Friday April 18 2008

Uh Ohhh - Grass Fire Got Away Near Boulder

Fremont Lake is Still Frozen

Ice on Lake

Joe at Lakeside Lodge

This morning I wrote more in The Book and am nearly done with 3 or 4 more chapters. These are during my high school years. Next comes My First Marriage and the kids being born. So progress is being made.

About 3 p.m. we left to go to Lakeside Lodge for dinner. The temperature was about 50 degrees this afternoon, and perhaps 6 degrees warmer in Pinedale - one of our warmest days so far. The East Fork was up a little more. As we got near Boulder there was a pretty large plume of white smoke that turned out to be weeds and grass burning. It looked like they were burning weeds on a ditch very near an old house, and the wind was too strong to be burning. It looked like it had gotten away from them, but who knows. Maybe they intended to burn up half the adjacent field and threaten a nearby house. When we came back I was surprised how far it had traveled. It was out by then but still smoking a little. Hard to think it would burn that much with the snow only barely having melted.

First went to the drug store and got another prescription. I had to get the brand name rather than generic and Humana wouldn't pay for that so it was almost $100. This is not the first time this has happened. I don't think that is necessary so will ask the doctor not to prescribe those again. I've had similar pills that cost only a fraction of that price and worked fine. Bought some rib steaks that were on sale at a good price.

Drove on up to the lake, and let the dogs out for a walk on the CCC Ponds hiking path right near the Lodge. We got to the restaurant about half an hour early and soon went in and got our table. The dinner was excellent and perhaps one of the best if not the best ever tasting fillet with all the fixins I've ever had. Joe's was good too. (No, dang it, I didn't eat his too, he told me so.) It was perhaps the most expensive too. Joe said we earned it we might as well spend it. That's a first! The dogs got the leftovers. Back home by 7, dodging the deer along the way.

Every year there is a ??can't think of the word it's called?? pool?? where everyone picks the time that a barrel placed in Fremont Lake in early winter comes to shore in the spring. It has big prizes for the winner and plenty of runners-up and is one of the favorite events of the area. It is a fundraiser for the boating club I think. We looked out on the ice for the barrel but couldn't see anything. It will be a while yet before it touches shore.

Judi wrote this on her blog yesterday - thought it was a good description how cold it still is here despite you guys who are having three digits or in the 90's thinking we're a bunch of sissies up here : "Today was my 3rd morning of walking around the block since it got too cold last November. It is a 40-acre block - about 1 mile. And cold! Rollie thought I would turn around and come back when I hit that wind from the west, but I trudged on. I wore 2 sweatshirts, my winter coat and a scarf, so I could protect my face a little. I'm not sure what good it does to get all that "fresh air" when you're breathing 'scarf'! It was my legs that were numb when I got back to the house. I should have worn sweats over my pants. One always hopes that tomorrow will be warmer."

On this day in 1906, an earthquake struck San Francisco. It was one of the worst natural disasters in American history. It began at 5:12 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, and lasted for a little over a minute. Scientists later determined that the San Andreas Fault had moved about 23 feet. The quake measured 8.3 on the Richter scale.