91. The parched desert of my nose

Reno times, my sweets and salties (of all my names for you, I think that's my favorite)! Family, grilling, visiting  restaurants we haven't been to in years (and being happy they're still the same).  But there is an aspect of Reno that sneaks up on you-- fast-- when you're not paying attention.

The verdancy of this backyard is a result of my in-laws' toil, and belies the aridity it exists in.

90. Sexy Fire

I think I have addressed my some-might-say obsession with fire before. That's okay. The beauty of obsession is that you can just keep talking about whatever it is you obsess about.

We're in Reno now, and Megan's parents have a firepit in their backyard. I have spent many a summer evening there, watching the embers burn down and stoking them back up, long after everyone else has gone to bed.

Dang, pit, you look hot. Or could, if I set you on fire.

89. Hell, thy name is Airplane

 We're almost done with our time in airplanes. We're in San Francisco right now, waiting for a plane to Reno. But while we were on the way here, I managed to write about how absolutely lovely it is to hurtle through the air in a giant tube crammed together with a bunch of strangers and nothing to do.

Air travel is hell, my loves. Hmm. I may have said this before. Whatever. If I have to go through it again, so do you.

Here we are. On a plane. So, so happy.

88. Greensboro Exodus

Tomorrow we get on a jet plane, my Loves. And I'm not jumping out of this one. We're riding it to Reno to spend a few days with Megan's family and maybe catch up with some Reno friends, and then it's back to Davis. Back to life, back to reality.

Until then I am going to lick this platter of fun clean.

87. My Megan is a Fish

Our time in Greensboro's almost done, my lovelies. We head west on Wednesday. Today we had our last day out my parent's lake house. Kids running around, grownups with beer coozies (damn that's an awful word), steaks on the grill...and Megan running for the water like a little kid to an ice cream truck.

86. 9.8 meters per second squared

I actually did it. I jumped out of a plane. That was not going down in flames. On purpose. Well, when it came down to actually jumping out of it, I couldn't do it. I also couldn't not do it. Dad had jumped before me, and Brewer and Xen were waiting on me, so I couldn't bow out. So what did I do? I closed my eyes, went to my happy place, and let Instructor Dan- the guy I was strapped to- do the whole hurling us out of the plane thing. But what I learned was that, when faced with two untenable choices, I go turtle. Hmm. What does that say about me?

Aftermath picture. We're all shellshocked. Dad's the only one who wore a supersuit.

85. I jump out of a plane

I am going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane tomorrow. Because my father tells me to.

84. I miss Asheville

Megan and I got to spend a couple days in Asheville. I didn't get to see nearly all the people I'd wanted to, nor spend as much time with those I did see as I'd have liked. Such is the way of things, I guess.

The whole visit was like this face.

83. I used to know all the Dinosaurs

I used to know all the Dinosaurs, my Dears. But in recent years I've learned that there are hundreds, thousands, that have emerged as paleontological science has advanced. It makes the five-year-old in me sad because I can't keep up with everything. Whatever; I still love them.

This guy. Right here. I love him.

82. Kids, huh? That's new.

We've seen  many a friend from days gone by since we've been back in the Cackolack, my Fiddles and Banjos.  Last night we had dinner with some folks I haven't seen since...well, high school graduation night.

81. Darth Vader is my Skipper

It's Father's Day, O my loves. So, of course, I devote a couple words to mine. I found it difficult to do an all-encompassing summary of his awesomeness, though, so I chose to focus on something he loves instead.

Yeah, I got the Dark Lord of the Sith driving
 me around. That's what this face says.

80. Brewer's Muttonchops

My brother Brewer-- who is four years my junior-- is beating me in the race to make our foreheads bigger. I am content to let him win this. But it seems as though there is a balance, that perhaps the hair that leaves his head is really just making a break for his face. And maybe there is some jealousy in that. Despite the several months I spent with no way to trim my beard, it was never as full as the one Brewer can wield in just a couple weeks.  But, like a true badass, that's not how he wears it.

79. Death and Laughter

Ate dinner last night with my parents and Xen. We're staying with them for a bit but this was the first night everybody was all home and stuff.

78. Cloth-bound disaster

I did a stupid thing. An amazingly stupid thing, considering that I've been in charge of laundry for the past most-of-a-year.  You'd think I wouldn't do something like put clothes that are never supposed to go in the dryer in the dryer.

