"City Folk" Come Visiting

 

Meet Wyatt.

Yeah.  You guessed it. 

He's from Boston. 

He's one of the "city folk" who came for a visit to the Lovestead yesterday.

The object was to see horses.  

But Wyatt and his family saw a lot more, including hungry mosquitoes in the woods. 

Wyatt and his family will be in the audience tonight when Wyatt's cousin Ethan from Selle graduates from Sandpoint High School. 

Ethan is the oldest of Peter and Jen Taylor's five boys.  I had the opportunity to get to know him a little better last fall when we rode the 4-wheeler around the neighborhood to settings for his senior photo. 

And, now the family, including the Boston "city folk" will celebrate Ethan's ending of one chapter and the beginning of another.

It was great fun for Bill and me to get to know Jen's siblings, her brother-in-law and her handsome and engaging young nephew. 

Wyatt spent part of his visit, taking fresh flower samples to the grown-ups.  Plus, like Ethan, he got to ride in the 4-wheeler. 

Wishing Ethan the best and hoping we'll see Wyatt and his family again when other Taylor sons graduate. 

Ethan Taylor

Seems like the last day or two has brought on its share of bad news to add to the other bad news that prevails across our world these days. 

Yes, we watched the Congressional hearing on the Jan. 6 insurrection last night. 

And, yes, we agree with Liz Cheney that some evil factors may eventually go away but the dishonor many have wantonly accepted in supporting that evil will never be forgotten. 

Thank you, Liz Cheney, for your integrity and your courage, both of which will always be remembered about you. 

In other not-so-exciting news, I realized yesterday (and I'm thinking it's because of the weather change) that "not so fast" is the rule when healing from plantar fasciitis.  

I've also learned that good days do increase in number, but the bad days still roll around occasionally.

How many other golden oldies out there notice a distinct relationship between weather changes and pain?  Just curious. 

And, speaking of big pain, we received our property tax assessment valuation statement yesterday. 

Just as bad as a case of plantar fasciitis and just as long lasting:  our assessment doubled.  

And, from observing comments social media, we were not alone. 

What gives?  

Tell me that all those developers who are scabbing up the area with high-density housing are not adding significantly to the tax rolls.  

With this situation, it could be a whole lot more land available for the taking when people cannot afford to pay their property taxes. 

Yuck!

On the good news side of things, one of those Pietsch irises that I spoke of yesterday defied the overnight rain and opened up to show its stunning beauty. 

That was a nice surprise this morning, just like the surprise that lit up my iphone just a few minutes ago. 

Annie texted to the rest of us family travelers that the United States will no longer require Covid tests to re-enter the country. 

We learned recently from our friend Marcia that the United States is the only country on the planet still requiring these tests. 

The lifting of the requirement will not lead us to being less careful than our usual practices of wearing masks in tight situations and, for the most part, avoiding tight situations BUT I cannot even articulate the level of relief this news brings to our trip. 

We would have had to test in Iceland, and the thought of being positive and having to stay there an extra ten days was daunting, to say the least. 

Nothing wrong with Iceland but the thought of all that extra expense was pretty scary. 

And, so, a mixture of the good, the bad, the fun and the pretty this morning. 

It's nice to at least have a blend so one extreme can offset another. 

Happy Friday.