Christmas 2016: The Jester On The Sidelines

For this annual Christmas blog posting I cannot offer a ring-side seat to the Americanized Christmas bustle of activity. In fact, given the source of the title for this offering, an old Dom McLean tune comes to mind, swirling in its exceptional length of unintentional travel to becoming the ballad of American youth when I was growing up... American Pie. Just a few words from that song dance in my head at the moment, repeated over and over and over...

"...and the Jester on the sidelines in a cast."

This has probably been the most positive Christmas I have had in my lifetime. I actually got in the spirit early. I set up a Christmas tree around Thanksgiving. I dug out the lighted Christmas flying pig (blame Rhiannon for this) which has served as our staple outdoor decoration for years... and for the first time bought exterior Christmas lights.

I went LED of course, not wishing to make the electric meter spin in endless circles of doom ending in an astronomical figure on a slip of paper. I got larger color changing lights that switch between blue and white. I got colored lights for a Holly tree out front... yes, a real Holly. I put some lighted yard icons out one of which was a cross. For me, that is a first. Other than the pig, I have never put lights outside.

Next year will be even better but that will be a tale told twelve months from now.

Narwhal

We bought presents. Annette wrapped them (you do not want to see a gift that I have wrapped... I have zero talent there). We bought even more ornaments (as many of ours are still boxed from the move to the new house. Including a Narwhal... again, blame Rhiannon. The evil pig-lizard of a dog even gets a gift.

December came and I celebrated St. Nicholas Day with fervor, even if somewhat alone in my belief that this is the day we should be doing the gift giving and leave Christmas to a higher celebration.

My family and I have a lot to be thankful for this year. We finally managed to squeak by and get a new house. The biggest feature is that we now have space to move about and to organize. It has been a slow process but we are getting there. The wife has a new job which helps a lot.

Michael helping decorate

We spent an hour or so at the start of the month helping other church members with the hanging of the greens and the kids all had jobs to do in decorating the church for Advent. Simple, but all with meaning. It was satisfying work.

But this season is not without damper, many things have occurred this year that are so very negative.

This happens to many people every year and it takes its toll on the "expected" Christmas mood:

• My wife's mother died earlier in the year.
• As I wrote in last years Christmas blog, the Heroin and K2 problems in this country are non-stop.
• We had one of the nastiest elections I have seen in my lifetime leaving a nation clearly divided.

And these are just a few...

In the last week, a co-worker lost her 15-year-old daughter in a car accident. She was out with friends one evening when an 18 year old drunk driver, Osiel Marroquin, who did not even have a driver's crossed a center line and took her life. It is a story we hear way too often. An intoxicated driver takes a life. When does it end?

Skylar Robinson was 15 years old. She has started to attend our Explorer Post at AMR as she was thinking about someday becoming a Paramedic. She never got the chance to join.

In EMS we are a family. Her mother is part of that family. AMR along with many others in local EMS and Fire have mobilized to support this family and give the writing of the final pages of Skylar's a respectful end. The obvious family of our brothers and sisters in public safety have come together to help.

In all of this, I have been the "Jester on the sidelines." I want to do so much more with this. It was about two months ago when her mother and I drove to Indy and back for some tasks with the AMR Indianapolis Operation. Six hours of travel time. What did we talk about? Our families... and the children.

They are sometimes taken from us way too soon.

I want to do more. But I sit. A Jester on the sidelines...

Last Saturday, I was trying to get out of the house to drive Michael about town to pick up items for his Eagle Project (packaging homeless assistance kits for distribution starting Christmas Day). I was coming down the stairs at home and heard a pop. After ending up in the emergency room

(following my first ever ambulance ride... and I was the patient refusing all kinds of care), I have several Meniscus tears in my left knee. The last week has been doctor appointments (taken care of by our Education master of all trades at AMR, Mike Shoulders who got me into the most lauded Orthopod in the area), an MRI, a follow-up visit, lab work and EKG... which will be followed by Surgery on December 27th. They were able to make it all happen so it would be covered by insurance being the end of the year. There will be physical therapy in January and I am sure that will be another story. For now, it is difficult to even go shopping for needed gifts.

