Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Farmhouse Porch

Patrice, is it cool where you are?  It is so hot in Utah that we don't want to eat supper out on the deck at the moment.  I'm coming over to your place, and I have a big pitcher of iced tea.

1.  Do you like cucumbers?  Is there a favorite way that you prepare them?

I love cucumbers,and I am more than happy to eat them with just a splash of rice vinegar and a little salt.

2.  How good a housekeeper are you?

I would say I'm pretty good.  I have a chore "hit-list" that I cycle through:  dusting, floors, kitchen cleaning, tubs, etc...  This means that there is never a day in which everything is pristine all at once; but everything gets the treatment often enough that I am OK with having company over at the spur of the moment.  That's my goal.  I'm not a CLEAN freak.  I'm a NEAT freak, though, which is a little different.  I like to keep all my stuff put away because clutter makes me feel unsettled.

3.  To spend a day reading a great book in a comfy hammock would be amazing.

4.  How do you handle times when you are "down" or "blue"?

I don't get depressed very often.  I have a "down" day maybe once every three or four months - lucky me!  When I get sad, I become very unproductive and often go back to bed.  Chuck can usually cheer me up pretty quickly, though.

5.  Have you started using essential oils, now that they have become popular?

Essential oils.  Huh.  Do we eat them?  Smell them?  Put them on our skin?  Put me in the loop, please.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Learner's Permit

"Oh, my God!  I just started the car!"
Eeeeeease up on the clutch and give it a little gas.

A LITTLE!  A LITTLE GAS!!!

Aaaaand brake - ARGH!

OK.  Let's start again. 

Eeeeeease up on the clutch and give it a little gas.

Lookoutforthecurblookoutforthecurb.


Monday, July 7, 2014

June Ends in Pictures

June ends on the Lower Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho.




 I need to re-pack my duffel bag.

 Mike's boat has a spot that wore almost all the way through, having rubbed on a rock during the night.
 Time for a patch-job.  The paddles prop the boat up in "dry dock".  As soon as the solvent meant to clean the area hit the scuffed part, the remaining membrane of rubber dissolved, deflating that part of the boat with a pop and a squeal reminiscent of letting go of the world's biggest balloon.  Still, the patch was successful.

 Laundry.

 Youth, displaying various levels of enthusiasm for morning.





 The dish washing system is four tubs:  Slop (scrape off your scraps); mop (wash in detergent); rinse, bleach.  The used-up Roman candles are not part of the system.  They are the remnants of an ill-advised, dangerous, but super funny Harry Potter-esque recreation of wizard dueling the night before.
Packing up and getting ready to move


Spencer and Russell

Kaitie and Trevor

Me, with Chuck and the kids


 Nathan got some time on the oars as well. This turned into a problem.  We let him row for a few minutes on the first day; and he spent the remainder of the trip begging, pleading, cajoling, threatening, manipulating, you name it, to get more time on the oars.  On the last day when the water was pretty much flat, I finally sent him and his attitude to ride with Russell and Spencer, where he was permitted to row until his hands blistered.  He was very pleased with his blisters.
 Cooling off?  Or peeing?  That's how it works.  There's a can with a seat on it to use as a toilet when you have a big job to do; but pee goes in the river.
There are no pictures of us running rapids.  That's because I put my camera away for that part.  Along with my hat, my sunglasses and the map.  The rapids did end up claiming two pairs of sunglasses, a hat and a shoe from our group.  In Slide, the biggest rapid, we had two of the five boats flip over, but no one got hurt.  I lost my own hat rowing a rapid after Slide.  I was concentrating on the rapid when a gust of wind carried my hat away.
"Aigh!  My fucking hat!"
"Row the boat!"
It is kind of precious to me:  a gift from Chuck that he bought me at the Rugby Sevens World Cup in Las Vegas last year.  After the rapid, Chuck got on the oars and rowed downstream as hard as he could.  After about a mile, we found it and rescued it.  Happy day!
Bighorn sheep


 That chair is waiting for me and my paperback.


Spencer, panning for gold