Hot Weather in Idaho

Hello everyone..!!!

This update is coming from a very hot St. Maries, Idaho. The temperature over the weekend has been up as high as 107 F...For all of you metric folks, that is almost 42 celsius....Fortunately, it's a very dry heat, so it's really not that uncomfortable. We have tried to spend as much time in cool spots as possible. Yesterday, we took a trip to Spokane and Coeur D'Alene, and by the time we got home, it was starting to cool off a bit. Today has just been plain hot. We went to the river this morning so Roxy could swim and stay cool. She is getting very good at jumping off the dock into the river to fetch a stick. The river here is very busy with boats. Everybody seems to have a boat. Many of the boats appear to be worth considerably more than the house that they belong to...but that is a whole other topic...

We are so excited to move to the new house in about a week and a half. The rental house is really starting to wear on us, and the time can't pass fast enough. Most of all, we want our stuff...We are both very tired of sleeping on a mattress on the floor, sitting in folding camp chairs, and really not having much in our kitchen...but what we really, really want is our washer and dryer. Going to the laundromat isn't too much fun, and our new washer and dryer work so much better and get our clothes much much cleaner.

Last Tuesday, we had a fantastic social evening with our weightlifting group. We all got together over at the boat park on the river and had a potluck dinner. We had smoked turkey and ham, and lots of salads, side dishes, and desserts. We also had two boats that were taken out for people to waterski and tubing. Hannalize did very well at both. She skiied all the way from the park back into town, which was about 2 miles or so. Roxy really enjoyed that evening as well, as she played with all of the children the whole night. We're really enjoying all of the friends that we are making here.

Things have been fairly quiet in the fire department this week. We had one gas leak and one chimney fire to respond to, but both were easily handled. Hannalize is getting fitted for her turnouts, so she will also be able to respond to calls now.

Last weekend, we were very busy. Saturday was the car show downtown, and there were about 100-120 old cars on display. The "Art in the Park" festival was also going on. We volunteered to work at the Booster Club food booth on Saturday afternoon, selling hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ sandwiches, chinese food, etc. to help raise money for the high school weight room. That was a lot of fun. On Sunday, we went back to the festival to enjoy the bands that were playing. We took Roxy along and she also enjoyed seeing all of the other dogs and people.

Until next time,

Joel & Hannalize