bricks and mud

[Brickies (don't call it Lego™ even though it's all actual Legos™) Creation Fest] happened once again in downtown Fort Collins this weekend. Once again, my PEO chapter volunteered to run various activity booths and will receive a nice donation from the organizers. 

Sure beats a bake sale, I say!

I rather enjoy this particular volunteer duty. Fun activities, cute families, downtown Fort Collins... What's not to like? Well, the heat, for one thing. But, what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger.

My duty featured a *Lego* horse race, but I won't bore with the rules. Suffice to say it was enjoyed by many a fest goer, and I somehow managed to make about a 0.4 second appearance in the [instagram promo video] enticing people to come on down.

As with the previous two years I've volunteered, it featured much wholesomeness - attentive parents, cute kids, friendly teens. I particularly liked seeing older kids actually trying to lose the horse race with their younger siblings/ cousins/ friends. One older brother actually confessed, "I'm sorry, I wanted you to win", to his little sis. But it all hinged on the roll of the dice, no real skill involved. He won, fair and square. 

Good times.

Later, last evening, we were absolutely DELUGED  by an aggressive unpredicted thunderstorm. Oh sure, after the thing already moved through, we got alerts for severe weather warnings. 

This morning I went for an absolutely lovely bike ride, and there was a lot of post-storm trash - limbs, mud, guck - around town. Many an underpass was still under a good amount of water along with heaps of "flood mud". 

I confess to actually getting off the bicycle and gingerly making my way through one particularly muddy underpass because it was too spooky to attempt with my skinny tires. That stuff is slippery!

But it's been so hot and dry lately, and this was a nice break from the heat bringing much needed moisture. Everyone I encountered while on my ride seemed to be in a good mood - cheerful greetings all around! Let's not think about politics for a minute!

And all this creation happening reminded me that I've not felt/been very creative lately. 

Feeling heroic from my nearly three whole hours of volunteering, I pulled out the sketchbook.