Congratulations are in order for Karen and all of those who work and volunteer for Habitat for Humanity here. This afternoon, Habitat will cut a ribbon and dedicate completion of their latest home here. It's always a touching and emotional moment for everyone involved when keys to the house are handed over to the family. Tears usually flow, many hugs are exchanged and hearts and spirits swell with well-deserved pride. Susun has been assisting Karen this week in preparation for this afternoon's ceremony. Susun will once again serve as a de facto party coordinator for the event. We'll be there, too, to take a few photos and feel the electricity in the air. Everyone knows how much we love and respect volunteers of all shapes, sizes and stripes. Well, when a few thousand hours of really rugged, often down and dirty volunteering come together to create a genuine, honest-to-gosh home it's a really special event. THANK YOU, Habitat Volunteers! You are AWESOME!
Moving along to more mundane meanderings, yesterday was one of those days. We've grown up to believe that misfortune runs in threes. Luckily, all three unfortunate events were very minor and we're glad we escaped unscathed. In the first drama, Susun's cell phone got locked up and we spent far too long attempting to deal with people in India who speak very poor English and don't know the meaning of customer service. You all know how that goes. Luckily, a local cell phone person helped Susun unravel the obscure, invisible fouled-up threads of a near debacle. Next, while mowing the yard, we ran across a cast iron sprinkler obscured by leaves. It exploded like a hand grenade, spewing shrapnel every which way. Luckily, none of the flying metal met our flesh. It nearly destroyed the law mower but we were able to limp the machine through the last mowing of the season. Finally, the lawn mower decided to smite the air compressor as we were retiring the mower for the last time this year. Yep, the mower snapped off the air hose. As you know, an air compressor is a vital piece of our migration equation--we need it on Halloween to blow water out of our pipes. So, trick or treat came a little early here to our bungalow.
We finished packing pistols yesterday. Yep, we are taking our entire shooting sports gig south with us. Just in case there are any nefarious readers, we will not be leaving a single firearm or any related item in this structure through the winter. In fact, there will be nothing of value left in the house over the winter. It's comforting peace of mind to know we won't lose anything even in the highly unlikely event someone actually figured out how to break-in. Way back over four years ago, one of the things that attracted us to buy this place was the fact that all potential points of entry are well exposed to the keen eyes of our neighbors. And besides that, we armor all those doors and windows from the inside. You'd really have to work up a genuine sweat breaking into this place and then you'd leave empty handed.
We finally have a real flight plan for our journey south. We will begin the boarding process on Halloween and taxi out to runway EYE ONE FIVE SOUTH about 8 am Tuesday. We should be cleared for take off by nine that morning. We'll definitely spend Tuesday in Salt Lake with Bryan. (215 miles). We will spend Wednesday at Lake Powell's Lone Rock Campground north of Page. (400 miles) Then we should be able to land in Rimrock Thursday afternoon between 2-3 pm (185 miles). We will get off I-15 at Nephi and take the slow road down through Salina-Richfield-Big Rock Candy Mtn. and Butch Cassidy Country to rejoin our normal route through Panguitch, Kanab, etc.
Looks like we're getting a lucky break on the weather for this trip. It might be spitting some rain Wesnesday morning in Salt Lake but nothing serious. A much bigger low pressure will sweep Utah just after we skee-daddle through Dixie's Color Country. Likewise, it looks like we're getting to Ol' Airy Zonie just ahead of a pretty significant piece of cold and wet weather that will develop shortly after our arrival. This time of year weird weather can pop up seemingly out of nowhere--just ask folks back on the East Coast about that today, eh?
Speaking of today, it's the last of this year's Farmers Market so we will have one last ritual visit there to bid adieu to Manager Stephanie and all the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed vendors. What a great group of people and what a great asset to this city!
The final big hoopla shooting match of the season takes place today. It's an annual event and most of the shooters show up in Halloween costumes. We'll be going out to the range. We won't be shooting today as everything is packed up nice and tight. We will be taking photos and also helping complete the paperwork so Mike and Chance can join the club. Yep, the club very tight on paperwork for new members. You have to shoot in three matches, have witnesses, sponsors, an orientation and more. And then existing members have to take a face-to-face, show-of-hands voice vote on your admission to the club.
Susun will be enjoying a lunch with Dear Friends Teresa and Lee. She might be heading off to a bistro evening as well after her Habitat gig later this afternoon. Me? It's more of the same: mess with stuff, stuff and more stuff. Stuff never ends it just morphs into more stuff.
Have a great day & Many Cheers, jp
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