When Sleeping is Work


 

The Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak Fire is at last contained. That does not mean out. It means that the perimeter is 100%. Crews are not trying to restore areas they rearranged in an effort to establish that containment; put fences back and erase some dozer lines. And then there are the containment lines they put in for the fire which did not get there. Sounds silly but when you know the extent of the sickness of our forests due to drought it is necessary. 

This far and no further lines are out beyond the established perimeter and are based on preventing the worst case scenario. Some nights that is where my goes, out beyond the perimeter and to the worst case. Even with all the wonderful rain I know the drought is not over. We need more than one good monsoon year, more than one fantastic year of snowpack. But while it does no good to obsess about that it is silly to not do what you can do to make things better.

The sunflowers are a last blooming. They are a month behind. Everything seems a month behind. It took a month for my mail to catch up with me. Not sure it totally has. But my replacement debit card made it. Renewed driver's license has not. But the studio tour is a month away and the ArtUp website was hacked and vanished. I am still trying to catch up with the summer I missed and fall is just around the corner. There are things which need to be done. Besides photographing every slowly opening sunflower or studying the progress of raspberries on my three new plants.

You cannot do everything. You must choose and I chose a repaired driveway. One which could be hassle free in a heavy winter even if we do not have a lot of snow. But the old timers say we will, while the doomsayer meteorologists warn of a third La Nina winter. If it was just me I would stay home but there are the vacation rental guests to consider. And if it is a good snow year they will be here. So I called Land & Home services and ordered a driveway I would love. With ample space for parking during that upcoming studio tour.


The North End of the drive


The south end of the half circle


No more worries about the monsoons flooding out the drive. Or the road grader raising the lip to the county road too high for even my explorer. Last time the road bed was tended to was 2017. Hopefully this will get me at least another five or ten. Nothing to worry about. So why at midnight did I suddenly stare at the ceiling and worry about my antivirus protection? Because our website was hacked but will be repaired? I have a Mac at last. They do not get hacked.

But what about my cell phone which I have been on almost constantly through the hack, and the grant, and the prep for the studio tour, and lining up the driveway. I sometimes wonder if the internet can read my mind (speaking of hacks) because I no sooner had that thought and an app showed up for McAfee. I even was able to recover my account which I believe was renewable but not the top of my concerns during my evacuation in Eagle Nest.

By then I was too awake to go back to sleep. I even tried listing everything which went right. My version of counting sheep. The raspberries are past blooms and into what looks like berries forming. Though I had realistically not set my dreams on them do that this their first year, planted late and all. I am still missing my red butted bumble bees.


Red Sunflower and Bumble 2021


Hopefully there will be a late afternoon monsoon rain and I can get a nap.

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