Boots and Furniture

Greetings Earthlings, how are things in your part of the galaxy?  I read somewhere that you should not waste fall in Spokane.  The writer was correct, the weather here has been delightful.  We're getting that deep, intense blue in the skies.  West of the mountains we would occasionally see it, but over here it's been a daily event.

October 22 will be the neighborhood-wide blow out of the sprinkler systems.  We have two hose bibs that come up out of the ground, which struck us as really odd.  Turns out they provide water to the sprinkler system, and once they are blown out, they can not be used again until spring because turning on the water there will put water in the pipes, which will freeze and cause water leaks as the pipes expand and break.  We had a sprinkler guy out showing us how to turn off heads, and redirect heads and he told us.  That alone made the expense of having him out well worth it.  Who knew?

There has been riding.  Last Tuesday we looked for a new trail head that does not make us do 12% climbs.  They're too hard on the knees.  After a significant amount of driving, we found trail that's rolling terrain.  Unfortunately, it's not a separated path (from the cars) but the shoulder is very wide and no one brushed us or tried to scare us.  

This is a dam.

Look mid photo, I think that's a hydro generating plant.

Sign on a pit toilet - you take your life in your hands now!

We're only about 10 minutes out of downtown Spokane, but it gets very rural.

Of course, the first thing you wonder is "What is that?"  It's a good thing.  Back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, Levi Hutton built the settlement.  He and his wife were orphans, and grew up hungry and unloved, forced to survive on their own.  They struck it rich with a mine they bought in Wallace, ID.  Levi took the money and built a settlement to care for children who had no one to take them in.  From what I can tell, it's still a going concern.  You can read more about it here.

There has been boot trying on.  As I suspected, the tall Hokas were not a contender, my ankles will not tolerate them.  So they went back to Zappos.  They've implemented a new thing that your money is refunded when the shipping label is read at UPS.  That's a nice feature.

I think the ones on the left are keepers  I like the way the one on the right looks better, but there is too much point in the toe and my toes are just not having it.  The one on the right is a Keen, which is odd because usually they have duck toes, as in really big toe boxes.  The ones on the left are Hoka Speed Goats.  I don't know why women's Hokas have to have all of the weird colors, and the men's are more subdued.

It looks like Jim's Hokas are going back.  His heels don't like them.  We did order a new pair of Lowa Zephyr GTX that are water proof.  His original Zephyrs are his favorite shoes, and so we're hoping for the same from these boots.  The sole is a little stiffer than the original.

We tried a new trail yesterday, Fish Lake trail.  It's a rail conversion and pretty much defines boredom.  It's a paved trail through a tunnel of trees.  I think we're one and done on this one.

There was a giant, multi part order placed with Amazon and Overstock, which has been trickling in.  In Tucson I could order something in the afternoon, and it would arrive the next day.  Oddly enough, that is not the case here.  Things take days, some times weeks to get here.  Yesterday we received the TV stand for downstairs, the snowy boot tray for draining of the shoes, and a chair.  There is mass cardboard waiting for recycle day.

Chair in a box.

Chair out of the box.

Chair now in the office.  It was relatively easy to assemble, unlike many pieces we have done.

Other than footwear and furniture  I have zippity doo dah all to say here.