Drat!

The best laid plans, and all that...our family Thanksgiving has been cancelled.  Common sense, that rare commodity, took over in my conversation with Deb yesterday and we made that hard decision.  Not only would Bucks Bar be problematic for me, there will undoubtedly be a lot of traffic on Hwy. 50 with happy skiers heading up the hill for the first snow of the season.  It wouldn't be fun for the Kids to get stuck in that.  Drat.

Mike got a good start on removing deck boards yesterday, only to find that some (okay, a lot) of the joists need to be, if not replaced, at least reinforced.  In for a penny, in for a pound, and I told him to do whatever he deemed necessary.  I'm certainly not redoing the deck for cosmetic reasons.  I don't know what this glitch and the weather will do to his time frame.  As has been brought home to me many times, I'm not in charge.

Michael knows esoteric commands such as "turn left, turn right," so it was a surprise that he didn't seem to know some of the basics like "sit."  I called Florence to see if there were special code words that he might know and I didn't.  There weren't.  Drat.  I've started working with him, using those itsy-bitsy milk bones as an incentive.  Michael is so darned bright.  He picked up the cues, voice and hand, in no time at all.  I don't even need to throw in a treat now.  Because he is so smart, I think he likes the challenge of learning something new.  We are definitely going to work on "come!" and maybe stop him from going walkabout down the drive.  One can hope.

I will take Michael to his favorite meet-and-greet store, Mt. Aukum, today to get a replacement hose for the washer.  Later I will go up to Holiday to buy some deli sliced turkey...by golly, I will have a turkey sandwich on Thursday!