Calendar Challenged

Several readers have contacted me to tell me that I goofed with our last blog drawing. I usually start the contest on Thursday and draw the winner and announce them on Sunday evening. But with all the things going on with us going out of town for Terry’s parents’ 75th anniversary, I became calendar-challenged and drew the winner on Saturday night instead. My apologies for the inconvenience. But don’t worry, I’ve got plenty more books for the drawing, including a couple more copies of Bobbi Holmes’ The Ghost of Marlow House, the latest prize. So if you missed out this time around, you’ll have another shot at winning.

Except for the extreme heat, we enjoyed our time with Terry’s family, but we were more than ready to head back home yesterday. After checking out of our hotel and making a couple of stops to pick up some things we needed, we spent a couple of hours with her parents before hitting the road somewhere around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Terry drove while I tried to keep her company between naps. I’ve never been somebody who can sleep in a car when somebody else is driving, but I’m comfortable doing it with Terry at the wheel.

It was 104 degrees when we left Phoenix, and when we got home a little before 5 o’clock it was 82 degrees here. What a wonderful difference! The critters were certainly all happy to see us. After we got the car unloaded, we spent some time outside throwing a ball for Alli and checking on the plants and such. Tiffany and Kenny always take care of things for us when we’re out of town, and they had watered everything and it was looking very good. Terry has some nice looking tomatoes and peppers growing in her greenhouse, and we even saw a couple of small strawberries on one of the outside raised planting beds.

Anybody who’s even looked at the news for five minutes in the last month knows there are wildfires burning all over the West, and Arizona is no exception. This is smoke from the Sycamore fire, burning 15 miles north of Globe in the Tonto National Forest. The lightning caused blaze started on June 15^th, and has burned approximately 11,800 acres. As of last night, the fire is 60% contained.

With the Fourth of July weekend coming up in just a few days, everybody here in the White Mountains is on edge. Though open fires, target shooting, fireworks, and even smoking outdoors are banned because of the high fire danger, there are always a few idiots who think the rules don’t apply to them. Hopefully we will get through the weekend with no incidents.

We’ll be playing catch up for the next couple of days, making up for all the time we missed. I’ve got a lot of writing to get done on my new book, and Terry has paperwork and other things that will keep her busy every waking moment. They say there’s no rest for the wicked, but it seems like even innocent people like her get caught up in the melee sometimes.

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Yes, but what about the rest of the ants? Are they satisfied yet?

Thought For The Day – Hurting someone is as easy as throwing a stone in the ocean, but you never know how deep that stone will sink.