News Briefs from Silver Lake Road

With Monday being a holiday, this week has flown by. I did write a few letters, but for those of you who aren't receiving one, here's the scoop.
--I looked out the window Wednesday and discovered a row of blooming lilac bushes and a flowering crab along the edge of the yard! The two days of rain must have brought out the blossoms--I'd thought they were just scraggly, nondescript bushes. I had all the windows open yesterday, and the lilacs smelled like heaven! Two hummingbirds also showed up around my birdfeeders, so I quickly put some nectar out for them and can watch them when I'm working in the kitchen.
--The cats have discovered that if they eat grass outside, they can come in and puke it up on the rugs later.
--I met another neighbor when I was walking the dogs. He told me that bobcats and cougars have been sighted around here. Great. Bears are starting to sound downright cuddly.
--Our entry forms for the Rump Roast Run are still sitting here. I meant to send them in last month, then got sick...then started getting cold feet. Are Fred and I really ready to do this? It's called a RUN, not WALK--I have to think on it some more.
--The personalized grave markers that I ordered for Beatle and Kimo, our dogs who died last year, arrived this week. They say "Pets leave paw prints on our hearts" along with their birth and death dates. I'll take them to the cabin to put on their graves in the red pine. We still miss them!
--There is a brand spanking new shiny red riding lawnmower sitting in our garage. The lawn desperately needs mowing, but Fred doesn't want me to use it until he gets back from the cabin and checks it over. I'm supposed to be studying the manual for my quiz, but I haven't even looked at it yet. Maybe I'll become such a good driver that I can enter the lawnmower races in Amberg on Labor Day Weekend (or is it 4th of July?) That's what Ambergers consider to be a swell time. It is probably a lot easier than running a 5K!
--Today I head back to the cabin for our annual canoe/kayak weekend with people Fred knows from work. The Pike is a foot higher than it was last weekend after an inch and a half of rain, so he's not sure it will be ok to take novices down the river. I don't do the canoeing part anyway because rushing, foamy water sort of terrifies me! I canoed with Fred a few times before we were married, just to show him I was adventurous and fun-loving--and when I heard the roar of a rapids ahead on my first trip, I practically wet my pants. I think I've only canoed once since the wedding. Fred calls it "the facade." He says once a woman takes a bite of wedding cake, the facade starts to crumble and we stop doing a lot of things we supposedly enjoyed before. (Oh yeah?! Well men conveniently forget how to make their own sandwiches and share the remote!) But that's another blog...
This Just In: Nothing too exciting is happening on Silver Lake Road. But that's ok--we like it that way.