So I am on crutches. I am not on them constantly, but if I go over about 30 feet of travel they become very needed.

Jester. Sidelines... This means I cannot be what I feel I need to be. I have limited ability to help a friend. I cannot help my EMS provider by jumping on an ambulance in a system overload or by covering a weekend. I am able to do only about half of the jobs I do at home... and there are still things to be moved from the old house. Large things. Watching other people do your work is never fun.

The first night was interesting. I try to never use prescribed narcotic analgesia for pain. I stick to things like Ibuprofen and Toradol. They gave me Narco (Hydrocodone and Acetaminophen). I took one and only one the first night following the injury.

Result as I posted on Facebook... "I was having an argument in my dreams with a green and red Christmas dragon, snorting purple tufts of flame in disagreement as we argued the finer points of Consubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Altar. No more dragons muttering "in, under and with" as it paces about trying to comprehend... purple nose flames punctuating each repeat of the line... nope... no more pain meds for me."

I am told I will be given more next week after the surgery. We will see how this goes. I may revolt and just deal with the pain.

I had peaked into my online health record and saw the results of the MRI before the follow-up visit. IMPRESSION (from MRI results): Tear of the posterior root medial meniscus. Probable tear of the body medial meniscus as well. Grade 1 sprain in the mediocollateral ligament. Mild tricompartmental osteoarthritis.

The repair will occur via several punctures using a camera and a pair of scissors. They tell me it will take five to ten minutes and all will be better. Followed by the torture of physical therapy.

I will do this. I do not like being on the sidelines. Especially at Christmas. So, I can say that even though I am in the best of Christmas spirits, I am somewhat depressed as well.

Our Tree

Tomorrow... gifts will be opened. There will be momentary pleasures at the receipt of material things. Hearts will be warmed by the thoughtfulness of others. In some places, the cold of death will have overshadowed the glow of Christmas as a holiday with all of its lights, gifts, trees, decorations and Santas.

But the cold of death cannot hold fast against the Christmas of the Gospel of Luke:

Luke 2:1-20 (ESV):
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.  And all went to be registered, each to his own town.  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.  And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”  And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.  And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.  And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.  But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.  And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Everyone knows this story. Luke's Gospel tells it concisely and eloquently. We also know how the story ends... or continues on for us.

It ends on a cross. It ends with this little baby, born of a virgin, sacrificed for our sins. That is the message of the season. I saw a recent piece of art that showed Mary holding up the baby Jesus, the shadow cast by the baby on the wall was the cross. It all culminates in a cross and empty tomb.

He is given so that all of the darkness of death is illuminated and driven back by the light of God. The debt that can only be paid by death has been paid in full by one held sinless. God himself hung on a tree for our sake so that we may have eternal life. Death cannot hold us.

Even if we die, by whatever manner, mechanism or cause, those in Christ will find that death to be temporal. That death will be but the door to eternal life.

It has been 15 years since I last had surgery. Sure I am a bit scared and somewhat worried about the procedure and the outcome. That and my lack of ability to be helpful in most arenas at the moment has me a bit depressed. But all of that is temporary too.

Christmas is here. Find hope and peace in the Christ. There is none elsewhere.

Merry Christmas.

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

(a few more view of our Advent-Christmas below)


Peter hanging ornaments at church

Rhiannon and a friend decorating at church

Michael buying blankets for his Eagle Project

Luke and his requested red tree

Luke's RWBY Ornament (an early gift)

Christmas Lee

 

And lastly, A "Rudolph's Revenge" Beer
from Turoni's

Thoughts On Fall 2016

Many people will admit to having a favorite season. For most of my life I have very simply stated that my favorite season was winter. Even though I still have great affection for the colder temperatures, snow and stark contrast of winter, I have to admit that my favorite season has changed to fall.

Maybe I am oversimplifying things, but I am absolutely mesmerized by the fall foliage with its bright yellows, burnt orange shades and vibrant, fiery reds. More than ever I have the daily urge to just sit outside and experience the sensations of the fall season. I can sit at night on my patio with flames ablaze in the fire pit and look upward through the thinning trees at the moon and stars through the clouds. Even the sky is different. Everything is crisper like the night air heralding that winter will be here soon. The clouds are lower, and faster moving.

