Necessity is a Mother...

Back at the mines yesterday afternoon I decided to sit in one of the fifteen recliners they have in the "radon room" (where people who are claustraphobic like me go instead of 85 feet down in the tunnel). I got busy reading and didn't notice that slowly the room had emptied out, leaving me alone. David was out taking a walk, as he often will do a couple hours a day here with me, but doesn't always want to do the full four hours a day. All of a sudden I was attacked by a fairly strong call of nature and realized that there was no-one around...and David had my cellphone in the car. Hm-mm. Well, the choices became more and more apparent as the time ticked by, so, gathering up my non-existant (I thought) strength, I leaned heavily on the arm of the chair, and stood by God up! And then I walked, without an arm or a walker, 60 steps down a hallway to the facilities--at which point the attendant who was in the other room heard me and stood open-mouthed as I stood looking at her. Other than being really wobbly because of the effort and the fact that I haven't walked that far unassisted since last SUMMER, I'm none the worse for wear today--just a little stiff from using muscles that haven't been used so much in a long time. So, there's the Annie and the Mine news for today...

Last night David and I took a wonderful drive to Basin and up towards the Basin Creek Campground in the National Forest. While in Basin we found this old smelter chimney over a mine shaft that was built in the early 1900's. It was really pretty cool. Then we drove along this gorgeous creek for miles up into the foothills. It was really pretty, and I found some wild purple columbine that I've only ever seen in flower books before.