Home for New Years

Our 3200 mile Christmas Trek is complete. We got home yesterday after an eight hour drive from Billings. We had great weather on Friday as well...although the first 60 miles outside of Mitchell, SoDak where a little sketchy. The skies were clearish but the wind was still blowing and it was already really REALLY cold.

Once we got to Chamberlain and crossed the Missouri river, the conditions changed. We could travel at 80 again and we made the nine hour drive to Billings.

We even got in early enough to go to Jake's Montana Steak House and watch the Cougars defeat Iowa State in the AlamoBowl.

While it is great to be home, we are sick. Today is day se7en of this cold I've complained about and Susan is stricken with a pretty severe case of flu. 

We are staying in and staying Quiet. It looks like a great New Years Eve for us.

Corn Palace

The alarm went off at 6:55 and we were on the road by 8:30.

The day started in Des Moines where it rained all night. It was wet out but it was warm. We loaded up the car, double checked the house for anything we left behind and hit the road. Susan drove first and got us to Souix Falls in three hours and seven minutes. I took over and the weather turned frosty. 

When we got to Sioux City and Interstate 90, it was near white out conditions and snow blowing across the freeway. The visibility was horrible and I think I made a top speed of 50 for a little while. I drove for almost 3 hours and we turned off at Mitchell. It's about one third of the way across the state. The forecast for tomorrow looks more promising than the current conditions so at 3PM, we got a room and went to dinner. 

I don't remember the name of the local joint we went to but it was a nice little Bar and Grill in downtown...right by the Corn Palace.

I enjoyed a local dish I never heard of before that consisted of Bits of steak dropped into a deep fat fryer. I got em rare and they were tastey. 

We then looked for a store and got some supplies. Brandy and cough drops for me and beer for Susan.

The nice thing about this detour is we finally got to see the World's Only Corn Palace.

The poor quality of the pictures is an indication of how cold it was out there. The pictures and columns and most of the building are all decorated with thousands of ears of corn.

Iowa - Day Six

Today is our last full day in Iowa. We are going to lunch with the cousins and then going to see a play tonight.

Last night's news was talking about snow advisories in South Dakota. I looked on some SoDak traffic cameras just now and they definitely have snow. It's not a lot at this point and I don't know what the forecast calls for.

We had already decided to make the trip back a three day affair. That will make it easier on us and the drive. The plan for tomorrow is to make it to Rapid City. That's 626 miles. On Friday, we plan to reach Bozeman. That is a distance of 458 miles. 

The Washington State Football Cougars are playing Iowa State in the AlamoBowl. It looks like the game is at 7:00. We should be able to make Bozeman in time for us to find a bar and watch the game. If we are doing really well, I'm going to try and make it to Butte. That's only another 90 miles, but we will be crossing the Continental Divide in the dark.

On top of everything, I have developed a cold, with a sore throat and stuffed up head. It's not keeping me down but I'm not feeling terribly perky.

11:06PM: We had a delightful lunch with the cousins. I had a nice French Dip sandwich which gave me trouble when we returned home and I laid down for a nap.

I napped until 6 and then we went downtown to a play called "Triple Espresso". It was a community theater offering and it was hilarious. I enjoyed myself in spite of how I feel...which is not great.

When next you hear from us, we'll be in snowy Rapid City, SoDak.

Christmas 2018

Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings to the two or three people who visit this blog. I hope you are having as wonderful a time as we are!

Another Night of Blues

We are pretty much Bloozed Out. We've been to three shows in three days.

Last night was the All-Star Reunion show for Blues on Grand, a defunct Blues Bar that everyone in the Blues Community seems to revere here. The bar is still functioning and lots of Blues bands play there, but now it is called "The Gas Lamp".

They played for over three hours straight with a variety of performers getting up and playing. Nephew Neil is to the far right on his keyboards. The venue was a funky little bar called "Lefty's", named after a three legged dog.

