So, we're down to another crunch time. One antelope area left to classify before the hunting season opens in said area.

Four routes to run. Ran one yesterday, that left three to go, with today, Monday and Tuesday available to run them.

Lookin' pretty good.

Except for the elk flight scheduled for early Tuesday morning. That's one of my six half-days gone.

Except for the funeral and memorial services set for Tuesday. Another half-day gone.

And this morning, when I rise before the sun does, what do I see?

Clouds. Heavy dark clouds, and wind that's shaking the treetops.

Craaap.

Well, I should have said "Craaaap", but truth was, I was happy to crawl back into bed. Even happier when I heard the raindrops pelting against the window shortly thereafter.

By seven-thirty the sun was out, the sky blue, the wind gone.

By 07:53, the heelers and I were on the road.

Seven miles later we had this:

Turn south, and the sky is black again. With rain. From six miles south I can see the Divide, where we need to work, and it is socked in.

Homeward we go. With a brief stop to get shots of the new Entrega pipeline (for natural gas) going in. Without any work crews around, because of the rain.

That pipe's huge, man. Thirty-eight inches across. (That's just a couple centimeters under a meter, for those of you in more civilized countries.) Imagine that pipeline full of natural gas, pressurized to many times the pressure of a home line.

Then imagine that pressurized gas flowing down that pipeline like a river. Or better, a speeding train.

That's a lot of gas.

Now imagine all the wells that are going to be drilled to fill that pipeline.

And the next two pipelines that are supposed to go in next to it.

Oh, joy.

And yes, the alternating 'sunshine-soaking rain' continued all day.

We're in rain right now.

So no classifications.

Leaving one day, Monday, to run three routes.

Gonna be fun to see how I do that.

And the weekend?

Another two days of comparatively boring check station duty.