Today…

Here I am again, sitting at the kitchen table here at Lyon and Wolf’s place watching the world roar by outside the patio door and figuring it’ll be a nice day today.

I love sunrises simply for the wonder of long shadows and subtle highlights. For example; there is a bit of sunlight seeping though the railing on the porch, casting shadows, and rather than being the “dark” and “light” of daytime, it’s a sort of airbrushed affair with softer edges and is very pleasant.

Then there are the squirrels out in the back yard that are ceaseless in their antics and have boundless energy and grace… I put a broken sugar cookie on the porch railing and two of them have been leaping around and chasing one another for the right to stash it somewhere.

Today the family here has to go and visit family elsewhere, which few seem to be all that enthused about. This is especially evident with the Otter who, much to her chagrin as this will be a bruising to her “punk-goth” image, has to get dressed up for the occasion…

Well, that’s assuming she actually gets out of bed today. 😉

I’ll remain behind today so that I am not witness to the plastic smiles and forced happiness on both sides of their family fence… This is an example of what not to do for the holidays; there isn’t any reason for people to feel forced to endure unpleasantness in the name of “holidays” as it turns the whole thing into an exercise in tolerance rather than the festive occasion it should be. I’m not saying this will be the case with the family here, but over the years I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about this particular yearly encounter.

While the family here is out, a friend of Wolf’s will be stopping by to get some pointers on web design and HTML technique from yours truly… I’ve never met this person, and I don’t do new people well without someone I know acting as a buffer, so we’ll see how this goes.

Other than that there isn’t much to report. My stay down here for the holidays has been quite wonderful. I’ve been spending my nights in the alter room which has been very nice… Apparently I’ve been deemed “ok” enough to not mess up the flow in there. The biggest advantage to the alter room, in my view, is that it’s a ritual space and I can very easily blot out the rest of the world for a few hours in there. This lets me get up feeling like I’ve spent the night at home up on my mountain, rather than camped next to a straight away at the Indy 500.

See, normally when I come down to visit for a few days I get frazzled very quickly due to the press of people here. Sure, civilization is encroaching at an alarming rate up there in Eagle-Vail and highway 6 has become a source of noise 24/7, but it’s still pretty much a hermitage. Due to this I’m acutely aware of the crush of human presence down here and it stresses me out.

Here there is a press of “others” that you can actually feel. This house sits pretty much in the geo-center of Aurora, which is where 80% of Denver lives, and due to this there are people on top of people here: “Stacked like cord wood, they are!” as my Grandfather would have said. Alameda runs right next to the other side of the garage and is six lanes of 24/7 traffic which can become so busy of an evening that there will be a 4-5 mile long parking lot out there, a mere 15-20 feet from the house. This is much like I figure it would be to live on the median of an interstate.

Another thing that will get to you here is the abject stupidity out there should you actually leave the safety of the house. Usually before you clear a mile in the car you will have been cut off, honked at, tail gated, nearly hit, and so nervous you’ll have a death-grip on the steering wheel.

Don’t get me wrong though, the house itself is very nice with those unique touches that Wolf and Lyon tend to give a place (those who know them know what I mean). I like it here, but just wish the house was somewhere else. 😉

Ahh, the dead hath risen! The goth-girl has crept out of her crypt to snag a cookie from the tin Wolf’s mom dropped off. Then, as if suddenly realizing the sun was up, she turned and crept back down to the dank safety of her mausoleum…

Well, I guess I’ll sign off and do some writing while it’s relatively quiet here.