A Frustrating Monday

I only had a couple of things to do in Ritzville this morning. I needed to go to the Post Office to pick up the General Delivery snail mail that Son-in-law Scott had sent off to us last week. Then I needed to go to the Farm Services Agency to pick up the CRP contract sheets that they were to have ready for me. Actually I guess I had three things to do -- I needed to gas Toad II as well.

When I got to the Post Office, the inside door was locked! I checked to see if it was their lunch break like many of the small Post Offices we have used across the country. Then I saw the sign "Closed in Observation of Columbus Day Holiday." I have spent too much time in Indian Country to even think of Columbus Day as a day of celebration and hadn't even thought about it being a federal holiday!

I had a funny feeling that the FSA office would be closed as well. Sure enough, there was the same sign... So the only thing I accomplished during my trip to Ritzville (40 mile round trip!) was gas for the Suzuki.

Later this afternoon, we decided to drive the 25 miles into Moses Lake to see if we could get some lighter pipe to use for the antenna. At least with Forry driving during that trip, I had a chance to write a blog about the wonderful weekend we had...
 I had a conference call Executive Board meeting at 6 PM, so we went over to the park by the lake while I took the call. After an hour on the phone, we were able to go over to Denny's for some country-fried steak. Their Senior portions have just one steak patty, which is the perfect size for us. So, I guess it ended up being a pretty nice Monday after all.

I Don't Understand Why It's Not Really Monday...!

Because it feels like a Monday and I feel just like I do the day after the weekend. I checked and the consensus on Facebook is (2 votes) that you can have a blue Monday on a Tuesday...

When we got home yesterday afternoon, we went to check to see if there had been any progress on the well. The pump was pulled and it and the pipe and the screen were all laying (lying?) on the ground beside the wellhead. There was evidence of cement having been mixed nearby. This morning the well driller called and said that it had been late Monday afternoon when the cement truck that was scheduled for noon finally arrived. (They poured cement down the well to "fill" the sand pocket they had stopped at the last time they deepened it.) He said he was afraid the cement hadn't had enough time to cure overnight and it would be still too "green" to drill through today. So maybe tomorrow we'll find out if there will be enough water "down there!"

These are a couple of the pictures we took on Friday as we drove west over the North Cascades Highway:

This route across the northern part of the state is closed in the winter time as there is too much snow to keep it open. As you can see in the first picture, there is still snow in those there mountains! The second picture is of a tourist who is trying to dig out some souvenir snow from a very dirty snowbank along the highway...