but first Thursday the rains continued well unto midday, just about when our New York friends

slithered down the driveway in their rental Ioniq5 in time for lunch, an introductory tour and

then an exploratory walk on their own up the creek during which they met Bill and Muriel

who were coincidentally coming to dinner later anyway…

Next day, Friday, all was clear and bright with a first hint of snow on the peaks…Seth* and I hung out on the porch in what might have been too much sun talking of art and boats and

familial stuff unto lunch, expanding, Ellen being an appellate court judge, into talk of jurisprudence and Trump [she’d once shot down one of Todd Blanche’s many appeals] as well, after

which they took an archaeological tour of the ridge, returning folllowing a visit to Bill’s painting

studio in time for us all to turn around for a reciprocal dinner up the hill at Muriel and Bill’s where the talk veered from boats to Mexico to families and, inevitably, the Go Away kerfuffle,

then under starry skies we said our goodbyes as by the time we were up Saturday they were gone down the road to George’s Drive-in, Denver and eventually New York while we began readying for departure ourselves…first on the agenda being to move and spray Linda’s two big

drawings in between which I amused myself with beginning Deep Packing as well as considering

what paintings might be ready to leave with us…at first there seemed to be three [one not shown] to wrap but after some last touches in the end another three, all, awkwardly enough,

different sizes, came together so Monday [after more Deep Packing and a run to the saddle to switch valves so Bill could send us water] when Erin and Mitch swung by for lunch on their way home from a crafts fair in Denver I had them carry the paintings down before tamales and

a leisurely time with New York Chocolates, coffee and catching up until

they had to leave around three at which point Linda, feeling not that great all day,

retired to her couch and I went back up to the studio to rearrange the vacant walls and have

a last look around…or as it turned out not a last look around as the next day L. was still laid low

with what may have been curly kale poisoning and utterly unable to lift a finger, barely eating, barely moving from couch or bed all day, alas, so with all I could do without her done I went

up to again play through Alice Coltrane’s last studio album “Translinear Light”, to which I’ve

listened almost every afternoon all summer in mine. Wednesday, the day we’d originally planned to leave, arrived with Linda not even marginally better so after she had a

consultation with Kaiser’s ‘advice nurse’ I went downmeadow a little and back up to the

[stationary] bike, then on to another day in paradise and studio as we awaited the late afternoon video appointment the nurse had set up with our far away doctor in Cali…

 

*Scroll down in “News” to “North – South”, 2/19/2021, and read up from there for mid-boggling adventures…trust me.