November 14 – “Yee Haw”

It was cold.  Yep.  Cold.  It’s not supposed to get cold in our tropical island paradise, but … it was cold.  57 degrees when I woke up.  Temperatures finally rose a tiny bit – all the way up to just 64.  But did I mention … it was cold.

 

We went for our walk anyway.  All bundled up.  We even stopped briefly at a neighbor’s garage sale.  We determined to return with some money.  I wanted to get a giant badminton game, but when we did it was gone.  Oh, well.  the extra steps put us over three miles for the day anyway.

 

The highlight of our day, though was when we braved the cold to spend some time with Cailyn … at a rodeo.  It wasn’t one of those huge, country music star concert, every animal imaginable in pens everywhere, carnival rides kind of rodeos.  It was a simple Youth Rodeo Association (YRA - apparently that’s a “thing”) event. 

 

Now if you don’t know me well, let me start off by saying that I have been to a rodeo before.  Back when Chris and I were first married (or maybe even when we were just dating), we went to a rodeo that her brothers were involved in.  As I recall, one of them chased down a pig and captured it so he could take it home and finish raising it to sell at a future livestock show.  The other brother and some of his friends rode a cow.  Not one of those kind they strap you on and then open the door to give it a chance to kick you off … just a full grown, sharp-horned, not-so-happy-about-the-situation cow.  Oh, and I have wandered around at a livestock show before, just looking at the animals that were to be shown and then sold.  One of the Seaside families did that.  But OK.  That’s not really a rodeo.

 

So, no, this was not my first rodeo.  Second.  It was my second.  Why a rodeo?  Well, Cailyn has been doing a lot of riding (horses, not bulls or cows) lately at her aunt’s house.  That, coupled with the fact that she had a friend who was competing, tipped the scales in favor of rodeoing.  Her only problem was that Mom and Dad both had to work.  So, who you gonna call?  Nani and DadDad’s Taxi Service, of course.  I found me some blue jeans and a flannel shirt and even a vest.  No boots.  I have some, but I had to drawn the line somewhere.  I did pull down my black felt cowboy hat.  It is broken in just right.  I have used it as a prop and a costume over the years.  I am certain that I looked the part of a real, crotchety old cowboy, at least from the knees up. 

 

The horse obstacle course stuff was pretty interesting.  The first event was kind of an in and out football drill where the horse ran through some poles sticking up out of the ground.  Cailyn’s friend Avery sat on her horse while the animal ran around three barrels spaced around the arena.  She did really well.  She didn’t have the fastest time, but she didn’t knock over any barrels.  Apparently that’s a no-no.  Each errant barrel costs 5 seconds added to your time. 

 

All was going fine until the roping events.  One young man got his rope around a calf’s neck and his horse stopped dead in its tracks.  Actually “dead” is an interesting, and somewhat applicable, turn of the phrase here.  The calf flipped over just like it was supposed to, but it was pretty much … dead.  It looked like the rope broke its neck.  The kid still had to flip the dead critter over and tie its feet together, but I can guarantee you that it wasn’t going anywhere.  Once his task was accomplished, the young cowpoke backed off and another guy came running up.  He got all the ropes off and literally did CPR on that veal cutlet on the hoof.  No mouth to mouth, though.  And it worked.  The calf stumbled to its feet and staggered to the other end of the arena like it was drunk.  We never saw that little guy again.  We left before Cailyn’s friend did another of her events – goat roping, I think they said, or something along those lines. 

 

I don’t know.  Maybe if I had grown up going to rodeos, like Chris did.  Or if we went to a lot more rodeos.  Or maybe if I actually knew someone in one.  I just didn’t get it.  Meanwhile, I think I’ll just stick to watching college football and the Astros …

 

1 John 2:6 says, “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”

 

Father, thank you for the chance to spend time with Cailyn and watch her pursue her newfound passion.  Amen.