Nod to the Dedication

I have to give a nod to the dedication of the census people. I think "Through Rain, Sleet or Snow" used to be the motto of the US Postal Service. I believe it has been abandoned and adopted by the dedicated Census Bureau. But it might be a little more like "Through Rain, Sleet, Snow and Mud". And here is the rest of the story...

I spent the afternoon at my girlfriend's house in town and brought her son, who is my son's age, home to spend the night and possibly the weekend. They have big plans to dress in camo and scour the trees and hills for "the enemy" tomorrow and if it dries up enough, get in some shooting practice for 4H. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a "few" things...you know...milk and bread...which turned into a $74 trip with half of it being fresh fruit and vegetables. Can you tell what I've been craving? Oh. And also some yummy ice cream sandwiches at the prodding of some young boys. I know. I'm a pushover. It rained the whole way home aaaannnnndddd... my groceries were in the back of the truck. They got wet. Really wet. In fact, it has been raining for hours. Guess what my road looked like when I got home? Yep. Mud...Mud...everywhere! I actually managed to get the whole way home without getting stuck with only the minimal sliding sideways, downhill. And I had a visitor waiting. Yep. My friendly and very dedicated census worker and brand new friend, Wendy; who was stuck up to her front axle in mud. Her first words to me when I parked and walked down to greet her..."Don't be angry, don't be angry". Apparently she has been greeted by some not so friendly homeowners in her history with the Census Bureau. I surmised she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. So, I invited her in to call her boyfriend and get a cup of hot tea. Isn't that obvious? I'm Southern. Born, bred and raised. Plus, I felt sorry for her. Evidently, she had been trying to dig out for over an hour. She was wet. And muddy. And needed something hot to drink. Ike built us a nice fire. (I'm loving that mountain boy more every day!) It's a good thing we weren't out of town or made a spontaneous decision to stop at the theatre or go bowling. So, she shed her oh so muddy boots at the front door and washed up and we sat down for some Oranged Spiced Green Tea and chatted. She told me that while she was waiting she really had to "go" and couldn't wait any longer and felt bad that she had to tarnish the area near the "Sacred Ground" sign at the Catholic Hermitage (we call it Monkey Village). Cracked me up, it did! And, we called her very lost boyfriend, and guided him to our little island of paradise via the road that is not... and then it happened...HE GOT STUCK! I had to laugh. I lauged a lot. The whole things was a little unbelievable and so funny! He had a truck, with four wheel drive and even a tow chain, but he got high-centered on the logs lining our lower road. There was no hope. I have to give him credit, though...they are big logs. Like 24" in diameter. MacGyver cut them in sections with his 22" blade (the chainsaw blade, let me repeat, the chainsaw blade :-) was not long enough. Moving on. So, he got a little impromptu exercise and ran the rest of the way down the road to the cabin. And had a cup of tea. Really. We had a full-on tea party. Mike and Wendy. My new friends. He owns a big game guide service and a fly-fishing store in town. And has fly-fishing classes on Saturday. We have a date with a fly-fishing pole. It's always been one of my goals in life to learn to fly-fish. It's on my bucket list. It might be in my near future. Yeah! So, we got warm and I outfitted him. Ha! That's pretty ironic...and funny! Anyway, I outfitted them with rain jackets and mucking boots and we jumped into my truck so I could go pull Mike's truck out so he could then pull Wendy's Outback out of the mud. I tried to gently pull him out but the mud was having no part of that so I had to yank him pretty hard and with the first jerk was able to get him off the ginormous log and down the road to some higher ground and traction. And with a couple jerks Mike was then able to get the Outback out and to higher, more stable ground. And with a quick exchange of phone numbers and a quick explanation of where on the map she was, they were off with quite a story of their own to tell. I'm pretty sure he didn't think I had it in me and would just make a bad situation worse. I think he left impressed with this city girl turned mountain girl. MacGyver, you taught me well. And you would have been proud. You know, it's MacGyver's job, normally, to rescue the stranded, helpless, confused strangers, but today it was dropped onto my plate. And I became the hero of the day in Deer Creek Canyon! Sorry...no pictures. I was a little busy. And the truck needs a bath! Sorry.