I spent the morning doing administration of life, which is my least favorite. I’m relieved that the intensity is over, but as it turns out, it is easier to handle when I have a LOT to do at once, as I stay on top of the minutiae. It was annoying to be on the phone and on the emails so much today. Blech.

I took nails out of the kitchen floor, cleaned and then scraped the walls. I wanted to sand the walls and window frames, but I couldn’t find my orbital sander. I mean…I looked all over the entire (720 sq ft) house and I couldn’t find it anywhere. The dogs were barking to beat the band, so I went out and calmed them down. They always create havoc when my neighbor Dan gets home and lets his dog Paisley out. Paisley and Korra could be twins, all pent up collie energy, and “I’m in charge!” “NO, I’m in charge!” barking up and down the fence line. They just want to chase things and yell about it. It’d be funny if it wasn’t also as annoying as your child yelling at you while you’re trying to use the bathroom. And today, the dog yelling coincided with me trying to use the bathroom, so I had flashbacks. I yelled “Liam, could you please calm them down?!”

Turns out he was out there talking to Dan and trying to calm the pack. Dan said “did you look in the refrigerator for the sander?” when I mentioned my sander dilema. He said he’s done that himself a few times, just set it right down in the fridge next to the beer and forgot he left whatever tool was in his hands in there. I thought that was amazing advice, headed back into the house, and saw the sander sitting behind the garage sale score mailbox I got on Sunday for a few bucks. I was relieved, and saw this as a sign to stop doing any work. We chatted over barking dogs for a few minutes, then Liam and I got ready to take the mutts to Pictograph State Park.

Pictograph is a series of 3 sandstone caves in the rimrocks that were excavated in the 30s. They found 100s of artifacts there and inside one of the caves are pictographs on the cave walls. What’s magical and mysterious and amazing about it is that if the sandstone is wet at all, you can’t see the images. While standing there and watching the cave paintings some of the images became more visible to me as I stared. I found it so incredibly fascinating!

I bought myself a cool handmade mug with a pictograph of a turtle on it as a souvenir. The dogs had fun, and Liam and I were both captivated by the majesty of the place. It’s literally 5 miles from my house. When you have a vehicle registered in Montana you don’t even have to pay the $6 park fee. When my truck is finally registered me and the dog will go here a lot until it closes for winter. What an amazing, amazing place. Every view was just stunning.