You know you are in the Tennessee, or at least the South, when you visit a church and leave your name in their little visitor book, and not five hours later the associate pastor shows up on your front doorstep with a loaf of banana bread in hand. Even better - he happens to live just a few doors down from us.

I tell you what - Kalifornistan is an entirely different country from the rest of the States.

1. I somehow managed to drag Better Half to a gun show this weekend, but to say it was a little disappointing would be putting it mildly - lots of antique stuff and war memorabilia, but even fewer modern firearms than could be found at gun shows in Southern Kalifornistan. Amusingly, a few folks on a forum complained that this particular gun show "only" had 200 tables, and, lo and behold, they were correct. Should have listened, eh? However, on the flip side, gun shows seem to be a bi-monthly event in this state, and other ones are supposedly better.

2. After visiting two gun shops and one gun show in person, and calling another shop, I was unable to dig up a Walther PPS to fondle. However, on the way back from the gun show, and on a complete and utter whim, I pulled into one of the oddest shops ever - a hybrid golfing and shooting store. On the one side, they had golf bags and clubs and balls and turf and gloves and shorts and shirts and hats and all that crazy stuff that guys with the short shorts and long socks need to go out and waste hours chasing around some little white ball. And, on the other side, hunting rifles, safes, shotguns, ammunition, pistols, and, amazingly enough, a Walther PPS - in 9mm, even. Yes, I fondled it. Twice.

I think I like this state. Where else would people complain about "only" 200 tables at a gun show (and be right), and where else could one find a store specializing in both golf and guns? Shiny...

I am not entirely convinced this is the best way to make use of my YouTube account (you know, the account I just rediscovered this evening, after apparently having it for a year and not remembering opening it), but here we go anywise.

Better Half and I decided to immerse ourselves in a little of the local... culture... this evening, and went to a county fair. Pretty standard stuff, but the one thing that stood out was the lawn mower races.

Yes, people race riding lawn mowers. Believe me. And it is just as scary as it sounds.

By way of proof, I offer you the following three videos: Part 1, part 2, and part 3. The quality was kind of shoddy, and a fair bit more was lost on the upload to YouTube, so if you all want the original *.avi files (God alone knows why, though), just drop me a line.

All said, I am not sure which was scarier: (1) the sheer amount of money that just had to go into the speed machines, or (b) the fact that drivers rode them with helmets, and not much else in the way of protection... no kevlar, no leather, no roll cages, nothing. And these little buggers, at least in some classes, went fast.