What a kick.  We went to the state fair today.

The first thing encountered was this:  we got the senior citizen price for admission.  We didn’t ask for it.  It just happened.  This is a bit terrifying to me.  Cooper maintains it was the company I was keeping, but really, a senior citizen???!!!!

The second thing was something I had never seen before.  Tucked into one of the areas at the fair are some twenty microphones on poles.  All of the microphones face a big screen and on that big screen lyrics to songs scroll karaoke style.  People were – really, it is true – singing in public!  With gusto!  We bellowed a few with the rest.  Watching people of all ages approach a microphone and settle in for a good sing made my heart crazy happy.

The people watching was wonderful.  Folks were happy to be out and making that oh-so difficult decision about what sort of food stuff on a stick they were going to eat next.  As for me and mine, there were no stick edibles ingested.  We suffered not.

We hovered at the MPR booth and watched Amy Klobuchar be interviewed.  It was good to be in a place where people lofted cheers about liberal-leaning sensibilities.  We stopped by a booth where one of Rachel’s friends works on Franken’s staff.  He was deep in conversation with a constituent and would not break professional-style contact with him, no matter how we misbehaved in the background.  Our Adam is all grown up now.

We saw lambs hours old and piglets the same and babies in strollers and art and quilts and Minnesota loving the stroll that is life in this state.

And this “senior citizen” walked long and gratefully, delighted to have the chance to be alive and in it on this day.