Dawn of a New Day

So great to wake up here this morning. The storm is long gone and the skies are crystal Arizona Blue Bird late winter azure. If you could bottle this blue or put it on a ring finger...

Believe it or not, our first daily newspaper showed up in front of the house about 630 am this morning. Yep, The Arizona Republic got it right! Susun is now in her reading repose mode.

There's also nothing like real java perked on a gas stove top to fill the straw house with the wonderful aroma that only coffee can exude. We've opened up all the shutters and the sun is streaming into the house.

There was a very hard frost last night--I'm guessing the overnight lows were in the mid-20's here, maybe lower--thick ice on windshields.

Nothing on the property was molested in our absence. It's just like we left it yesterday. That's a big relief. It's so nice to look around and not see huge expensive, time-consuming projects staring you in the face.

Gary and Robin came to visit in the fading dusk last night. They were taking their two Rhodesian Ridgebacks for their evening walk. It was so fun to visit with them.
A light rain came down as we stood on the ramada giggling and swapping stories. We had a long talk with Mr. Freely, too, last night. I don't know if we could have made this trip without his help. He truly was an awesome Air Traffic Controller for us. We must have exchanged at least 50 texts between his email and our cell phone--maybe more, who knows?

Anything we do today will seem like we are slackers compared to the past few days. We plan on kicking back, unpacking at a slow pace and doing real minimal chores.

As we were passing through Kanab yesterday, we noticed a new kinda, sorta food/coffee place. It had a great big sign announcing that it was "LAID BACK LARRY's" place and the subtitle was "Chilling since 1949." The signs and building were decorated with the obligatory lizards, petroglyphs, kokopellis and other pseudo hip motifs.

Well, it got me to thinking. I'll bet none of you know the name of my youth was Randy. No kidding. My middle name is Randolph so my parents named me Randy. I spent 18 years of my life known as Randy. As soon as I turned 18, I changed it to my first name--John. ALL of the people in my hometown still call me Randy. My Mom calls me Randy. I lead a double life--Randy by Indiana and John everywhere else.

Well, after I saw Larry's place yesterday it got me thinking, maybe I should call this place, "Laid Back Randy's--Chilling since 1947!" Gee, now if I can only paint some hip motifs on our house walls...nah, Susun would string me up.

Well, ya'll have yerselfs a righteous nice lil ol' day and enjoy Many Cheers! (Laid Back Randy)