Sorry about the wasp. We have a bunch here from our exposed ceiling, but no stings yet.

Hope your tomorrow is a great day, Mark. It must feel good to begin again. :-)

So what are the next steps...?

Well, the really cool thing is that I turned out not to be as allergic as I thought I might be ... ;-) No emergency room for me! But they still itch like ... very itchy things.

And the biking and the stinging were separated by a short interval of walking ... and an even shorter interval of slapping at wasps and yelling. The bike was borrowed from a friend; it was a really nice racing bike with thin hard tires, just right for riding on the paved trail we were on. It easily outran the mountain bike my other friend was riding, on that surface.

The next steps have been sparkly, so far. :-P They eventually might entail another move.

"The next steps have been sparkly, so far. :-P They eventually might entail another move."

That makes me smile for you.

I thought of you while reading some Edward Abbey recently. I know making a big change is difficult.

Benedicto

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome,

dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.

May your rivers flow without end,

meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells,

past temples and castles and poets’ towers

into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl,

through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock,

blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone,

and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm

where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs,

where deer walk across white sand beaches,

where storms come and go

as lightning clangs upon the high crags,

where something strange and more beautiful

and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams

waits for you –

beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.

– Edward Abbey

Thank you, Kent. :-)

There's a part of me that resists, that wants to say that my trail probably won't be such an adventure, but that's just an anti-poetry part. There will be adventures; the trick will be staying open to them.

I haven't Abbey's poetry to return you, but I do have a "benedicto": I wish you well too.

I read this today and thought I'd share it. It reminded me of something you have said.

It is nothing new, and it won't assist you on your way, but it was a reminder, to me, to take time to wish you new life (continued positive energy).

There are many pathways in this life and it doesn't matter which one you take, for, they all have a common destination, and that is the grave.

But some paths give you energy and some take it away.

~ Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

And some lead to windmills and some lead to hay. :-)

Thank you for thinking of me, Kent.

And some lead to a door into elsewhere, or a silver sword or a stony path :-)