Good times in the sun.


Meanwhile the virtually furniture-free house has provided us with some great fun — one of D’s classmates dropped by and the impromptu butcher paper tablecloth morphed into a large canvas upon which T. and guest doodled, stamped, and colored on while chatting for several hours. The masterpiece has since been rolled up and preserved in the vault. Hah hah.


Boiler Update: How’s that hot running water thing going, you ask? Poorly, unfortunately. T. has taken a grand total of two hot showers in her own house in the last two weeks. The boiler had a fault which was corrected — and after working for thirty minutes, it died again. It was repaired and stayed on all of Monday evening until the early hours of Tuesday morning, where, after T. and D. had showered, fortunately, it died again. The repairman is going to give it one last try — we’re hoping he just gives up and yanks the thing out, but that requires a lot of interpretive dance, paperwork, and hours of work, apparently… Meanwhile, T. and D. have had reason again to be grateful for the huge canning pot they have, and also the gym, which has rows of showers. The Curse of the Boiler Continues, stay tuned…

– D & T

4 Replies to “High Times at the Rodeo”

  1. Sounds like a hoot!

    Huge stink on the boiler situation! Surely it will be fixed, you shan’t move again…and you’ll be in hot water heaven!

    At least the temps aren’t sub-zero 🙂

    : )

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