Monday I have Friday on my mind......

Back in my workaday life these words from a 1967 song by the Easy Beats were often on my mind on Monday.  Next to Saturdays, Friday has always been one of my favorite days......how about you?  Can I have a show of hands?  On Fridays the phone at the office didn't ring quite as much, and often when I was self employed the last 9 years before retirement I would leave the office early to get a jump on the weekend.  Of course, a Friday preceding a long holiday weekend was even better, no?  Instead of getting a normal long weekend (3 days) we would often leave Friday morning to go out of town, or even Thursday night.....now I know a lot of you have done that.  Of course this Friday precedes the last long weekend of the summer.....Labor Day weekend, and even though we no longer have an 8-5 workaday job, we still enjoy the long weekends.....there's always a little more going on around town on these long weekends....this weekend Lake Coeur d'Alene is hosting hydroplane boat races.

This time last year we were in Twin Falls, ID over the Labor Day weekend, and this year, ironically, we are in the same state, only 583 miles north.  I tell my friends often that Idaho is one of the best kept secrets.  It is a beautiful state with amazing outdoor resources and scenery.

Sometime around 3 am Friday morning I was awakened by rain on the roof....it rained pretty steadily for a couple of hours.....I love rain on the roof......by the time I got up this was what the sky looked like.

When we first arrived in Coeur d'Alene 10 days ago my brother-in-law, Bob, gave TLE and I a gift certificate for $50 he had been given a couple of years ago to a local eatery called The Garnet Cafe over on Walnut Ave......just about a mile walk from our park.

Yelp, and Urbanspon give this little cafe 4.5 stars......I will have to disagree.....it is another solid 5 stars for us.  Wow, now that's two eateries in the past week I have given a solid 5 stars to.  The coffee is wonderful and the breakfast entrees are scrumptious.   We started walking over for breakfast about 8:30 and arrived just after 9....the line was out the door, but we were seated within 5 minutes.  There is a little clipboard on the wall in the entry way that you put your name on with the number of people in your party.  Within minutes a server will check the list, call your name and seat you....I like the system, and besides, this is a tiny place with really no room for a hostess.  They call themselves a "breakfast and brunch restaurant" since they close at 2 pm.   The entrees are a little pricey, but as I have said previously, if the food is good I'll pay the price, and this food was way beyond good.

On our walk over to the cafe TLE and I noticed several thrift stores in a small geographical area, so we decided when we got back home we would drive the 'Bird over and see what was what.  First we had to stop by the USPS to drop off a couple of packages for items we had sold on Ebay, and then the thrift store marathon began.  We visited 6 thrift stores, including the local Goodwill store, which was one of the nicest Goodwill stores we have been in....in fact, all of them were very nice.  After dropping off a large bag of clothes we were no longer wearing it was time to find a few treasures.  At the first store TLE found a very nice "Ex Officio" hiking shirt for me......99 cents, and I found a nice pair of black jeans ($1.70) for the Sugar Beet Harvest.  At the next store TLE found a nice skirt, and I found a nice plug in power drill....the drill cost $7.  All in all we shopped until almost 2 pm before returning home with our new finds.

Upon returning to the coach we found a note attached to the door from a blog reader who would like to meet us, and ask some questions about our fulltime lifestyle (Ron Brown).  I called him and talked for a while.  We'll try to get together this weekend, but are still trying to work out the details.  I guess if I publish where I am staying I shouldn't be surprised if someone looks me up from time to time.....but I am always surprised anyone wants to meet us.....:-)  We are looking forward to meeting Ron and his bride.

I walked over to the trailer to deposit my new power drill while TLE made some lunch....on the way back I saw a good friend, Dean Greer, walking toward me.  Dean and his wife Carole, live in Spokane, and we had lunch with them last year when we were here.  Apparently Dean had dropped off Carole for some physical therapy in Coeur d'Alene and took the opportuntiy to stop by and say "HI!"......a very nice surprise.  Dean is a regular reader of my blog, so, again, it's no surprise he knew where to find us.....lol.  We talked for about an hour, and made plans to get together for a late lunch/early dinner Tuesday.

Next up it was time for me to finish up my 2012 taxes.....I worked on them back in early April, but the Kentucky form was very confusing, and I was also missing one 1099, so I filed for an extension....well, that extension is up October 15th, and by that time I will be up to my armpits in sugar beets, so better get them done now while I have time.  I finished up my Federal and Kentucky forms, just leaving California to do.  Of course some of our Amazon pay came to us in 2o13, and along with our gig coming up (sugar beet harvest) I'll have to file taxes in three states for this tax year....sigh!

When I had finally finished the confusing Kentucky form TLE suggested we walk over the "The Mill" (in the food court by the Regal Theater) for a couple of brews, so we got dressed.....dressed is kind of an over statement...I changed into a nicer pair of shorts, and slipped into my flip flops for the walk over.  I was not really hungry, and neither was TLE so we just sipped some drafts and enjoyed the onset of evening....a very nice way to end a very nice day.

Do you like the haircut?

There was nothing on TV Friday night so I watched the Dodger game, which ended up being a 9-1 rout in favor of my Dodgers over the lowly San Diego Padres.....they have cooled off a little, but just set a Dodger record with 22 wins in August....if they win today that will be 23 wins in August....pretty impressive.

When I started to write Friday's entry I didn't realize how much we did on Friday....it just kind of flew by!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Labor Day holiday weekend!