How do we spend our evenings?

You'll notice that I didn't say "all of the ways that we spend our evenings" ... this is a "G-rated" blog.

But, we did get a question about our evenings ...

We haven't had the weather conditions to do the "sitting around the campfire" thing ... it has been either too cold, too windy or both ... and campfires are increasingly discouraged due to fire risk (we just don't want to be the source of the next major western forest fire).

Star gazing and night sky watching have been limited ... again due to the colder evening temperatures ... although the Dark Sky Initiative by the National Park Service has led to wonderful bright star-studded skies near national parks.  Park Ranger led evening education talks have not occurred because it is too early in the season ...

We have been surprised that some of the private campgrounds have cable television available at each campsite ... we didn't bring cable, but have been able to borrow cable at these campgrounds.  So, we've been able to watch the PBS Newshour and catch up on the NBA final tournaments, but just because we can get cable television doesn't mean that anything much is worth watching ... (and a DVR is not included in the cable television offerring, so one has to watch the commercials).

Paul was able to connect his Surface via HDMI cable to our flat screen television and we've been able  to stream material from Netflix and HBO Go when we have access to good WIFI connection or Internet connection.

And we do have an excellent sound system with radio, CD, Bluetooth audio options ... so, music is in our life ...

When we are without connection, we've returned to our mainstay, Scrabble ... Paul almost always wins ... but a couple of nights ago, when we were both brain dead and our words resembled a third graders attempt at playing ("your",  "wed", "the"), I actually won a game ... much excitement (by me, at any rate).

We have also had a couple of new entrants into the game world ...

One is a game, Road Trip, from Hilary, Paul's cousin's wife, who is a game distributor and found this game for us a gaming conference ... seemed wonderfully appropriate for travel in Bambi ... Paul won that game too ...

And, another word game from John, Paula and Max ... Zip-It ...

One might think that we are "word" people ...

Of course, we always have books, magazines, etc. to read (though we're both reading so much that we are nearly caught up on The New Yorker magazine).  And, there is a "lonely" research paper that has been hiding in a briefcase in the back cabinet of Bambi waiting for Paul to bring it out and work on re-writing it ... Paul frequently mentions that he should give it some attention, but he has rarely brought it out for any evening "entertainment" ... and my art supplies have remained in my briefcase (awaiting a rainy day) ...

And then there is always just the daydreaming, reminiscing, and other mental meanderings that occur  when one is free to allow oneself to wander ...