How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll tootsie pop?

a one, a two… a three…a THREE

If you are over 30, you probably got the answer correct.  🙂

Or shall I ask, how many times can Niccole out drive a very large animal in the road???  Read on, but first here’s our slew of shows for those that want to get down to business!

Tues. 7/10 Sockeye Grill @ 8-10 with Rochelle Smith (we call her Roxx for short and she’s awesome on the Mandolin, Box Drum and a perfect 3rd vocal harmony!

Wed. 7/11 Owyhee Plaza “Splash Bash” 7-10  Out there on the patio swimming in the pool and staying cool, listening to your favorite tunes, fun for the whole family!

Friday 7/13  Piper Pub @ 8:30-11:30  a down town treat

Sat. 7/14  Wood River Cellars @ 7-9 for those that like wine bar ambiance…this is it!

Wed. 7/18 Smoky Mtn. Pizza in Eagle 7-9pm ...a brand new patio, full bar, great menu…this place has done a fabulous job upping the scale of fun!

For directions and more details check our calander here  http://blazeandkelly.com/calendar-of-events/

OK…in review, we had a stellar time at the Botanical Garden’s Great Escape Concert on the 28th.  600 folks came out to the show and supported the gardens and us…thank you thank you!  That was a blast.  We took to the mountains to play Idaho Rocky Mtn. Ranch and Sawtooth Luce’s.  Both shows were awesome and the mountains were a well needed treat to get out of the heat and get some hiking in.  Big Dog “Osa” managed to find her way to the snow patches for a roll around in the cool white stuff and I walked away with only 3 mosquito bites, yippie!

Well…the answer you might be still reading for…let me qualify big animals…Elk, Moose, Buffalo, Horses and Cattle.

I’ve managed to dodge in past years, 2 very huge Elk and one Moose on a Motorcycle.  I hope to God I have 9 lives!  Last week while driving up to Stanly in the dark hours of the night I was very aware of all the animals on our travels.  I would flinch at any green eyed glow and come to a slow to pass a plethora (yes a “plethora) of deer (that means a LOT)!

Our last 5 miles we were on a straight away.  The speed limit 65 and I had people passing me by easily doing 80 in cars much smaller than mine.  I wondered, “what are they thinking…don’t they see all these animals”.  So I figured lady luck was with them.  I kept my speed around 60… and I’m usually a 5 miles over kinda gal…but, I’ve gotten wiser as I’ve aged LOL!

Last year when we were in Oregon we did a festival with the 13 Grandmothers (a side note…they are original  indigenous folks with many beautiful insights and great wisdom)  I listened to a woman speak of “Heart Math”.  Through scientific experiments, it has been proven, yes PROVEN, that the heart responds to incoming information 8-10 seconds BEFORE the brain! So, without knowing or realizing something cognitively, one can FEEL things beforehand that could indeed save their lives.  I found that fact interesting but really didn’t think about it too much all year.  Sure there was that one time during my teaching years that a volleyball came straight at my head and I gave it a one-two Kung Fu block before it smashed my face.  Yes there was that time I yanked my niece away from a car about to wildly back out of a parking lot.  But my near misses I figured was just reaction time.

So, back to Stanly…sleepy, driving the dark highway…my foot suddenly goes to the brake in a snabbing coolness to slow my Ford Explore to an immediate halt to which I find a Mama Elk and her baby stumbling out on the street!  4 FEET they were from my front bumper.  The Mama and baby both looked at me.  Mo and I looked at them…we both said “Holy Shit”…and found that Osa was buried in equipment that had flung it’s way to the front of the cargo area.  After unburying the dog and catching my breath Mo said, “how did you see them?” I simply didn’t…well, not immediately, it was unexplainable!

Not enough to react in time if I had.  It was that “thing” that phenomena that the woman spoke of…it had to be KNOWING, before I knew.  Now…some might read this and make the “coo-coo  coo-coo” noise and think I’m a freak…that’s cool, you can stop reading, or believing…but haven’t you had a time like that?  Where you motioned before any logic and saved yourself some serious misery?  Some call in divine intervention and yes, part of me believes that too…perhaps it wasn’t my time, or the Elks time or Osa is the good luck dog that happened to be piled on (not so lucky…she was fine, she just laid low til we unburied her).

It also seems to me, when something weird or terrible happens, it could always be worse.  Like  a friend of my pulling his handlebars off his motorcycle after he just parked it.  WHAT!!!  Near misses.  May you all be granted near misses!  There is something to be said for trying to be open enough for “spirit” to move through and kick all logic out.  Logic would not have helped in that situation.

So some are still waiting for the answer…how many times have I almost been obliterated by a very large beast?  A one, a two, a three!  One Elk ran into me up North…very scary…sent my Jeep 3 feet over. She rolled down the side and kept going.  Two, a Moose ran out next to me and looked at me on a motorcycle…she was higher than me and we traded speeds until she passed in front of me, and now this.  There’s also that time when I was 8 years old and not so lucky, nor tuned into the “Heart Math”. I was hit by a car waiting for my bus in the second grade.  Yeah…that was a bruiser…they kept going.  I broke my leg and was hospitalized for a few weeks.

An 8 year old kid in a plaster cast all the way up to the top of my thigh. Ugh.  I use to stuff a coat hanger down it to scratch any itch.  6 months in that cast…so, I haven’t gotten lucky ALL the time.  Here’s just hoping that my karma is cleared and I can ALWAYS follow my heart, even when I don’t KNOW what I’m doing!

I hope that goes the same with  you.  Cheers to “Heart Math” and the wonderance of fate and chance…it’s a pretty magical world we live in!

Hope our paths cross soon friends in resonance of ease and grace~!

Nic & Mo