Fun Time Is Almost Over. . .

I'll admit, the last couple of weeks hasn't been ALL fun time but considering we are in the middle of our busy season and we weren't especially busy, there were more opportunities to do summer-fun kinds of things than we usually do this time of year.  Plus, I had a couple of really good conversations with old friends that spurred me on to keep-on-keeping-on so there's that. 

When I was a kid, living in Mtn. Home, my friends and I practically lived at the pool.  My friend, Shawna, was on swim team and lived fairly close to the city pool so I would ride my dirt bike to her house and we would head over to the pool and stay as long as it was open.  I can't think of my childhood without thinking of the hours and hours we spent at the pool. 

Now that I'm all grown up, swimming pools have somehow become a thing of the past.  Which is weird because for the last 17 years, we've lived within walking distance of the city pool but have NEVER gone there.  We've thought about it, considered it, wondered about it, but have never done more than look through the chain link fence when we've been at the park. 

Until yesterday.

It's been hot.  Like a hundred-degrees-hot.  I have found myself wishing for a pool much more than I usually do in the summer.  We were lucky enough to spend an afternoon out in Columbia Village on Friday for a youth group party with Joyce. . .

. . . and that was just enough of a taste of my childhood memories that Gloria and I made our way to the city pool on Saturday.  I was afraid it would be crowded and maybe a little not-so-clean but it was actually really nice.  We swam and laughed and laid down on the warm cement on our beach towels and enjoyed a hot afternoon!  I've never been a big fan of diving boards so I watched as Gloria took enough turns for both of us. . .

And to top off the day, we went to the races for the evening! We only go once every few years even though the Speedway is practically in our backyard and I usually remember why we don't go too often once we get there.  It's a great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. . .

And now, it's time to get back to work.  Fun time is over.  The rest of the summer and right into fall will be business as usual . . . I'm bracing myself for this:

Today. . .

Today I. . .

Worked. . .
Went swimming. . .
Played Settlers of Catan.  On an Ipod.  While sitting in a chaise lounge.  By a pool. . .
Got a sunburn. . .
Ate fresh avacodos on tacos at a good friend's house while hanging with other good friends. . .
Hugged my girl when she arrived home safely after a fun week in Newberg. . .
Spent close to 3 1/2 hours talking to a good friend who was in town for a couple of days . . .
Ate a Peanut Buster Parfait. . .
Hugged my girl again, just for good measure. . .

It was a good day. . .

Withdrawl. . .

I've been having Gloria withdrawls this week which has kind of taken me by surprise because I hardly noticed when she was up at camp.  I was probably distracted by work so I'm sure it went by pretty quickly but this week I've practically been sitting by the phone waiting for her to text.  Or call.  Or SOMETHING. 

I FINALLY got a call this afternoon and she sounded about 3 years older than when she left.  She very excitedly told me about getting nominated and then appointed (?) as an officer with youth yearly meeting and needed to make sure I could get her to the board meeting in January in Newberg.  We didn't have a great connection but I understood most of what she said and I assured her I would get her wherever she needed to be.

 I'm wondering if she knows what a board meeting is. . . ??

She said she had to speak in front of the entire Yearly Meeting which was probably 500 people, I'm guessing??  I wish I could have been there. 

I asked her to PLEASE text me a picture- I wanted to make sure she didn't look as old as she sounded. . .

I was relieved to see that she still looks like my little girl.

On a side note, before she went to camp a few weeks ago, she wrote, "I love you, Mommy" on the bathroom mirror.  With her eyeliner pencil.  It brings a smile to my face every time I see it- the epitomy of being caught between a child and a woman.  I can't bring myself to clean the words off of the mirror so I carefully clean around it, thinking that maybe she misses me, too.  But I kind of doubt it.  And that's ok. . .

Retraction. . .

I would like to state, for the record, that I am not bored as I stated in my previous post.  Today was crazy and I'm pretty sure I can chalk it up to the fact that I implied that I had nothing to do. . . My mistake. . .

Lull. . .

So. . . We are having this weird 2 week lull right in the middle of our busy season.  Last year at this time, we were doing this:


So I'm certainly not complaining about not having to do that. 

