starting early on wherein, exhausted, one ponders whether the exhaustion’s attributable

to old age, long covid, high altitude or….whatever. At any rate it did take a couple of days to get

everything [even though everything wasn’t much] up the stairs to the studio  [the radio’s

vestigial as the propaganda’s unrelenting] and a couple more days to make it even as far as

the standing rock on the morning walk…Saturday we visited Maryann, our nearest neighbor,

catching up on things around the neighborhood before brother-in-law Dave pulled in, road-

testing his new Tesla M3, which seemed to be pretty much the same as the old Tesla M3. In addition to a little hail damage on the decklid he summited The Knoll and though we only made it

partway one and all enjoyed several elaborately prepared meals

[including – not shown – grapefruit chicken salad and a gazpacho] as the 3car juiced up

from our dryer socket, reflecting its redness pinkly onto the studio ceiling above.

After a couple of days of merriment DC took our picture [not shown] and was off to the Sand 

Dunes*, Pagosa Springs, Jackson, Wyoming and ultimately home to Rossland BC [a 108 day circuit which had taken him from Rossland to Boston to a hiking holiday on Madeira, back to Massachusetts, east coast visits, Cincinnati and on to us] after which we went to/had to go to

Pueblo for Sicilian provisions,

tamales, a new barbecue, teeth cleaning, lunch, groceries and then back

down the Interstate to Red Rock Road, CO 69 and home, beat, to unload and collapse once

again…Two days later we had nearest neighbor Maryann over for dinner with newest neighbor Nina for the maiden voyage of the New Barbecue along with news of Nina’s move from Datil

to her outpost opposite Gardner which currently consists of three containers, a homemade outhouse and ongoing fencing. Oh, pioneers!

There ensued another day at home, small walks, reading and studio and after most of another

a brief visit to catch Dean, Libre’s sole-so-far nonagenarian, on a break from the Sun Dance

on our way to dinner at Alys’ in La Veta with a far younger [septa- and octogenarian] crowd…

Nancy Haynes, who holds the distinction of having her recent show in London undermined when the major gallery putting it on abruptly closed immediately after opening it, Linda, more fortunate in her recent Honolulu adventure with Howard Hughes, Nancy’s husband Michael Metz and, not shown, everyone’s good friends Adrienne and Mary who live exactly across the street from Alys and have known her for years.  Everyone’s known everyone for years, actually, though I’ve probably known Adrienne the longest, we having met in Palo Alto around 1965 or 1966.

Alys proudly serves fresh ingredients sourced as locally as possible to combine in heavy traditional rural Colorado meat ‘n’ potatoes style and her establishment has become our traditional annual meeting place although this time the slo-o-ow service stretched things out way close to our bedtimes and the black cows on Yellowstone Road in the dark were not to be messed with…nevertheless one and all survived to stumble up towards the standing rock another day. Well one of us, anyway…

on another it was around by the old sweat lodge site and then, ah, High Horse Ranch 

Veterinary Clinic in not very much rain for forty five minutes of dog maintenance

[shots for the Inkies and Cosmos weighs 93 pounds to Sumi’s seventy; Aggie got her nails trimmed] followed by a mesmerizing hour of paperwork while I waited out in the car with the

three of them, which pretty much took care of THAT afternoon.

*Via Pass Creek, not Medano however.