Picture Perfect . . . Almost

My brother Mike feigning the appearance of jail bait. 

Laurie appearing a bit pensive after a dramatic ending to her teaching day. 

I know. I know.  I'm beginning to sound like a broken record when stating once more that we had a glorious day yesterday.  

It seemed picture perfect for me from start to finish---except for one disturbing incident. 

I've got the itching to prove that I spent two days primping up my expansive lawn area. Company was coming, and I love that excuse to do the extras, including some weed eating.  

And, I really love---when the work's all done---to walk the yard and admire its spring beauty.  So, that's what I did. 

I also spent a little time over in bee heaven under that big apple tree where the buzzing was notable and the honey bees were sometimes pushing each other out of the way to do their work on single blossoms. 

Turns out two segments of company came to the Lovestead yesterday afternoon.  Can't get better than that when the house is clean and the lawn is looking its best so far this season.  

First, I enjoyed a couple of hours with Mindy, a fellow journalist.  We sat on the deck, sipped coffee, munched on cookies and visited.

Mindy was leaving when my brother Mike and his wife Mary pulled in.  As I introduced them, a hint of familiarity arose.  Mike and Mary had remembered Mindy when she wrote for the Lewiston Tribune, a few years back. They lived in Lewiston at the time. 

Mike and Mary are here enroute to their home near Seattle after two months in Houston.  

So, we asked them if they wanted to go to the Pack River General Store for dinner.  I didn't have to ask twice, but they did need to go back to the cabin first to walk their dog. Then, they would come back and we'd head up Rapid Lightning Creek.

During that intermission from our visiting, the one incident of the otherwise perfect day was unfolding and then wrapping up.

Farmin-Stidwell Elementary School, where my sister Laurie teaches, was on lock-down. 

The school had received a call about 45 minutes before dismissal claiming a gunman with an automatic weapon would be in the school and "dozens will die."  

Within two minutes, the school went on full lock-down (classroom doors locked from inside, lights off, students gathered with their teachers), and law enforcement from four different agencies were descending upon the school to meticulously check every nook and cranny for this possible gunman. 

To say that this community was on edge would be an understatement.  

The school stayed on lock-down for about an hour.  When the building was deemed safe, classes were dismissed one by one, beginning with kindergarteners. A mass of frantic parents stood or sat in their cars outside waiting to see and hug their children.

A little after 5 when Mike and Mary had returned to our house, we sat in the living room somewhat spellbound as Laurie related the details of the lock-down from her perspective inside her fifth-grade classroom. 

From Laurie, we heard terms like "good guys" and those "big guns" as the good guys with their big guns came into each room to see that everyone was all right. 

Students and teachers sat in those darkened rooms, hearing the voices of law enforcement outside in the hallway but not knowing how the whole situation would end. 

In Laurie's case, her students waited another half hour after the good guys had checked her classroom and moved on. 

I can tell you this morning that listening to such an account from one's sister is sobering and unsettling at best.  Obviously, emotions were magnified for all who were directly involved in the situation. 

The too-close-to-home syndrome suddenly shocks one into first-hand reality of similar events we've read about in so many other places across this country. 

From what I heard, law enforcement, staff and students all acted admirably in this tense situation which, thankfully ended happily.

So, yes, almost a picture perfect day but definitely slightly flawed by a scary incident which affected a community.  

Laurie and Barbara joined us for dinner, and we later forgot about the Farmin-Stidwell scare while standing on a mountainside up Box Canyon off the Rapid Lightning Creek Road.  

Those mountains to the west and all the simplicity and splendor of the sun coming down over the Selkirk Range was not only exhilarating, serene and definitely therapeutic. 

In reality, no day can be picture perfect, but this one came close, and all seemed well up there in that quiet setting as we all enjoyed the one more glorious scene in this place we call Heaven.