Thanksgiving Weekend Continued...

Okay, where did we leave off on our journey? Oh, that's right, I got us to Athol. The Parks moved to this smaller home in Athol several years ago. Their pastor - I think he's called a pastor - told them that the end of the world was coming so they chose to find a place where they could grow their own food. (Looking at the economy over the last 12 months, I have to say the guy wasn't too far off.) They have a small orchard and a larger garden area. It's quire rural and surrounded by pine trees. It quite pretty. We even saw wild turkeys walking down the lane. I'm sure they'd only come out of hiding because it was the day AFTER Thanksgiving. Stealthy birds.

Sherry said that she wanted to sleep in on Friday morning. She said she'd get up around 9am. Fine by us. Of course, our body clocks are an hour ahead so no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't sleep in. I woke up early and pulled out the laptop. Of course there's no wifi. Sherry said her neighbor had it, but with the light of day dawning, the nearest neighbor is at least a football field away, not going to pick up a signal from them. I began the withdrawls immediately. (hee hee)

I really enjoyed peace and quiet even if it was 40 degrees in the house. Oh, I forgot to tell you. This house is a bit rustic. No central heating. They have a large wood burning stove in the main living area and wall heaters in the bedroom and bathroom, but that's it. Sherry left an electric heater plugged in through the night just so we wouldn't freeze if we needed to use the bathroom in the night. However, we didn't realize how cold it would get in the house we didn't turn on the wall heater and we closed the bedroom door. Holy frozen popsicles batman! I'm pretty sure the bedroom was colder than 40 when I woke up. Brrrrrrrrrrr. It was 31 outside, I'm guessing that bedroom wasn't a whole lot warmer than that. (Melissa you would have died!)

So, Madge gets up and showers while I'm doing a leisurely read of the Thanksgiving day newspaper that I brought from home. You know, the one with all the ads. Madge was looking for a TV to give her son, Andy, for Christmas. Walmart had a good deals but, um it was going on 9am, no way any of the door busters would be left. Besides, I didn't see a Walmart in Coeur d'Alene as we drove through so I couldn't have gotten us there even if I'd wanted to.

I've been looking for new cell phones for Nicole and I for a couple of months and Verizon had a Black Friday sale. Um, I had a half a bar of service in Athol. I called Nicole and woke her up and made her get on the internet to check things out. I think it took 6 calls to coordinate the purchase of 2 phones because if I moved wrong the call would disconnect. Grrrrrr. Note so self, if I ever move to Athol I'll need to change cell phone providers. But, Madge didn't have any bars on her T-mobile so that was worse. This place is rural, did I mention that already?

So, 9am comes and goes and no signs of Sherry. Madge finally went upstairs and woke her up at 9:15. We weren't sure what the day held in store, just that we wanted to get into Spokane to visit with Rex. Sherry got up and no kidding, wandered through the house accomplishing nothing for about 90 minutes. I had to keep reminding her what she was in the middle of doing like feeding the dog, finding her shoes, fixing her hair, etc. Madge can be a bit of a spaz, but I think Sherry has her beat.

I finally got Sherry and Madge coralled into the car and we went to the diner for breakfast. It was a little busy but not too bad. Sherry had to praddle on about different things for a while. I'm just looking through the menu trying to decide what to order. Then, Sherry sees someone she knows outside so she leaves for a minute. She comes back in with the guy. We'll call him a cross between Grizzly Adams and a Hells Angel. Nice guy, but kinda rough around the edges. Madge starts talking to him about the antics she and Sherry would get into growing up. Then Sherry kicks in. And they're not being quiet and talking in a normal volume. No, they're excited, they're animated, they're pretty much bouncing in their seats. Where's that trenchcoat and dark glasses? If I crawl under the table can I still order breakfast? Is there an empty booth? I have no problem eating breakfast alone.

I finally had to put my "mom" hat on and tell them they needed to get their food ordered and then they could chat all they wanted. It's great being the younger sister who had to act like a mother to a couple of 53 year-olds.

I'll continue the saga tomorrow, I promise.