awoke to yet another desert morning and only the next day,

Friday, after a full week of light-headedness for every effort outside and exTREME soreness,

did I finally feel somewhat up to “normal” tasks

such as getting stuff to the burnpile but by then it was time to pack, to load…so…

packed and loaded after a quick last inspection the next morning we

ate breakfast on the porch

and were gone; Gerlach to Empire

and so on down the road, sketches casting shadows

in the sky over Nixon.  Chemtrails or contrails…shadows in the sky.

I was barely in Benicia in time for Sunday’s library takedown, a mere week

before the first SFMOMA Artists’ Soapbox Derby since 1978* – pics from then below –

a week so jammed with stuff I barely got out on the bike, barely clothed given the mid-summery temps, but one of those times I did espy, in his garage down at the water’s edge, a car built by a guy named Bob, sweetly retired for 33 years after 33 years at Mare Island, ’35 Ford fourdoor

four blocks away from my ’45 tChevy pickup built in Berthoud Colorado**

and a mysterious*** Dinky Supertoy sent from Italy for The Birthday by my brother Bryan to

keep company with this Murano glass, bought in Venezia years ago to brighten our wines

and memories.  Otherwise…

unseasonably [a word much overused of late] warm…

*Unfortunately prior commitments preclude my attendance this time around, but highly recommended; Sunday, folks! https://www.sfmoma.org/faq-2022-soapbox-derby-mclaren-park/

** Built there between 2010 -11 and augmented locally in the years since.

***”Mysterious” in that though its designation and cab match up to a known military model the color, rear wheels and bed do not.  Most likely late fifties but…