A pitter-patter of unexpected raindrops surprised me this morning as I slipped into the waking world, buoyed by the smell of guests’ freshly made coffee brewing downstairs. No early-day, non-thunderstorm related rain was predicted, but that’s nonetheless what we got. Already, it’s moving on out, promising cooler and milder temps. In fact, this week the temps are supposed to be about 10 degrees below normal for this time of year, a welcome change from last week’s sweltering and smothering upper 90s.

Today marks my second day of rest, and I certainly need it, though I don’t feel all that terrible. Yesterday a whole herd of us made our way to the Ten Sleep Rodeo to watch a sport that seems much more potentially injurious than sport climbing. Everyone agreed that this proved to be amazing entertainment, with the wild horse race finale definitely being our favorite event—in this contest, teams of three attempt to wrestle down a wild horse that just has a halter with a rope attached to it. One person has to grab the horse around the neck and bite the ear, while another holds the rope, and another saddles the horse and rides it to the end of the arena. Total chaos ensues, as the contestants get dragged and flung from the wily beasts. Good times.

Back here, we sipped gin and tonics on the deck as we dined on wood-fired pizza from the local pizza joint, enjoying the cool breeziness of the evening before wandering down to the street dance downtown for a little while. Tired, I didn’t last too long there, and returned home to play around on the flute for a bit while a friend played guitar…playing the flute makes my fingers hurt, though, so I stopped before too long and headed on up to bed, drifting off into dreamland almost instantly.

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