Tuesday morning at Libre was a flurry of Laundry and Lunch after which we loaded up tools,

chairs and dog [the shy white one, above], dove into the smokes

to the Habib for substitute chairs

and were back in the Springs less than twenty-four hours after landing

to meet up with Scott and the truck at a considerably diminished [given their earlier sheen] Dazed Inn.  Lush dining across the highway at the Caspian Cafe  soon followed, then fitful sleep waking to the wakening freeway at 4:30 [the signature design concept for the Dazeds, back in the day, being those big sliding glass doors overlooking New England ponds or some such not translating too well when placed across the street from a major interstate] a.m.   Dis-enamored of spending an entire week within those cramped and dingy confines we vacated the premises

immediately after breakfast, checking out with nary an option,

to reconnect at the Ent

where I mostly kept track of Aggie

as the truck was emptied, works distributed to their designated areas,

and Planetesimal begun before lunch,

after which Aggie and I trailed Scott to Penske and the airport for his flight to SFO.

Meanwhile, or by the end of Day One, several wall pieces as well as the aforementioned

Planetesimal were placed.

We adjourned to a La Quinta generously [re-]arranged by UCCS after we’d bailed from the dingy

Dazed, went west to Eim Thai for great food, Thai iced tea with lime and returned to our

much improved accommodations for local TV and much improved sleeping.

Day Two, wherein as dogs are not allowed on University Property [and barely/exceptionally tolerated inside the gallery] Aggie and I stayed away, only appearing after a motel morning

during which “Crackle” had been mostly assembled to deliver Thai leftovers for lunch and

afterwards walk up in the direction of Pulpit Rock while waiting for the sculpture’s completion,

which went exceedingly well.

Everyone then returned to the galleries’ air-conditioned splendor to install some of the big chrome pieces, “Puddle” [below] and several large drawings

before Day’s End.

Day the Third I dropped L and A off at work and took the truck south for maintenance which turned out to be more than minimal…got the shuttle back to the motel, worked away the morning and an hour or so into the afternoon was shuttled back for truck, stupid traffic up to the north of town and the galleries where, after afternoon’s HUGE electrical storms and

raging downpours [not shown, but eloquently illustrating why Tesla so loved the Springs]

everything needing hanging had been hung as well as much of the lighting adjusted.

That evening we ventured to Pine Creek to meet our dear friends Patsy and Jon for a much anticipated dinner, which met and exceeded all expectations for food and enjoyment,

although somewhat to the females’ dismay dinner wound down with conversation concerning  Jon’s ’40 Ford and Von Dutch [not to be confused with the current capitalist co-options] in the fifties, but that was fine.   With me, anyway.

The next morning they were on their way to the airport as we, Day Four,

following several trips through the breakfast lobby  [“I Stand for the Flag and Kneel for the Fallen” being paraded around on a t-shirt…a little early in the morning for that for me], checked out and were sufficiently early for Aggie to investigate the wet grasses on the parking lot’s verge before laying “Dark Matter” out on the floor of the Soft Room.

I spent the remainder of the morning sifting through and composing Linda’s visuals for the ‘collage wall’ in the lobby, later dropped the camera trying to photograph it, after which we

lunched beneath a nearby pine before Linda and Daisy passed

another couple of hours finalizing shots for the catalog while Aggie and I lay flat on the floor but

by 3:30 were getting gas, easing south to Pueblo for groceries and beyond that

into an ominous afternoon darkness [not shown] which south of Colorado City turned to disastrous downpour, traffic huddling flashing under overpasses as we plowed through behind and then ahead of a southbound semi until around Huerfano Butte it cleared and so home,

nearly six, looked like it had rained here too but not nearly so much to unload unload unpack

unpack and end with shrimp-topped salads and wine on the porch until

small showers drove us in even from that, ending an extremely intense eleven [eleven?] days on roads and in motels, alien environments…

phew.

So that was about a week ago; dunno what’s happened since…