The wife's butt was still sore this morning.

I wish I could claim credit for the ache in her lower regions. Make some boast about still having it. But I can't. I didn't do it.

And no, she didn't fall on the ice. Nor did she overwork herself with household chores. Sunday was a day of rest.

She got sore from another man.

From dancing with another man. And in front of about a hundred people, to boot. Myself included.

'Course, when he asked, I was nudging her to go ahead and dance. And all six members of our youth group were shouting out "Mrs. Grouse!" to get her to volunteer.

Now, this man claims to be over 65. And was dressed in feathers and leathers, so maybe I don't have to worry. But earlier he did pick me out of the crowd and challenge me, personally. Because of the uniform or the grey hair, I do not know.

So my wife, in her uniform, went out and danced with this man in his full Indian regalia.

Before I get a bunch of politically correct people "tut-tutting" about using the word "Indian", let me say he used it first. While "Indian" was originally a misnomer, there are a hell of a lot of us who are "Native Americans" but not descended from folks here prior to 1492, so that term isn't any better.

And I don't recall this man, nor his fellow dancer (his son), nor the two drummers ever uttering the term "Native American". It was clear that they considered us all to be Americans. When referring to their heritages, or the commonality of their beliefs across the United States/Canada border, they spoke of tribes and Indian Country, not "Nations".

Yep. Liked him right off.

So it was a partnership dance. Wife with the lead dancer, and boys jumping out to dance in their own pairs. Looked amazingly like the Arizona Round Dance I taught the wife the week we first met oh, so many years ago. So she did well. But it makes me wonder where the Arizona Conclave students who taught it to me learned it themselves.

Of course, this wasn't the first time the audience had been out on the gym floor to dance Indian dances, with a huge Indian drum made of elk hide, with real song callers. In fact, there was dancing for most of an hour and a half, and I remember only one where the rest of us sat and watched. At all the others, we were out there dancing (yeah, the wife and I didn't miss a one).

You know, it looks easy, and for some I got the rythm right off, but on others it took me at least a half a lap to get even close to comfortable with the beat. More exercise than you would think.

And really hard on the ankles.

And the first dance... that one was clever. It started with the two dancers, and the Governor between them (yeah, the roads were good... he made it). And then we all joined in, moving in congo-line style around and amidst each other, hopping in beat to the heavy drum, patting Mother Earth with our feet, eventually twisting back upon ourselves. Which allowed each dancer, in turn, to shake hands with the smiling Governor as they passed in line.

And yeah, I was wearing the red working uniform, not the green khaki of everyone else. He noticed.

This pow-wow was the final event of the overnighter. Friday evening was kind of calm, if having 50+ boys crowded into a town recreation center can be described as calm. Did have to kick one kid out of the weight room, since he was more interested in running around with weight bars than trying out all the equipment. And a few others spent their entire pocket change stoking up on sugars.

The night was surprisingly peaceful.

Perhaps because I, for once, joined most of the other men sleeping in the carpeted aerobics room, rather than on the hard floored gym with all the boys. Those that stayed out there to chaperone reported quite a few were still active at 02:00.

Pretty sure I had three of those for a merit badge session that afternoon, since they were barely responsive.

Most of Saturday, the wife and I manned the wildlife/plant table, as usual. Wife handled the plant identification (after checking with me to make sure she knew what all the samples were), and most of the wildlife ID. I ended up pretty much just on the merit badge stuff. Got at least 11 boys through what I had to offer, which is probably a record for this event.

Several assumed the wife worked for the same outfit as I, since she knew everything as well as I did. When one lad introduced himself, realized right away he was a game warden's son. So we pulled him onto our side of the table, and put him to work.

Had groups from a couple new towns this time. Ones who had never seen our display, so that went well, and kept us busy. Even pulled out the eagle skull for a few to see and handle. But some of these kids were really urbanized. At least for this state. A couple who didn't know a pronghorn antelope? Nor the difference between an elk and a moose?

We actually did some educating this time.

Meals were the usual fare. Pancakes and sausage for breakfast, cooked outside on the snow-covered patio, so the huge waves of mist rolled in and across the swimming pool everytime a pan of food came in, or a bowl of batter went out. Sloppy joes and chips for lunch.

No wontons this year (You know, I still get google hits for my picture of last year's wontons... is there a pornographic meaning for the word "won-ton" that I am unaware of?), just cupcakes for a Friday night snack. A definite mistake, as chocolate crumbs and frosting ended up everywhere (except for the pool table... they kept that clean and busy).

And then, after it was all done and folks were either packing to leave, or cleaning up, I drove the old Dodge around to the back door to begin loading skulls and furs.

And looked up to see a crescent moon.

Now, that thing was full Friday evening. I know, because I watched it rise as we were on the road. No way I could have suddenly lost two weeks. Unless this was the Twilight Zone.

Or unless we were having an eclipse. Another lunar eclipse? Two in one year?

Why doesn't someone tell me these things?

But there is was, near full occlusion.

Immediately called the wife's cell phone (she was all the way out in the front parking lot, getting to ready to leave on her own). She already knew. And hadn't mentioned it to me.

But my announcement to the nearly empty gym still brought out a dozen or so folks to brave the bitter cold to check it out. A couple for their very first eclipse.

A good way to end the day.

Now, about my ankles...