The Long Way Home

Last weekend was Laura's first home leave that she actually came home for. The first one happened while I was in California so she went home with a friend. I had naively supposed the home leaves to be voluntary---you went home if you could, but if not, you could hang out at the dorm. Not so. There would be no sad little Ebenezer Scrooge in the boarding schools of today. You are out of there by 5:00 Thursday evening, and you'd better not get back until Sunday evening.

My mom went and picked Laura up in my van while I was at work on Thursday. That was an adventure in itself, since she took the loooooooooong way home and got lost besides. I wasn't picked up until nearly 11:30. By that time, poor mom was only a fragile shell of her former self after 13 hours of childish nattering, pooch wrangling, and brave exploration of little known and seldom used routes.

Meanwhile, John was on a bus, traveling home from Bozeman. He was able to spend the night at some very kind people's house in Glendive, so the next morning Laura and I headed down to pick him up. It was a lovely fall day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we stopped at the Missouri River access on the way back for a puppy potty break and some scenery.

On Sabbath, we took the dogs to one of their favorite places for a romp. It's a place just outside of town where random piles of dirt and gravel have been heaped up. I don't know why, but I trust that at some point there was a reason for doing so. Now the handy piles of dirt are used for target practice, or on the odd days, doggy exercise courses. The dogs (and the kids) like to run up and down the hills. It does my stationary heart good to see them using up that much energy while I stroll below, or perhaps sit in the car if it's nippy. An added bonus is the train section sitting abandoned on the tracks just down the little valley. It's a neat place for pictures and a fun place to climb and explore.



Then Sunday, it was back to work for me, for Laura it was back to the salt mines of boarding school, and for John, working on winterizing the trailer and school at the local high school. They got it done just in time, too, since 2 days later we were having our first blizzard of the season. But more on that later!