Reunion

We had a long overdue reunion yesterday.  Maggie, Kelli and Steve came to visit for lunch.  It was wonderful to see them in person and get reacquainted after all the long years we've been on distant life paths.  Each of our Dear Friends looked positively radiant and happy.  We spent about 3 hours together, most of it sitting out on the ramada telling stories and sharing thoughts of old times and new.  Kelli drove all the way up from Phoenix to visit.  She remembered when we once had our double bed under the ramada.  (Awesome recollection, Kelli!) We wish her instant success in her desire to move to California's North Coast.  Maggie is as delightful as ever--full of smiles and sparkles and a tale or two.  Steve, of course, is a Master Storyteller of "All Things Fire."  We'd sure like to get him wired up for oral history.  Thanks for a great afternoon, Maggie, Kelli and Steve!

Earlier yesterday we hiked the Blue Grade yet again.  A pack of 5 hound dogs passed us twice.  Their owner was taking them for a six mile run while sitting behind the comfort of his steering wheel.  His 2 or 3 year old son peered quizzically from the passenger window.  The dogs were polite and barely even barked at us.

After our Friends drove off, we called into Fire Dispatch and they gave us the go ahead to burn until 5 pm--the end of the so-called "regulatory period."  We fired up the torch and blackened most of the remaining area on our property.  Whew, that was a piece of work!

Naturally, we also ignited another stack of aromatic juniper wood and watched the sun slowly dim The Rim.  For grins, we roasted six ears of California white corn.  This time of year corn is wildly expensive--we've seen it as high as $1.29 an ear and most stores are charging a "buckaneer."  Safeway has it three for a buck.  How can you go wrong at that price.  We didn't soak them or wrap them in foil--just plopped the naked ears down on the grate and listened to them sizzle.  They turned out really good and never even made it to the dinner table--We chomped down on them right beside the flickering fire.  Ah, roasting ears, one of the joys of summertime.

Looks like we have reached a good interim status quo for the art bench project.  We created a really cool "invitation only" blog to showcase the 20 artist applications.  Meanwhile, we've rearranged the public blog and it looks much better.  You can click here to see it.

There's a busy, busy day ahead today.  We won't go into the details now because too much of today's plans are still in the normal stage of flux and flex.

Meanwhile, I'd like to close this blog post with a comment about today's Sunday Dilbert shown below.  Dilbert ebbs and flows.  Sometimes it's an irrelevant piece of senseless babble.  Sometimes, one or two strips will really knock the ball out of the park.  Today's resonated with me because of my lack of acronyms and my attitude toward work in the months leading up to my recent retirement.  The vignette depicted below could have easily taken place sometime last fall or perhaps in January or February this year.  When Dilbert's "on," Dilbert ROX! (Dilbert, of course, is Copyright 2010. We believe the occasional use of the strip meets with the "fair use" standard of US Copyright laws.  Click here for the main Dilbert website.)