Hey cd

And I’m on the second floor…

There is a porch roof beyond the window.

More photos from that first storm in new photo album here

I’ve decided to catch up on some older stories that got bypassed due to travel or work exigencies. For a while I was looking at various properties in the southwest with a view towards making a life there.

This one is about a set of adjoining properties near Douglas, Arizona. I was interested in possibly buying both, totaling about 80 acres, and went looking for property markers. Looking at the plat, one of the markers was clearly going to be near the top of a ridge, so I drove up to the base of it, near where the owner had a camper and storage container, and then hiked up the side of the hill likely to be the corner.

The evening before I had hiked up an unimproved road that borders the property to see if the marker was further east than I had projected, but I did not find it. Here’s a shot looking back south toward my car, mostly taken because I liked the thunderhead.

Next photo was taken during my return trip a few minutes before I passed a coyote going the other way. The coyote was very gracious and took the long way around me after appearing ahead out of the crepuscular light…

Next morning I returned and started heading up the hill. From the first step it was all scree. The owners had built a pathway to where they planned to put a well, so there was a flat place to stop for a second, and then it became steeper, with the scree leaning more toward talus in some spots.

Even early in the day, it was already going on 100F, sun bright and hot, no shade. I was getting near the top when I noticed I was being “buzzed” by honeybees, usually means that I’m too close to a hive. Also it was likely that they were the “killer bees” given their behavior and my location. The important thing about these is that after the first one stings, they all sting (perhaps they should be called rugbees). So it’s helpful to avoid the first one. I located the hive by watching them after they buzzed me. They were living in this rock formation…

Thought about going the other way around, but there wasn’t one, just a sheer dropoff that I hadn’t realised I was close to until I looked that way…

Looking back down toward my car and the container…

I dropped back down, went around and under the beehive rock, and up the hill on the west side, giving the bees plenty of room. When I got to the top I was relieved to have made it, but then found that nearly every kind of flying stinging insect in Arizona was making a home there, and none were acting particularly welcoming. I was being buzzed by wasps and other aerodynamically adroit little pests pretty fiercely. Some were merely gliding by to gauge my temperament, while others were actively escorting me. But I was up there, so I canvassed the whole peak quickly, which isn’t very large, and took a couple of shots before heading down.

Here’s a look north towards Castledome rock…

And one south towards Douglas and Mexico…

I didn’t find the property marker, and in the end it didn’t matter. In a subsequent conversation the realtor let slip that the mineral rights weren’t included, and I am against having mining operations commence next to my home.

On the way back to the car I spotted a pollen-laden bee at work…

And the bone of some hapless ungulate trapped in the rocks…

On the way out I took a look back up the hill…

A fine outing in a lovely spot. More to come.

So I’m finishing up the winterising of my boat, and decided to take a hike in one of my favorite places. Here’s a small ice nest in Furnace Run near the Mason-Dixon Trail.

Many of you know that I’ve long claimed to be a confirmed bachelor, so it might come as a surprise to find that I’ve been seriously involved for the past few years. It’s not the sort of thing one tells people about at first, could have been a minor fling, but it matured into something deep and genuine.

I found her online. After getting to know each other a bit, including asking some pretty direct questions about her previous relationships, I drove up to Colorado to meet her, where we had a brief fling. I went up again a few weeks later, and she left with me. This may come as a shock to some of my friends and family, but we’re legal in the eyes of the state of Nevada, where I took her after we left Colorado.

She’s younger than I am by 13 years, and she’s travelled a lot. Early in our relationship I spent a fair amount of time and money getting some of her inner demons sorted out. She’s a lot better now. I don’t know all of her history, but I do know that she originally matriculated in California, then spent some time in Europe and came back to Colorado from Germany some years ago.

She’s Italian, dark, and there’s a certain solidity about her. She’s a bit stockier than I’m used to, but that’s kind of comforting sometimes, and she’s lighter on her feet than she looks, which is why policemen used to be so fond of her back in her heyday. I love to look down at her firm round jugs pointing up at me while I’m on top of her. She’s not filled with plastic like some of her younger sisters; she has nice natural curves.

She has a good vibe. She warms up easily, and is always ready for a good time. We fit together remarkably well. She’s always ready for a romp, and she’s taken me way out there more than a few times. She’s perfectly comfortable going out in public nearly naked, but I prefer to dress her up a bit. I like a bit of protection.

Wherever we go, I notice men giving her the eye, and often women as well. She’s inviting and not at all threatening, so they walk right up to her and check her out. She handles this well, but is always ready to leave in a hurry if the attention gets to be a bit much or if the conversation gets tedious.

She can be fickle, sometimes she leans to the left and sometimes she leans to the right, but our interactions are always rewarding and often the give and take becomes thrilling. Our relationship taught me a lot, although some of the stuff I’ve learned is sort of esoteric and rarely practiced any more outside of a small band of cultists.

Click here for a photo of Gina.