ahhh...vacation

I've had a week of vacation and am going into a weekend at home. Sweetness! i'm a bit battered and bruised but what a wonderful vacation it was.

I have mentioned my small hometown of Isabel, South Dakota before and that was were I spent the firsts half of the week. The first weekend in August marks the annual Isabel Celebration and Rodeo. The weekend kicks off on Thurday night with a steak fry and concludes by late Sunday night with the second of two nights of rodeo. In between the small town of about 300 people cram in a parade, a free community sponsored bbq, an all school reunion, two rodeos, slack for timed events (the roping, barrel racing, etc), a rodeo dance, a pancake and sausage feed, and lots of catching up.

My sister is the chairman for the rodeo association cook shack so that meant hundreds of pounds of roast beef, ham and taco meat to be prepared. It's the best damn roast beast sandwich you will ever have...marinated for a couple days in the cooler with a special "Isabel" mix of seasonings including cracked pepper and Coca-Cola. Sliced up hot the Saturday of the weekend and served as juicy sammies all weekend. I lost count of how many I ate. Add super nachos, walking tacos, and the usual concession stand fair and it's all good food.

The weather was hot, hot, and hotter with crazy humidity. and subsequently some crazy storms. For the first time in 8 years we have had rain in western South Dakota. Unfortunately it has come with very high straight line winds and large hail. Friday night the rain was coming in through the west window of the house and I could feel it inside the upstairs hallway as I was walking east to west to close the window. My old bed was soaked (i was sleeping in my sister's old room b/ cthe TV was there). Saturday night straight line winds lifted round hay bales up and rolled/bounced them out of fields into ditches and onto roads. Other areas of the county had hail with significant structure damage. The crops that haven't been hailed out though look beautifully green.

Tuesday night I made it back to Rochester around 10:30 pm. I managed to be hit with a head cold for most of the week but it didn't slow me down. Wednesday I worked from home for a few hours but mostly lounged with my cats and took care of myself.

Yesterday was an eventful day that resulted in the bumps and bruises but an accomplishment on my "things to do list". I am terrified of open water. Have been for as long as I can remember. I know how to swim and can swim fairly well. I am fine in a swimming pool. I love being out on a boat but I do not enjoy being out in open water. So yesterday, under the strong encouragement of my ortho floor nurses I joined them for a day of tubing on the Root River.

We successfully tied those of us together who wanted to chat the whole way and several others were floating individually. Coolers were well supplied with spirts and snacks. The day couldn't have been more perfect. All was well until about 30 minutes before river's end. A small sand bar is centered in the river with a homemade sign on the end pointing to the right. The current goes strongly right and with the summer rains straight into a stand of trees collapsed into the river, hence the detour suggestion. Unfortunately the current took the 5 of us and our two cooler tubes towards the WRONG way. Two of us, including me (the big chicken) jumped out to pull us towards the more safe path.

No good...I was pulled into the tow, my friend at least remained upright, and the group of tubes and the rest of the gals ended up tangled in the trees, tubes, and coolers. I was able to keep my head above water but with the force of the current unable to stand. I had my trusty Keen's on so I had a decent foothold but no way to free myself from the current and no way in hell was I letting go to be tumbled through it. Other than the sheer look of terror in my eyes (confirmed by said friend) I kept some semblence of calm and clearly stated, "i need help". Sarah was able to get close enough to reach me a hand and I was able to stand up. We then together started walking perpendicular to the current and two young men pulled us free. THANK YOU!

I have a serious of pretty good bruises up both shins and chunks of skin out of bilateral knees and my lef thumb. The rest of the girls were shook up but unschathed. The aforementioned young men fished them out and back to the sandbar as well. A toast was made and we pulled up our boot straps, got back in our tubes and finished the ride. I'm proud of my bruises. I bucked up and had a wonderful day with my friends.

I had a late night because about the time I was creeping my aching body into bed a friend called to say he had hurt himself at softball. Spent a good portion of the night taking care of that and then getting him into my clinic this morning. I worked one 2 hour morning this whole week. I saw two other patients while I had one of my coworkers check on him.

All are well this evening and I'm curled up in a gift from a friend at work (a homemade lap afghan) with my kitties in my lap watching the Olympic opening ceremonies. Ahhh...pure relaxation. And two more days of it! YEAH!!! Happy Friday you all!