Our schedule for today is pretty low key. I need to find some ZiCam as I feel just a tinge of a sore throat. I don't want it to get any worse than a tinge.

Christmas Shopping

Including today, there are three shopping days left before Christmas. That seems like a good time for me to start. And so I did. I would love to tell you about it, but I have to go downstairs and decorate Christmas Cookies. It's a treasured Christmas tradition.

Okay! That cherished tradition is in the books for another year.

I managed to get just about everything I wanted on my shopping sojourn, plus I came up with a couple of good added presents. It's a cold cloudy day in Des Moines and the shoppers are definitely out. I wasn't in any big hurry and especially because I'm unfamiliar with the city, I bided my time.

We went to Phil and Margaret's church tonight for their Saturday evening service. It was nice but frustrating to see a church that is doing well when we attend a church that is barely hanging on.

After the service, we went to a local bar to hear another band that Neil plays in, the Soul Searchers. They are a very tight bluesy band and really a joy to listen to.

It's now about 10 pm and time to wind down the day. I have one more thing I need to get tomorrow and I think I know where to get it. Let's see how I do.

Christmas in Iowa-Days One and Two

We are spending Christmas in Des Moines this year. We arrived last night after a two day driving adventure across Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dak and finally, Iowa.

We made it to Sheridan, Wyoming the first day. 690 miles! The weather was great for the drive. The only place it was a little bit sketchy was at Lookout Pass on the Idaho-Montana border. It was slushy for about 25 miles. 

Then we got directed off the freeway at Superior, Montana because of some wreck on the Freeway. We drove down this two lane country road for 15 miles until they got us back on the main road. 

At one point, the road went right along side the freeway and west bound semi trucks were backed up for miles. They had to sit there for however long it took to clear the accident. 

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Speed Limits in Eastern Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota are 80 MPH which means I set it at 85 with no concern for getting pulled over.

Unfortunately, we traveled on the shortest day of the year so we had to drive in the dark a lot. Here's a nice sunset from two thirds of the way across SoDak.

Here are some other pictures from the road,

Here is a shot of the Devils Tower in Wyoming. This is as close as we got.

We always have books to listen to on the road, which really helps pass the time. We started with a book called "Circe" by Madeline Miller. Unless you are really in to mythology and fantasy, do not get this book.

We listened for four hours, waiting for some sort of story to begin. We finally gave up and turned to "The Reckoning" by John Grisham. This was much better and captured our interest immediately.

I'm going to return "Circe" to Audible. I got it because it was recommended by the Audible Editors as one of the best fiction books of the year. I shall not put much stock in their recommendations in the future.

We are here now and Winter has officially arrivened although it doesn't look like it in Des Moines. It looks like Fall. But it feels like Winter.

We are off to shop and wash the car.

Snow Blow One

We had overnight what I consider to be our first official snow fall. 

It falls into that category because I had to break out the snow blower. I covered my regular territory of the driveway, the alley next to the driveway, the sidewalk on Wall, and the sidewalk on Waverly Place. I also did a little on Cleaveland. 

Since it was my day off, I got to do it at a leisurely pace. 

The snow blower ran great at first, but started acting up and surging as I finished up the alley. The snow there was really wet and I had to stop and clear the barrel several times. I'm going to go get some STP or other such gasoline additive to help blow out the junk and super fortify my existing old gas.

Out With One Season and On to the Next

It's December now so we are tearing down Thanksgiving and Autumn and proceeding directly to Christmas.

We have been painting sky walks for the last two weeks so we needed to take a day to relax and regroup. Susan isn't getting a lot of that. Even today, she had to go to the Arena at 4:00 to work a Metalica concert.

The local C.O.P.S. shops sponsored a Carriage ride around the park today. It was to go from noon to 2 but so many people showed up that they went until 3:30.

