Finished Wolf Willow by Wallace Stegner last night. It is mostly non-fiction about the area where he grew up in Saskatchewan. My favorite books by Stegner is Angle of Repose, Beyond the Hundreth Meridian, and Mormon Country. I enjoyed Wolf Willow because it is social history about the West. Although it concerns a specific part of Canada, it could easily translate to most of the settlement of the West -- irrigation, rainfall, buffalo, cattle, wolves, coyotes, and most importantly, the blue sky. All of those "Western problems" were part of this country long before Anglos came and will always be something we have to deal with by living here. All of those words are held in both good and bad esteem. As for me, I try to conserve when and where I can, I planted globemallow and red yucca because they don't need much water, and I enjoy eating red meat. I'd love to see the buffalo roam, I consider spotting a coyote an omen of good luck, and I would be thrilled to see a wolf in the wild as long as I wasn't considered dinner. I have some friends who are cattlemen and they have the right to protect their property so they see coyotes and wolves in a different light. But it's okay because we both live here, and we have to figure out how to get along for us to continue living here.

If there are any spelling errors, please forgive. I broke a tendon on my right ring finger and am wearing a lovely finger splint for the next 6 weeks day/night and then another 6 weeks at night. The finger just keeps jumping out wanting to press additional keys so although I am trying hard to keep track of additional letters in words, it might happen without my control.

B and I just got home from a 3 hour tour. Yep, a three hour tour (thanks Gilligan)! We rode our bikes from home up Snow Canyon. I had a hard time making it up the Canyon, but B followed along and gave encouraging words to my weary soul. We ride together to the base of the Canyon, then he takes off to ride to the top, and then comes back for me. My goal today was to make it off the bike path and in to the road before he came back -- that is about half way. I was just getting started up the road when he met me. I was so hot -- not smokin' like making it up the hill fast -- I was burning up with heat! Our room was cold when we got ready so I put on one of my warmer jerseys, along with an undee-shirt and a vest. After we passed through the gate, I took off my jersey and just wore my undee-shirt and vest. I had to stop a few times to rest. I was a lot cooler, but boy was my head on fire. I was so glad a breeze kicked up and by the time I got to the top, was feeling a lot better. I put my shirt back on and had a great down hill on the bike path. We rode through town and made it home in one piece.

Next stop is la chicken tostada pollo con frijoles negros y arroz con salsa mediana, no crema, and Diet Coke with a lime.