Slowly but surely we're getting away from the subject of snow, although we did get a skiff last night. And, I did enjoy some pleasant snowshoeing with the dogs in Meserve's field yesterday afternoon while the sun was shining.
The diminished snowpack has gotten hard enough, thanks to the melt followed by freeze, that conditions are almost ideal---'cept for when you catch a front edge of your snow shoe under the crusty stuff. I cut a couple of hysterical poses yesterday while recovering from those near falls, but the dogs were nice enough not to laugh.
Anyway, as January moves on at a pretty good clip this year---one third over already---schedules of "to do's" are filling up, and people like me are once again getting out to see other people. And, that's always fun after that period of semi-hybernation.
As January moves closer to February and the Super Bowl, those of us who've been following Chase Mikkelsen's quest to be selected for an empty slot on the Seattle Sounders Soccer team roster, are getting more excited about his chances when he tries out in a made-for-TV special following the Super Bowl. This week a clip from King-5 TV in Seattle aired on a Spokane Belo affiliate.
Yesterday, both my daughter Annie and Chase's mom Jeannie sent me the link, which I watched. Chase is pretty impressive on this clip, so I'm including it this morning.
http://www.king5.com/video/eveningmagazine-index.html?nvid=319967
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I visited the museum yesterday afternoon. Hadn't been down there for months. They're celebrating news of being awarded a $15,000 grant for preserving historical, cultural and archeological resources.
This award marks the first time for the Idaho Heritage Trust, the Idaho State Historical Society and the Idaho Humanities Council have collaborated to help one statewide historical entity each year with funding. The funds will be used for computer updates and continued indexing of images and information stored within the local museum collection.
Pretty neat, if you ask me.
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Today is one of my longtime, closest friend's 60th birthday. I send greetings to Susie/Sky Baldwin. I used to call her Susan when she first moved to the red house at the Bonner County Fairgrounds on North Boyer about a mile north of our farm. Her dad Dick worked for the Forest Service. Her mom Marge stayed home with the three kids, which included her brothers, Neil and Rex. She was in the fifth grade; I was in the seventh.
Even when she caught up with me at junior high, we kinda went our separate ways at school. Once home, however, I left home each afternoon and headed for Susie's. I don't know when I started calling her Susie, and she knows I have a hard time calling her Sky after all these years of friendship. She took on the new moniker when she moved to Arizona, I believe.
Anyway, what's in a name. There's a lot in a good friend, however, and I consider her one of my best ever. Susie and I spent our share of time engaging in impish (these days probably illegal) activity. When anyone moved out of the neighborhood, we knew the minute they packed up the last load and drove off, not to be seen again.
Allowing the country road dust to settle, we headed straight for their empty house to investigate. I don't know what we expected to find, but we always searched in case they left something good behind.
One of my most vivid memories came the day we decided to investigate---up close and personal---the lifestyle of Dusty. Earl Duston (later to be called Durston, his real name) was the hermit who lived in the woods across from what is now the LDS Church on Schweitzer Cut-off Road.
Dusty and his lifestyle were intrigingly mysterious to all the younger set in the neighborhood---with his herd of goats and his little rustic hut in the woods. He rode a bike, collected bottles for cash and always sported a beard extending from his Adams Apple, much like his Billy Goat.
Susie and I planned our visit carefully, coming up to his residence on the back side, through the woods from the north. We had almost reached his home when Susie turned around to whisper something to me, quietly, of course. Her back was to the hut, while I faced it. Suddenly, around the corner of the weathered structure, a thin, ghostlike figure appeared.
I wasted no time doing a 180. Susie got the message, and we raced back into the woods. I don't know if Dusty saw us and if he did, if he realized who it was. All I know is that we scampered to safety and decided not to do that again.
My childhood memories with Susie are endless, and my adult memories are just as rich. Susie has done so much with her life---living in Juneau and Homer, Alaska, traveling and photographing all the national parks of South America, building a beautiful log cabin in the hills above Lima, Montana, running her own fruit farm in Victor, Montana, always owning horses, traveling in Australia, living in Arizona, now living in Colorado and avidly working her way up the levels of dressage.
We reconnect from time to time. Neither time nor geography have diminished our friendship. In her birthday card, I suggested that in the years ahead, we need to find a time with our respective horses when we can take off down a trail and gab the miles away. I also suggested that at this age, neither one of us would probably challenge the other to a horse race.
Happy birthday to a dear friend who has lived 60 years impressively, even if I'm still taller than you!
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I'm going to Coffee Cult this morning, so I'd better shut up and save my mutterings for the group, if I can get a mutter in edgewise that is.
Happy Saturday.
1 comment:
Good old Earl. One winter Earl's foot had frostbite and part of it had to be amputated. He stayed with us til the spring. He ended up getting a trailer to live in. Every week we would go out to the trailer to see if he needed anything. Sometimes he would have scotch tape over his eyebrows or on his ears. He didn't have any teeth and it was hard to understand him. He died in 1981.
Michelle
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