you got ten kids in america, father's day is a pretty big deal. i did pretty well in that regard - my kids gave me things, including two videos, and a card which is supposedly in the mail - and treated me pretty well. i have no complaint.

also the weather was gorgeous, but that's based on the fact that i'm way up high in the mountains, and it rained a couple of days ago, and dry mountainsides full of pine trees all of a sudden had their dust washed off, and they were green and wet-smelling. it was gorgeous. we headed out to the land - about twenty miles from town - but had to come back, halfway, because we'd forgotten the key. no problem. it was maybe sixty miles altogether, but about the most gorgeous miles i've ever seen. and the dust, pretty much contained, by the recent rains.

another feature, and that is the young trees springing up on the hillsides. i love to see natural regeneration. fire takes whole hillsides every once in a while - every few years - but it just keeps coming back, the trees that is. lots of natural young trees shooting up and angling for what little rain there is. and those young pines - they smell good, too. it's a gorgeous little five acres.

one thing i like about it is that it's kind of on the edge of nowheresville - way out there. more about this later...