Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Day 6: Sunday

For some unknown reason…..everyone slept until about 8:30 this morning!!!!???? After a very quick shower, I managed to get the Fr. Roast coffee going…as the 1st Lady made some biscuits with honey and/or molasses for breakfast. There also seemed to be some donuts that came out of the pantry somehow….and they, too, disappeared very quickly.

After several showers and a bit of Sunday morning tellie with the “talking heads” programs…..and another cup or two of Fr. Roast……we loaded up both vehicles…and headed into Monroe City to the 1st Lady’s home. We visited for about an hour with her mother…and then went south past the Cannon Dam to the cabins that her sister had rented for the weekend. Before long…..the charcoal was going….and the hamburgers and polish hot dogs were cooking.

Lunch was served outside on the picnic tables behind their cabin……and with 18 of us “chowing down” under a cool cloud covered sky…..the great food didn’t last very long. Following the late lunch…..the kids all went to the indoor pool….and then before long the rest of us were playing the card game “31”. The afternoon and early evening flew by and as the sun set, we departed for the western side of the lake….about a 30 mile trip around the south end.

Hmmmmm…….a new experience then occurred for me as we were driving down the highway!!! All of a sudden…….a deer was in front my tough Ford truck….and BAM!!!! I hit it with a jolting thud and a bounce and it was over with for the poor little thing. There was NO place to pull over…no shoulder….and so it was about a quarter of a mile before I could pull over to check the damage. Welllll……not as bad as I had imagined……the front bumper was pushed inwards to the right of center….and a few other things were re-arranged, but there seemed to be no damage that would prevent me from driving!!!! We went on up the highway, after looking back and not seeing anything on the highway that might have been the dead deer.

As we drove on toward the cg, we called the local sheriff….and he gave us the number for the highway patrol. We then called him after arriving back at TheHowserHouse and told him the story so that the insurance would have verification of the accident. Hmmm……have never hit anything that large before!!!! Think we were damn lucky….no fluids leaking, no shaking while driving, no tires/wheels out of balance!!!! Ford trucks ARE tough!!!

As I have been thinking about this…..it sooooo brings back to my mind of an incident almost like this in northeastern Thailand: I had flown up to Chiang Mai, in that far corner of the country which is surrounded by China and Burma(used to be called that). I hired a guide with an open jeep to take me through the jungles and high up into the mountains to visit a Meo hill tribe village. On the way through the jungle as we started up through the mts., a very LARGE tiger jumped right out in front of my hired jeep and went right across in front of us!!! It all happened soooooo quickly, like the deer incident did tonight, that I couldn’t believe what I had seen. And as it happened that quickly, the only picture of the tiger that I have……is in my memory. But…..I have never lost that picture and will carry it with me forever…….

Ahhhhh……..what little surprises Life can bring to us….good and not so good! And with these different surprises…….

Life is GREAT…..and I hope it is for all of you, also!!!!

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