I was putting up lights outside and watching the crowds come and go. I listened from the balcony as a young mother and her friend walked by complaining that they had planned the whole thing all wrong, not having more horses so she and her son could ride. The whole time she liberally used the "f" word as a noun, verb, adjective, as her son held her hand. With a mother like that, he doesn't have a chance.

I finally got the lights up and Susan got a good start on Mantleville. It's a good start on the Christmas Season.

Fall Harvest

It was a beautiful crisp Autumn day with a bright blue sky and a crap load of leaves that needed to be put in their place. 

We did good! We got the leaves cleaned up and bagged and the yard is ready for winter. 

This is my harvest of leaves, 525 gallons or about 80 bushels. That's a total guess on the bushels part. There are 21 thirty gallon bags containing approximately 25 gallons of leaves per bag.

You may also notice that these bags are nestled in a bed of leaves. I'll get those in the spring.

Pumpkin Toss

When we get to the Annual Great Pumpkin Toss, you know that the Halloween Season has come to an end.

It was a beautiful day for the Toss with bright sunny skies and temperatures in the 50's.

Here are some pictures.

Susan is holding her Pineapple O'Lantern.

All the contestants scored lots of points for splatter.

Halloween Twenty-Eighteen

7:58AM: Halloween is not starting out on a positive note. It is raining. It has been raining all night and continues into the morning. Even if it stops for the evening, it is going to be wet and sloppy out there.

The good news for me is that I may not even have to bother with the Flying Ghost. Wetness is the enemy of the Flying Ghost. We shall see how it goes.

11:37AM: Progress is progressing slowly in the yard. The rain stopped and it's not as wet out as I thought. 

I have successfully achieved a working flying ghost, although it has been paired down to single flying ghost between two posts rather than three.

Susan had to run in to work for a couple hours this morning but she has returned and she and her cousin, Louise and prepping food. I'm getting out ladders and some of the decorations. 

3:00PM: Everything is coming together.

We are operating smoothly and we will be ready for the throngs by 4:30.

10:07 PM: The evening is over and the total number of haunted visitors is somewhere between 17 and 18 hundred. The discrepancy comes from two houses that keep count with a clicker and the times they quit giving out candy. Let's just say we had a crap load of little ghouls relieve us of hundreds of pieces of candy

In the meantime, here are some pictures.

I'm going to bed!

'Ween and Wine

One sure sign that Halloween is only days away is that inevitably, it will start to rain. The rain started yesterday and as of this morning, has not let up. 

That means that tomorrow, I will be raking (not blowing) very wet leaves in preparation for Wednesday night.

We've gotten started on getting Halloween set up but still have a long way to go. This weekend will be busy and I'm taking Wednesday off in order to fine tune everything.

However, I have much to get caught up on prior to discussing Halloween.

The main thing is an update on our 2018 batch of Petite Verdot wine. Last Monday, I went to Jim's Home Brew to rent their fruit press. 

For the past several years I have gone through the long and futile task and squeezing the juice out of my grape pulp by hand. When I realized that Jim's had the press available, I jumped on it. Best $25.00 rental I've spent.

So I set everything up in what appeared to be the most efficient way to move the pulp out of my primary fermenter and into the secondary.

I placed my mesh bag into the barrel of the press in order to make removing the pressed pulp that much easier.

I then began ladling the pulp into the barrel until I had it full. At that point, I began to turn the press and clamp down on the berries as the pressed juice flowed out.

I had an unfortunate accident as I got a little bit too carried away in my pulp transfer. When I was finally able to lift the primary and pour the pulp and remaining juice through the press, I forgot that the catch tray has a very low lip. That caused me a little extra clean up that I had not counted on.

All in all, it took about two hours from start to clean up and I had just over six gallons and pressed juice to ferment.

The must is currently bubbling away in the kitchen. I'll check the gravity tomorrow but I think it still has a way to go.

Prepping for the "Ween"

Fall has definitely hit the Inland Empire and it is a beautiful Autumn day out thar.

