Eight minutes before eight. I was laying in bed, still in my pajamas, just started on reading the paper.

There's only one bathroom in our old house, and both the wife and eldest son are rushing to get ready and off to start work every morning at eight o'clock. So, I tend to stay abed, and out of the way.

The phone rang.

Gal from regional office town. Checking to see if I'd checked my email yesterday.

Uhhhh, no. Had over eight hours in already when I finally got home. Reading emails is often a task I figure can wait a day if need be.

Well, there was an email reminding us that the mandatory meeting, with A-Number One boss in attendance, had been set for three o'clock this afternoon.

And then, another email sent out yesterday, advising said mandatory meeting had been pushed forward to ten o'clock.

This morning.

Two hours from now.

In Regional Town.

Which happens to be 127 miles away.

She asks, can I make it?

Umm, yeah. Might be a little late, though.

Eighteen minutes later I was on the highway.

115 minutes after that, I was at the office. Just five minutes late.

Not much to say about the meeting. Lots of new faces. Younger faces. Which I guess is to be expected. Seven of the 23 were female.

After his planned remarks, boss opened for questions or comments, to "reaffirm any rumours or start new ones."

Then it was time for the monthly summaries, with each of the other 22 people in the room explaining, either briefly or in some detail, what they've been doing the past month, and what interesting stuff is coming up. When the gal compiling research on correlation between wolves and elk calf production mentioned her work, #1 boss asked if she had any words of wisdom he could use in his upcoming meetings with stockgrowers and outfitters.

"Well, there are many complex and interacting factors..." she trailed off.

"Director potential, there", was his appraisal.

When it came my turn, I gave the usual summation of our sage grouse numbers this spring, the drought in our country, and, of course, the thousands of gas wells coming in. Then I mentioned our small town losing a lot of their old trees, the Baptists driving the owls out of the historic hotel, and that we have a pair of redtails in town. The Chief of Police has been following them around as they fly over town, but hasn't found their nest yet.

This brought a lot of chuckles from the crew and snide comments about life in small towns. And queries why the police chief is looking for the hawk nest. (Answer? Because he and I would like to know, that's why.)

But what I know, and suspect no one else in the room knew is...

#1 Boss's wife grew up in our little town. We lived next door to her folks for two years. Her Mom taught our eldest son.

He and she would like to know these things.