Breaking the Law in the Spokane River

I guess this is a confession. Hopefully park rangers won't track me down with a ticket now.

Armed with just enough information to be dangerous, my friend Karla and I headed out on a HOT August day to float down the Spokane River. We arrived at our "put-in" spot to read signs saying no inner tubes. Great-that's what we were floating on. A kind young man told us that he floated a month ago in a black tube. We decided to be brave since he's still alive and give it a shot. Yep, we're rule breakers. I think the more accurate term we came up with is doofusi.(that's the plural for doofus in case you didn't know)

Not to worry, the river was calm-with many turns. Karla kept us paddled in the right direction. I tried to help, but mostly just made us go in circles so I helped by not paddling. Blue Heron, ducks, opsrey and a deer visited during our float. It was actually a beautiful afternoon, but next time we will find some sort of small boat to paddle down the river.

Attack of the Sprinkler

For those of you who don't know, I have a dog. Lucy is a springer spaniel, and people have been telling me, "Rachel, didn't you know Springers are active? It's in their name-they spring!" Well, I know now. Lucy is a sweet freckled face black and white Springer. She loves to sit in my lap, even though she's too big. She's rather clumsy, sometimes making a mess or banging into someone, but never meaning to. She quite frequently acts before thinking and almost always creates more work for me, but typically leaving me with a smile. Tonight was such an occasion.

My back yard is a bit depressing. Hydro-seed was put down this spring, but the weeds grow better than the grass. So mowing tonight was more of an attempt to cut down weeds. I have a plan though. Mow, water and put down a miracle ingredient that will kill that bad stuff and make the grass grow. After mowing, I sat down to watch the sprinklers. Remember I am on vacation and enjoy these things, plus I learned it from my dad-he'd be proud. Well, as the sprinklers spit into action, Lucy thought she had discovered an enemy. In an attempt to save the world from the killer sprinkler she put her full energy into drinking all the water coming out. The sounds coming out of her mouth reminded of a wordless muppet, and her persistence was admirable. After taking in all the water she could and deciding that the sprinkler wasn't as dangerous as she first thought, Lucy rolled in the dirt. Yep, I had a wet and now very dirty dog. That is when it turned into bath night for Lucy. Now I have a very dirty bath tub. Hopefully Lucy will not feel the need to rescue the world from any more disasters tonight.