And it seems quieter, both in the day and the night. The sensation is one of rest and tranquility.

The squirrels gather the acorns from between the bricks on the patio and scurry off to the places of hiding in preparation. At night, the Great Horned Owls can be heard at both close and long distances in the evening. Deer walk through my back yard, stopping to look at the oddity of the fire keeping us warm as we watch in silence.

By “we” I mean Rhiannon. Of all the family, she ventures out “into

Rhiannon warming by the fire

the yard” with me the most. She has taken to being the one who ventures out onto the darkened patio, lighted on by the fire pit. She has learned, as I have, that there are many things to be seen out there later in the evening. We talk about the clouds, trees, stars and animals that tend to wander through. Recently, the Super Moon was even a lengthy topic of discussion. We sit wrapped in jackets and scarves in our Adirondack style chairs. She plays music from the '80s on her tablet (usually the bangles or Fleetwood Mac) interspersed with a little Kid Rock on occasion (in this case the words "when the leaves begin to change" in All Summer Long fit perfectly). She is sometimes wise beyond her years in the conversations.

The night the deer first came was a bit of a surprise. Rhiannon and I were sitting, watching the fire when we heard what sounded like a person slowly walking through the leaves in the dark just outside the glare from fire. Rhiannon walked to the edge of the darkness and I heard her say quietly, with subdued exclamation, "It's a deer!" It was quickly followed by "and it has antlers!"

Fall seems to better frame things like patio time with my eight year old daughter. Fall, however, offers so much more. I have already mentioned the colors, but not yet the scents... everything from fireplaces lit for the first cool nights and leaves being burned to apples and spices being baked into some delectable dessert creation fit for autumn.

Peter working the leaves

The grass growth subsides, needing far less attention in cutting but the work is replaced in shuffling leaves around, mulching, burning or bagging. The onslaught of leaf management can actually be a blast for engaging your children in a huge job that they can make for some great family time. Seeing eight year old twins use a large push broom to amass thousands of thumb-sized acorns is entertaining to say the least. I guess I have already mentioned that I am mesmerized to the point of fixation with fall foliage. The colors of the trees are as varied as the light shining through many varieties of wines.

But there are many other things that come around chiefly in the fall...

St. Mary's Cornette Ball at the
West Baden Springs Hotel

Elaborate fundraising events requiring a tuxedo for me and a formal dress for the wife seem to be a staple of the season.

The first full week of October brings the massive event that is the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival... rides, games, food booths with deep fried everything and the parade. A week when everything in Evansville focuses on several blocks of west Franklin Street.

Halloween events and the grand gathering of candy by going door to door which is preceded by weeks of the kids deciding exactly what this years elaborate costume is going to be. Not to mention that our new neighborhood sees this as the most amazing party in Evergreen Acres... hot dogs, hot chocolate, popcorn machines and games; again, amazing. I cannot fail to mention the Halloween

Pumpkins distributed at Holiday World

themed weekends at our regional Theme Park, Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. With the water park portion already closed in the cooler weather, the rides and shows get the attention they deserve. Halloween Weekends are a great way to finish off Holiday World Season passes. Do not miss these ride filled weekends. Rhiannon got to ride the Raven Roller coaster eleven times back to back and her and Peter were on the last ride of the season too.

It is time for the Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta and selling Boy Scout popcorn.

The church year rolls around and Reformation Day and All Saints Day are celebrated indicating that Advent is right around the corner.

Michael as Crucifer on All
Saints Day

My drives to and from Indianapolis become a bit more vibrant with all of the color and the crisp fall air.

Pumpkins become a staple of decoration and the mums begin to truly show their variety of color with some growing to be very large and round.

Coffee takes on a whole new dimension as the temperatures are perfect for sitting outside and slowly enjoying a great cup of dark roast.

