Saturday Slight

Bill brought home some pretty wood this past week.  Looks too pretty, in fact, to burn. 

We're on the wind down from simply turning up the thermostats to opening up the stove door and starting a fire. 

Usually, it's Thanksgiving before we begin to feel the coziness created by fires inside our wood stove.  

Looks like we'll have plenty of fuel to burn, as Bill's wood pile keeps growing with his occasional wood cutting trips. 

Speaking of wood, yesterday marked a significant transition time in our neck of the woods. 

Bert Wood loaded his cow herd (which does include more than the lone black bovine in the photo) at the Meserve Preserve into his big red transport truck and headed on down the road.

Except for deer, moose and an occasional coyote, the field north of us should be empty and quiet until late spring. 

Along with growing wood piles and fewer cows mooing next door, leaves and needles have been gradually creating colorful carpets on the ground, and we have quite a few naked trees around the area.

I've never quite figured out why some trees lose all their leaves while others of the same species, standing in pretty much the same area, continue to show off their fall colors.

Bill, the observant forester, likes to watch the oak tree, which spends all winter getting rid of its leaves and then, when the very last are about to hit the ground in the spring, its buds start showing up for a new season.

All just wonders of Mother Nature's scheming, I guess. 

Speaking of transitional situations, I think there's an entire community waiting to see construction wrapped up on that new bridge across Sand Creek on the Schweitzer Cut-Off Road. 

One person, closely associated with the project---proximity-wise, anyway---noted yesterday that she had heard that the project was supposed to be completed Nov. 4 but that she heard recently that the date will be extended.  

To what date?  She doesn't know, but she would like to know.

I do believe patience is wearing thin among the drivers who really could use a GPS (very up-to-date one at that) to figure their way from one destination to another-----in little ol' Sandpoint. 

Yesterday, I had a couple of errands to run in town, including one at Miller's Country Store, over on Baldy Road. 

To beat the congestion on the highway, I stayed on Selle Road, crossed the highway and started south along North, North Boyer Road. 

There's a railroad crossing about two miles down that road. It was blocked, and a gentleman in a pickup told me the train had just stopped, so it would probably be a good idea to just turn around.

So, I drove my two miles back and headed toward the highway, figuring I'd turn off at the Bronx Road rather than driving all the way into town to come back through town to go to Miller's Country Store. 

All went well on this slight detour from the big detour until I hit Woodland Drive. 

That's the place where we, in our family, are now reminded that we used to live behind that big cyclone fence along the left side of the road where a forest of trees has been cut down and dozed into several piles. 

I mention this only because it's very familiar territory for me, having lived there for most of my life. 

Well, on Woodland Drive, I started seeing signs alerting drivers to a flagger ahead.  Soon, I rolled to a stop behind some other cars and sat for three or four minutes. 

When it was time to turn down Great Northern Road, I saw a train on the tracks just south of where I was turning.  

I thought about going across the empty tracks and driving through our former Upper Place (now a housing development---but the trees I planted are still there!). 

Then I decided that maybe the train wasn't that long, so I headed on down Great Northern Road but had to stop behind a long line of cars just past the driveway where our Love family lived for 30 years. 

The crossing was blocked.  I took a deep breath feeling my patience waning and figuring that surely this would not last too long.

After the sixth or seventh car came north past me, I realized, that those drivers had been sitting at the front of the pack, had waited long enough and had turned around. 

So, after a five-minute wait, I joined them, driving a mile back to the place where I had originally thought I should have taken. 

Upon arriving at the stop sign for Mountain View Road, I met a former student, Rod Berget who works for the City of Sandpoint. 

Rod was just shaking his head about the traffic jams around our once quiet community. We visited for a minute, and then I headed up Mountain View Drive, down Gooby Road to the south end of Great Northern Road where another longer line of cars extended clear to Baldy Road.

Guess what!  They were waiting for the train to move on and open up the crossing. 

Twas at least 45 minutes after I had left home here in Selle (nine miles from Sandpoint) when I finally arrived at Miller's Country Store. 

Later, I moved on to Super 1, bought my stuff and while leaving the parking lot, discovered that the area where one usually goes out to get on Larch and get in line for the stoplight-----it was fenced off, so I had to back up and try to go out another way.

I looked over at the roundabout, which usually flows nicely.  Traffic jam at the roundabout.  That meant I'd be sitting in the parking lot a lot longer than I wanted.  

So, instead of trying to turn left or jetting across the street to Sixth Avenue, I took a right turn, went around the roundabout and finally got into line for the traffic light. 

There was a moment while driving through several more stoplights that I was thinking Sandpoint is beginning to feel too much like Coeur d'Alene, which is a much bigger city and which drives me crazy cuz of all the traffic. 

I'm guessing that when and if they ever finish that bridge where my brothers and I used to play along the shores of Sand Creek in our idle, peaceful youth, we will see and feel a major attitude shift among us locals. 

For now, it's grit your teeth, be patient and just keep remembering that this too shall pass and the frustrations we've been experiencing during what we expect to be a simple drive to town will lessen----maybe!  

Then, another construction project will begin!  I think it's a conspiracy!

Happy Saturday.