Tuesday afternoon was spent on a ninety-some mile drive to University Town, to deliver 158 pairs of deer and elk lymph nodes to the lab.

The three gals in the lab were just overjoyed to see me and my clear plastic bag full of samples, as they had apparently just that moment finished processing someone else's clear bag of samples.

But hey, I'm in University Town. And we got a son at University. A son who announced his plan to abandon his mother on Parent's weekend last weekend to spend most of it with his former high school bandmates as they came to the Saturday football game. Which miffed her enough to cancel her trip completely. Which had no effect on youngest son, other than to ask "Can you just mail the money, then?"

So yeah, a brief visit and some words of fatherly advice might be warranted.

Not to mention I've got his heeler in the truck.

So, we park a block from campus, and the heeler, on a leash, and I wait for him across the street from the dorm. And I barely recognize him as he strides out. Yeah, the hair is longer and flying free, but somehow he looked shorter. Guess if I had the wife miffed at me, my shoulders might slump some, too.

The masked heeler, however, with her cataracts, does not recognize her boy until he is across the street and almost upon us.

Whereupon her tail tried to wag right off her butt.

And once the greetings were over, she pulled immediately for the truck, apparently satisfied we had found her lost boy and were now going to take him home.

Instead, we walked a few blocks of the neighborhood and talked. Including some fatherly advice on how he can best regain the wife's good graces. My suggestion of a letter home fell on deaf ears. His idea? He's coming home for just an evening this Friday. With plans for the high school homecoming. We might get to see him for all of ten minutes. But as a peace gesture, he's going to try to bring home his laundry for the wife to do.

Yeah, that'll go over well. He's got some things to learn yet.

So, all too soon, we're back at the truck and headed home again.

The masked heeler laid down most the way, with her head drooped sadly over the seat, staring blankly at the floor.

Along the route home, there's a county road that parallels the interstate for a few miles. It happens to cross one of the outfit's management areas, where I spotted a hunter vehicle parked as we came over. So, we took a brief scenic detour, to see some new country, maybe check a hunter (nope... it was empty), and cheer up the forelorn heeler.

And enjoy the colours of the season.