You didn't tell me it had rained.

This to the wife, trying to slumber in bed, as I came in for my good-bye kiss. She'd already been up, almost an hour before, letting the restless heeler Mom out. Made no mention about precipitation.

"It rained," comes the mumbled reply from under the covers.

If I had known it had rained and everything was damp, I would have stayed in bed. Any excuse for extra sleep is appreciated this time of year.

But I'm already dressed, the coffee made.

Might as well go out. Seen plenty of mornings when it was raining up here on the Divide, and dry down in the desert.

But not today.

As I made the steep drop...

(Note the use of the pronoun "I" rather than"we". The heeler sisters had wisely looked at me like I was crazy when I came back into the bedroom, and made it perfectly clear they had no interest in going out on a morning like this. They stayed in the warm bed with the wife and their mother.

Smart heelers.)

Aaaanyway, as we return to me dropping down into the desert, we find...

Clouds. Really low clouds. Everywhere. But not quite resting down on the hills where I was hoping to start my standardized lek counts today.

I turn off the highway, onto the old mine road.

It's puddled. As in, there are puddles of water standing all over the asphalt surface. For miles.

Just imagine what the dirt roads are going to look like.

Time to go home.

As I make my Y turn in the middle of the flats, I feel the back tires drop off the paved surface, and slowly sink into the soft goo of a shoulder.

Yeah. This is the right decision. A few pictures of the hanging clouds, and homeward bound I go.

A good morning to finish those reports that are a couple days late anyway.