remedy the filthy condition

It's been a busy week. I wonder if there will ever be a time when the approach of Friday night no longer ignites in me that animal-like urge to hang out with good friends and do something really fun. The urge hasn't really faded much, but the opportunities to satisfy certainly seem to be waning. For instance: my "something really fun" activities for tonight include making hamburger helper, cleaning my filthy house, watching TV, and trying to go to bed early. And "good friends"? The characters of whatever show I'm watching will have to do. Wow. The scary part is I'm actually looking forward to cleaning my house; it's that filthy. I'd say "I must be growing up," except for one thing. I realized the other day that, in my mind, there really aren't many things more hilarious than making fart noises with my mouth whenever I bend over or exert myself in the slightest way. Dang funny.
Speaking of funny and fun, here's a handful of cool things that went down this week.
1. It snowed yesterday, wet and thick and out of nowhere. I love how unpredictable the weather is this close to the mountains. I love walking when it's snowing.
2. Last night I played drums in my final gig with 3oSomething, a ladies sextet I've done percussion, sound and even some guitar work for pretty much since I arrived in Pincher Creek. The venue was the community hall here in Pincher, and the event was a ginormous breast cancer fundraiser attended by over 500 women, a handful of male waiters, and myself. And many of the ladies were drinking. Wow. Nothing like a room full of alcohol and middle-aged women to convince a guy to smile and keep his back to the wall. There were a few serious technical glitches, and the girls tell me they sounded terrible, but I didn't even notice. I played djembe for our first number - a smooth, movin', Latin piece - and when I did my signature and slightly suggestive "swing-the-leg-over-the-djembe" move, I suddenly had 500 ladies in the palm of my hand. What a feeling. The rest is history.
3. This afternoon at the office - not much more than an hour ago - a mule deer doe and fawn walked past the window. For mule deer, they looked pretty good.
4. Finally, and possibly the piece de resistance, I hitch-hiked for the first time last Monday. I had to take my car into Lethbridge to the transmission shop, and I didn't have a ride back, so I dropped my car off, took a bus to the NW corner of the city, jogged a km or so to the highway and stuck out my thumb. It only took about 15 minutes for someone to stop. The first thing I remember seeing is an empty bottle of Corona sitting next to the driver. Once we were going I noticed he had one of those extra-big beer cans between his legs, and he seemed to be very excited about drinking it during our 10 minutes together. I'm pretty sure he was a former Hutterite or old-school Mennonite-type, probably younger than me, and enjoying a wilder life. He was going to a little town just off the highway, but he said he'd drop me off near the highway. Unfortunately he dropped me off near the wrong highway. I got off under an overpass, climbed up, realized the error, and started on a long walk. I even called the kid a jack ass. Out loud. I even meant it. I'm a bad person.
5 km of walking, the small town of Monarch, 2 reformed churches, and a huge river valley later, I was back on the CORRECT highway, just in time to fling my thumb up in the air and catch a ride with some friends from Pincher ... all the way back to Pincher. I thought the whole thing was hilarious, and so did my mom, especially because I only told her about it after I was safe at home.

Time to go remedy the filthy condition of my home. But first, I have to buy cheese and paper towel. You only realize how much you need paper towel when you actually run out of the stuff.