As I sit here on Monday morning sipping my thirteenth cup of coffee attempting to wake up from ten hours of much needed sleep, I realize I promised a report from Hell week. It all started in Fredericksburg on Thursday at 7:00 am with what has become a regular cooking of four whole loins of beef. I had hoped to shut down a bit early but as would have it, I sold the last sandwich after 2:00 pm. Temperature--a cool 98 degrees. Then a hasty packing of everything and a drive of 75 or so miles to Richmond Raceway arriving at 4:30 pm for the Virginia Baptist Missions Conference with 1,000 teenagers in attendance. Unfortunately their dinner break started at 5:00 pm and it was almost 6:00 before we got set up and started, so we missed a good bit of the dinner hour. But as soon as I got my signs up and the kids realized I had Funnel Cakes, Fresh Squeezed Lemonade and Sweet Tea, the lines started and pretty much stayed constant until almost midnight. Temperature: a chilly 92 degrees. Friday was much of the same until 5:30 pm, although it was pretty slow during the middle of the afternoon. Temperature: 102 degrees. Saturday, back in the vicinity of Harrisonburg, we set up at Grand Caverns for the Rockingham Memorial Hospital Picnic, which drew a crowd of 1,800 people. We had fifty people in line when we opened at 10:30 am and the line never let up until I quit at 5:45 pm. We served 1,200 funnel cakes and some how neither Peggy nor I passed out. Temperature: 101 degrees when a brief storm blew up that cooled it down a bit as we were packing up. I was so tired I did something I haven't done in the past nine months. I stopped at the Liquor Store and got a bottle of Bourbon only to find the damn price had gone from $14.57 last October to $20.95 now. Just because I quit drinking? That sucked. Sunday, as I reported last week, I spent at the farm celebrating moms 89th birthday. Tedious and emotionally draining, but at least I wasn't cooking anything for a day. I hate to admit it but it was a relief to see her back at the nursing home that evening. Today and tomorrow, I'm babysitting a rescued greyhound. Nice dog, but I'm having trouble getting any worthwhile tips for the track. I wonder if they have Funnel Cakes at a Dog Track. Hmmmmmmmmm.