I was surprised at how quickly the train ride went by, especially since it was 2 hours late (mudslide in Pennsylvania). 2 hours sitting in that rundown little old station in Raton wasn't so bad since I had knitting and a New Yorker magazine. There were plenty of other passengers waiting this time, too. I forgot to mention the ride to Raton - a brilliant fall day, blue-blue sky, snow covered mountain peaks (not just a dusting), bright yellow and purple flowers all the way down.

I did run into a couple in the dining car who spent time at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival last summer and brought back memories of my summer spent there after high school. I'll have to explore that memory sometime .

But now I'm here, getting settled before getting back on my course tomorrow. I set out for a late afternoon walk up Edgemont to Franklin then over to the shopping district. A tree loaded with ripening pomegranates appeared to my left, then a budding gardenia beckoned, after that, roses that were as tall as me - then a persimmon tree and lots of lime trees, all bearing fruit. In and among all these plants that I recognized were ones I've never seen before and they all kept ushering me further along until I had quite a nice walk under my belt. I turned back down Los Feliz and stopped in at Jon's for some sandwich makings then headed home.

I love LA, especially this neighborhood I've adopted as a second home for a while.

I'm wondering if it's worth fussing over. Since Honey moved back home, he has been really, really good about letting us know about when he'll be home or if he's coming home at night. Last night, he didn't bother calling but did show up in time for work. Tonight, he hasn't called and I happen to be awake anyway since I'm leaving for CA tomorrow/today. We are all agreed that he is an adult and doesn't have to report. But it is one simple common courtesy that I made a point of asking for. Now I have to decide how big this issue is for me. Big enough to ask him to find somewhere else to live?

I was on Skype with my friend Pui when she said her aunt had called to say there was a revolution going on in Bangkok. I can't imagine! Tanks in the same town, surrounding the capitol building and the army taking over the government. She is ok now, back at home a couple of hours away from Bangkok. Such a small world now, isn't it?

Getting ready for another trip to LA. I've made it enough times that it's no big deal now. The worst is getting up at 4:30 in the morning to catch the Amtrak bus in Denver for the ride to Raton. The rest is gravy. I really enjoy the long stretches through the SW and waking up in the 2am to see the moon in the middle of blackness. I really hope someone is able to keep long distance train travel operational out here in the West. Sleeper out, coach back. This time we are going to zip down to Hermosa Beach for a few hours. Just love that ocean...

Yesterday, working the pre-game at CU, the wind was everywhere! I completely forget about those 40 mile/hr gusts that whip up on clear, sunny fall days. I also forget about those golden globes of leaves and how vivid fall flowers are. Ok, I'm resigned to fall's arrival.

When Sweetie bought himself a fancy new laptop, we got our little toy-like iBook back. It was a tiny one that doesn't have much room or speed to do anything. I've been wanting to take a lap top to LA when I go, so Honey went with me to the Mac Shack and we picked up a newer, speedier one that was set up for wireless. It would have been $250 to upgrade the other one and we got $125 credit for the old one so the $700 cost really was 1/2 that. I've only used it to be online during "Law and Order" up in the TV cave, but it's still pretty fun.

Speaking of "Law and Order", WHERE HAVE I BEEN?? I'm addicted to the 'Criminal Intent' version and lucky me: re-runs play on USA, TBS and Bravo as well as the ones on NBC. What with "Boston Legal" and "L & O", my Tuesday nights are pretty well sewed up for the winter.

Anyway, it's close to 7pm and the sun is going down a full hour later than it did the last time I noticed. I'll end with some pics of my lovely 4 o'clocks and my lovely lovies against a Saturday Sky:

Saturday sky a little late. You can see it started out grey and drizzly.

I never knew that I would love someone whose nipples were pierced but now I do. Honey came back for his ID last night and this morning, I found a brochure about piercing on the kitchen counter. The eyebrow and lip just weren't enough. In a gentle effort to discourage further piercings, I lovingly call it 'self-mutilation' when I ask about them. Now when Sugar comes home, I say things like, "Ask Honey to show you his nipples." Life is always offering us new directions, isn't it?