Susan is working Disney on Ice all weekend so she has a very limited window in which she can get stuff done.

And since I accomplished so little in the area of Halloween decorating last Monday, it is up to me to get stuff done.

I'm starting with the front porch with a small easy project, putting up the lights.

But first, we have to get stuff down from the Carriage House.

Okay, the stuff is down and Susan has left for work. In the time that has passed since the last paragraph, I have visited Jim's Home Brew and had our grape juice tested. It has too much acid in it and to solve that problem, I mixed 43 grams of Calcium Carbonate into a cup of luke warm water and added it to the must barrel.

With the wine squared away for the day, I'm going out to hang some lights.

4:41PM: Finally, I got the lights up and I am good for the day, Here are some pictures.

The Cougars of Washington State are playing the University of Oregon Ducks and they've just been intercepted and Oregon has the ball waaaaay down on the Cougs 5 yard line.

I'm going to go get a burger and watch the rest of the first half at the Hub.

8:45PM: The Cougars are victorious! They beat the Ducks 34-20. They held them to zero points in the first half. Oregon made it interesting in the third quarter but the Cougs managed to hold them off.

Me drink beer now!!

Wine Weekend

Last evening, we returned from our annual trip to the Yakima Valley Region in the great state of Warshington. We go down and buy grapes for our quasi-professional wine making hobby.

This year, we made it down for "The Crush" weekend, a yearly festival of wines and wine making and most importantly, wine drinking.

Both Susan and I made an extra special effort to not drink too much thereby causing one to return to the hotel room by 2PM and nap for the rest of the day. I did a lot of spitting.

I think we visited 7 or 8 wineries between 11:00 and 5:00 on Saturday. We spent the first part of the day roaming around the region known as Rattlesnake Hills. We went to many wineries that we had been to before and at least two that were new to us. We ended up in Prosser, which seemed to be the epicenter of all the Crush activity.

At the end of the day, we returned to our Bed and Breakfast town of Sunnyside and went to dinner at Snipes Mountain. This is another regular stop for us, as they have really good wood fired pizza.

We returned to the room and watched "The Road to Perdition". We had seen it before, although Susan swears she had not. For me, it was much more enjoyable the second time.

We always stay at the Sunnyside Inn, in part because they give us a great breakfast. That was the case again this year on both Saturday and Sunday.

We began our Sabbath wine tasting adventure at 14 Hands. Susan bought a bottle there to start us off for the day. Our next stop was one of our favorites, DavenLor. We always return with a resealable bottle which they switch out for a full bottle of Recovery Red.

By then, we were starting to get burned out on wine tasting but we still had some places to visit. We always go to Kestrell because we are in their wine club and always buy a case of "Lady in Red". It a good wine that ends up costing about eight bucks a bottle.

By then it was 1:00 and we decided it was time to go pick up our grapes.

I haven't mentioned that we were accompanied on this trip by Susan's friend Ellen. We got Ellen involved in wine making several years ago and this will be her first attempt at making wine from scratch. In other words, from grapes rather than a kit.

We are buying from a new source this year since our old source, Patricia O'Brien, retired and sold her farm.

We ended up buying from her nephew, Chad. We agreed to meet at 3:00 for the pickup. We were hoping we could arrive early. On the way, we decided to stop at one last winery, Barrel Springs, because this was another new one for us and it was on the way.

It was a very nice place and they paired up a bunch of cheeses with their wine. They also had a feature that caught my attention enough to take one of the few pictures I took this weekend.

They had a piano bar similar to mine and it was for sale for about $2,000.00. Theirs was different from mine in that they left the harp in the piano, which make it substantially heavier. It also cuts down on the room you have inside to store bottle.

But it also had a beautiful wine rack built into the bottom of the piano. It was very cool and the workmanship was excellent.

From Barrel Springs, we drove another four miles out into the plains of Prosser to the O'Brien Farms location where we were to pick up our grapes.