Dishes such as turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie start to affect our forward thinking as we await Thanksgiving. Of course, many of us think it can go a bit too far as "pumpkin spice" flavored everything overcomes common sense and advertising. Face it... a pumpkin spice cream filled Twinkie is some form of abomination.

Thanksgiving brings a long weekend to many that includes gatherings, large meals, shopping and putting up and decorating a tree heralds the month long march to Christmas.

But tonight brings a change.

In Southern Indiana, when the autumn rains hit, it starts to get colder. and even though winter technically begins over a month from now, the beauty and comfort of fall starts to fade away.

The rains came tonight. The temperatures will now start to drop and the grey clouds of winter will be more prevalent in the nighttime sky.

And this brings me to Ecclesiastes, the third chapter, verses 1 - 15 (quoted here from the ESV):

A Time for Everything

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

The God-Given Task

⁹ What gain has the worker from his toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ¹² I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; ¹³ also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.
¹⁴ I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. ¹⁵ That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

Things change.
Sometimes the shift is predictable like the seasons. Other times, change comes as a huge surprise to us.

Either way, God is in control. Whether it be the season, a death in the family or even the election of a leader; God is in control. Surprises are only surprises for us. We should be joyful in our toils. We have been given our tasks. Fall is ending. Winter is coming. I find joy in winter also and I cannot wait until the first snow falls.

And so it is with age as well... the season of life will someday end as well.

And so seasonal change is at hand. I will be putting out corn for the deer so we can continue to watch them from inside. The coffee will now be sipped indoors and the leaves will be gone until they start anew in the spring.

It is a Friday night.
 
The wife and the twins are at a Cub Scout lock-in event. Michael is

home from his tasks early as the sudden cold rain slowed the customer flow at the restaurant where he works. Luke is down in feeling under the weather and nursing a headache. I sit alone, typing out my thoughts on computer key board with a glass of Zinfandel as the rain drops from the sky outside.

A Friday night... the work week is done. It is time to concentrate on family and the infrastructure of the home. Cleaning and organization for winter will be the mantra of the coming weekend.

The catharsis of writing reaches its end, so I hope you have enjoyed fall as much as I and that you can find joy and beauty in the coming winter. Below, I have shared visual moments in time from this fall. Take a moment and scroll through and share a peaceful season past with me.

Be still and know that He is God...



Ree with the ELS Cheerleaders at the Fall Festival



Ree at the Fall Festival

 

Fall colors near Bloomington, Indiana



Fall view from the overlook at Shoals, Indiana

Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta Boats

Burdette Park - Evansville, Indiana

A fall breakfast at home

The moon through the fall clouds

Corn Maze at Holiday World

Venus

Halloween Weekends at Holiday World

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my world... Till next time on the 4F trail...

The Thin Lines Are Getting Thinner

This is a post about infrastructure.

This is about the part of this nation's infrastructure which keeps you protected and... well... breathing, every day. It is the infrastructure that exists inside our borders that responds every day, regardless of time, regardless of place, and that rarely knows who or what they are responding to on every call.

It is an infrastructure that tries extremely hard to be safe in a very unsafe, ever changing environment.

It is an infrastructure that starts with very altruistic people who by very definition of their makeup believe they can make a difference. And it would only be fair to state that they keep on trying even after many decide that a difference can seldom be made.

The thin lines. In recent history, our public safety components have come to be known by thin colored lines. Blue is the first one I ever remember seeing, then red and then finally white.
The blue represents the spectrum of our law enforcement officers. The red, our firefighters. Lastly, white represents EMS. It is not by chance that they are the colors representing our great nation.

They are called 'thin' lines for a reason.

It is only a thin line that stands between you and crime, you and fire, and you and medical need.

Each is a thin line made up of people that have chosen, or as some believe called, to give up "normal lives" to be there when you need them. Those who have made careers or volunteer in these areas can tell you the stories of what they have given up to be there for you, but many prefer not to tell it. Long hours, dangerous situations, emotional trauma, failed relationships and personal life disruption make up the content of those stories.

