entailed early rising and a last inspection of the premises

before loading the truck

and heading down the desert where not only had the rolled Frontier [“Nissan dorma”, for years]

been removed but that green trailer [see “Up 2 Wall”] too.

Every other bit of wreckage

had been red-tagged, even

across the line in California.  Hmmm…somebody’s finally cleaning things up.

So uneventfully into Sierra Valley, over the hill to 80, over the hill on 80 and eventually

misty Benicia.

which cleared up briefly after Linda left for Omaha* on the seventh from Sacramento leaving

me here among the Christmas brightness** though

by midday it was drizzling [not shown].  The next one, though, was clear, though clearly

what remained to be seen beyond the fact that the outrageously expanded Sips, into which I dropped on my way back from the UPS Store to check on the price of what I hoped might be

an affordable Primitivo proved to be above my paygrade after all*** though perhaps a session at their golf simulator would perk me up even more than a five hundred dollar bottle of Tequila…

*After which her book became available to order.

**A sadness brightness also as that beautiful tree in Elviarita’s windows was also a memorial to a child lost to soon…

***Not the case online however.