We got there about 1:30

We arrived to an empty farm. Nobody was there. We decided in the interest of time and in order to get Ellen back to town that we would load all our luggage into Ellens car in order to make room for all the ice chests we needed for the grapes.

Then we all drove to one last winery, Terra Blanca. This is a winery with ridiculously over priced bottles because they have to pay for the magnificent building they have erected.

We went in for a tasting because it was part of the passport we purchased and then we sent Ellen on her way back to Spokane. 

Susan and I returned to O'Brien Farms only to find it still empty. We decided to wait for half an hour for Chad to show up. It only took five minutes.Chad arrived and I wrote him a check for $200.00. We transferred the grapes into the various ice chests and where on our way.

Then we drove to one last winery because Susan wanted to use the bathroom. This was another favorite of ours called Chandler Reach.

It's located right off the freeway and is really a nice place.

During our tasting, we discovered that they may be willing to sell small batches of grapes. I got the card of the General Manager and will contact her in the next couple of days.

We got in the car and began our two and a half hour return to Spokane. Ellen had stopped at the house and dropped off all our stuff. We had the grapes which we will be crushing on Wednesday.

It was a great weekend but boy was I beat! That's why we only do this once a year.

Boiler Game Conclusion

If you are playing the Boiler Game and you picked today as the day we would turn on the heat, you loose.

It might be the earliest end of the Boiler Game in the competition's 12 year history.

I filled the system on Saturday morning and almost immediately ran into a disaster. I closed the valve on the boiler and started filling the system. After 20 minutes, I realized the leak in the Dining Room had resumed. I charged upstairs and closed the valve on the radiator in the upstairs bedroom. 

I could not believe my stupidity for allowing it to happen again but I was equally mystified at how quickly the system filled. Especially on a trickle.

I was pissed! Susan was really pissed!! Fortunately, the leak subsided and no damage was done.

The other concern was leaks in the TV Room where the pipes for the temporarily removed radiator have been capped. All was well in there as well.

So, with the system filled and free of leakage, I lit the pilot light on the boiler on Sunday evening. Only one person guessed September 30th. 

Congratulations to Eldon Fanortner of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Mr. Fanortner will receive a package of cheese curds and a Gift Certificate for 15% off an oil change at any one of the 5 local locations of Spokane Lube and Oil.

Second Crush

We fired up the Grape Crusher again tonight.

I was put in contact with Nate by James at Jim's Home Brew. He was the first guy to contact me about renting the crusher. 
Consequently, I quoted him a really low number for using the Crusher. $10.00 per 100 pounds. 

I have since raised it to $10.00 per 50 pounds. I think we may also add a cleaner fee of $25.00.

Nate did a one day trip to Walla Walla, picked 300 pounds of grapes from two different vineyards and then drove back to Spokane, arriving at our house at 7:30 to crush.

We set up in the garage with a tarp on the floor. I think we did the whole 300 pounds in about an hour.

Accomplishment Man

It's my Monday off and the plan was to finish the dry walling. Which we did. I started about 9:30 and Phil showed up about 10:30.

We finished up in an hour and a half. I spent some time after Phil left working on some electrical issues I had to deal with. With that accomplished, it was time to try and clean up the porch. I did okay but the porch really needs to be hosed down and thoroughly gone over.

I loaded up the left over dry wall and hauled it to Habitat for Humanity. The rest will go the dump next weekend.

So now it's about 2:30 and I have accomplished my major goals. I'm going to try and do a couple of other things but I also may not do those things.

I'll leave this post open and update you on my continuing accomplishments or lack thereof.

3:53PM: I actually did some good. I did a little bit of organizing in the garage. When I say "A little bit", I mean a very little bit. However, my "little bit " was enough to make room in the garage for the new grape crusher. 

