As I mentioned in the last post - winter is coming.
And coming fast.
There's snow on the mountaintops, and in the passes. In the last three days the leaves have all turned yellow and there is a real chill in the air this morning. For the last two weeks the sky above the shop has been filled with formations of honking geese and quaking ducks, headed south to warmer climes.
And that means it's time for Beastly, AKA my pal Shawn Riley who has spent the summer here at Stonekettle Station, to head south with the rest of the seasonal migrants. We tried to talk him into staying, but he starts to shiver uncontrollably at the mere thought of snow, let alone the thought of the -30F temperatures we'll be seeing soon.
And so, this morning I filled his coffee cup, he saddled up in his RV and headed down the Glenn Highway towards Glennallen and Tok, on his way towards the South West United States.
His departure marks the end of summer for me. The end of full time woodworking and turning, and a return to full time writing. I'll spend the rest of this week, what remains of it, finishing my winterization list, and Monday morning I'll sit down at my desk and begin the final chapters of Iyes of the Dead. The novel is complex and involved, and it'll take me a week of reviewing the finished portions and the outline to get back up to speed, but I expect to have it done before Christmas. If you're intested, an excerp of the first chapter can be found here.
Today marks the seventh anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, and I've got a few words I want to say about that. I'll put those thoughts in a separate post, which will be up in the next hour or so.
Bye, Beastly. Drive safe.
ReplyDelete[Sniffle sniffle]
ReplyDelete[waves handkerchief]
Oh, wait, he's coming in our direction! Well, as Jeri has probably already said, let Shawn know he's welcome at the Denver UCF outpost anytime. We'd love to treat him to dinner if he's in our neck of the woods, 'cause any friend of Jim's is a friend of ours. :)
I doubt he'll be coming in your direction, guys.
ReplyDeleteHe tends to travel in straight lines, hell bent for leather, but I did let him know about your offer and he does appreciate the thought.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
ReplyDeleteWell two nights behind me and finally internet connection. I have made it to Mile 0 on the ALCAN 1546.9 miles down, 2300ish to go. I will be posting some photos of the trip tonight (13 Sep) and doing some blurbs. It was a good summer(?) of turning and doing shop improvements. Our To-do list did not get finished but hey we gave it a shot. With the mountains behind me it was easy to make up some lost time of sleeping in until 09:00 and taking time to double back for some pretty incredible pictures if I do say so myself. Thanks to Jim, Becky (mostly) and Jim for all the fun. There's a pretty good possibility I will be doing a wide swing through CO before setting anchor. Depends on the job start date and how much doe is left in the coffers when I hit the lower 48. Updates will come.
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