It's a big weekend here in River City. The annual Duck Race will take place at 4 pm today. Over 20,000 ducks will be dumped into the Snake River and a few lucky people will receive major high dollar prizes. The ducks cost $5 each or $25 for a "Six quack." The Rotary runs the duck race and all net proceeds go directly to the Greenbelt. Over the 20+ years the Rotary has run the fundraiser, hundreds of thousands of dollars of race profits have been poured into the Greenbelt. Without the duck race, the Greenbelt as we know it simply wouldn't exist. Clearly, when you buy a duck, you've won even before the race starts. The Greenbelt is easily the city's most visible crown jewel and, as you know, I'm on the city's Parks & Recreation Commission's "Greenbelt Subcomittee" so all-things-Greenbelt matter a whole lot to me personally. Thousands of people come to The Falls to watch the duck race. It's actually quite exciting and we will be there elbow-to-elbow with everyone else.
There's a big battle of the bands going on for 7 hours today, too and although it's deafening to be in proximity, it's fun to partake for a wee little bit. Meanwhile, scores of exhibits and vendors line the river's edge and all manner of various acts will be performed. The whole thing is kind of the city's last hurrah of summer.
Tomorrow we begin packing for this week's Salmon trip. Nope, we're not going to be floating on the Salmon River. We're going to be ensconced in The Stagecoach Motel in downtown Salmon City, Idaho, enjoying a cozy deck that looks out over the river. We will be volunteering for RSVP Monday through our return Thursday. It's a long story. Yesterday we met with Debby D. and her assistant Don J. to make a Game Plan for this week's assignment. We spent almost 3 hours at our old workplace downtown. About 2/3rds of the visit was with Debby and Don and the other time was sharing smiles and stories with my former co-workers--they are all such great people. It was a delightful interlude. Well, anyway, we head off on what we call a "motel trip" early Monday morning. No boat(s) or camping gear will accompany us. We will be totally focused on the needs of RSVP up in Salmon City--so it's a 100% "program development" volunteer trip. Last year, we started something called "Salmon Volunteers!" You can click here to see the rudimentary products we created for the concept. We want to keep at least some energy in this idea and let the volunteer managers of far distant Salmon know we all still really care about them.
It's going to be a lot of fun for us to stay in a real motel room--that's reward enough for clocking at least 24 hours on behalf of Program Development for RSVP. We will get the same room we always get--the one we love. It's a win-win situation for all of us involved. We hope to keep our hand involved in Salmon City volunteerism for the foreseeable future. THANKS, Debby!
This week has been the proverbial blur and we know next week and the weeks that follow will be more of the same ongoing blur. It's a good thing we're writing this blog. Honest, there's no way we'd remember anything about this year if we weren't chattering incessantly about our mundane meanderings.
Kris C. came for lunch with Susun yesterday. They had a great time visiting. Kris has faced some incredibly tall mountains to climb in her life this year and the challenges have been truly daunting and almost overwhelming. Kris stood tall in the face of these past heart-wrenching months and we are so proud of her courage and tenacity and dedication. She's a real inspiration to us. I got to share a hug with Kris and tell her personally how I hoped I could have the same courage when my life tests come. Thanks for visiting yesterday, Kris! We are so proud of you! We wish you Much Joy, Many Blessings and Total Cheers!
Kirsty enjoyed our post below on her Family's soon-to-be fifth child. She left two great comments, one on the post about her Family and the other on Susun's plaque. I know you will enjoy reading her comments. THANKS, Kirsty, your endless supply of energy and positive spirit are such great gifts for everyone.
Well, we took a cornbread break yesterday because we had to be at Debby's at 9 am. We have only two more cornbreads to bake before we receive our graduation diploma from Cornbread Reform School. We have definitely accumulated enough credits for the graduation and we're confident the overseers of Cornbread Reform School will let us back out on the streets as of tomorrow. We've enjoyed great success in our Cornbread reformation activities this week and it has been well worth the time and expense.
Not much else to report today. Have a wonderful weekend and Carry On with Many Cheers! jp
PS--Oops, I almost forgot to include today's Pickels cartoon. Thought you'd enjoy it. BTW, Nelson is bald because Earl goofed up giving him a haircut. Sylvia is incensed with her father's buffoonery but life goes on in the household.
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