Quietville

It's palpable, the quiet, that is. It's not absolute because I can hear the ticking of the bird clock moving time steadily forward to the next hour when an unseen owl will "whooo" or an invisible robin will chirp.

We forget that we have the clock. It's been with us for several years. Still, conversations stop short when the clock lets out its hourly bird sounds. We don't notice it, but the people on the other end of a telephone conversation or visitors sitting in the living room do.

Things we take for granted. That bird clock is one of ours. Or, the yellow "wolf crossing" warning at the end of the driveway. Could be drivers new to South Center Valley Road probably notice that too. Surely, by now, the neighbors know that the only wolves crossing our driveway are imaginary and silent, like this morning.

This is one of those rare weekends in Sandpoint when lots of locals are somewhere else. We noticed it last night while going to dinner on Saturday night rather than our usual Friday evening outing. Town was nearly empty. Booths were aplenty at Mick Duff's, and parking spaces were abundant.

It's Bloomsday weekend in Spokane, and at last count, 50,000 runners were expected for the annual event. For those who stay home, it's quiet, and we're probably enjoying that as much as the folks out on the streets, lining up, waiting for their respective starter's gun to go off.

The silence of the area won't last long. By late afternoon, tired bodies will fill cars and direct them back toward the hundreds of little towns that empty out for the big race in the big city. The noise will start again, traffic will snarl and parking spaces will once again fill up.

A complete contrast to this quiet weekend in Sandpoint will happen in just two weeks when Lost in the '50s brings in thousands of car, nostalgia and party-loving humans to walk the streets and dance up a storm. The town will rock, and forget finding a parking spot.

We're not worried, though, cuz that weekend we'll be lounging at a resort in Chicago, where there are people and cars aplenty and probably not a lot of quiet. It's a once-in-a-lifetime family experience, though, so we're excited.

For now, we're enjoying the peace and serenity of a rainy May morning, and pretty soon that clock will belt out another bird sound to break the silence.

Happy Sunday from quiet North Idaho where we're thinking about Annie running her first marathon in Vancouver, B.C. She says she wants to finish by noon. That way, she'll have surpassed the time Oprah set while running her marathon. Good luck, Annie. See photo below.