It rained today. Hard. It would not have been entirely noteworthy, except that we were an hour into the Eagle's nest wilderness, under buffalo mountain when it happened. Bob's brother, his brother's girlfriend, my friend Squirrel and I left for a hike under only slightly gray skies- and it hasnt rained for a day or two. We should have been fine. Then the sprinkles started. Do what they do in the mountains, and keep doing what you were doing, we said. A mile in, the rain began in earnest. The squirrels (except our Squirrel) hid. At last, we determined it had no intention of letting up, and turned around. By that time, we were blowing running water off the ends of our noses, our hair hanging in stringy ropes, soaked all the way to our skin. We trudged as no-nonsensically as possible, since three of us were flatlanders and frantically sucking up our thin air- nobody had been here long enough to acclimatize. A sudden, deafening thunderclap caused a few surprised squeaks. We finally emerged, and I reallized how cold I was when I stuck my hand into the stream and found it quite warm. My fingers almost refused to sign us out of the wilderness registry. Oh, well. It was nearly fun. We decided not to wet B's sister's pickup seats to drive a quarter-mile home, but walked instead. It wasnt like we could get any wetter- we couldnt have been any wetter if we had jumped into the strangely warm Willow Creek. But somewhere along the way, a deranged wild animal (well, ok, maybe it was a patch of wet, and threrefore slick pavement, but she would rather we said wild animal) jumped up and bit Squirrel on both knees. We watched in fascination as the shocked, white holes on her kneecaps slowely filled with blood, then aided by the rain, spilled over and ran down her shins and into her shoes, turning them from athletic-chic yellow Sketchers to dark red. Ok, it was a little gross, but that was the beauty of it. The bedraggled bunch finally stumbled into the front door, amid cheers and jeers, and mock presentation of the "Stupid Awards".

We have had a bit of a revolving door the last few days. Not only was the brother and the girlfriend here, so was a harvest buddy, also between jobs. And Squirrel, taking a break between finishing the last of her prerequisites and starting Nursing School. Tonight is peaceful, nobody is here at the moment, but tomorrow two of my cousins, the two who will live with us this winter and clean for Seymour Lodging, will arrive for a two day visit. We only wish we would not have to be so busy. Too bad that's the nature of a job- one tends to have to be there if one wishes to keep it. Especially this one.

I am feeling a bit humbled. For my birthday, my friends and family pitched in and bought me an IPod- I can hold my entire music collection in the palm of my hand. I would have never splurged and bought one for myself, but since I suddenly own one, I do not know how I survived without it. My time alone does not even have to be spent in introspection with 240 songs at my disposal. I feel very hip, jogging or pedalling along, wires snaking from my ears. Nobody tries to speak to me anymore, as I am obviously unavailable.

The latest craze amongst the Koehns of suburbia is the tennis courts down at the entrance of our subdivision. If the rain lets up long enough, and we are not too dead from working all day, we take our "bats" and a canister of tennis balls, and spend the last of our energy chasing a little yellow blur, as the sun slips below the clouds and bathes the valley in pinks and reds. But not tonight. Tonight, we sit and stare at the walls, eyes slightly glazed as we try to forget our day. We cleaned like we do during the winter. Now I remember why I did not log more evenings on my ski pass. I can think of nothing but a dinner of leftovers, a hot shower and bed.