into the end of windy April, medieval days in a regressing republic aspiring to kleptocratic

theocracy and always, at least here in the west, dry.  In this temporarily peaceable kingdom

people needed, given the winds, other locations for lunch

which even so were still a little borderline

as despite bright sun the temps remained chillish

and also things darkened with the next month’s arrival.

May’s first Friday brought the first trip out

the former CR 33

and up the present CR 447,

over the Buffs to Duck Flat

and into California which

looked green for spring [but also really dry*] and where, in Alturas, the Holiday had oysters**.

Close to an hour of that later I renegotiated Cedar Pass for gas at Rabbit Traxx and turned

[splat]

south into Nevada,

paused at the north end

of a dry Duck Lake to lay back and close eyes…then ate half an avocado and, five hours out,

was back at Wall to watch the desert blowing away before a long-postponed [aren’t they all?] dinner with our friends and nearest occasional neighbors. Next day was all dogs, wind and

another load to the burnpile [left to unload later as warm weather

and a weird internal thermostat on the previous outing conspired to create dizzy spells which

the neighbors had said might be a thyroid imbalance]. Shoulda persisted through Kaiser’s newly impenetrable website and tried for that yearly physical ‘cos now, well now everything is feeling kinda sketchy*** and Kaiser’s five hours away, one way.

*Every lake up in Surprise Valley surprisingly dry…

**Dubiously not exquisite but eaten with gusto and no ill effects nonetheless.

***Sketchy and prickly itchy from mysterious rashes – or are they bites? – all over the aging back. Well we’ll see.