They can tell the good stories, and bad, of their efforts. Though many times the bad stories are too bad to tell. In many cases you would find them unbelievable anyway. Those things do not happen in our perfect little worlds. The only outside realization to the reality of a thin line dweller occurs when it happens to you.

So today I feel the need to declare to you what you may or may not already know: The thin lines are getting thinner...

When I first entered public safety it was 1983. It seemed to me that a great number of people wanted to be a "cop," a firefighter or a paramedic. I grew up watching Johnny and Roy on "Emergency" in the early 1970's and am a product of the show. Sure, my dad was a police detective and his brothers were fairly high up officers on the Evansville Fire Department, but I was 100% pushed into EMS and the fire service by that one television show.

Once again... altruistic. I started working in EMS in 1983 and as a volunteer firefighter in 1984. Later, I would even spend a seven year long portion of my life as a deputy coroner (the part of law enforcement that assures that in death, the rights of the individual are protected).

In 1983, there were a lot of people who wanted to show up on the scene of your emergency in a police car, a fire engine, a rescue squad or an ambulance.

Today... not so much. As I talk to administrators in all walks of public safety, the number of applicants for fire department and police positions are down. While there does not seem to be a shortage in these areas yet, it may be coming as the interest wanes. On the EMS side of the fence, there is a nation-wide paramedic shortage and an EMT shortage is looming.

Why? It is a myriad of things. There is some public apathy. There is decreased funding and stagnant reimbursement which directly relates to pay scale. Long hours that are punctuated with moments of sheer terror. A culture that expects us to withstand the aftermath of everything we see.

And it is dangerous and is getting worse. The threats are out there for all public safety. They range from direct violence against public safety, to unsafe scenes on roadways and the ever increasing number of Heroin, bath salt and K2 addicts wanting to fight at every turn.

The lines to sign up for this life are not as long as they used to be. You could say that the lines to make the thin lines thicker are getting shorter.

Hopefully, the things that are causing people to second guess a career in public safety will be quelled. Maybe they will. I am not as optimistic as I was when I was 20.

I sat across the table from a fire chief the other day. He was wearing a thin red line silicon wedding band. I was wearing mine... the thin white line version. Interesting that they manufacture silicone-safety wedding bands that represent our vocational choice as well. We love our spouses. We loved them enough to marry them. If you work in public safety you are also married to the job at hand or you will not last long. Unfortunately, our spouses are well aware of what happens in our daily war. They get to see the times that we just want to sit outside and be alone for awhile. The times when we are actually convincing ourselves to go back the next day.

Hopefully when you interact with a thin white line dweller your encounter will be stellar. That is what we are there for... to make your day better in a moment of tragedy and effect your outcome from the event.

If your interaction is bad, it just might be that YOU are the bad guy. Remember, when you speed in your car, when you cause the fire, when you started the fight or took the drug that caused EMS to come... YOU are responsible. I am not saying that there are no bad people in public safety. There are... but they are small percentage of those that really are there to help you.

We respond because we want to respond. We chose to be your companion in your darkest hour of YOUR emergency. Some public safety personnel like to say all they want is a little respect. I do not care about that as mush as I do for a desire for those interacting with us to be civil, behave and let us do our jobs. If you happen to be the poor bloke responsible for the fact that we are there, simply take responsibility and be nice. Either way, we will still help you to the best of our ability.

Just remember that we want to go home after work too.

So tomorrow, there will be unsafe scenes, desires for body armor, staging till some lone officer assures the scene is safe and all three line dwellers watching the other's backs. It will happen while the media lays the blame, portions of the populace continue on in denial, and we make ready for the next call.

We are family and we will stick together. Hopefully the thin lines hold strong, because without them, calamity reigns supreme.

Scooters, LED Dancers and Pokemon Go... The Evansville Riverfront is Alive!

If you are thinking this piece is going to be primarily about Pokémon go, you will not end up being correct. It is simply the backdrop to the story...

It is indeed true that since last Friday morning, when my seventeen year old son downloaded the Pokémon Go app, we have been driving around town trying to find certain elusive Pokémon, Poke Stops, Gyms and other item.

The game appears to be very addictive and has couple of great side effects like:

I do not have to tell him to take the dog out anymore.

