My expected funeral got a reprieve, at least for a couple of weeks.  Seems that a lot of preparation is going into this long awaited challenge race between the two fat guys.  Something about building special carts with extra wide seats to hold our weight, beefing up the engines to pull the extra load, and redoing the surface of the track to prevent ruts. At any rate, I'm ready whenever they're ready for me.  And I understand that Andy is shaking in his boots amid rumors of my racing experience in a past life or sometime. Actually, there is no racing this week due to a VDKA event at one of the other tracks.  And then we're getting into the 4th.  So this probably won't happen until the second week of July.  Which will make my funeral on Tuesday of the third week. Speaking of the 4th of July, we have a neat schedule that week as our regular events are all resceduled for the holiday.  The auction that week is on Tuesday and then we head for Lexington for the Sunrise Rotory Club's Balloon Rally.  This looks like a major event for Thursday and Friday (the 4th).  It will be our first experience around hot air balloons and since Peggy has always wanted to try it, I may have to keep her tethered for both days.  Tank will also be working it and possibly my sister.  They're expecting about 1,500 on Thursday evening and 6,000 or more on Friday with festivities all day ending with a fireworks display. Then we pack up and head for Smith Mountain Lake for our annual 4th celebration there sponsored by the Saunders Volunteer Fire Department.  Last year, they spent $25,000 on fireworks and it is quite impressive.  We had 100 or more people in line for several hours for funnel cakes and we were one of three funnel cake vendors.  Only this year it is on the 5th which opened up my 4th so I could do the Baloon Rally. This past week was awfully slow for summertime.  We did okay at the big equipment auction but not as much as we anticipated.  Amelia was better but still not great.  And Tank had a terrible week in Bedford plus they didn't have the car show.  I'm going to blame it on the heat.  It was so bad that Friday evening, Peggy was sitting on the bed at the motel unable to even get up to take a shower.  She took her glasses off and tried to stuff them into her wallet.  Couldn't figure out why they didn't fit.  I just scratched my head and gave her another gatorade. This week should be better as Tank is back at Wards Road for the week and that is always our best Walmart.  Peggy and I will do the auction on Friday and then I might add our full menu with Tank on Saturday and Sunday.  We'll see.