Found some big ol’ rounds yesterday. They’re a little buggy, but they’ll burn.

It’s the shoulder season at the ski areas, which means things are pretty dead. At Northstar, there’s basically nothing open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

There wasn’t much for us to do, except deal with a crazy lady.

I brought home another load of green wood. I’ll let this sit for a year before splitting it.

Just another slow day during the shoulder season.

My turn to go to the hospital …

I woke up at 3:00 a.m. with a pain in my side, and ten minutes later it hurt so bad I was puking in the sink.

Went to the ER, got a CAT scan, found I had a kidney stone stuck in a ureter. Got some meds and went back home around 5:00, feeling much, much better.

I didn’t pass the stone, it should come out whenever.

We got back from the ER at about 5:30, got a couple hours of sleep and then drove out to Crystal Bay for breakfast at The Soule Domain.

One of Nancy’s classmates, Charlie Soule, is the owner/chef at this award-winning restaurant. He invited the class reunion over for a buffet breakfast. Mmm, duck sausage.

I joined Nancy for her 35th high school class reunion.

Here we are in the backyard before going to the dinner, held at the Tahoe City Golf Course.

I got another overtime shift as soon as we got back from vacation.

I’m spending the night at mid-mountain, watching the vans and tents of mountain bike vendors, here for the Tara Llanes Classic.

On our way home from Oregon.

Nancy had never driven up the south side of Mt. Shasta, so we got some sandwiches in town and had lunch at Bunny Flat.

With stopping at Shasta and shopping in Reno, we didn’t get home until after 11:00.

Mom took off on another 10-mile ride, screaming around the bike trails. We finally caught up with her on one of the foot bridges crossing the Willamette.

Another bike ride with the folks—we stopped at the rose garden to check out the varieties.

We woke up in Bend and started back to Eugene, taking the scenic route on old McKenzie Pass.

We spent the day hiking around Smith Rock, north of Bend. Cool place to visit.

We spent the part of the day riding Phil's Trail. Fun, fun trail, but very different from Tahoe riding.

On the drive south to Bend, we stopped on the east side of Mt. Hood to hike up to Tamanawas Falls.

Our main objective for driving up to Mt. St. Helens, the amazing Ape Canyon trail.

We drove up to Mt. St. Helens, set up camp, and then got in a short ride on the Cinnamon Trail.

Nancy and I got up early to hike the Butte to help Nancy get some conditioning back after her sinus surgery.

We keep hoping to get a good view of the Pacific Crest from the summit.

Keep hoping.

Feeling foggy.

We tried to do some strolling along the beach, but the weather was just too brutal.

So, we drove back to Eugene, where it was sunny, in the upper 80s.

Back in Eugene, Mom’s still winning.

On our second day on the coast, we drove up to Yachats and hiked the St. Perpetua trail.

We got into Eugene around 7:30 last night.

Dad joined us to hike up Spencer Butte. Hot day and hazy from various wildfires. We couldn’t see the Cascades at all.

Pulling out, followed by a pumpkin.

We’re taking a two-week vacation up in Oregon, the first vacation we’ve had together in a year. Yee-haw!

On my daily walk with El Demonio out to the bluff overlooking Martis Valley.

Another night of driving around the mountain, checking things.

Nancy is feeling much better, good enough to barbecue some tenderloin for dinner.

She has a checkup on Tuesday to assess her stitches, and that should be it.

We had a nice dinner at Lake Mary to celebrate making it through a tough week, and a much-needed vacation coming up.

Here's Nancy at Tahoe Forest Hospital, about to have the stents removed from her nose from her nasal surgery.

It didn't go well. Nancy was dehydrated and nauseated from the meds she was taking the past two days, and threw up so much after the stents were removed that she needed an I.V.

She's feeling much, much better now.