Slight Detour: On an Autumn Day

History happened on a portion of South Center Valley Road yesterday.

Interstate Paving brought its equipment and its efficient crew and laid down some pavement.

The job, on a road which almost always presents spring thaw problems, is nearing completion. Bill was told that this portion of the project involved 2,200 feet.

All day long a pilot car went back and forth leading traffic through the project, which seemed to unfold with amazing precision.

The last layer of four layers will go down when weather permits. I don't know if that will be today because it rained all night and will continue to rain until early afternoon.

As I've mentioned before, the paving project presents a double-edged sword.

It provides the potential as a speedway for some drivers, but for those of us living here and dealing with never-ending dust from spring to fall, it's a Godsend.

It will be nice to have true colors remain true rather than looking at times like Mt. St. Helens had blown again and distributed ash all over the trees.

Dusting time in the house will more than likely be diminished and mowing time outside should be much more pleasant and clean.

Overall, it's great to see the pavement. I just hope drivers will be careful with their speed.

We had company yesterday afternoon, and I teased them that the five or six deer which suddenly burst onto the north lawn were performing on schedule just for the kids.

Not so, but it sure seemed that way as they darted this way and that way and then raced right past us toward the woods.

Such a nice surprise the visit with this family has been, first with a phone call out of the blue from a student I had for three straight years back in the early 1990s.

First, Matt was an honors English student, then journalism and finally Cedar Post editor.

I did something with Matt during those times that was rather unconventional. I don't know if he realized it, but we actually team taught.

His brilliant computer mind and knowledge was far beyond what I could ever comprehend computerwise at the time, so I extended him a free rein as the computer whiz in our journalism department.

And, I learned SO much from him about those Apple Macintosh computers which we used to produce the student newspaper, complete with ads and in-house production.

One summer while Matt was a student at Sandpoint High School, he was granted an internship at Microsoft. A highlight of our family trip to Seattle, came when Bill and I and our kids went to visit him at the Microsoft campus.

That was a huge adventure at the time.

While attending Stanford University, Matt worked on a project to create a high-quality 3D computer archive of the sculptures and architecture of Michelangelo.

Read more about it at this link.

https://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/digmich-eva99/

Nowadays, he works at Google, focusing on Google Maps.

After receiving his unexpected phone call and knowing he would be in town, Matt and I agreed to get together here at the Lovestead so I could meet his family.

It was a lovely afternoon, spending time on the deck reminiscing with Matt and getting to know his wife Vanessa and children Dominic and Jacinda.

Matt has reason to be proud of his family.

As usual with visitors, the highlight of the day came with a trip around the Lovestead on the 4-wheeler.

I'm hoping they come back next summer when the horses are home so that Jacinda can enjoy a ride on Lily.

Twas a great time, to say the least.

Matt's kids gathered leaves from the maple tree, and before they left, some rather artistic collections were assembled in readiment for the trip home and for some more art projects.