swimmin' in the crick

Unbelievable. I have to cross a somewhat busy street to get to and from work. I have the stop sign and sometimes it takes awhile to get across. And by awhile, I mean you might have to wait for 3 minutes or so. So instead of freaking out everytime, I just mentally prepare that I may have to wait a few minutes. No biggie.

Today, there was a man in a blue car behind me at the stop sign. I could tell he was getting impatient because he kept making these large sigh-of-frustration movements that I could see in my rearview mirror. Personally, I don't really care if he is frustrated that I am sitting at a stop sign waiting for a break in traffic instead of trying to race through and make the other vehicles with THE RIGHT OF WAY either slow down or hit me. I agree it can be a tad frustrating when there is a break in one direction but a ton of cars coming from the other but ohmygosh, it's going to put you out like 3 minutes. Anyways, the dude actually pulls over on my right as if he is going to turn right - which is a common thing that people do at that intersection if they get tired of waiting. I grinned to myself because it was easily obvious that a break in traffic big enough for both of us to make it through was coming but whatever. I shift to first and begin to cross the intersection. But instead of turning right, like I expected, he actually turns left around and in front of me I just about hit him because I didn't realize he was going to be a jerk. Part of me wanted to speed up a bit so I would hit him, because it was so rude of him and totally his idiocrocy that would have been the cause of the accident (in court anyway). But since I'm not like that in life (only occasionally in thought) I instead just honked. I never honk at people on purpose so it was actually quite a big gesture from me. What a jerk. Why are Saskatoon drivers so uptight and selfish and in such a rush? I don't get it. I mean where was he needing to be at 5:16 that he couldn't have arrived at 5:19 and still been okay? Oh well, he's the one who's going to have the heart attack if he doesn't learn to chill.

On another topic, I had a really nice weekend at my church's retreat in Park Valley. The highlight was jumping from an old bridge into the river/creek thing below. It was a perfect way to spend an end-of-summer afternoon. The guys got increasingly show-offish and by the end they had backed up a truck to the bridge to get higher and were launching people into the river like a catapault (spelling?). We also had a bbq picnic in a field and followed that with a big relay involving farm chores. It was hilarious. Each team had to do things like carrying hay bales, cleaning up hay with a pitchfork, playing a game of horseshoes, etc. Plus we had to be dressed up in overalls and rubber boots and work gloves and stuff. So we looked ridiculous in more than one way. Campfires everynight, good farm cooking and lots of time to relax made for a good time. My only regret is that I didn't sleep outside the last night and apparently there were some fantastic northern lights. It has motivated me to get on with my plans to purchase a warmer sleeping bag so I will be able to next year.