Saturday Slight

 

Let's call this a socked-in Saturday. 

This morning's paper said that Panhandle Health has asked residents to stay inside this weekend because of poor air quality. 

It's a bit gloomy out there with mountains to the west and east barely visible.

Our area has attracted smoke from regional forest fires.

Yesterday's visibility was fairly bad; today looks a little worse for smoggy air. 

Bill and Willie took off early this morning for the Kootenai River where they'll put in the drift boat and fish their way from Montana's Yaak River to Twin Rivers campground east of Bonners Ferry.

So, it's pretty quiet around here.  

Annie is still sleeping and I'm looking forward to a fairly relaxing weekend.

There's a horse show at the fairgrounds, so I'll probably spend a little time over there, along with Debbie, Annie and maybe my niece Laura. 

Yesterday I took a trip to town, on a mission to find some good settings for an upcoming photographic project.

When you're upclose and personal on a smoggy day, things and some flowers still look kinda pretty for this time of year.  

It was an enjoyable short tour around town with both Community Hall and the Sandpoint Events Center (junior high in my day) triggering some personal nostalgia.

While strolling around the beautifully restored old junior high, even older high school, I thought of my classmates and those classrooms in the main building or the annex where Mr. Loman, Mrs. Durkee, Mr. Bushey, Mr. Bloxom, Miss Curtis, etc., taught us.  

The structure now serves as a multipurpose center for NIC classes, a church and several other offices.

Yesterday was supposed to be the first day of our class reunion, celebrating 55 years since our 1965 graduation.

With luck, maybe we'll celebrate 56 years next year and maybe a few stories from three years of schooling spent inside the building will arise. 

In other news from yesterday, a couple of times while here at home, I saw a Chinook helicopter in the skies above.  One time it flew north over near Schweitzer and then turned around, heading back toward Sandpoint.

Later, it flew right over our house to the northeast.  

I was wondering what it was doing here and still do not know that answer. 

BUT, 

when my birthday-mate and friend Jeff Sater posted the photo below, I now know that the impressive chopper in the skies above Sandpoint has some significant history from skies far away.

Here's what Jeff posted:   

Working at the airport this morning, and the Chinook helicopter pilot said I should check out his helicopter.

[In] 2004 this helicopter took Sadaam Hussein to his trial. I told John the pilot that’s an amazing piece of history, especially since it’s 9/11. 

Thanks to all of our military, police, fire fighters, and first responders who give all for us!

And, many thanks to Jeff for sharing this photo. 

And, so, on this smokey morning, I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable day. 

Happy Saturday.

This stone house across from "the old junior high" served as my mother's first home in Sandpoint. She spent about a month in the structure before moving around the corner. 

I'm told that it was a first house for numerous other Sandpoint residents over the years.