Milton once said, or was it Hawthorne, or maybe Shakespere, anyway one of those dead white guys with a beard, "The only way to tell a tale is to start at the beginning, go to the end, and stop." So, that's what I'm going to do with this literary effort.

Thursday was a 'Tweener" day.  It was somewhere between those good days (4 loins) and last week's awful day (3 loins).  We did get somewhat of an explanation why sales are down a bit.  There is a fairly high percentage of dealers that follow the guidelines of Ramadan.  I'm not sure if that is spelled right but it's that Muslim holy period and they don't eat until after sundown.  So a lot of our customers are fasting during the day and that has affected sales.  We'll see if in another two weeks our numbers go back to the pre-Ramadan levels.

Friday night was the Jefferson Forest-Heritage high school game and I got slammed.  Unfortunately, I was working it alone since Peggy was in Richmond with her daughter who had a cat in surgery to amputate a leg.  Unbelievably, this is Allison's second cat with an amputation.  I know cats can get along fine in that circumstance, but this one really got to me.  Maybe that is why I didn't even think about calling Tank, I just assumed I could handle it.  But, I was wrong.  Swamped the whole game, so bad that I didn't even find out who won until 30 minutes after it was all over. After tearing down, I went to the farm, did my dishes, and made eight gallons of lemonade and four gallons of tea for Liberty.  Getting in bed about 2 am, I set the clock for 5:30 to get on schedule for the day.

First stop was Liberty to set up for a 7:00 pm game.  First problem of the day, the place was locked up tighter than a drum.  After contacting campus security and explaining my tight time schedule, they promised to send someone right up with a key.  45 minutes later, a guard finally got there and I got in to set up.  It was after 8:00 when I finished and  still had a 2 1/2 hour drive to JMU for a noon game that opens the gates at 11:00 am when I need to be ready to cook.  Somehow I made it--without a speeding ticket--got set up and opened on time.  It was another good game which featured lines at our tent for most of the game.

A quick tear down and I was back in the truck hauling my butt for Liberty.  I got there about 6:45 only to find Tank's Tent problems.  Sometime after I left that morning and before Tank and crew got there about 4:00 pm, a good gust of wind must have caught the tent just right and it got destroyed.  I've wanted to find something that I could blame on Tank for almost two years now, so this is it.  It must have been all his fault.  Actually, he just opened up and ignored that fact that we were in the open air.  Thankfully it didn't rain.  (Water and hot oil don't mix).

Because Pete and Steve were off somewhere in New Jersey winning some big paint ball championship, Tank brought in Ben who really did a nice job for his first effort at our nuttiness.  I cooked, and Tank made batter and did the toppings.  Ben handled the counter, money, lemonade  and drinks.  And, we had a great game.  Liberty football is just awesome.  Because it is so busy, I'm thinking that I have to set up two fryers for the next game.  Who knows how much we're missing because people don't want to stand in the long lines.  Maybe I should do that at JMU as well. In truth, Tank is almost as good as I am.  And Ben was great.  Made my job much easier. So we start another week.  Who knows where I'll be this weekend?  I don't.

I've made it to the end, so I'll stop.