Today's The Big Day

For most of you reading the blog title, you're thinking, "Wait a minute, this is a Wednesday and it's May 25th, what's the big deal?"  Well, for one person in particular and for at least two other people, this is a REALLY Big Day.  Joshua  graduates from Red Rock High School tonight amid all of the classic hype, hoopla and happenstance of Pomp and Circumstance.  He will be wearing the cap and gown and getting a certain little piece of paper upon which parental human types are known to place great significance--a high school diploma.  Joshua's high school days seemed to zoom by in a blink of an eye--four years have never seemed to pass so fastly.  Opps, that word is quickly, isn't it?  Please join Susun and me in a hearty round of virtual applause for Joshua and his proud parents, Goatherder and Kate.  Ya'll dun good and we offer our congratulations to you all.  Enjoy the day with Many Cheers!

It's been awhile since we posted here.  It's been cold and raining and, normally, that would be Prime Blogging Time.  My blogging jumper cables must have slipped off the internal battery posts as I've had minimal motivation to do much writing the last couple of days.  This cold, wet weather has coated my brain with a malaise of mental mayonnaise.  The sun looks like it is daring to come out this morning and the sight of blue sky has perked me up a bit--that and a nice flavored cuppa joe, too.

There hasn't been much happening to write about lately.  Susun and Karen spent the last couple of evenings hooting and hollering in front of the TV screen as the last two episodes of Dancing With The Stars concluded its season.  I notched a dubious record of achievement this week--I've actually taken more items TO the thirft stores than I've brought back home this season.  Ah, the ebb and flow of ten cent stores.  Last night I lost ALL my chess games, not even managing to win a single one.

The water and snow continue to be fun to watch.  Here's a figure I've never seen in print before for any watershed in my lifetime.  The Bear River watershed is 525% of normal snowpack!  Let that figure roll around in your brain for awhile.  Mind boggling.  Heck, the Snake River's Two Ocean Plateau snowpack not only hasn't started to melt yet but it keeps getting BIGGER, actually reaching its deepest level yesterday of the whole winter!  Mind boggling.

I was so bored yesterday I actually thought about buying a fishing license.  I even pulled out all my long dormant fishing gear and did an inventory.  Luckily, I came to my senses before taking the big step and pulled back from the brink.

Tonight marks a local milestone we truly love--the summer beginning of "Alive After 5."  it takes place each Wednesday downtown.  They rope off a big chunk of pavement and have themselves a righteous little block party.  The Civitans sell beer and wine and food and a decent group makes music and hundreds of people show up and socialize.  It's one of the neat features about downtown in the so-called summertime.  We are looking forward to going tonight, even though we know the sunshine is fading back to black and bad weather will resume for many days ahead.

Maybe bad weather is this year's New Normal.  The most recent Icelandic volcano has the potential to wreck havoc with our summer and fall weather.  In fact, we're already thinking it's going to bring us a cold early fall season.  We guess that's good in a way because the leaves will drop by Halloween and we can get back to Arizona in time for Kate B.'s birthday on 11/11/11.  On the other hand, if that volcano really messes things up it's going to be a pretty gray summer at these latitudes.

Not much else to report (obviously).  Have a great day & Many Cheers!  jp