Pauline and Bill

Along with flowers and rain showers the merry month of May brings the first of many out of town family and friends to Dobbs' Retreat. It's always fun to have folks we like and love stay with us for a few days - since most are city dwellers they enjoy seeing the lake view, tall pines and wildlife that surround our rural home. Pauline and Bill arrived on the 13th . A sweet reunion for Pauline and me as we've been friends since high school- over 40 years ago - where we were both members of Valkyries, Bell High's famed soroity.

We talked and talked and laughed alot; and stayed up past midnight each night looking thru old high school year books and drinking microbrew beer. Uninterested in beer, or our youthful past, Gary and Bill found common ground in political debate - each representing a radically different point of view. Realizing neither could change the others mind, they finally agreed to happily disagree and switched their conversation to birds.

Bill has a super duper Nikon camera - the kind paparazzi use to capture unsolicited photo's of the rich and famous. He took tons of pictures of Pauline and me and many of the wild turkeys scratching for food outside our kitchen window. Some are very good ! If only Pauline and I were rich and famous (even just rich, or famous) I know Bill could sell them to People Magazine, Star or the National Enquirer. Oh well, for us - in our little corner of the world, there's always Facebook !

Yesterday morning, just before Pauline and Bill left, we hugged and renewed vows of friendship. Soon it was time for Pauline to climb into the drivers seat of the big V8 Toyota Tundra named 'George' - after George Burns and start pulling 'Gracie', their pop up tent trailer named for Gracie Allen, and head for Tacoma - another stop on their northwest travels. As Pauline drove her rig down our long rock road and waved her arm backwards out the window , I could hear her yelling, "Good-bye, Kathy". I was waving and hollered back, "Good-bye! Good-bye, Pauline Marie".