The Elementary School Carnival

And then there’s the pop bottle ring toss. One game ticket, three rings, seven hundred bottles of pop. Keep any bottle you ring. My child gets two Mountain Dews in three shots.

That’s not hard, I think, so I hand over a ticket. Nothing.

Another ticket. Nothing.

A third ticket. “Hey, that one’s leaning! A leaner counts, right?”

Wrong. Grudgingly, knowing I can’t quit, I hand over another ticket. Finally, a winner! Yes!

For…a bottle of water?!? The kid gets two Mountain Dews for two-bits, and I spend a buck to win a bottle of water at a game stationed beside the drinking fountain that’s giving it away for free?

Lesson learned: Let the kid toss the rings.

Spring is here! At least, it must be if schools are having their annual Spring carnivals. Sure, as I wrote this last weekend we were under a Winter Storm Warning. Sure, two days before it was published we had snow and freezing rain. High temperatures in the teens?

Bah! If there's an elementary school carnival a-happening, it's Spring. End of story.

Anyways, my latest newspaper column was published on Friday. The above is a little piece that got cut in final editing. Here's a link to the online version and the printable version.

Happy Spring, everyone! Enjoy the snow! (You know there's gotta more coming...)