Home! :)

Always fun to go.  Always fun to come home.  

Bill and I had a nice weekend in Montana.  Occasionally, it seems very healthy to recharge the engines and to mess up the daily routine with completely different sights, sounds and people. 

That's what we did, and we enjoyed every minute of our time away from home.

But the minute we climbed back into that car after a stop off at Kalispell's Costco for a chunk of cheese, some Folger's coffee, a bag of frozen appetizers and stock-ups for the sweets cupboard, I couldn't wait to get home.

Still, the four-hour drive provided a nice, relaxing change of pace from the day-to-day scurrying around that I'm accustomed to at home. I had no choice but to relax. 

It's nice at times to be in a setting where nodding off is an option which goes relatively unobserved by the outside world.  I think I nodded as we were coming into a rainy Libby. 

The trip over and the trip back also allowed some time to dream of spots we've visited in a faraway land called Ireland as we listened to two CD's packed with funny stories and pretty songs by the Men of Worth who performed at the Panida last month. 

We also took a time-out in Bonners Ferry to try out the new Mexican Restaurant on Main Street. It's one of three under the same ownership in the area, including one at Priest River where we've eaten before.  

Once we were seated in a booth, we saw on the big television screen that the Denver Broncos were losing to the Indianapolis Colts.  

As we waited for our order, I also watched one of the servers performing quality control on a large tub of freshly cooked nachos.

"If they're soft in the middle, we throw them away," she told me, adding "they don't go to waste because he (the owner) feeds them to the pigs." 

Another server, a very personable young man who happens to be the son of the owner, chimed in that the pigs like the cull nachos so much that they don't want to eat their pig food. 

We also talked quarterbacks with him.  He kinda thinks Peyton Manning has passed his prime. Not long after that assertion, Peyton threw a pass for a touchdown.  

"Wha'd you say about Peyton?" Bill teased. 

We enjoyed our mid-afternoon lunch-dinner of taco salad for me and Chile Colorado for Bill. When we walked out the door, we felt as if we'd made a new friend with this young football aficionado who is determined to get a business degree and eventually take over the family business. 

Once home, I carefully opened the garage door to greet two excited, loving black and white faces. 

Kiwi and Foster were happy to see us.  Kiwi always weeps with joy when we've been away. Yesterday was no different. 

We wasted no time putting away all the suitcase stuff, taking care of a few other incidentals and then settling in to getting caught up on the newspapers.  I still have to read yesterday's Sunday Spokesman.  

While reading the Daily Bee, I was especially moved by a very personal column written by new Bee publisher Jim McKiernen who poignantly but pointedly shared the specific stages of grief associated with the loss of his 23-year-old son who died in a car accident just a couple of years ago. 

The piece had to be excruciatingly difficult for Jim to write, but after last week's suicide of a beautiful 14-year-old teen with connections to virtually every segment of the community, Jim's thoughts were timely. 

The community collectively aches for answers and mourns this loss and recent losses of other area young people, with full lives ahead but abruptly cut short. 

Reading Jim's piece jerked me back into the reality of being home where daily concerns on the farm, in the community and within the vast world out there once again monopolize the daily headlines of our thoughts. 

Our weekend break to a different place with different things to do and different people to see took me almost completely away from all that.  

For example, I forgot my usual job of wishing people happy birthdays on Facebook. Happy Birthday to everyone who turned a year old over the weekend!

News of sporting events, which usually dominate our weekend interests was somewhat spotty.  

Instead of chore time, which falls at exactly at 6 a.m. each morning, I was grabbing a few extra snoozes, arising at 5 a.m. instead of the usual 4:30.   

Oops, those weren't extra snoozes!  It was Mountain Standard time in Montana!  I was actually getting up half an hour early and thinking I was so rested. 

Funny how we can trick our minds, but clocks and time don't lie. Glad I realized that fact this morning rather than over the weekend, or I mighta thought I was tired. 

Anyway, everything's pretty much back to normal this morning.  I got up at the usual time, did my computer and coffee gig, and later tended to horses waiting in the dark barnyard for breakfast.  

Kiwi wasn't crying; instead, she was fully engaged in her early morning "discussions" with Lily under the fence. 

Now with papers read and blog almost complete, it's time to look ahead, prepare for whatever's coming down the pike and return to the daily routine.  

Like a career sabbatical, a weekend away provides an escape from the mundane and definitely a new lease on life, at least for a while!

I do know that we're back in the groove because I just heard Bill from downstairs, "So long," to which I responded, "Have a good day."

Happy Monday to all.