Monday, June 30, 2003

Hi Gang:

Today started out cloudy and a bit wet, but a good balance. This morning I drove Kara over to school Kirby Stephan and then grabbed the M6 up to Penrith and stopped for groceries. Sandra is in Switzerland celebrating her 40th birthday, so in order for Dave to begin his regular day with us, I took Kara to school. We always have a good bit of fun on the way over. Last time we had steers in the road, today we had Dairy Cows. We are hoping this is not going to be a regular thing, though. Kara has one more year of school and then she starts college. She can't wait, because she gets to take art courses then. She is quite good.

The shopping in Penrith was unusual. The cashier I had does caving in her spare time, so we were chattering on about slithering underground. The lady in front of me in the line had a huge cart load of groceries. She only does her shopping every 4-5 weeks, which is very unusual in the for folks here in the UK. The cashier was helping her off-load her cart and I volunteered to help so the cashier could begin ringing up the order. The lady I was helping had spent a year with her family in Nevada. Her husband was involved in some kind of exchange of Civil Engineers and the family lived two hours from Reno out in the now where end of the state, so she got used to shopping every 4-5 weeks. She and the kids would make a day of it - Movies, Shopping, etc. Another lady helped pack her groceries, and then did mine. In the UK you usually pack your own groceries. Though the cashiers are not allowed to help, they frequently do anyway. So basically I did a good deed and a good deed was returned.

I drove home and dived into cleaning fluorite. By this time the rain had started for real. Byron said it was a cold and wet day for him as well. Tomorrow they will blast and muck to opening up some of the working faces that have become tight again. The track between the West and East tunnels is all but done. Work is proceeding. I hope everyone is well.

Cheers,

Jonina and Byron

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