Virtual and remote
This past weekend was the Brawley Cattle Call celebration. It’s been a big deal for decades. There’s been a Cattle Call parade preceded by roadkill grilling, music and cowboy poetry at the gazebo. Perhaps the biggest attraction has been the rodeo at the Cattle Call arena.
This is a professional, competitive rodeo for those bronc busters who ride the circuit and break hearts in the towns they visit. But this year? The cowboys are competing in front of empty stands. Bars, restaurants and motels are virtually empty.
Local reporters have written about the big hit that local businesses are taking Valleywide from beer sourced from El Centro to burgers in Brawley and everything in between.
Michael Maresh writing in this newspaper even notes that the city of Brawley will be shorted on sales tax during the usually busy Cattle Call weekend. Because the rodeo competition will be virtual and most other events weren’t held. The rodeo was available on the Cowboy Channel Plus app, which came with a price. Oh, what times we live in.
As if the virtualization of the rodeo wasn’t bad enough, the Cattle Call queen was crowned in Yuma, Ariz., home of the Zonies. Even Ben Yellen would have raised a ruckus about this. Arizona’s restrictions on gatherings have been looser than California’s, so the Cattle Call Queen and her court were crowned 55 miles to the east. I can only hope that Kamrin Dickerson and her court will be able to ride in the Cattle Call parade next year.
So much is virtual during the pandemic. Will we be eating virtual turkey on Thanksgiving? I hope not. However, we are asking younger guests to take a COVID test if they plan to come to our scaled down dinner. Free COVID tests are available at local drive- thru
CVS and Rite Aid pharmacies. Call ahead for information and scheduling. And we’ll be dining in the backyard. It’s full of cactus, some thorny, so I’ll need to drape crime scene barricade tape around likely offenders. The plus side is that it is a joy to be outdoors this time of year. The weather is perfect, and our northern friends envy us so.
The national political news has been less than encouraging, and I fear that the opposition to accepting election results undermines future elections. That is a dangerous development for our democracy. It doesn’t matter what party you support now because eventually your turn will come. Your victory will one day be doubted. I’ve been around a while, and I’ve never seen such harebrained and shortsighted partisan nonsense. Let’s get it together America. One person one vote. The results have been double checked and certified. The heavy set lady has sung. Accept the results and move on. Focus on the Thanksgiving menu and helping with preparations.
Amidst discouraging news about the pandemic’s spread and a divided nation, I had a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow experience this week. This is apple season, and I’m serious about the apples I eat. For me there is only one type of apple, and that’s McIntosh. So I looked in local stores. We even made a trip to Sprouts in Yuma. No Macs! What is going on?
I found an online company that would ship me those precious apples, but the shipping cost equaled that of the apples. Naw. That’s too much. I came close to contacting a friend in New York and asking her to send me a dozen but not labeled as apples. California and Arizona impose a quarantine on shipped apples. Yet another quarantine.
And as a last attempt, I stopped at Vons in El Centro, and there they were. Those beautiful red and green apples. They are crispy, not too sweet, and somewhat tart. There’s a reason a computer is named after this apple. It’s the best.