You know things are back to normal in North Idaho when you've walked from the parking lot, through several aisles of the grocery store and, as you step into the cashier's line, someone announces that your calves are covered with mud.
Or, they don't.
They may not say anything because they've been in that same situation numerous themselves, and it could be theirs are muddy too from stepping out of the car and rubbing against the soup on the surface below the door.
I feel so back at home now, knowing that for off and on over this predicted wet and warm winter, my calves are gonna be dirty.
So, yes, here we have mud again!
It hasn't taken long. Each time over the last two dark, wet mornings that I've stepped out of the barn with CB in tow, I've experienced that sinking feeling----literally.
Yup, North Idaho ground can be hard rock for weeks, but bring some soaking rain, and we're slugging through deep mud.
The nice thing about the rain and relatively warm weather is that grass in the pastures is still sustaining the horses.
It won't be long, though, that I'll be back to putting them in for the night, feeding them three flakes of hay in the morning and at night and cleaning three stalls every day.
The late October rain also helped another round of leaves to fall around the yard. That prompted some rake and lawnmower time once again yesterday afternoon in between showers.
I'm thankful that the lawnmower bag operation still works even if the leaves are a bit wet.
Tomorrow is supposed to be dry, so I may be able to advance to the downhill side of leaf pickup for 2018, 'cept for those oak leaves which fall all winter long.
Bill, the forester, sez the last oak leaves finally let loose when new buds start popping in the spring, so I'll just have to live with the frustration of knowing I'll never score 100 percent in leaf pickup.
In other news, Willie starts officially as head coach for Sandpoint High girls basketball today with the first practice. His first game is Nov. 17. Wishing him a successful first season.
And, this week signals the beginning of ZAGmania. I think they might possibly win in their exhibition game Thursday night against Central Washington, but one never knows.
It was good to hear that the ZAGS defeated Michigan State this weekend in their annual preseason, private scrimmage. So, good times lie ahead for all of us ZAG fanatics.
I'll leave you this Monday morning with a commentary written by one of my friends from the good ol' days when I taught high school English and we needed new textbooks every so often.
Chris was the representative for one of the text-book companies.
The moment I met her, I liked her. She's a very dynamic woman with a wonderful sense of humor.
During our interactions, I learned that one of her claims to fame was that her son (may still do so) starred as Jack in the Jack-in-the-Box commercials.
This morning on Facebook she shared some eloquent thoughts very appropriate to the horrific events at the Jewish synagogue Saturday in Pittsburgh.
I find it very sad that we have to get specific about the exact "day" because there were other horrific events in this country in a three-day span last week.
Here's what Chris had to say:
Last March, my husband and I left the church we have been at for the last eight years - wonderful as it is - and embarked on a journey to visit as many different churches/congregations/gatherings as we could find in our city and beyond.
We were looking to discover similarities rather than differences and we simply wanted to be made aware of how each place was both embracing and impacting the community around it.
It has been an eye-opening and heart-warming experience and an opportunity to dispel any pre-conceived ideas we had about each denomination/affiliation.
This morning, we returned to an area church we had visited before. The pastor was out of the country with a church group and had pre-arranged, months ago, to have a rabbi from an area synagogue preach.
In light of what had just transpired in a synagogue in Pennsylvania, his presence was all the more profound.
The heart of his message was a reminder of how powerful our words are, especially given the ongoing divisive political rhetoric of our time.
The rabbi spoke of how words of bigotry drummed into the minds of followers of any kind can turn one group of people against another, diminishing their human value altogether and inciting violence against them.
He reminded us of how words that bully, label and ostracize people, once spoken, can never be retracted. They are just "out there" in the wind.
In a lighter moment, he reminded us that a famous Jew named Harry Houdini popularized the word "abracadabra" during his magic shows, an expression whose actual translation (I do not recall the origin) is, "AS I SPEAK, I CREATE."
Our words are powerful.
Mine have come back to haunt me more than once.
We are so blessed to have the freedom to speak as we wish, but what we say has to be accompanied by a sense of responsibility.
Are we going to be instruments of peace or harbingers of hostility?
Once spoken, our words are just out there, in the wind.
Abracadabra.
_____
My response to Chris's post on Facebook: Nice message, Chris. Do you think if we said "abracadabra" often enough we could make the hostility disappear and bring back a reasonable sense of harmony?
Twould be nice, wouldn't it?
ABRACADABRA . . . ABRACADABRA . . .ABRACADABRA . . . ABRACADABRA . . .ABRACADABRA . . . ABRACADABRA . . .ABRACADABRA . . . ABRACADABRA . . .ABRACADABRA . . . ABRACADABRA . . .ABRACADABRA . . . ABRACADABRA . . .
ABRACADABRA . . . ABRACADABRA . . .ABRACADABRA . . . ABRACADABRA . . .!
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