Listening to the coyotes through my open window at Alta Lodge. I’m here for the new faculty retreat…representing the old, which I’ve definitely become 😉 Not up for the post-dinner hike. More inclined to a bath, a book, and bed. So here I am, enjoying the quiet solitude of a room without a TV. The occasional car drives by, the occasional door shuts in the hall. Otherwise, just coyotes howling not far off. We saw a moose grazing at the bottom of Rustler this evening. And the wildflowers are lovely. Everything smells wonderful. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll hike to Cecret Lake.

So far I’m enjoying myself, though I have some pangs of guilt leaving my sickly girl behind today. Maggie got sick early Sunday morning and remained ill throughout most of yesterday. She hadn’t eaten anything much until dinner tonight, poor thing. Turns out Abe got sick too, so they must have gotten some kind of food poisoning at the birthday party Friday night. Probably the hobo hamburgers. Ugh. Definitely a trial for Sean, as he’d recently finished up a similar round of illness. He treated Maggie with such tenderness and love.

Although I helped Maggie with the early morning part of her illness and shared a bed with her–thus I’m especially relieved to know that she probably got this thing from food–I wasn’t around much of yesterday as Jake and I went golfing with my parents. It was good fun! I got two bogeys too. May have to take up this sport.