2013 Johnson style : February 2018

How life just keeps on going? There was a horrible accident by our house,, maybe a month ago, where a lady, someone's wife, daughter, mother, got hit by a school bus and died. That family is, I feel safe to assume, swallowed up in grief, trying to pick up the pieces of what is left of their shattered lives, while the rest of the world just keeps spinning around them, as though nothing has changed. I think about that family every day, as I drive by the accident site on my way home from work. It seems very unfair that the world just keeps turning, when such tragedy happens. My heart hurts for that family.

Valentines day is fast approaching,,, never a holiday I have been excited to celebrate,, even when Todd was here. We always bought a little something for the kids,, helped them make "mail boxes" for school.. sometimes we would go out for dinner, but more times than not we cooked dinner at home.

And I continue to detest this holiday,, in such that,, I really don't want my husband/boyfriend to buy me flowers on FEB 14, when they are triple or more that they are next week,, because some saint did who knows what,, who knows where, and who knows why,,, seriously, without googling it, do you know why we celebrate Feb 14?

With Tom's 'lack of love" and being alone for so long, I wanted to do something special this year,,, and lucky me found a KILLER deal on a condo up in Bear Lake,, for 2 nights,, SOOOOO, I shot a text to his boss and begged him to let Tom off early on friday without telling him why,, Tom came home and there was a gift bag filled with a couple of his favorite things, with a card that said, "you, me, bear lake, now, no arguing" and he got the biggest grin on his face! Seriously, this man loves Bear Lake, he spent most of his summers there with his family growing up, it would be similar to me taking him to Nanaimo, and showing him all the things I experienced there growing up. HE was so completely excited.

I had dinner planned out for that night,, steak and shrimp, with a potato for him and cauliflower for me, and dessert.

He had wanted to go hunting on Saturday, so we just did that up there, we loaded up the truck and were off!!!!!

We had so much fun!!!! Got to the condo, cooked dinner together, laughed, talked, enjoyed being together with no interruptions. Saturday we got up and loaded up the guns, ammo, and lunch, and off we went to go find us some coyotes,,,,, Tom gets this brilliant idea to go up to Temple Canyon," ok,, fair enough, I trust him,, let's go! " Well just because there is no snow on valley floors,,,
***Let me interject here, and just say, we have a Chevy Silverado, with A-MAZING tires on it, SNOW is not an issue,, NORMALLY!,, never mind the fact that someone had taken down the "MOUNTAIN ROAD CLOSED FOR THE WINTER sign",, and up we go! The road was clear,, patches of snow,, here and there, no big deal, then we cross the cattle guard,,, and it's like we crossed into a different dimension, suddenly we are on an icy snow packed road, not a lot, but enough to make me nervous, actually I think it was more the sudden drop to the left of us that made me nervous. We go slow, no big deal,, and keep climbing up,, we are 100 yards away from the public land we are looking to hunt, and suddenly we hear ice cracking, and the truck drops about a foot, Tom backs up and our back end swings towards the drop on the left hand side, *que panic attack* he pulls forward and we are pulled to the right,, to the mountain side,, after about 30 minutes of trying, we realize we are really stuck and neither of us has phone service,, I whisper,, "maybe we should say a prayer?", while blinking back tears.. he pauses and says "yep,, will you say it please?" we offer up a prayer (same belief system helps when you are with someone!) and as we close the prayer, I grab my cell read my book and distract myself and notice we have cell service... YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA
Tom calls the sheriff, and they say, nope cant come get ya due to liability,, call the tow company,,
so we call the tow company, and he says,, yep $175 an hour,, *UGH!!!!!* Don't really have a choice as we have no shovel, and we are stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck, and Tom did NOT want me walking in the cold to hike down the mountain,, although I totally would've done it just fine!!!!
So we tell the tow truck to come on up,, and yes there is snow,, and we wait,, he comes,, gets to the cattle guard and sees the road covered in snow and calls and says "I have to go back and get a different truck,, I didn't know there was snow"

WHAT THE HELL did you think we were stuck in,, Tom and I both told him we were stuck in snow, UGH so we have to wait another 45-60 minutes for him to get to us, meanwhile the $$$$ are racking up. Oh well, honestly, it is what it is,, Tom was stressing out, and feeling horrid, I was trying to destress the situation and point out the positives,, we had guns and ammo, if we needed to we could walk up to the public land and hunt for coyote meat, lol, we were together,, we were gonna be ok,, **This is probably why we work so well, honestly, when one of us is stressed, the other one is usually calm** I crank the 80's cd we are listening to, I do the jig in the snow,, he chuckles,, ok I will let him stress, that is how he processes things,, and suddenly a GMC Yukon comes over the horizon,, seriously???

This truck is jacked up, huge tires,, lifted about 2 feet,, *guessing here*, and he and Tom talk, and he tells Tom " I was expecting a truck with teenie street tires on,, dang,, " Tow man packs down the snow to make tracks for us, and shovels us out by making snow ramps to assist us in getting out of the ruts,, and we follow him, slowly,, BACKWARDS down the hill,, and here is where I am freaking out, tears and everything, and Tom is calm,,,, I am so scared we are going to end up and the bottom of the ravine! *SIGH* we make it,, pay the guy, and Tom gets into his truck and apologizes all over the place, because clearly this is his fault,,, (Sasrcasm heavy here) and promises me that if I ever feel uncomfortable on a road to just tell him and he will stop and turn around.. "I never want to be the cause of that kind of pain for you again" <<< LOVE HIM!

Off we go, on our merry, broke way, to hunt,, and we only have enough day light to set up 2 stands at this point,, on our second stand, we see a ton of coyote tracks, and a set of wolf tracks,, and wouldn't you know that blasted wolf ran right in front of us! And we can't shoot it, and dang those things are fast!!!! lol Beautiful and fast! and the reason why we didn't see or hear any dogs in that area.. so back down we go, for a warm dinner and a quiet night back at the condo.

Sunday we got up and checked out, and Tom took me all over Bear Lake, to see all his memories up there,, Seriously want to retire there!!!

We took our time coming home and stopped to see my niece Courtney and her family, got some 4 month old baby twin girl snuggles in, and then we headed home,,

Undoubtably our most fun adventure yet!!!!

On the way home I slipped and called him "Todd" again,, *SIGH* and as I quickly correct myself he smiles and says "you're fine sweetheart",, I ask him, why do you smile when I do that? his response made me fall in love with him even more:
"I take it as a compliment,, Todd was your love, he had your heart, you trusted him the most, and for you to call me Todd,, what better compliment"

Don't tell me Todd didn't play a hand in bringing us together. There's not a doubt in my mind.

pics are on my facebook!