Soggy Monday

I don't think we'll have to worry about a drought this week. The ducks are in heaven, and the grass is aiming that way. I'm sure that as soon as the rain ceases, my lawnmower's gonna have a good workout.

We're back from Boise, each of us depending heavily on our coffee this morning. Bill and I arrived home about 9 last night, unpacked the suitcases, read the papers, and watched the season finale of "Survivor" before heading to slumberland. Willie drove in from his flight to Spokane about 11:30. So, we're feeling the Monday morning effects of re-entering the routine.

Bill's decided to take the day off. He got skunked several times with his geocache searches this weekend. He introduced Annie's friend Jennessa to the sport. They searched for two caches at the Morrison-Knudson Nature Center and at another location on the greenbelt. Unfortunately, Jennessa missed out on the excitement of locating her first caches because both were not there to be found. She's planning to purchase a GPS, though, and give it a try on her own.

Later, Bill and Annie did locate two caches----one in the Boise foothills, the other at the mall. On our way back, while he searched for yet another cache at Packer John's cabin near New Meadows, I headed up the road on the bike. Though, the shoulder was pretty narrow or nonexistent along the way and passing cars sprayed me while they splashed through the puddles, I enjoyed the ride.

Bill was planning to stop at the 45th parallel north of New Meadows for his final search of the day, so I pedaled 5.5 miles to that stop. Again, he got skunked. Disappointment does not deter a geocacher, though. I'm sure he'll be out looking for some others on this wet day off.

We stopped in Riggins at the Snake River Inn where Bill enjoyed a "Seven Devil" sandwich, and I ate half an "Ogre." It's an enlarged English muffin bun, loaded with pastrami, cheese, sauerkraut, and mayonnaise. Much better than last Sunday's taco salad, but too much for my shrunken stomach to accept. Bill also had to a chocolate milkshake from Donald's on down the road in Lapwai.

Today, once the rain stops, the usual work begins anew. I brought back tomato plants, parsley, fennel and some spider wart from Betty Munis' unbelievable huge garden, which covers three lots in Boise. These plants are all in for a shock as they hit the ground here where it's not so warm and our not-so-fertile clay soil will give their roots a tough job of reconnecting with the earth.

Even though we enjoyed all the activities associated with this weekend, it's always good to get home, especially this time of year, to see how much everything has grown and to know that our animals have done just fine, thanks to Melissa who watched the place.

Also, after returning from these occasional trips, I find there's also plenty of "catch-up" on my plate, so I'd better get a move on. Happy Monday, to all.