Saturday Slight

Sunny Saturday and BEEutimus up toward Schweitzer. They say the blue sky is not gonna last much past today, and next week's forecast shows that same string of days at 40s, nights low 30s. People have their favorite weather sayings: only fools and newcomers predict the weather in North Idaho or if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes (faulty logic here for sure).

I coined my own generalization several years ago: whatever weather we have, we have a lot of it. That's proving true once again with this week after week of "post-winter trying to get off the pot but never quite managing." Maybe we need some Wesson oil.

Speaking of which: how about that lady who sat in her bathroom for two years! They had to take her and the toilet seat to the hospital. How does that happen? Even I, who spend more than my share of time in the bathroom, can't imagine the possibility.

It's true. I'm not making this up; it happened in Kansas, and they're thinking of charging the boyfriend, who fed her meals for two years in the bathroom, for dereliction of duty or negligence or something like that. Crazy world, for sure.

Today is my friend Ann's 61st birthday, and I bet she's not reading this cuz she's in Hawaii. I guess if you have to turn 61, Hawaii's as good a place as any to do so. Happy Birthday, Ann. Enjoy the sun.

I was saddened yesterday morning, as I've been a few other times, to realize that I knew the young mother who was killed in a car accident on HWY 95 earlier this week. So, often I don't know the married names for former students. This time, when I saw Joni Baker Zantow's picture in the obituaries, I thought of the young lady who sat in my English class.

Joni had a wonderful dry sense of humor; said funny things, always kept a straight face. She was very bright too. I thoroughly enjoyed her as a student and always delighted in visiting with her when we'd meet at the grocery store. Another sad loss for this community. Seems like there have been far too many of that nature lately. My heart goes out to her family.

On a more positive note, congrats to Becky Reynolds. Boots tells me this morning that Becky is retiring next week. Boots' book is doing very well, and they've decided it's time to kick back and enjoy life---fishing, gardening and generally tending to their place, especially cuz Boots is getting older---next week, in fact. Which reminds me of the string of birthdays coming up.

Willie turns 31 on April 1 so he's coming home for his birthday, as is Annie. Willie's wife will be in San Diego on a Girl Scout-related trip. So, we're going to see that he has a nice birthday.

Willie reported on a "full circle" situation this week. He's doing a feature story about the Idaho State heavyweight wrestling champion from Parma. Seems the young man is a great-grandson of our longtime family friends, the Crocketts.

I didn't quite get the connection until Mark Finley's grandmother Maridean Mount Bloom called the day after Willie's note to tell me of a "coincidence." Mark's mother is her daughter, and she thought that reporter's name rang a bell. So when Willie's article appears, we'll have two generations of this family who will have written about the Crocketts---all good stuff, of course.

Two of our three teams lost out in the NCAA finals, so now we'll put all our efforts into pulling for the Cougs. They're playing Notre Dame this afternoon, so we hope they get to move on to the Sweet Sixteen.

On a final note, to all St. Joseph's Sister School graduates who read this, I'm passing along a hello and Happy Easter from Sr. Ricardus Tuskey who lives in an IHM retirement home in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

I received a wonderful card and note from her yesterday, and she said to tell all her friends in Sandpoint hello. Sr. Ricardus is a legend among our group; she's turning 80 this year and celebrating a whole lot of years as a member of the Immaculate Heart of Mary sisters.

Happy Saturday and Happy Easter to all.