It was snowing Thanksgiving morning, and would have been easy to stay home to avoid driving on the slick roads, but I decided the bad driving conditions is the reason I own a four-wheel drive truck, so get out there. The drive to my sister in-laws is about an hour and some, and I made it in good time. Cousin-in-law Chris brought the old folks from the south side of Denver, and the wine flowed like water. I couldn't think what to cook so brought hard root beer, which was a big hit.

It kept snowing during the day, and I spent the night in their lovely extra bedroom, and on the way home Friday I clambered up the side of a mountain on a snowy washboarded dirt road to do some river coalition work with the chairwoman of our neighboring watershed, the Little Thompson River. She'd wanted me to call her, but since I was in the neighborhood, it was the thing to do. I always prefer in person meetings to over the phone.

That done, I proceeded toward home, but one more stop. This was to the river-front cabin of a sweet old lady I've met through the river coalition. They had invited me to come over for coffee and pie 'or whatever food we might have.' I knew it would be all right because their neighbor told me she goes to their place when she's there, because they are always cooking something.

They had a ton of leftovers, and it was all set out like a buffet. I don't know who else they were expecting, I think they'd set it out for their dinner, the two of them: Mardelle and her companion/driver/cook Suki and hadn't gotten around to putting it away. It was so nice to have a chance to gossip about the old days in our canyon and of course mutual acquaintances.

Finally back home, I felt like it was a day well spent and I'm ready to face what comes on Monday.