8-7-10

Don't forget, on Monday, it will be 8-9-10!  (See PS added about 30 minutes after prepping this post.)

Today is Jana & Matt's wedding day.  The ceremony is slated for 4:30 pm out along the Snake River near Heise, Idaho.  We're leaving here about 3 pm.  The weather forecast is better than yesterday but not terribly optimistic: "VERTICAL PROFILES SUGGEST THAT A FEW ISOLATED STRONG STORMS WITH SMALL HAIL AND STRONG OUTFLOW GUSTS TO 50 MPH ARE POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING."  We will spend all day visualizing a perfect afternoon and evening for Jana, Matt and their families and many friends.  We're taking a mini-camp rig in the Nissan just in case we choose to enjoy an alcoholic beverage.  As most LBRs know, we don't get behind the wheel if we've had anything to drink.  Having the mini-camp will at least expand our evening options.  We're guessing there will be at least 100 people attending but we have a hunch it will be closer to 200.  Jana and Matt have a LOT of friends!  Today was the day I was supposed to be setting forth on a Middle Fork trip.  In hindsight, I'm sure glad I'm here and not there.

We're hoping to enjoy a typical Summer Saturday here in the city.  Farmers Markets, Ammon Days, feeding leftover bread to the geese.  Hey, speaking of geese, Roy Reynolds 3 Geese benches are going to be placed in the Hilda Garden.  We are real jazzed about that.

We're hoping to stay here for all of the upcoming week--hopefully, we won't be going anywhere until at least 16AUG10. However, we might have to go to either Yellowstone or the Tetons.  Our Mentor Sue K. is vacationing with her brother in both of those parks this week.  We've talked for months with Sue about the possibility of getting together this week.  We last talked perhaps 10 days ago.  We're waiting for a call from Sue as to how to get together.  Hopefully, she will drive her rental car over here but we shall see.  We wouldn't be living in Idaho and doing the things we do if our life path hadn't crossed Sue K's path.  Of that there is simply no doubt.  We definitely wouldn't have had a second career in volunteerism, either.  Some people change your lives.  Sue changed ours.

The summer is definitely past its peak.  We both remarked more than once this past week how we could feel a hint of fall in the air.  That's the way it happens here in Idaho.  You can actually FEEL some primal sensation of an impending change of seasons.  Hum...let's see, there's only 4 weekends left for our summer before Susun heads off on 11SEP10 for San Diego.  Susun returns 21SEP10 and I can guarantee you summer will be over by then because that is the first official day of fall.  Fall ALWAYS comes to Idaho well before the first official day of fall.  Sometimes fall comes in mid-August, sometimes late August, sometimes early September but it's definitely here on or before mid September.

So, OK, now that we have completed the first full week of August, what's the rest of the month looking like?  (NOTE: I am typing this to help myself  "think outloud," so to speak.)  OK, hopefully, we stay here all next week.  We "owe" two weeks already to other people--one to Debby and one to Jeff C.  That only leaves two open weeks--the ones before and after Labor Day.  Traditionally, we go to Jenny Lake during the week after Labor Day.  It's a sweet tradition and we consider it nearly mandatory--we're loathe to give it up.  So that actually leaves only ONE open week if we opt to continue our Jenny Lake tradition.  We're very inclined to schedule Debby's week next on our agenda--that would be leaving here August 16 and returning August 19.  There's a Bear Awareness thing in Island Park August 21 we'd like to attend and Susun has a dental appt on August 23rd so we probably won't be able to get out of Dodge until maybe late the 23rd or early the 24th.  We might have to stay out over the last weekend in August to complete the field work for the Salmon River Guide, returning perhaps on the last day of August.  That would give us a few 5-6 days here at home before heading over to Jenny Lake for the Grand Finale of the Summer Camping Season.  Susun will need some time to "rig" for her San Diego trip and we definitely will not leave the city over Labor Day weekend.
This year we had to be gone on Memorial Day but we stayed put on the July 4th weekend.  Hopefully, we can be here Labor Day to avoid the last great frenzy of outdoor recreation taking place then.  OK, enough thinking out loud, I think I have it figgered out.

OK, we'll close with a short story of "all in a day's karma."  This story starts back in 2004 and concludes this past week on Tuesday, August 3, 2010.  During our first season out at Bowery Guard Station, we realized we actually NEEDED a manual typewriter.  So, we put out the word to The HUB Ladies in Challis to find us a typewriter.  It didn't take them long and we had our typewriter--a Sears manual.  It's actually a Brother machine masquerading under the Sears brand.  We dutifully taped a Dennis The Menace cartoon inside the black case and began banging away at the old beater machine.  We sent out many memorable letters with it over the years.  When we left Bowery 3 years ago in 2007, we decided to give away all of our manual typewriters--by that time we had four of them.  During the last year or so, I developed a nostalgic longing to use a manual typewriter once again.  I lamented having dumped those machines and my great was my chagrin.  This past Tuesday morning we had to meet with Jeff C. in Challis before lunch.  During our meeting, Susun declared that she needed 15 minutes at The HUB.  Jeff nodded knowingly.  He understood.  So, while Jeff went home for lunch, we trotted off to The HUB.  Susun found four new outfits and, guess what?  There was my old Sear's machine sitting at The HUB.  Somehow it had come full circle and was waiting there on the shelf just for me!  I could hardly believe my luck.  I knew it was mine because of the Dennis The Menace cartoon taped on the inside of the lid.  I can't find the cartoon online.  Basically, Dennis is with his grandpa and they are looking at a manual typewriter.  Dennis says "Gee, this is the first keyboard I've seen that doesn't need a printer," or something to that affect.  Who else would have taped such a cartoon on the inside of an old Sears machine?  It was truly mine.  Luckily, the machine had a glitch that prevented a quick sale at The HUB.  People had clearly tested it out but half of the keys wouldn't strike the platen.  I knew this glitch and fixed it in about 3 seconds and the machine works perfectly once again.  I am so happy to have it back.  "All in A Day's Karma," eh?

Cheers!  jp

PS--The time stamp on this blog post is 8:04 am.  After I finished the post and pressed the "publish" button, I set about once more to find that Dennis The Menace cartoon.  I typed this phrase into Google: "dennis menace manual typewriter."  OK?  OK, so I typed in this phrase about 8:05 am.  Much to much total shock and COMPLETE amazement, my very own blog post popped up FIRST on the Google search results page!!!!! In other words, it had taken Google about one minute to recognize, catalog and present my own blog post right back at me when I asked for results to my search string.  That's totally amazing.  Totally.