I have a guy coming by the house tomorrow at 7PM to crush 300 pounds of grapes. For that, we will be paid $30.00. I have since learned that that is not enough. I quoted him $10.00 per 100 pounds. It should be $10-$15.00 per 50 pounds plus a cleaning fee.

Oh well, I'm learning.

Spokane Preservation Association Tour of Homes

The tour of homes was today and four houses were open on Corbin Park. Susan and I set up a booth for our Home Owners Association. We were just making an appearance and handing out a little pamphlete that is a walking tour of the houses around the park.

Our neighbors, Ted and Rhonda took over for us at 2:00 and we toured the houses. Only one of the houses was one we had not been in before so it was worth it to get in and snoop.

It turned out to be a little bit of a chilly day but it's the end of September. What do you expect?!

Prepping for Tour of Homes

It is 2:30 and I am beat. It's not that we did that much. I just have very low stamina.

Nonetheless, we got the Carriage House painted on the alley side of the building where we scraped and primed a couple of weekends ago. So that project is in the books.

Then we went to work on the front yard to clean out the flower beds and make the yard look half way presentable. We can only do so much with what we have.

Hence the beatness of me. It doesn't take much.

The Spokane Preservation Society, of which we are a part, is having it's annual tour of older homes tomorrow and it's all here around the park. There are only four homes on the tour whereas usually there are six to eight. 

But we thought we should clean up as best we can to show a good face for the neighborhood.

Now I'm going to get cleaned up and prepare to go to an OctoberFest celebration somewhere in the Valley.

Mmmmmmmmm,  Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!

DryWallin'...Finally

It is my Monday off and today we tackled the drywall. Phil got here about 10:00 and we went to work on completing this project. 

There were a few little obstacles that kept our progress from going through fluidly. But we overcame the obstacles and got most of the drywall up.

The obstacles all dealt with electricity. I had to change out a fourplex box of outlets that will be used for the TV. There was another outlet that had to be disconnected and then reconnected once the drywall was in place.

We ended up running out of sheets. I purchased 12 sheets for a total of about $150.00. I'm not sure we used the sheets as efficiently as we could have. But it's hard to parcel out the sheets when every sheet we used had to be cut down in some fashion.

I think I'm going to try and use up the small pieces of drywall I have and then Phil and I can finish up on Saturday.

The Painters

We have some painting to do. Pictured above is the alley side of the Carriage House. We had it painted about five years ago and it was already peeling badly.

So Susan and I got out there with the scrapers and peeled a crap load of weathered paint off the siding.

Then we broke out the primer paint and slapped it up there. There was also another portion of the house that needed a little touch up.

This is on the west side of the house. For some reason, the paint on this bit of trim just completely pulled away from the wood and was hanging by a thread. What you see in the picture is after I have scraped away the bad paint and put up some primer. I'll get to the painting portion tomorrow. I hope.

Labor Day 2018

Because of my new work schedule where I am working 4-10's, I am into day two of a four day weekend. And so far, productive it has been.

We just put up the last repaired panel in the Dining Room. Our support bracket is in place and we will have it there until tomorrow. Susan will do a little touch up on the woodwork and then we will never have to deal with that issue again. Cuz it's never going to be leaked on because of a dumb ass mistake.

I have completed my fourth phase of projects in the TV Room. Phase four was to center the light fixture in the room. I had to use a ceiling fan bracket that I happened to have in my collection of electrical supplies. There was nothing else to attach the can to in the area of the center of the room. 

The bracket worked fine and now if anyone ever wants to hang a fan in there, they have the support to do it.

My car is still in surgery and the price has jumped another thou. Had I known that, I would not have gone through with this repair.

The good news is that the whole top end of my engine will be rebuilt so I'm hoping that will get me a few more years of mileage.

In the meantime, I've been riding my bike a lot. I'm going to go to the General Store a bit later to get some stuff I need and I'll be on the bike for that trip.

In the meantime, it's noon. Time for a beer!

Later: The rest of the day has been lazy. We took a nice long nap and I fixed a couple of items with help from the General Store.  

