Few Fairgoers -- But Tons of Freebies!

I spent Saturday tabling at the Wayman Palmer YMCA in Toledo for the Mercy St. Vincent's Hospital Community Health Fair.

It was a slow day with not many visitors, but I entertained myself by watching little kids play with their freebies (jump ropes, frisbees, face painting, hotdogs) and watching the hospital's hippo mascot (hippo mascot??) shrink or grow drastically throughout the day as a few teen boys kept switching who wore the costume.

I had my laptop, but oddly, the Ohio Benefit Bank's site locator suddenly wouldn't load for a while (even though every other page, including Quick Check would), so that's a good reason to be thankful the fair wasn't busy.

At one point, I talked about OBB for a couple of minutes to this unassuming, plain-clothed guy. After he left, the woman at the table next to mine told me he was the CEO of St. V's! So hopefully I sounded knowledgable...

Mercy St. V's were supergracious hosts -- they kept coming around asking if we needed anything and then handing out free stuff, including hotdogs, t-shirts and fleece car blankets -- which I was able to use that very night at the University of Toledo's homecoming football game, in which they lost in a tragicomical 58-26 massacre to Western Michigan. At least I was warm (and the tickets were free). Thanks Mercy!

As for the fire truck...sorry I couldn't help but snap a shot of Toledo Fire Department apparently needing to change the number of a truck -- and taking care of it with duct tape? How much safer do I feel after seeing that? ... (Kidding!)