When Dave the Benicia Barber shut down in early April due to possible collateral damage from a fire upstairs I figured he’d surely be back in time for summer but, that being California, as of late May plywood still covered everything; by the time we reached Colorado five weeks later I resembled a ridiculous giant dandelion [not shown].

Fortunately there’s a solution for such problems across the valley,

so Wednesday we detoured via La Veta for an early morning haircut,

continuing on to Walsenburg to meet a truck that was to collect two of Linda’s sculptures. I’d  figured that might set us back half an hour or so, while L., more realistically thought it would take as much as an hour to get the pieces blanket-wrapped, tied down and away…

…both estimates proved about as naive as thinking a water-damaged barber shop in California would reopen in less than…who knows, and counting.

The Professional Art Handlers arrived at eleven to meticulously plastic wrap, blanket wrap and shrink wrap the seven elements and carefully insert them, with barely room to spare, into their box truck in just under four hours, which would have passed more productively for us had there been anything of interest in the mail we’d picked up enroute.  I amused myself with some random sweeping [not shown] and free-range curating while L. observed the careful handling and extrication of her works.

 

As temperatures climbed into the triple digits we belatedly initiated our weekly expedition to Pueblo with a four o’clock lunch at Jorge’s,

then foraged around town for food and returned to Libre,  eleven and a half hours after bidding the pups goodbye.

Next day, slowed by allergies from the brick dust and dust dust of the Habib sweepings, was nonetheless blessed with fewer mosquitoes up the creek, three loads of laundry and two hefty museum catalogs left by Fedex before lunch…

after which I looked into Danny Lyon’s from the Whitney; new kudos, same photos.

Friday was perkier and after the usual there was the more substantial Bruce Conner publication [MOMA; SFMOMA] to explore and some studio time before Dinner for a Dozen which, thanks to the considerable party-coordinating skills of our neighbor Muriel, seemed in retrospect effortless [and so fun not shown].

Saturday we managed to effect the Gardner Trifecta as well as survive a Subdued Day After;

[dog training]

Sunday, warmer, drier and windier, more of the same,

and so went the warming week; dry soporific winds led to comatose afternoons listening to Turkish music on the studio couch, wondering how the people we met there are faring…

Finally, on the way out today, everybody make sure your tail lights are working.  Faulty tail lights are known to cause unforeseen incarceration or, if DWB, death.

Gotta go…

M