I miss the chicks.
Nothing to do with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue; that’s got more hot chicks than a KFC convention. No, I mean real, live “Peeps”, the little , fluffy yellow (and sometimes other miscellaneous colors, especially if they’re just on the edge of getting real feathers) fuzzies that used to occasionally appear under the auspices of Stark State College at the Akron Home and Flower Show. Stark State specializes in two-year programs, many of them dealing with outdoor/ecological/health/technical fields and students from there would be at the show with a pen of the little peepers scratching and peeping and chirping and pecking and looking cute. The students would sometimes know what breed of chicken the charmers were, sometimes not, but they were a pretty surefire attraction to get people to pick up literature or try out the exercise bike (healthcare fields) that was also there. A visitor could always tell where the exhibit was—sound and smell. A nice addition for an outdoor display. No peeps this year.
The animal kingdom was represented by a company named “Sit Means Sit” which is all about dog training. In most instances of dog training, it is the owner/handler that needs training as much as the puppy. The dogs at any of this company’s exhibits are, as a matter of fact, very well-behaved, especially considering they have to put up with members of the public coming and going and not always on their best behavior. Right next door to that was the Brown Dog & Company array of wearable items—leashes, collars, bandannas, coats, lights, and such-like—for canines of every size and description. Also an amazing selection of biscuits. I think that they also had flyers about boarding kennels and pet-sitters.
Also missing this year was the booth manned/womanned by the Farm Bureau. They’d lately had a contest of sorts wherein you could try to determine which of the household food products on display came from which of the various grains in anonymous containers. Get them all right—there were ten different grains, I think—and a contestant could be rewarded with a genuine foam rubber sheep or cow, suitable (?) for display on a shelf. I was hoping to add to my collection but it looks as though I’ll have to wait until the Portage County Randolph fair; I do know my buckwheat from my soybeans.
There were quite a number of plants available for sale and hardly any of them appeared to have been wrenched from their winter’s dreaming to brighten up the place; they were just blooming. My air plant seems to have become the toy of certain feline inhabitants here; anyway, it has disappeared. Even the commercial exhibits looked about as close to natural as one could expect. I always have a soft spot for the outfit known as The Brothers Grimm. I’m picturing landscaper guys constructing the witch’s cottage in” Hansel & Gretel” or Grandma’s house from “Little Red Riding Hood”. The VitaMix salesperson was there enhancing the Spring color scheme, pouring out green and yellow smoothies produced by throwing whole fruits and veggies and what-nots into the super blender/food processor to be reduced to foamy, good-for-you beverage to be passed out to onlookers. The Lowe’s people were touting chances on winning either a patio set with firepit, a super-duper grill or a pizza oven for outdoor dining, any of which would probably surpass my outdoor dining budget for the past five years.
One new addition this year was more beer stops. Checking out all of those roofers, siding experts, basement fixers, painters, furniture suppliers, landscapers, etc. is thirsty work.
I did also take note of the sign posted by the City of Akron Department of Buildings, letting all and sundry know that “Occupancy of this room by more than 1750 is forbidden by law”. I did my part by not hanging around when the late afternoon crowd started coming in. Ever notice that sometimes the steps on the escalator and the moving handrail are not in synch, so that your hand will get to the top before your feet?
Going home was an adventure in and of itself. Interstate 76 is in transition mode and just sort of stops where it might have been expected to connect to something equally interstate. This leads to detours—always my favorite thing when traveling in unaccustomed territory. Getting to the Knight Center, I only missed one exit and was able to circle around and find Main St.; going home, I found myself heading to Canton, a lovely city, I’m sure, but not where I wanted to be going. Luckily, it was before late afternoon rush hour on a Friday, and I could actually see the detour signs (through some sketchy neighborhoods, but not too bad) to get me back to Interstate 76 East. From there on, it was pretty smooth sailing; even the rain had stopped.
I also checked around the estate to see what, if anything was coming up, what with the unseasonably warm weather lately, and I spotted snowdrops and crocuses (croci?) as well as what appear to be some of the bulbs that I planted last fall, that the squirrels had apparently dug up and forgot to eat or decided that they needed more secret sauce from McD’s. Anyway, I poked them back into the ground and hope for the best. At least two cats followed me around on the inspection tour. One was IBM (Irresponsibly Bad Mamma) and one, the one who talked to me, appears to have been the papa of our latest star boarder, Grimmy.
A feline further report on all four of the current cats is in order soon. Stay tuned.
