A hard rain woke me up at 5 this morning.
It's been so long since I've seen rain,
I went out under the eaves to enjoy it.
Days like this always make me glad I work IN a shop.

Today is scheduled for shop clean-up
to get ready for a good-sized cabinet project

About half-way through my first cup of coffee, I decided:
"Naw ... I'm gonna play hooky today and go visit Jim."

My best friend in life (since 1956), Jim Lemmon, is working on a
motel/lodge project three hours from here in McCall
(a resort town for the shamefully affluent )
-- and today is the day to visit him.

Rainbow Bridge

Under blackened skies, I headed North on the old winding Hwy 55,
up the North Fork of the Payette River, through some of Idaho's
most beautiful forests. With a 60's station cranked full-tilt on the radio,
I am singing as loud as I can, dancing from the arm-pits up,
playing a little air-guitar every time the road straightens-out
for more than 2 seconds at a time
(I'm like, man, Indrek, life is wondrous).
"Get your motor runnin' ..." -- Steppenwolf ain't got nothin' on me.

Jim is building a Porte-cochere
(a drive-thru approach to a big clerestoried entrance)
with 26' logs, 40" in diameter.

He pre-fabs these monstrous members on the ground
with 16" round mortise and tendons
(they need to snuggle perfectly
when the crane positions them atop the 12' posts)

Raining to beat the band in McCall,
I find Jim humming along,
busy as a beaver ...

... in his portable shop -- a.k.a."Killer"

With surgical precision,
Jim will meld these snaggled timbers
to a glass and steel attachment.

On the way back home I caught some Kayakers/floaters
shooting this little white-water rapids
on the Payette River.

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