Yep, the yellow haze turns out to be from the 56(!) wildfires in the west. So glad that Colorado hasn't suffered from fires this year. It looks like morning in Dixie except it's yellow. There was a gorgeous orange moon last night against a navy blue twilight sky.

Walking the dogs at night now means dusk and cool air. Today the sun's rays were yellowish like they are when a fire is nearby. Yesterday, a sight I'm unaccustomed to appeared: dew on the car. Mabon is right around the corner.

I found the word petrichor a while back and enjoy having a name for it to go along with the experience. Where is a word for the smell of clothes that have dried outside on a clothes line? During the summer, everything goes outside to dry and the scent is so delicious. It's so fresh and pure and promising and suggestive of LIFE!

Sometime I want to write about this change of life having to deal with adult children. Honey is really giving me a straight up lesson in dealing with this new role. I want to come to comfortable conclusions about the situation and he keeps presenting new challenges. He is calling into play all these people tools that I've been accumulating over the years and seeing if I really understand how to work with them.

This little girl is so beautiful.

I worked the CU game on Saturday so missed the Saturday Sky post. It's enough to say that it was grey and dreary until the game was over then it was hazy blue and white.

This summer has been a ride. June in LA seems like last year. July was so friggin' hot and we worked on so many projects and Honey was gone and not in touch and Sugar was out working most of the time. The crews have changed and new people are here but the feel of the business has changed from the inside out. From the vantage point of mid-summer, autumn usually looks like an ending to me but in reality, so much starts when the sun slants back South.

Now Honey is back home for a while,telling us about his life and planning to go to LA with me later; Sweetie is back in school and sounds great; Sugar is continuing to enjoy life and is also going to meet me in LA later this month.

I finished "Stategery". Now I'm working on "Ender's Shadow" again, knitting some scarves, found a meat market to replace the blend for the dogs that the Raw Food lady used to provide, starting "House" tonight, painting our bedroom, working the games, finished the garden planting for the year, still doing cards. Really looking forward to being back in East Hollywood though I hope the heat wave disappears by then.

A rare early morning rain

Auditioning for the Saturday Skies blog ring...

Denver Botanical Garden
Sweetie's feet on foot massage path.

Denver Botanical Garden
River Birch

Denver Botanical Garden

Lace Bark Pine

The sun just started to creep back into the sunspace. On target again this year.

I couldn't help it- I had to listen to some of the new audio tapes of the 9/11 victims. I've never ever considered what the 911 operators had to experience. Speechless.

August is barrelling right on through and it's almost mid-month. The business is slowing just slightly, but mainly because a couple our guys are not around. One went to work at Gaiam, one went home to work with his parents for a few months. More flow in and will replace them but these 2 will be missed.

Most of our projects are wrapping up. Still working on the interior paint jobs and still need to get the exact color for the outside. You would think that 'Barn Red' would be a universal color, but it's not.

Things have settled out with Honey being gone. He understands now that we all feel better when he is working and we do need to hear his voice every few days. Sweetie has been around more since he is working for us and shares a lot of our interests. We went to the church in Denver the other day to help organize the central files area.

Dogs are fine.

It's so friggin' hot. The heat from the computer is even too much tonight.

I am addicted to grape popsicles. Premium Selection from King Soopers.

I love my little kitchen. The window overlooks a little patio area with bushes and a little solar water fountain. Some prisms hang from the top sill and turn the morning light into lots of spectra. Often messy, but a well-loved space.

Welcome to my garden and please help yourself. The mom has been munching on my yard for the last month but I just started seeing the fawns (there are two) a few days ago.

Yap, yap, bark, (more thunder) BARK!, WOOF!, WOOF!

All this thunder but no rain yet. This is the only place in the country where I have seen virga (from Wikipedia.com: In meteorology, virga is precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground. At high altitudes the precipitation falls mainly as ice crystals before melting and finally evaporating; this is usually due to compressional heating because the air pressure increases closer to the ground. It is very common in the desert.). It's very unsatisfying to experience.

