I don't feel comfortableTalking to youI'll be in the lobby, drinking for two

Strange.

My little duck and dodge worked a little too well.

I just checked my reader stats for the first time in nearly five months. I was surprised.

Some time back, in the spring, I shut this blog down to preserve my job. This site was down for two months. I eradicated all trace of my name and made the archives private.

I probably shed about 75% of my readership.

I guess I acheived my goal of sustaining a huge slice of my income by remaining undiscovered. But, fuck, I think I know all of you by name at this point.

I forgot to mention something from our New Orleans trip. We sat next to a very popular #1 bestselling author on the plane from New Orleans to Atlanta.

It was just the three of us in the row. We talked and talked and talked and talked and talked

Always remember the pact that we madeToo young to die but old is the grave

Out our backyard, there are thousands of acres of open land. Mountains loom five to ten miles behind.

From the bar in my kitchen, I see the dying sun kiss the yellow and green fields outside.

The round hay bales sit, evenly spaced.

Six or seven deer graze.

The snow-capped peaks are pink-orange. The skies above are gunmetal gray-blue, with matching pink-orange clouds.

Below the tree line, I imagine all the animals preparing for winter, whilst looking over shoulders for the next link in the food chain.

Sqiurrels are gathering nuts. Marmots are improving their dens. Ermine begin to turn white. Deer and elk are preparing to run the gauntlet.

Having mated, they need to get to lower elevation, past the hunters who lay in wait over the next month or so.

The girzzlies have about another six weeks, depending on weather, before they dig out a den and hunker down for five months. Right now, they are in "hyperphagia," which basically means "gorging." They consume enormous amounts of calories during this time, then their systems slow down. Their heartbeat and metabolism slows to a fraction of normal. They don't eat, drink, defecate or urinate. Everything just kind of gets paused.

It's cold in the mornings.

The sun shines in the afternoon and everything warms up.

The sun goes down, in a blaze of color, sparking the imagination.

And all is dark and cold again, until the coffee starts to gurgle and we do it all over again.

I'll be the one to show you the way

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood here in Montana.

I have been on a Kings of Leon kick lately. They have been on heavy iPod rotation. I have also kicked my training into gear for the impending snow season. Running, step-mill, elliptical... twice each per week. One day off. I will start the lifting next week, once I am off hernia-related lifting restrictions.

I was channel-surfing last night and I came across the latest Warren Miller movie, Off the Grid. I always enjoy watching these types of movies before ski season. This one had a cool, ten-minute segment on my home mountain, Big Sky!!

It was sweet. I was tickled to see the pros dropping into the A-Z chutes, the 1-2-3 chutes and the Vuarnet Cliffs, some of my favorite lines. I imagine it would be like watching Tiger Woods play your home golf course. I may have ridden those same lines, but they do it an order of magnitude faster, smoother, stronger, bigger.