The weird thing is, for the first time in I-don't-know-how-many years, I'm almost bored.  Almost.

My house is (mostly) clean.
My laundry is done.
My paperwork is (almost) caught up.
My bills are (mostly) paid.
Zach's BSU stuff seems to be falling into place.
Phone calls have been returned, quotes have been e-mailed, invoices have been paid.
Even the shop is (somewhat) clean.  Well, the part my desk is in anyway.

We've been playing Catan.  In the middle of July. 

We've even been doing yard work.  I know. It's weird.  But good. 

August is just around the corner and then everything will get back to normal and I'll wonder why my house isn't clean and my laundry isn't done. . .

Gloria. . .

Gloria doesn't seem to be afraid of anything (except ghosts. . . ).  She is confident in a way that often amazes me.  I would like to take some credit for instilling this in her but I think she was just born that way.  She didn't get it from my genes, anyway.

From the time she was very small, she would boldly set out to do whatever her little heart desired.  Sometimes this meant dancing on the front platform at church in her birthday suit.  (She was 2!).  Making friends has always come very natural to her- everywhere we go, she meets someone new.  It's like she's a little friend magnet.  Her transition into public school this year was much easier because people are drawn to her like flies to butter. 

All of that to say, her confidence makes it much easier to send her off to places and it helps me not to worry (much) because I know she'll have a great time.  This week she is spending time in Newberg, Oregon at Youth Yearly Meeting.  She hitched a ride with some ladies from church and she'll get to spend time with people she loves including Steph, who also hitched a ride!!

Steph texted me this picture when they arrived and I'm hoping she'll send me more as the week progresses. . .

The only problem I have with sending Gloria off is how much I miss her when she's gone. . .

A Look Around the Historic Town of Roseberry. . .

Running With Gloria. . .

So, Gloria and I have taken up running.  And I use that term VERY loosely.  We've decided to run a 5k together sometime in the fall.  Or Spring.  Or sometime in the future.  So far we've run every night this week.  It's only Tuesday, but still. . .

So far we've had a couple of interesting adventures.  On Monday, we visited the KOA camp ground that is 5 minutes from our house.  It's a camp ground in the middle of town.  I don't think you can call it a camp ground unless there is some body of water and at least a couple of pine trees.  And dirt.  There should be dirt at a camp ground.  This KOA had lots of grass and pavement and even an indoor pool but no dirt and no water.  I'm not counting the pool as a body of water.  The "camp ground" was also full of VERY fancy RV's that all had satellite dishes on their roofs.  One even had a fold-out plasma TV - on the outside!  These people weren't camping.  They were sitting around in lawn chairs watching TV.  I was really curious about their stories. . .

ANYWAY. . . for our Tuesday night run, we decided to go into the nearby forest.  I didn't know we had a forest but I guess if we have a camp ground, anything is possible.  We walked toward the commercial area again that is just a few blocks away and Gloria pointed out a bunch of trees off to the south by the dead end road.  As we got closer, we noticed a path.  A PAVED path.  It curved off behind the storage unit building and had a creek running through a patch of trees.  Maybe it was a canal but it was disguised as a creek. . .

So, here we are on a pretty shady path with a storage building on one side surrounded by a chain link fence and this pretty little creek on the other.  There was even a little bridge. . .

Around a curve in the path, there was this kind of creepy building. . .

And that's when we decided to run. . .

The path came out on a nice little lane that was lined with farm houses and open fields. . .

Now, I've lived in this neighborhood for almost 17 years.  I've walked, I've run, I've driven just about every where around my house over the years.  All of this was 10 minutes away from my house and I didn't know it was there!!

We continued down the lane until we came to a dead end.  And another paved path.  The path opened right out into a neighborhood. . .

Now, at least, I knew where we were.  This was part of the neighborhood that Lucy and I used to run in but it was a street that we hadn't been on before.  I knew that if we kept walking we would eventually come out on Linder.  I knew we were still quite a ways from Linder so when I saw a gravel path that looked like a short cut, we decided to take it. . .

