Some "greats" are just "greater" than other "greats"!

It's always "GREAT TO BE AN AUBURN TIGER" but sometimes the feeling of pride looms larger than at other times. Such was the case yesterday when the unranked Tigers took on #4 Florida in Florida. No one believed Auburn could win - especially all the sports commentators. Most had Florida a three-touchdown favorite and some had it even more than that!

Florida Coach Urban Meyer had never lost a game in Florida and was pretty sure his team would have no trouble putting Auburn away in short order. Florida was also hoping for another shot at a national title this year. Supposedly, they have a #1 quarterback (Tebow) who is touted as one of the top best three in the nation.

Auburn's team has young players and a quarterback who had a rough start this year and by all calculations and all common sense, Auburn was supposed to lose and lose big! The only thing wrong is that apparently, nobody told the Auburn players that! And apparently Coach Tuberville gave his "Little Engine that Could" speech just at the right time and Auburn came on the field ready to win!

We had to beat Florida and also beat the referees - for instance, when a Florida player had the ball in his hand and got hit and then Auburn was penalized for hitting him because he didn't have time to call for a "fair catch"! That was preposterous!

Our freshman kicker had to end up kicking a field goal twice due to a little trickery on the part of Florida's desperate coach but all in all, we played hard and deserved to win! Our young defense just about shut down Florida in the first half and kept Tebow from showing off his stuff.

My hat is off to you, Tigers! You gave your fans a great game! Thanks and WAR EAGLE!

The VFW Fair Begins!

The DeKalb County VFW Fair has won 1st Place honors for Best County Fair in Alabama for years and last night I attended the opening night of this year's event.

There are the typical carnival rides, and judging of displays with ribbons being awarded for flower arranging, home-canned and home-baked foods, hand work and needle work of all varieties, agricultural products and much, much more!

Being a farmer's daughter and having participated in showing farm annimals at various events, I am always most attracted to that segment of the fair.

My favorite part of last night's visit to the fair was when a little 8-year-old boy (the son of one of my former customers) ran up to me, grabbed me by the arm and insisted that I go look at his prize-winning chicken !

Life is good at the Fair!

BOOM DAYS IN FORT PAYNE

Saturday my home town celebrated its heritage by celebrating the Boom Days in Fort Payne. These were the years from about 1880 to 1893 when the population swelled from 450 to thousands as northern investors came to Fort Payne to invest in the Fort Payne Coal and Iron Company. They built beautiful homes, a huge hotel, and the now famous opera house. As the iron ore fizzled, the investors went back up north but many of the things they left behind are still a large part of our community.

There were people dressed in period costumes, horse and buggys, a smelting display, broom makers, furniture makers, as well as area artisans of all kinds displaying their work.

Fort Payne was honored to host the Gees Bend Quilters. These are ladies whose quilts are world renowned and have such a rich heritage as children and grandchildren of the original quilters carry on the tradition of making gorgeous quilts. I would have bought one but they are pretty pricey but well worth the money. The workmanship on them is unbelievable.

Another interesting display was the folk art work of the late Howard Finster. Again, I would have loved to have purchased something but his work has gotten a little out of my price range. I have a couple of signed prints by him and thankfully, I bought them a long time ago while I could still afford it. Maybe my children and grandchildren can enjoy them for a long time to come.

Finally, Fort Payne celebrated our home town boys Alabama by dedicating a beautiful park in their honor. It is across from Union Park in downtown Fort Payne and has walking trails and will have a beautiful bronze sculpture of the guys when it is completed.

Thanks, Fort Payne, for such a great celebration!

Another Alabamian Sets a Record !

Jeremy Harper, a 31-year-old UAB graduate, computer programmer and valedictorian of his high school graduating class accomplished a goal Friday. He finished counting to 1 million out loud and recorded it all on camera on the internet.http://www.millioncount.com

It took him 89 days to complete the count - days in which he never left his home - just sat there and counted!

I don't quite understand the attraction for doing something such as that but then I don't understand soaking hot dog buns in water so you can swallow hundreds of them in order to win world hot dog eating contests. Maybe I'm just satisfied with mediocrity more than I am interested in setting world records.

There were at least two good things that came out of this: (1) Jeremy raised $10,500 for Push America, a charity for the disabled; and (2) he gave us somebody to read about in the paper besides Nick Saban!

Thanks, Jeremy!

Carrying Low Inventory Eliminates Problems

Several times I week, I pass the G & G Auto Sales car lot and their inventory always seems to be very low. Last week they had one car on the lot and my daughter Susan and I discussed taking a picture and putting it on her blog showing their selection of one! Too late! They have apparently sold the one car they had and now have none! I suppose there are advantages to carrying such a low inventory.

1. If you don't have anything to sell, you don't have to worry about disgruntled customers.

2. If you don't have any employees, you don't have to worry about not making payroll or paying unemployment.

3. If you don't sell anything, you don't have to worry about paying taxes.

4. You don't have to worry about taking trade-ins because you don't have anything to trade.

5. You don't have to worry about rearranging the placement of inventory on the lot so it doesn't look like you don't have anything new, because you don't ever have anything new.

Come to think of it, if I ever decide to have a car lot, I think I'll have one with no inventory - I think it would be a lot easier.

AND - Topping the List of Ridiculous Rules . . . .

I am a huge football fan and certainly not a football expert but for the life of me I can't find one single redeeming feature in the penalty for "too much endzone celebration."

Do they think that one man doing a little dance after running 80 yards is the last stop before he turns to drugs and child pornography?

I think scoring a touchdown should be a cause for celebration. We ask those athletes to risk breaking their bones, splitting their heads open and suffering other serious injuries for the love of the sport but then say - "Don't have any fun with it or we will penalize you."

Yogi Berra entertained fans by jumping into Don Larson's arms after a World Series perfect game - good thing he wasn't playing football - that would not have been allowed.

The further absurdity of this penalty is the fact that it is up to the referee to decide what is excessive celebration and what is not. I saw some guys high-fiving and bumping into each other in the endzone - no penalty. I saw another guy jump up and down twice and hold the ball up high in the air - oops! Can't do that ! Penalty!

I think a lot of old men are making rules for young men who just want football to be a fun game that they can get excited about. In my opinion, making a touchdown is something to celebrate - not penalize!