Listen. I enjoy a good football game. I was, after all, raised up on the 50-yard line, or somewhere there about, of Auburn, Alabama and Georgia. I know what Roll Tide, Go Dawgs and War Eagle means. And I'm a fairly indulgent sports widow, given my husband's avid addiction to pigskin.

But this high school sports thing is out-of-control. In Tim's nearly 30-years of teaching & coaching not a single player, not a single one of hundreds, has gone on to play in the NFL or the NBA. Not a one. Oh, sure, there's been a couple of dozen who've gone on to play ball at the college level, but that's it.

So imagine my dismay when Tim announced on Thursday that he had to drive down to Eugene to "scout" a game. Tim scouts lots of games, so that wasn't the unusual part. But Eugene is a 5.5 hour trip one-way from Hermiston. And, Tim, insisted that he would have to make the drive both ways, since he had to have the "game tape" back by the scheduled football meeting on Saturday, so the team could prepare for the playoff game, if they made it.

We are talking about a 11-hour round-trip drive, not including the time it takes to watch the game. I told Tim he needed to get an assistant to make the drive with him but he swore that no one else was available, so this sports widow hauled her sorry butt to Eugene on Friday  night, just to ensure that my husband would get home safely. Not all was lost, mind you. I had 11 straight hours off rant-and-bitch time to chaw on Tim. Something that I haven't been able to do much of lately, given his schedule. Okay, truth is I complained for like 20 mins. max, then slept a lot. The Columbia River Gorge is beautiful but even it can be boring when you've traveled it as much as I have. I've got the Lewis & Clark attitude about it -- awesome to see, a pain in the butt to travel.

What really griped me about the trip on Friday is that we didn't get home till 3 a.m. then I had to get up and head off to Ellensberg, Wash. first thing Saturday morning. I'd made previous arrangements to visit an old college buddy and I didn't want to have to reschedule a visit that had been in the works for 3 weeks. So I headed out at 9 a.m. Saturday morning for a 2-hour drive north.

Fortunately, it was worth it. My buddy Lois is Chairman of the Communciations Dept. at Central Washington Univ. She  bought a seven acre farm in the Kittitkas Valley. She's got three dogs and a beautiful horse -- a thoroughbred that's been put out to pasture. Best of all she's got a panoramic view of the entire valley, especially from the treehouse deck.

Yes. Treehouse. When Lois moved in, she hired one of her students to build her a treehouse, so she could have a bird's eye view of the valley. It's the perfect spot for reading a good book on a summer's day.

I may not like being a sports widow, but I what I do appreciate is that people like my husband and Lois continue to indulge their youthful passions, whether that be football or treehouses. Reading or running. And me? I'm the gal riding shotgun, taking notes, enjoying the landscape, and snoozing every chance I get.