He has walked several miles trying to find the creatures in the game (exercise factor).

He has made friends and wandered around in groups with people he probably would have never met...

And so it goes...

Anyway... apparently city riverfront areas and historical markers are "high target zones" for this augmented reality game. So after two days of him asking to go to either the Newburgh riverfront or the Evansville counterpart, I relented.

Of course the twins came along (see an earlier blog entry called "Scooter Support Parent"), and Luke could not be coaxed out of his cave (full on, summer time crab in his shell). Scooters were loaded off and off we went.

The Newburgh experience was awesome for Michael... Plenty of "Poke Stuff" for him to do with the app, but it was far to crowded and busy with the denizens of phone-in-hand, zombie-like Pokémon Go players walking around with eyes locked on their smart phones (I bet Verizon and ATT are drooling over what has to be record breaking data usage) to even consider getting out of the car.

Evansville's riverfront is far more spread out in width and length. There were probably more people there to, many also playing this new Pokémon phenomenon (I cannot say I am immune as I loved playing Pokémon on a Gameboy back in my 30's... I am a Pikachu fan at heart).

So we parked. Scooters came out for the twins and Michael disappeared to make new friends, find a "Red" group and start catching Pokémon.

The twins and I watched the remainder of the sunset and then I followed on foot as they rode their scooters up and down the mile or so path that is our riverfront.

We eventually made it to the Four Freedoms Monument near our Museum. It makes up a circular plaza with individual monoliths representing each state of our great country with four tall columns... one for each of our four freedoms. It was built around 1976 for the bi-centennial. The place is sometimes a gathering point for prayer vigils, protests, sunset watching and other small events (including... at least for the last four days... Pokémon catching).



LEDs used to see hand motions at night

Tonight, we ran across something new, and there may be a term for this, but since I am uneducated as to what it may be, I will call them LED Dancers.

This was a small group of individuals, probably in their 20's, who were dancing or performing using LED props. One had a wand that he seemed to manipulate in mid-air (while wearing LED shoes), while others had LEDs on their hands that weaved through the air to their motions. They danced and moved to varying music that almost ranged from what could be modern folk music to electronic dance tunes.



Pete and Ree watching from the monoliths

Michael was no where to be found and Peter and Rhiannon were instantly hooked. So was I. I found a concrete slab and settled in to watch. Pete and Ree found a couple of the monoliths and parked atop them to watch. The dancing really held their attention spans well. It was a neat thing to watch in the dark on a summer night under the moon and stars. The river flowed silently by behind us.

It was not professional. It was not advertised. It was awesome.

These people were having fun and it was very relaxing and enjoyable to watch. One young lady danced with abandon to the music and then asked Rhiannon for a "high five."

It did not take long for Rhiannon to remember that her almost four year old scooter has LEDs in the wheels... so she started to ride it in the circle, sometimes weaving through the other performers. They did not seem to mind.

Sometimes she just dropped the scooter and danced to the music.

When she did that, Peter would grab her scooter with it's lighted wheels and ride around the circle too.

It was after 10pm, but who cares. It's summer.

Here are a couple of short videos (with scooter input) to give you an example:

LED Dancers 1

LED Dancers 2

We watched for about 45 minutes until they started to wind down. Rhiannon walked up to one of the girls who had been dancing and said, "Thank you." She smiled and spoke back.

I walked... and they rode their scooters about five blocks back to the car where we found Michael waiting. His phone had died and he was waiting for us to return. He talked of finding a group and roaming the area with it's now superimposed Poke world. He caught some. He "leveled up" twice He was happy.

The twins fell asleep during the drive home.

I sit here now as I write this with one asleep to each side of me. Rhiannon is snoring.

I have resisted the urge to download the app so far. That is an accomplishment for a 52 year old lifelong gamer (have I ever written that I used to own a game store?).

Either way... We will be back next Monday night. I want to learn more of this LED dancing. Little relaxes me sometimes.

This discovery certainly did. The twins and I wish to see more...

Downtown Evansville at night as viewed from the Four Freedoms Monument