Saturday Slight

Bill's gone fishin' to Cocolalla Creek---his ritual every first day of stream season. Annie's snoozing in the bedroom next door. She drove over from Seattle last night and arrived just before midnight after bumper to bumper 20 mph traffic for the first couple of hours of her trip. A concert at the Gorge and Memorial Weekend boats, trailers, campers took up plenty of space on I-90 late yesterday afternoon.

My sisters are at their annual Memorial Day horse show in Spokane. Actually, it's two shows in one with two days under one judge and two days under another. The show is their ritual every year at this time.

So, that means I'm headed for my ritual of taking care of their nine horses still at home. That always means a lot of picking and thinking. Picking apples (certified equine variety) and thinking about whatever happens to float through my mind during the tedium.

The triplets are here. The triplets are here. They and their entourage (I think that includes Mom, Dad and Uncle Amato) are over at the Thompson cabin, and we expect to see them today.
It will be a busy but beautiful day.

Sometime this weekend, we'll visit the cemeteries and place flowers at my dad's grave at Pack River and my sister's grave at Pinecrest. She died at two months from crib death in 1950. Her name was Jeanne Marie, and it's always a challenge to find her grave, as she lies among the babies of Bests and Bergstroms. We always know the approximate location, but the tiny identification windows are often buried beneath the grass. We always find it and always vow that we need a better marker.

This weekend I'll think about our soldiers of all wars and remember the sacrifices they've made so that we can enjoy our American lifestyles and a certain amount of freedom of thought. No matter the extent of our personal humanitarian gifts to society, nothing rivals the sacrifice of so many of our troops. This weekend gives us pause to remember that.

So, this Saturday Slight will remain slight. May you all have a weekend of good memories of loved ones lost and of loved ones living.