A "Weird" start to September


Why does Beth have such a "weird" expression on her face, much to Kenny's amusement?  Is it because of our weirdly warm weather?  The mystery will be answered shortly...

Since the last Bragg Family South blog post in mid-August, the kids have gone back to school (weirdly early to those of you up north, but commonplace down here), Hope and I have had various business-related tasks that kept us busy (and me on the road; nothing too weird there), and we had another send-off party for a friend (Fiona) with the Arkansas Archeological Survey.  Okay, so some of you may find the cake pictured below to be rather weird:


But those of us around field archeologists are used to seeing excavation units dug into sheet cakes (that's a likeness of Fiona on the right, digging rather large bones for an archeological site, and the screen on the left for sifting out the artifacts).

Nope, our primary weirdness in the month of September can be summed up in two words:  WEIRD AL!  Yes, Weird Al Yankovic, who has spent much of the last three decades making hilarious parodies of popular songs and some crazy ones of his own came to Little Rock on Labor Day weekend, and Bragg Family South went up to enjoy him!  Below, we eagerly await the opening of Verizon Arena:


Well, must of us were eager--Beth is a bit more of a Weird Al-skeptic...  Weird Al's group was accompanied by an orchestra, which made for some interesting aspects of this concert:


For two plus hours, 4-5,000 cheering fans got treated to Weird Al's best materials in a high energy show:


Beth was still not quite sure what to make of it:


Lots of costume changes, for "classics" like "Weasel Stomping Day":


"Amish Paradise" was a big hit:


And of course, a two song encore that included his Star Wars-themed hits "The Saga Begins" (pictured below) and "Yoda":


Weird Al is a rather acquired taste, tied into the geekier parts of life, but in these times of trouble and discord, some self-depreciating humor goes a long ways!

September also means the beginning of high school football--and marching band--seasons.  This year, only Kenny is in marching band (Beth has opted for a different creative arts class), so she joined her weird dad in the stands:


Monticello High School football appears to be improved from last year, but is still going to likely struggle through the season:


I will say it is also now weird to not have our long-time neighbor Diane living next door to us; she retired from UAM and has moved back to Michigan and is trying to sell her house.  To guard against possible future issues with barking dogs and other distractions in the backyard of whomever becomes our new neighbor, I have built a new cedar picket fence as a screen:


It does feel weird to not be able to see into the backyard, but I don't think that will be a bad thing in the long run.  I will later this fall build a similar fence on the other side of our backyard to screen out the neighbors dogs on that side...

How was that for using "weird" a lot in one post?  Pretty weird, eh?

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