Now we are waiting for Mark so we can go downtown to Pigout in the Park.

Much Later: We made it down to Pigout and enjoyed food, drink music and friends. We stayed for the first part of "Too Slim and the Taildraggers", a local well known blues band.

About half way through the show, we headed for home where we lit a pit fire and toasted some S'mores while watching Raccoons try to eat up our grapes.

A lovely day!

Rain

I woke up this morning on my day off to wonderful rain. I guess about a quarter inch fell over the night and into the morning. It's the first rain we have had since July 27th and that was a minuscule .02 inches.

Whatever the amount of rain that fell was, it knocked the smoke we have been inundated with out of the sky. I could see Mt. Spokane this morning.

We made some progress in repairing the ceiling panels in the Dining Room. Susan did what she could do to the panels and now it was time to get them back up. We used a whole tube of liquid nails on Panel Number One and got it up on the ceiling. However, we had a major problem in that the panel was kind of bowed and it did not want to stick up. 

So we improvised a support beam. I grabbed an extension pole we use for paint rollers and extended it as far as I could. We placed a short 2x4 up against the panel and them propped the pole up against it to keep it in place. 

Susan them built up a base of 2x4s on the floor until it reached the pole. Then I fine tuned it with shims until the support held itself in place. That is one Mickey Mouse piece of engineering.

We are leaving it in place for 24 hours and we shall see how it holds.

Ogden-Thompson-Burke Weekend 2018

Arnie and Rob are two of my oldest friends that I still have regular contact with. We've known each other since Kindergarten. Arnie lives in San Francisco with his wife, Haley. Robba lives here in town and recently retired...so we hate him.

A month ago, Arnie e-mailed to Rob and I and said that he and Haley are planning a trip to Spokane where we will all go out to Rob's lake place and enjoy a long weekend together.

So we planned and worked the numbers and set this past weekend for the festivities. We would all go up on Friday morning and stay until Sunday afternoon.

Rob has a great lake cabin at Coeur d'Alene lake that his Dad built in the 60's. It's very comfortable and sleeps about 90 people. It has all the comforts of home except TV and the Interwebs. TV is available if you have a DVD.

So the stage is set for our wonderful weekend.

Arnie and Haley flew in to town about 7PM on Wednesday. I picked them up and brought them back to the house where Susan was preparing a lovely dinner.

We sat around and ate and drank and chatted but we were all in bed by ten.

I had to work on Thursday and so did Susan. So I left my car behind for Arnie and Haley to go out and adventure around the area.

Thursday night was a trip to Spokane Indians Baseball. They won!

Friday morning we had a leisurely breakfast and finally got around to heading for the lake around noon...with a stop at the Hub.

We arrived at the lake about 1:00. We got ourselves unloaded and into our rooms and then set out for the dock. Many beers were consumed while we sat on the dock and occasionally jumped in the water.

At 5:00, we went up for cocktail hour. Rob made margaritas and we prepped a fabulous dinner. The drinking continued into the evening as the sun set and darkness enveloped the deck.

Our wives all went off to bed about 10:00 and that left the boys and a bottle of whiskey all to ourselves.

At some point, I believe Rob said, "Let's go skinny dipping." Without a thought, we threw off our clothes and dashed down to the dock and jumped in. It was fabulous!

To get back to the cabin, one must climb a long flight of stairs.

It begins here.

As we stumbled back up to the cabin, I climbed up on hands and feet to just short of that bench. Then I lost my balance and rolled to the right. That vegetation at the top of the wall is a thorny bush. I rolled my naked body right through that bush and six feet down to the beach...landing on my ass.

Here is the scene of that bench the next morning. I sat there for quite a while. I finally hiked up to the cabin, leaving a small trail of blood all the up.

I have a series of many scratches from just under my left armpit, wrapping around to my butt and on down my legs.

It was a wonderful weekend.