I texted the above picture to Zach and said, "I thought somebody should know where we are".  Even though I didn't really know where we were.  Gloria and I decided that would be a good time to run again. . .

The road was actually a canal bank with warning signs on the other end that warned against trespassing.  We climbed over the little chain that blocked our way and ended up on Linder.  Another 10 minutes or so from home. . .

I have a feeling that running with Gloria is going to be quite an adventure. . .

Roseberry. . .

This was our 4th year working the Roseberry Festival and it's always (mostly) been a good experience.  I went back into my blog archives this afternoon to look at what I had to say about the last 3 years at Roseberry but reading through all of the other events we've done over the years made me so tired that I had to go take a nap.  It's always the third full weekend of July so feel free to browse the archives. . .

The rose-colored pictures are on our business blog right here.  But the real story can be found in the pictures on my Blackberry. . .

The set up started on Wednesday. . .

We set up as much as we could before a big evening storm came through.  We took shelter in the barn and waited for it to pass.  One of my favorite things about this festival is that we have a comfortable place to take shelter and set up "house-keeping" right there on-site.  It makes everything much easier.  Zach would agree I'm sure since he read four (yes, 4) books over the course of the five days we were in Roseberry. . .

The other nice thing about this festival is that they provide rooms for us at a near by hotel in Donnelly.  After a (mostly) good night sleep, we were back at the barn in the morning to finish the set up.  There is quite a bit to do but we've been doing this long enough now that it's not especially difficult.  That's easy for me to say since I mostly just set up the microphones. . .

 Well, I guess I do a little bit of the work to get it to this point. . .

I usually don't relax until after the audio is up but, even then, Rob never seems to be happy with what he hears.  It's hard to tell from this picture, but this is Rob and TWO GROWN MEN and he is making them walk- with their eyes closed- toward the speakers as they listen to the audio. . .

Here is a crop of the same picture.  I don't think they had any idea what they were listening for. . .

Gloria was a little clingy since there didn't seem to be anyone else around close to her age so I took little breaks here and there to keep her entertained.  She has a thing for scary stories lately and feels certain that there is a ghost around every corner.  The old houses in this historic town site lent themselves very well to her active imagination. . .

This was taken from the middle landing of a creaky staircase leading to an upper room.  Access was blocked to visitors but I manged to hold up my phone and get a picture of the room.  Gloria was sure it was haunted. . .

And she loves that she looks a little ghostly in this picture:

ANOTHER of my favorite aspects of this festival is the view.  Big open spaces and beautiful blue skies.  Except when a storm comes through.  Which is fairly often. . .

Thursday night is Locals' Night and we're never sure what we'll get until musicians start showing up.  We set up mics for everyone we can- as long as we have enough channels - and then he rest set up before they play.  There were a total of 6 groups that played and we managed to get them all on and off the stage in a timely manner. . .

The last band was one we worked with last weekend at Lake Fork so they weren't overly worried about not having a sound check before they played.  It's nice to be trusted. . .

When they had about 15 minutes left to play, I started to hear rumblings about other musicians joining in for a final song.  When the groups that played earlier in the evening left the stage after their time slots, most of their mics, cables and channels were pulled in order to accommodate the closing band.  When they all decided to go back up for a big jam session, I don't think they realized that it wouldn't be as simple as plugging their instruments back in to where they had been before.  After a little bit of creative thinking, we managed to get most of them back on for the final jam. . .

On Friday morning we had a little time before we would need to be at the stage to set up for the evening bands.  We drove into McCall and spent a little time at the lake. . .

Even though it was a little chilly, Gloria swam and played in the lake like a true fish. . .

Zach, on the other hand, sat in the sand and constructed Minas Tirith . . .

It didn't take Gloria long to make a new friend. . .

It was a nice start to the day . . .

Again with the "perks" of this festival: time to smell the roses and hang out on the tree swing in front of the hotel. . .

 . . . and play with the funny kitties that try to climb our legs every time we exit the building. . .

