The last few weeks have been a wild ride, haven't they? It's not just me, right? I feel like I'm on a big time roller coaster, one with a few loops and barrel rolls, as well as big, big drops. These days there isn't time to settle down and really digest any bit of news before the next thing comes along. I swear, I'm sitting in bed right now, and I just checked my stress levels according to the phone app. I should be totally calm and powering down to sleep. Instead my heart rate is elevated and my oxygen saturation is mediocre. My stress is creeping up. Best I can tell, none of this is necessarily personally attached to my life, either. It's just because I'm watching news, reading tweets and articles, and talking about the world at large with my friends. It feels like we are living through one of those momentous periods in history. Our grandkids will ask us what it was like. Not sure what we will tell them. It will depend on how everything plays out over the next six months to a year, I suppose.
Thankfully I have a good group of friends to unwind with. We are together two or three times a week, and we do a pretty damned good job of keeping each other sane. Tonight was Fire Pit Friday again. We aren't doing this as often as the old Bonfire group in Charleston from a few years ago, but I can see this turning into exactly that sort of ritual. Come to think of it, if the guys had listened to me and put a gate between our yards when they rebuilt the fence three years ago, we could just open it up and it would be even more like Bonfire, with fire, beer, grilled meats, and hot tub, all in a contiguous space. (We are considering moving the garden back to the south side of the lawn, and putting the patio on the north, so maybe I can reopen the gate conversation with more success this time.) If it turned into a regular thing, I'd have to rename Fire Pit Fridays as Bonfire II: Return of Jafar.
That's really not a bad idea, making this a weekly event like before. It's not like we don't have an endless supply of wood to burn, and with the fire ban across nearly the entire Rocky Mountains right now, we'd be better off bringing the slash down the hill off the claim and taking care of it here where it's safe and legal. We also have plenty of the other stuff -- a five person hot tub, a neighbor who brews gallons of beer (and I have a fully stocked wine fridge), a large smoker and a Costco membership, and we have friends and dogs to keep the party rolling every weekend if we want. Heck, there's a chance this weekend there will be a new dog to keep Barley company, so we will have an even bigger surplus of fun to fuel the Fire Pit Friday parties.
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