Thank you Craigslist. I asked for something to build a back yard planter with and you delivered. Tons of free moss rock were there for the taking. Man, was it heavy. The sad-ish part about it was that they were demolishing a sweet little home on 5th Street and a huge mansion will probably take its place. But, anyway, we scored.

Nice downpour, eh? Well, I went outside to enjoy the rain from the porch and now there's a Fox News truck out in the street.

Before the rain, a smokey smell was in the air, then the drenching began. I looked east and saw orange flames coming out of the 2nd story of the house behind my neighbors' across the street. Called the neighbors, Marilyn and Jeff, who didn't have a clue what was going on. Then 911. Then, Honey ran over to get people out of the house, neighbor Jeff started knocking it down. Fire trucks showed up en masse; 2 police cars blocked off the street, an ambulance appeared. The fire was out in minutes. No one was home; the gerbil was saved.

The firefighters thought the flames were lightening induced and said if it had gone for 5 more minutes, the whole side would be burned. The flame was exciting, but short lived. Interesting to see what makes the news trucks come out.

High summer. Tending the grass, cleaning out the ditch but leave the chicory and poppies and those gummy ball plants that are native to the area. Water and cut, water and cut, gnats flying around. We took apart a funky grocery store fountain that never made the right sound and set up a little burbling water feature by the back porch. The sounds is so compelling and all that is going on is water is piping out of a little hose propped on some rocks in a container. We are almost finished with our patio under the elm. The fence just needs painting and trimming. Work, sweat, smell, breathe, listen, then ease into an empty pool to cool off and then read. Great summer days.

It is so Hot. The porch thermometer in the shade reads 95º so I have to wonder what it's like in the sunshine. I've been using the dogs as my role models - find a cool place and don't move very much. Good thing we managed to finish the living room make-over before this temp spike. One thing nice about an empty nest is that every room is clothing optional.

Sugar wanted the carpets cleaned for real so the carpet cleaners came and went. With Honey's move-out and all our furniture off the carpet, I'm getting a sense of space in this house that I've been craving - but not knowing I've been craving. With the furniture gone, there's no excuse for not changing the wall colors in some rooms so I've been working on that. The paint only goes as far as I can reach, though, since I insist that Sug has to do the high parts.

When Sweetie moved out a couple of years ago, we moved into the east bedroom and I love the sunrise and the garden view. The little burble from the solar fountain makes it's way up there. All I want to put back in that room is my big maroon chair over by the window.

We've been sleeping in the living room on the futon which is a nice change but it's a little too eccentric to last. The dogs like it.

I love summer. Raining now outside. Nighttime. Windows open and the fans running. Marvin Gaye on I-Tunes.

This morning we had to get the Subi's tire repaired, get the rental truck back, get all the guys off to work, finish moving furniture & vacuuming for the carpet cleaners, feed and walk the dogs, and help 2 translators for an hour. Sugar and Sweetie went off to work and then Honey went missing "By the subscriber's request, this phone is not accepting incoming calls." Phone calls kept coming in, the carpet cleaners arrived and I entertained the dogs outside by weeding the front walk.

The afternoon was quite a bit calmer.

I love Ed Greene. I never really forgave Larry Green for taking Sam Allred's job at Channel 4. Sure, it was time to learn to point to the blank screen and Sam didn't want to do that, but - really. Larry was O. K. but he got complacent so fast. Ed still seems to enjoy the job and enjoy the people he is working with. Hard to believe I can't find any images to post - he is such a public person. Hope he stays for a long time.

Flip the page and welcome July. 62 more days of my summer and I hope it lingers after that.

This is the first summer in years that I haven't worked somewhere else and I have time to keep up with the yard. We've just about finished the homemade concrete patio under the big elm. The little branches are brittle so there is litter there, but I love the privacy of the place. I've been decorating it - my laughing elephant Buddha, a bird bath and other odds and ends.

Sug and I finished the Mother's Day project that he and Sweetie started before we left for LA. After 20 years with a metal post & wire driveway fence, the wooden one is pretty fancy.

arrggh!

What an incredible storm! 3" in my rain gauge. Hail everywhere! Now it's a beautiful sunset shining on dark purple clouds in the east.