I Owe You an Apology

 Yes you - or me, you owe me an apology - Yes, YOU! Got it? I discovered this morning, after many years of blogging, I can acknowledge and reply to comments! Go figure! So, dear friends and commenters, I scrolled through what is called "Stats" concerning this blog, and there were hundreds of comments that I have not acknowledged! Yours may have been one of those, hence the apology. I promise I will do better! If I owe you a response, let me know by commenting below!

Wishing you all the best! Remember, live your moments to the fullest. Acknowledge your self-worth, love yourself, forgive yourself, be kind to yourself, and of course, to others!

Oh, by the way, we had a family night last night - those are always special! This week we also had a brief visit form grandaughter Kairi. She just moved from Helena, Montana, to Laramie, Wyoming! Much closer! It was a gift to see her and how happy she is!

Just one of those days!

 This is one of those Fridays when I'm thankful the week is over. We've had snow, mice, traffic, lack of responses, and we wonder if anyone cares! On the other hand, we had Valentine's day, which we don't celebrate anymore. I looked it up. Here is the definition given by Wikipedia: "It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine. Through later folk traditions, it has become a significant cultural and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world." I've never heard of him. I remember celebrating this day before kindergarten! We made valentines for our classmates, friends, teachers, and parents. I love my wife! I don't need Valentine's day to celebrate our love for each other.

We go to the grocery store and find aisles of candy, cards, and gifts for every holiday! It is as if we are "guilty" of something if we don't buy and give. Now birthdays and anniversaries are something very special that should be celebrated! Why? Because those are celebrations of love and celebrations of the heart!

Wind River Range Part II

 So, I decided to wrap this up with a collage. I'm the guy in the red shirt with the green backpack. You can easily see the size of the boulders we had to traverse.  It was all worth the effort. The country and the views were incredible.

The dog with us struggled mightily, especially at the upper altitudes and the ruggedness of the terrain. It was probably not the best decision to bring him.

It took longer to get to the summit than we expected, almost four full days. We were going to make a loop but ended up thinking better of it. After spending a night sleeping on the large rocks near the peak, we added back to the base. The canoeing and steepness of the climb took were both challenges. We fished some of the little pools in the stream as we descended. I caught one of the nicest trout in a pool that wasn't much more than four feet in diameter. We ended up canoeing the final three lakes on the last day of the trip. We celebrated our adventure around a campfire on the last night of our trip. It is a trip I will always look back on with great joy. 

Walking

Its Saturday morning. I went for a long walk this morning. The beautiful Carolyn walks every day - she slept in today. What an absolutely awesome day! about 48 degrees, sunny, fluffy clouds, meadowlarks, herons, red wing blackirds, and the pond at the park, one of them nearly full. Spring melt hasn't really hit us yet. It could be a doozy (Not sure that is a word). I certainly hope it is a slow melt - the mountain lakes are really low.

I sent a note to a few folks yesterday - inviting them to read my ramblings - some did! It was nice to hear from them. I saw a lot of squirrels this morning. I love squirrels, I'm not quite sure why -- maybe it is the touching story my Mum told me about. I'll share wome day. But for today:

Cool breeze,
A pair of mallards,
Nature sings...

We saw 5 coyotes in the park the other day. It is really an open space nature trail. Carolyn was watching the Aurora channel and sure enough - Coyote's, deer, fox, have all been spotted. A pack though, is kinda worrysom (sp) to me, especially when Carolyn walks there alone. There has never been any report of anyone being attacked though. I think my brother would like to see that. So, that brings up another subject...

I'm so proud of my family, brothers, sisters, mom and dad -- all and my sons and daughters. They really do try and live life to the fullest and give 100%. I know - I hear of folks that give 110 or 150 percent. How can they 100 per cent is what there is! Now, that probably means that those who are giving less, are really only posting 50-99 percent. It also reminds me of a phrase I once heard about where on is on the scale of whatever -- Let's say there are 5 places to be and if you are in position number 3, well, you are "top of the bottom, bottom of the top, cream of the crap!" Doesn't have a real nice ring to it. Performance ratings suck! And yes, that is yet another topic - I think I'll address it in the future.

In the meantime, if you are not enjoying what you are doing, do something else!