That was a busy weekend, with our friends here. They got here at 8:30 Saturday morning and then we hopped in our truck and went into town to have breakfast. Then we took about a 90 minute drive to our destination. It was scenic (but then, what isn't around here, LOL). The place was packed with people, apparently some annual weekend event going on, but it was still fun. Kind of a big history museum. The highlight was dh peeking inside an old schoolhouse and an old gentleman and lady inside saying come on in. So we did. This schoolhouse had been moved there to display/preserve. This 87 year old gentleman had attended this school 80 years ago. There was even a picture on the wall of the class when he was 7 years old. DH chatted with him and he asked dh what he did for a living and when dh told him his eyes lit up with a big smile and he said "me too!". So then they chatted about that. It was fun to see his eyes light up and smile and I'm sure dh made his day.
We took a bit of a different route home and stopped at a diner for a late lunch/early dinner. I'm not even sure what time we got home, I never paid attention to the clock. We just spent the rest of the evening visited until bedtime.
It was also a hot weekend, in the 90s. They weren't planning on heading home until later afternoon, so after we had breakfast and got ready we decided to see if we could get up to this lookout tower nearby. Not really far away, but since it's a forest service road with switchbacks all the way up, it was slow going. We had been up there with dd and sil back in 2017 but the gate at the last 2 miles was closed, so we hiked it. Dh had heard it was now open, so we hoped it was because there was no way we were hiking it this time (friend has a bad hip, dh was too tired, as well as me). The gate was closed, but the guys checked and it wasn't locked so we got through. It was worth the trip for the 360 views at 7300 ft in elevation.
The funny part of the trip is about 1/3 of the way up a forest service truck came up behind us, so dh pulled over to let them pass. Not too long after that we came up upon them with a flat tire. There were 3 of them in the truck, all young, like mid 20's, if that. Not a single one of them knew how to change a tire let alone even get the hubcap off. DH and friend had to show them.
Friends left around 3pm and both dh and I were worn out. I took a nap and when I got up dh was napping. Then my Texas friend texted about if we still wanted to meet them in Colorado for this train ride thing. We had talked about it when they were here in May, but no definite plans/time was made. She wants to go early August, so just a couple weeks away. I said, sure, we'd still like to go, so she said she'll figure out the details today, but sounds like we'd get there Thursday, do the train ride Friday, and then Saturday just do some other sight seeing and head home Sunday. It's about the same distance for each of us to get there, about an hour longer trip for us. It's like a 13 or so hour drive for us. I'm going to try to convince dh to do it in 2 days, instead of one, at least going down there.
My boss is on vacation this week, so in some ways it will be quieter for me and likely in some ways not, as I end up getting emails to help put out little fires that she normally would have.
The weather has really cooled down today and supposed to rain a little.
The more I'm thinking on it this morning, right now, I think we're going to pass on going to Colorado. For us to be gone 5 days, even 4, I don't have anyone to take care of my chickens, and not sure I want to leave the cat alone for that long. Sure, I guess I could do what my friend does, set out several litter boxes and bowls of food and water, but to me that seems like a long time to leave him by himself.
Oh I wish you will go on the train ride. How difficult it is to feed the chickens and give them some water? Mr. and Mrs. should be able to do it easily. There are cat feeders and water thingies to last for 5-7 days too. Also, Mr. and Mrs. or the neighbors with the young son can check on the cat, can't they? I understand your concern for your pets but, you should be able to take vacations and travel from time to time. Being a travel lover, I do hope you go.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really fully write about Mr&Mrs while their awful son and family were here those 3 weeks, but when dh nicely asked them to please not ride the quad back and forth in front of our house and if they could limit it to their 4 acres (even though our covenants restrict that), their response was not nice at all. I am not asking them for any favor at this point. Same with our other neighbor. When we had our driveway and our portion of the street resealed I gave them a weeks notice and a half hour before they were to arrive, I texted her they'd be starting in a half hour. She acknowleged she got the text. Less than a half hour after they got started spraying the asphalt sealant she let her dog run loose. He was literally with in 3 seconds of running through the black sticky stuff but dh just happened to be standing on the side watching and luckily was able to grab the dog by the collar in time. (he would have run through it and then across our stained concrete pads). I texted her to please come and get her dog. She said "yes!" Dh stood holding the dog at our gate for a good minute or so and she wasn't coming, so he started walking the dog back thinking she'll end up meeting him halfway but he got all the way to their house before she opened the door. She said "oh, sorry". DH said "it's ok, catastrophe was avoided!" and her reply was "it's always a fucking catastrophe in this neighborhood". Dh just said "yep" and turned and walked back home. I'm done with neighbors. The other reason I'm hesitant to go is dh is not feeling well the past month. Feeling like he did before he had his pancreatitis attack. I don't think 4-5 days of being overtired (13 hours driving each way) and not eating good will be good at this point.
DeleteI get it now. So sorry that you have these people for neighbors. Hope, your DH gets better soon.
DeleteI'm not sure kitty would do well on his own for several days. Our kitty was half feral when we adopted him and was fine outside along for days at time. But after a couple of years years of being inside/outside, and now more years of 100% inside, he gets pretty anxous/clingy when we are gone longer than a few hours. Your kitty is much younger and likely more adaptable, but it would likely stress me out to leave a pet home alone for more than 24 hours.
ReplyDeleteI could for sure do one night, but two nights would stress me out. Mostly because the almost 2 years we've had him we are always home every day/all day, so that is what he is used to. We might go somewhere for part of the day, like we did Saturday for like 8 hours or so, but that is the longest we've left him alone and it's not very often
DeleteWow, fancy those young men not knowing how to change a tyre!!! Even I know how to do that. Admittedly half the problem is you can't get the tyre off if it has been screwed on by machine but ....! But what a pretty view that is. Well worth the trip!
ReplyDeleteOne of them was a female and she was more involved with the tire change then one of the guys, LOL.
DeleteYellow Shoes
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the wish not to travel, I used to love going away but recently I can't see the benefit when compared to staying home! Plus we both tire more easily - especially since Covid. We like an adventurous day as long as the day after it is a slow catchup one.
That's how we are, too. After a busy day, we need a day to rest up.
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