My First Trip to the State Capital

I gave this week's sibling assignment:

"Write about one of your earliest trips to somewhere special, besides Spokane and Orofino, and why it was special, and what you remember about it."

IEG's post about "God's Country" is here, and RP's will be here.

This assignment was somewhat inspired by being reconnected to my cousins from Boise, who I keep in contact with through Facebook.

During spring break when I was in fifth grade, Mom had a meeting in Boise, and I got to travel with her and BG down to Boise, and spent part of that trip with my cousins.

My first cousin, JC, is the mother of the three girls, CC, AC and MC, who are my second cousins, but actually closer to my age.

JC is the oldest sibling of my Aunt Lila, who is mom's sister. She lives in Orofino. I always heard about this family on our yearly trips to Orofino in the summer, but we never seemed to be there at the same time.

So it was exciting when I finally got to go spend a few days at their house in Boise.

AC is my age, CC is a year older, and MC is two years younger than me. I think I only spent two or three days with them during that week.

I got to attend school with AC one day. This was the early 70's and the Boise School District was trying out the "open classroom" concept at AC's school. That was so new to me. Also, "Where the Red Fern Grows" had just been released in the movie theaters, and AC's class got to go see it in the theater, and I got to go, too.

I remember telling scary stories at night with my cousins. Once story in particular I always remember involved a man with no legs, very long fingernails, and the word "Shaboom".

I remember their mom, JC driving us through Garden City.

It was fun finally spending time with the cousins that were closest to me in age, but that I never hardly got to see or send time with.

Other highlights from that trip included going to the State Capital building for the first time, and the Boise Zoo. Somewhere I have some pictures from this trip. I'll have to find them, scan them, and add them to this post at a later date.

I still remember driving home through Oregon, and driving through Pendleton, and I remember how beautiful the town looked, because it was spring and the hillside were all green and lush.

From that moment on, I loved traveling and going to different places.

My next adventure will be a trip to Houston, Texas in February for a conference, and I can't wait to see what Texas is like.

The Saga of The Dryer

Since the middle of December, we have had a bit of a dryer saga going on at our home.

Last December, the night before PKR was leaving for State Speech Competition, the dryer started smelling really hot, and quit working.

Fortunately, we still had our old dryer sitting in the garage, so we hauled it into the laundry room, finished drying clothes for PKR's trip, and left the other dryer in the kitchen to await a look by "Mr. Fixit" when he returned from his trip.

Once Mr. Fixit returned, he looked at the dryer, took it apart, and he decided it was probably the motor, and that he would look into seeing how much it would cost to fix the motor, or get a new dryer.

Fast forward almost 4 months.

The old dryer has been residing in the laundry room, drying our clothes just fine, while the partially disassembled dryer still sits in the kitchen, by now being used as a holder for of a bag of clothes to give away.

So, it is Thursday and the old dryer starts making really bad noises....I think it died. RIP Kenmore dryer.

So Mr. Fixit gets on the phone and starts calling around and inquiring about dryers. Yesterday he talked to the nice man in Coeur d'Alene who repairs LG dryers, and he told PKR to bring the dryer to him on Saturday, and he could have it fixed in about 30 minutes. The repairman was convinced it wasn't the motor, that probably a washcloth or some other small item got caught in some part of the inner workings of the dryer.

Well, it was a small sock that caused all the problem. PKR drove down this afternoon, the guy fixed it, and he was home before I knew it. Now the RIP dryer can be moved back out to the garage, and possibly donated to some old appliance graveyard, and the newer, fixed dryer will be put back in its rightful place in the laundry room, continuing to dry load upon load of clothes.

PKR also learned how to keep the washer and dryer clean so they will keep working washing and drying clothes for many years to come.

I'm glad this story had a happy ending!!

Well, I'm heading over the hill again this afternoon, to take The Princess to her play. I'll hang out somewhere in Coeur d'Alene, get something to eat, and read a book until she is ready to come home.

Then tomorrow I take her back to the theater for her final performance, and to move back into the dorms for her final month or so of college. Then I head down to Tensed to pick up Kiki Aru and her friend from their stay in Clarkston.

Upon arrival back home, I'll probably have lots of laundry to get done before everyone heads back to school on Monday.

So much for the Princess of yesterday....I think she just turned back into Cinderella!!!