It has certainly been a busy couple of days running around doing errands, meeting people and having fun. Yesterday I was up at 8:00 and headed over to Tom and Donna's for a session of early morning canoeing. All of us who are going on the canoe trip in a couple of weeks, as well as another couple, were there to practice paddling and  to have some fun messing around on the water. Other than a good deal of early morning wind it was a very pleasant couple of hours. Even the wind was okay because it helped some of the newer paddlers understand what a little wind could do to them in a canoe, and maybe how to work around some of the negative aspects of it.

    As I said, we paddled and hung out by the lake for several hours but eventually everyone started to drift off to do other things for the day. I hung around a bit and invited Tom and Donna out to lunch with me as I really have not had much of a chance to talk to them since coming into town more than a week ago. We headed over to a local Mexican restaurant of course, 3 Margaritas, because it was convenient and easy, and because it sounded good to every one, including me. A very nice meal and enough time to actually talk to them a little, and find out what they have been up to. Mostly it seems they have been consumed with the kitchen remodel that has been going on for nearly a month. But it is nearly wrapped up now and it looks great. So soon they will be able to relax and actually enjoy the summer a little bit more.

   We soon parted ways and I headed for Estes Park where a dancing friend of mine has a music and dancing pot luck for all of her friends once every summer. There is just nothing better than sitting outside in the mountains while a dozen or so musicians are playing tunes on various old timey type instruments, like fiddles and guitars and such. Of course it doesn't hurt to have a cold beer in hand while sitting out on the deck listening to all of this either. The food was also good and the conversation wonderful. I just enjoyed sitting and listening to the sound of the musicians, while in the background the hummingbirds were zipping back and forth to the bird feeder outside the front porch.

   Needed to go get some routine truck maintenance done today, so I was off to get an oil and filter change as well as a new battery installed in the truck. After having the existing battery for more than '9' years I was just starting to get a little paranoid about the battery going out on me somewhere out in the boonies, like Kansas or the wilds of Virginia. It is a marvel that the one the truck came with lasted that long, but that just isn't natural most of the time.  So it was out with the old and in with the new, with the hope that this one may last at least 3-5 years. Considering the cost of the new battery was only slightly higher than it has taken to fill the truck up with gas on a few occasions, I think it was good insurance and will allow me to sleep a little sounder at night.

   We did a Boy's Night Out this afternoon and picked the movie RED2 for our film viewing pleasure. Pretty typical fare as far as that genera goes. A bit of gratuitous sex and lots of gratuitous violence of course, but there was an actual plot, and the acting was really pretty good. Bruce Willis, Helen Mirran, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Mary Louise Parker, Catherine Zeta Jones and John Malkovitch are certainly no slouches when it comes to acting. Add in an actual plot and some decent dialog, along with the required gun fights and high speed car chases, and you have a pretty entertaining evening. I'll tell you though; John Malkovitch is just a hoot in this movie and had us all laughing through out the film.

    I'm hoping for an easy day tomorrow. Still haven't had much time to even down load photo's let alone sort them out and work on them. Would also like to get a decent nights sleep again. Last night wasn't real great because my allergies kicked in to overdrive. I would imagine it had to do with sitting out in nature for 5-6 hours while the wind was blowing pollen all around. Damn tree sex is just going to kill me one of these days. Tonight though I'm popping a couple aspirin and an allergy tab to see if maybe I can sleep with out being all stuffed up. Ah-h-h, it really bothers me to think that I have to suffer because my immune system works 'so much better' than most other people's. :)