But if you thought that, turns out you'd be wrong.

77. Luminous Beings

"Luminous beings are we; not this crude matter."

Abide.

76. Putting it off til the Last Minute

I'm having trouble, my loves. I keep not writing and not writing each day, until it's late and I feel bad. I think I wrote a sonnet about this just a couple days ago, and now I'm doing it again. Why? Because I put off doing it until after I should have had it up already. I'm a bad person and I ask your forgiveness.

This picture doesn't have a lot to do with what I'm talking about,
 except as an example of the things I'm doing instead of writing.

75. Not about a tattoo

I got a tattoo today. But I'm not going to write about it. See, I was busy getting it and then having a celebratory drink or so with my awesome-like-you-read-about best-friend Robert, so I'm going to put it off til tomorrow when I have time to give it a good thought and bring to bear the full brunt of my skill. See, it's because I love you.

I'm on the left. Robert's on the right. It's hard to tell us apart, I know.

74. Naked People

Went for a hike today along a creek, river, rocky water sort of thing. Had a good time, except for a bunch of naked folks.

There are naked people over there. Boobies. Wangs. Promise.

73. Quality Control

Time was, my Stars and Smileys, I'd go sit at Villa Borghese, have a beer, and crank out two, sometimes three sonnets in a day. But now we're back Stateside and seeing people, having fun, speaking English, and it's becoming harder to find time to just be by myself and get my writing done. I wrote a sonnet today about spending the day with Megan and her brother and his family at Jordan Lake, and when Megan heard it she was like, "Meh."

"Meh." is what this face is saying. Although it
 may be a little come-hither now that I stare at it.

72. Dinosaurs

One of the things that scares me most, my loves, is dinosaurs. They're terrifying. They are heartless monsters and we are lucky they're gone and we don't have to struggle against them for survival.  We're spending this weekend with Megan's brother and his family, and I have been reminded that dinosaurs haven't left us completely.

71. Marry, F-ck, or Kill

Warning: I use a bad word in this entry, my loves. We're visiting a friend of Megan's tonight, then on to the hinterlands tomorrow to see her brother and his family. We had a delicious burrito, and then went to have a drink or so at a little bar.  We played a fun game where you throw out the names of three people and choose which you would marry, which you would fuck-- er, make sweet love to-- and which you would kill. It was fun, but Megan and Allison wanted to throw around literary figures while I wanted to throw out choices like elephant, llama, or shark. Oh well.

I would not kill him, and I don't think he's the marrying type.

70. On Hold

We're trying to get our phone situation worked out so we don't rely on my brother or whoever happens to be nearby in order to contact someone. I am not entirely sure why, but this seems to inevitably involve spending a large amount of time on the phone, sitting on hold while whoever it is on the other end is  "checking something".

69. Need and Desire

I have a friend who just bought a new house, and is fretting over buying the very best, environmentally friendly and safe paint to cover over the awful colors left on the walls. I'm also, I think, about to get some new phones for milady and me, and I'm wondering whether or not to make the jump into the 21st century and get superphones. Tonight's sonnet is for us.

If only it was this simple

68. A diary of sorts

Stuff happened today. Nothing amazingly major. I found out I still know how to drive, Megan's travel plans were solved by a fortuitous chance meeting with an old friend, and we got taken to dinner. But still, it was hard to find time to get this sonnet written. But one of the upshots was this picture:

Megan said, "Move a little closer. No, closer. No, close...oh. Okay."

67. A Megan at rest tends to stay at rest

There will come a day when we will be back at work, getting up at grown-up hours and doing grown-up things and being all responsible. But today is not that day.

66. First Day Back

We're back in the You Ess of Ay, my Dear Ones. It's...surprisingly not as strange as I thought it might be. There is a sense of creeping strangeness, like it might be more shocking the longer we leave it to simmer. But our return has been vastly buffered by being met and pampered by my brother, plus having a mostly empty yet immense house to lounge around in for a while.

This is an important part of the transition process.

65. Lost in the air

We are back in the States, but only technically. We're floating in JFK airport, waiting a few hours for a fight that has now been delayed a few hours more, so...fun.  But I managed to write a sonnet while in the plane, much less than I thought. And it's a little...lost.

This pigeon is not lost. He knows right where he is--
on top of  a little metal railing-- and he is pretty proud of it.