A Strangely Silent Weekend

After shopping Friday, Nick and I were going to meet Will for dinner at Applebees. We were nearly there when Will called and said there was a change in plans. A man had been hiking and broke his leg on a trail above 8000 feet and there was a Search and Rescue mission to go up and move him to a place where a helicopter could pick him up. We met Will in the parking lot, he took Nick home to get his gear, and I went grocery shopping. Will decided he could perhaps be useful on this operation, (he loves going up to the mountains) so he headed on up to the trailhead as well. Will returned home about 5:30 p.m. the next day. Nick got back about two hours later. He had two nasty blisters on each foot. We got to looking at his boots, which we bought in June, and they are getting a bit small. We had to buy a size bigger when we bought his school shoes the day before. I suppose we are a few short years away from having another Oddball Shoes customer. Hopefully they sell enormous hiking boots.

Nick had previously signed up to help today with the River Wild boat races, a Search and Rescue fundraiser event that has been going on this weekend. I had to have him at the Sheriff's Office at 7:30 this morning. Will left about 6:30 am for Sisters for meetings about forest fires and possible evacuation plans. Eric and I had brunch together at Denny's after church, but other than that I was on my own again until about 4:00.

I remember when being home alone was a rare treat, one that I always knew about well in advance and made many plans to take maximum advantage of. Now it's becoming very common place. I don't have any trouble entertaining myself when I'm home alone - there's always something to clean, weed, or wash, as well as scrapbooking and books to read. I'm trying to get Eric's life scrapbooked by the time he graduates in June. I started three years ago, and I just finished his fourth year of life. I've been sidetracked by three other scrapbooks in the meantime, so now I have to focus on Eric and make a little faster progress. It's hard to scrapbook when the weather is nice though.

I knew Nick would be calling this afternoon when he needed to be picked up, but I forgot to take my cell phone outside when I was on the breezy front porch with the laptop. I heard a neighbor's phone ring and so I came in and got the phone. There were three missed calls from Nick on it. Yikes, I'm afraid we're going to get a bad reputation down there. It's not like were just some anonymous dumb parents who never answer the phone when their kid calls, we are very well-known-to-them dumb parents. Must improve on that.

So Nick came home this afternoon and was of course very hungry. He said he's eaten jail sack lunches for the past two days! I let him heat up my leftovers from Dennys. Oh, the sweet signs that a teenager is back in the house. Dirty socks next to the couch and gravy spilled on the bottom cabinets and the floor. How did he do that? I made him clean it up before he sat down to eat, but I'm am minding those telltale signs of teenage inhabitation less and less as time goes by!

Being home alone with no one making messes or needing meals cooked is enjoyable, but it's more fun having the family around, even if they are a lot of trouble sometimes!