'Decorated widows' bring lighter touch to Bonner County Fair
As summer comes to an end, it is high time I went through a pile of column notes that have accumulated in and around my desk. I measure the end of summer when school starts, the lake gets cold and Sandpoint's one-way streets revert to being one-way streets again.
If our body temperature is normally 98.6 degrees, how come when it is 98 degrees outside, no one is comfortable?
We missed most of the fair this year. We left for Glacier Park on Thursday morning and hit a Bambi deer near the Sam Owen turnoff before the 4Runner even warmed up. As I pulled over, a truck driver who was driving a local AmeriGas truck, had already hopped out and taken care of moving the deer off the highway.
The rest of the drive was spent with the kids spotting deer on the side of the highway and fields and commenting that yet another Bambi had gotten away.
Speaking of one that got away … Kudos to Daily Bee carrier Vicky Groeper, who was instrumental in saving the life of a 31-year-old who apparently passed out while waiting for a train at a crossing at 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Her car rolled into the tracks and stopped. Groeper saw the vehicle, noticed a person slumped over the steering wheel and immediately contacted 911.
She attempted to revive the driver but noticed there was a train bearing down on the car. Out of the darkness, BCSO Deputy Aaron Flynn sped to the scene and rammed the car off the tracks with no time to spare.
Deputy Flynn and Bee carrier Vicky Groeper are heroes, no doubt about it.
I wonder if the 31-year-old, could-a and should-a been a train-car fatality victim has sobered up enough to thank either of the people who saved her life?
I'll take that bet and I do want the movie rights.
A few people pointed out a contest I wanted to catch at the fair this year. On Page 7 of the fairbook, people were invited to participate in the "Decorated Widows" contest.
The rules were simple:
• "One or more old energy efficient widows may be used - single or multiple pane, wooden or aluminum frame, etc …"
I personally feel widows have had enough "pane" and shouldn't be exploited this way.
E-mail of the week: Yesterday I was buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for Athena the wonder dog at Wal-Mart and was about to check out.
A woman behind me asked if I had a dog. What did she think I had, an elephant? So since I'm retired, with little to do, on impulse, I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, and that I was starting the Purina Diet again. Although I probably shouldn't, because I'd ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms. I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.
(I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story.)
Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter's tail and a car hit us both. I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was laughing so hard!
Wal-Mart won't let me shop there anymore!
David Keyes is publisher of the Daily Bee.