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The number and variety of activities and events in Gainesville is really quite something. If you pay attention to the calendar and have reasonably broad interests, you will seldom be bored.

This weekend was the Downtown Festival and Arts Show, which takes place every year in November. Mrs. Hill and I have been many times, and this year’s was much like the others, with countless booths of framed photographs, handicrafts, paintings, sculpture, and so on. There was also an array of unhealthy carnival-style food, like funnel cakes, and a booth that had just about everything people usually eat, but in fried form. There was free cheese, and even Sonic was there.

What was fun about this year’s festival was seeing so many people we knew. Dan and Heather were there with Ayler, looking happy as ever, and our other friend named Heather was there with her boyfriend Brian, enjoying an unusual day off from his job at Sweetwater Branch. Plus, on our bike ride downtown, we saw Danielle, our hairdresser, watering the plants in her front yard, and we stopped and chatted.

The weather was perfect, the dancing was entertaining, and the Spammobile was there.

Some jackass in Texas is on trial this week, charged with animal cruelty after killing a cat he said was hunting the birds he was studying.  (I won’t get graphic in this post, but I am sensitive to the feelings of others, so only continue if you can bear it.)

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