And through the woods, and across the lake, and into the snow, and under the rain...
Let me tell ya, the last forty-eight hours have been a journey!
Friday the hubs had an appointment at the VA in the morning, but he also has his youth rifle program at the range on Friday nights, so I had this rather excellent idea pop into my head. Why come all the way back home (It's a 45 minute drive to town from our house), when we could enjoy some time together doing things.
And by things, I meant enjoy a peaceful interlude in a Columbian coffee shop, using the movie tickets my mom and dad got us for Christmas to take in a matinee, having a delectable lunch, and then going to the range for program administration.
I like it when I have ideas like that.
The first two months of this year have been somewhat of a dramatic events and illness dampered un-fun fest for our family. The hubs and I have been put through the ringer, and still we had to show up and do all our adult responsibilities, so having a day together was pretty dang fun even if there were some to dos thrown in.
After his doc visit, we strolled into Cuppa Colombia Caffe, a little coffee shop close to the rifle range. I had never had a Mexican mocha, so I confidently ordered that as it was the shop's specialty. The hubs is 100% old school military and got a vat of black drip coffee, but he did snag a gargantuan cinnamon roll slathered in cream cheese.
After we ordered we both sank into cozy chairs, enjoyed our drinks, and I completely exploded the hub's awareness by showing him Grok3. He spends hours combing the internet for shooting sports coaching info. Old forums, posting in coaches areas, looking for out of print books, etc. Coaching Olympic level athletes has a mental component that requires process building and fine tuning, and he's had some issues finding exactly what he's looking for.
Grok found it, specifically, in seconds.
The hubs never uttered a word for the 90 minutes we were in the coffee shop, other than an elated grunt. This made me happy, because he was overjoyed (It's hard to tell with gigantic Hawaiians of the Army issue kind, but the signs were there).
After coffee time (the Mexican mocha was a divine, subtly spicy sip of excellence!), we wandered over to the theater. A lot of people have been doggin on the new Captain America movie for various reasons. I don't listen to media when it comes to opinions, I would much rather form my own. In fact, when people are super hating on an movie, song, book, etc., it often makes me want to check it out.
I was glad I did in the case of that movie, it was an enjoyable movie. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end. The plot was well constructed, the action was fun, I thought the actors did a great job, and the overall meaning of the movie had some depth to it, so of course it was taken out of context. People will people I suppose.
Anyway, after the movie the hubs and I enjoyed a dunch of fried chicken and all the fixins, went and facilitated the rifle program, and got home at a little after 8, we had been gone from the farm for 13 hours. The corg was not pleased.
Bright and early before dawn the next morning we were up and out the door again. The hub's rifle team competes in rifle matches most Saturdays during the winter. Many of them are all the way up in Moyie Springs in an underground range. It's about an hour and a half drive from our farm, so off we went as we needed to be there by 8AM when the doors opened. The corg was once again not thrilled.
For half the day we watched the kids go through their targets. It was a four position match, so it wasn't crowded because apparently a lot of people don't compete in the sitting position. (The other positions are standing, off hand, and prone), I don't know why this is, I am just the coach's wife and team therapist.
Many hours later, after the kids crushed it (one of the girls shot a perfect target!), we wandered down the hill to our friend's house in Bonners Ferry and went out to lunch together in the very cozy organic bistro in town. I like it because it's in the old general store and I can imagine my grandpa wandering around looking at all the wares as a youngster during the Depression and WWII era (My Papa was born in Moyie Springs).
After a delightful lunch, we drove about fifteen minutes south and popped into my parent's place for a visit. I mean, it's on the way home and I enjoy stopping for a visit from time to time. Plus, they have the Loveable Lucy Lawless, my parent's Bernese Mountain Dog/Australian Shepherd cross. My little fur sister is a trip!
After our visit we headed to the store for a treat to throw at our friend's kiddo and a couple of drinks, because Saturday night is game night at our friend's place in Athol. We usually hop their kids up on candy and then play some TTRPG, board game, watch a comedy special or enjoy a movie. It's a weekly ritual that is good for the soul.
Except last night we played Phase 10 and the hubs and my friend's husband got to see why we call our friend the Booze Wizard a Phase 10 cheater on steroids. There was much trash talking.
We finally made it home after nine pm, both the hubs and I were more than worn out, and crashed hard. Today is usually a bit of a day off, but I have unexpected school due to a team member classmate needing to reschedule our weekly meeting and the hubs had to go shoot trap winter league and help run the trap range for the day.
I'm thinking that maybe Monday might need to be our Sunday.
Anyway, this is quite often an accurate snapshot of how our lives usually are. I am not sad about it, just maybe in need of a nap...