tiptoe through the tumbleweeds

It has been quite a week out here in the west. My vision of time spent quietly working on projects, reading, and reflecting couldn't have been further from the reality. (As so often happens, no?) 

I spent the first day setting up, getting organized, and cleaning up after our last guests in the Airstream (mice):

The kid has enjoyed his internship immensely, for many reasons, one being he gets paid with these:

We have done some historical exploring:

In my cozy shell of a home, I have been cooking much more than usual, cleaning (it's 27 feet! you'd think it would not take so much), dealing with electrical issues, and learning more about rv toilets and sewage than I ever cared to know. No pictures, thankfully. But I fixed that SOB, I'll have you know.

There is a resident neighborhood cat burglar here, who is, in fact, a CAT. Our gracious host Mattie was telling us the tale: a diminishing sock and undergarment basket, finding larger items of clothing tangled outside in the fence, and the bandit caught on camera slinking off with a garden glove. This fiend had found its way into her pet door, made friends with her cats, and made off with significant parts of her wardrobe while she slept. The day after hearing this, we awoke to find no shoes where we had left them outside the night before. One cannot simply walk out to the patio without shoes here. (see photo below) Borrowing a pair of mine, the kid headed over with Mattie to the known lair of the thief: a backyard one street over strewn with stolen items, now full of burrs, grass, and stickers. A hoarder kitty, pretty hilarious...

An unexpected treat was seeing these ladies rock out with their, um...you know.

Ear ringing like I have not experienced in quite some years. Totally worth it. 

Until the next teardrop falls...