Eventually we had to get back to work.  I expected Friday night to be the "difficult" night of the festival but it was probably the easiest.  The headlining band was Bonerama from New Orleans.  I hadn't heard of them before but in my research I've found that they are pretty well known back east.  They played a pretty big part in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 

Even though we were set up and ready for them according to their stage plot, I still expect things to change when the artists actually arrive.  In this case, the band pulled up, looked around, gave a nod of approval and plugged into the lines we had set up for them.  Good sound check.  No issues.

The band that opened for Bonerama were our good friends, Jeff Crosby and the Refugees.  They must trust us way too much because they just showed up and played with very little time for a sound check.  No issues.  Great music. . .

With Rob at front of house and Kurt very capably managing the monitor board, I get to wander around and take pictures. . .

You would almost think my job was cushy.  Almost. . .

On Saturday, the supposedly "easy" day, I had time to walk around and look at all the old buildings with the kids.  We pulled Zach away from his books long enough to explore the area.  I took a bunch of pictures and will put them up in another post.

We were originally told the opening band could be there as early as 2:00 and then the headliner would be there at 4:00.  2:00 came and went and no one showed.  4:00 came and went and no one showed.  We weren't concerned since the opening act was a 5 piece string band and the headliner was a self-contained one-man-band.  Keller William and his crew showed up around 4:30 and, for some reason, I expected him to be a Diva.  He wasn't.  He was professional yet personable.  It was Keller, his front of house guy, Lou, and his stage man (can't remember his name but he was great to work with).  They went about setting up their stuff without needing much assistance from us. 

In the meantime, we were told the opening band was somewhere in Montana.

I think they were somewhere in between Idaho and Montana but obviously they weren't going to be starting their set at 6:30, much less getting in any kind of a sound check. 

From what I understand, Keller Williams is a pretty big name and he could have sat in the barn and waited for his scheduled time.  An artist such as himself deserves to have an opening band, right?  He could have treated the situation that way and it probably would have been acceptable but instead he offered to do an acoustic set until the opening band arrived.  Essentially, he offered to open for the opening band.  And the crowd LOVED it. . .

Another issue on this "easy" night was the weather.  A big storm was brewing and the clouds were threatening to rain on our parade.  Keller kept playing and the crowd kept watching. . .

We were keeping a close eye on the Doppler and the skies.  We were also watching and waiting for the van with the opening band to show up.  We had set up their mics earlier in the day and then took them down again.  And then set them up again. And then moved them out of the way.  Again.

The skies were ominous. . .

Keller entertained the crowd by singing about rain and ad-libbing words to fit the situation. . .

He eventually started singing about electricity and not wanting to die.  The he trilled, "Good-bye" and ran off the stage.  It was a great exit!!  By this time we had heard that the opening artists were less than 15 minutes away and the storm seemed to be passing by.  Keller went back out with the intention of letting the string band join him on a song, as seamlessly as possible, before he took his leave and they started their own set.  We pulled out the openers mics.  Again. 

Keller sang a couple of songs, the van pulled up in the parking lot, after a quick discussion about the plan, Town Mountain took the stage and joined in with Keller Williams as if that had been the plan all along.  No issues.  As far as the crowd was concerned.  Rob and Kurt did what Rob and Kurt do and everyone was happy. . .

I was a little busy so I didn't take one single picture of Town Mountain (this picture is from their website).  They turned out to be very nice and professional and this was the first time in their careers that they had been late for a show.  No one held it against them.  Well, there was this one guy in the front row that shouted, "It's about time you got here!!" but other than that, no one seemed to care that they got an extra dose of Keller Williams. . .

 After about an hour, Town Mountain left the stage and Keller Williams came back out for his "real" show.  He's my new favorite. . .

While I wouldn't call it an "easy" day, it was certainly one to remember. . .

Sunday came too soon and it was time to take it all down. . .

Gloria finally met someone her age as we were tearing down and spent the morning and afternoon riding quads with them.  Turns out they are from Boise so she'll get to see them again. . .

We were back in Boise before 6:00.  While I wouldn't exactly call this event "fun and easy" it was a far cry from last weekend's events. . .

PS I just found this picture on Face book- Town Mountain with me looking a little haggard in the background!!

Here's an even better one!  Gotta love social networking. . .

Next up: Idaho-Down. . . 2 weeks and counting. . .