Shoved around somewhat crudely by email, I accomplished something. I drove down to the unhappy mountain town where they have a branch of my bank, and I officially slapped down tens of thousands of dollars on the promised Land far away, where I hope someday to dwell.

You could cluck and say it only took me a few hours, but I assure you that in life energy terms, it did take one full day.

There were rewards. The first and most obvious being that I’m a real landowner now, for the first time in my life. Mortgages don’t count–I’ve only ever had one of those, and I’m sitting in it, and it’s half paid off.

Not so for the first lot at six thousand feet. I bled for it. It’s mine, for no more bleeding than a couple hundred a year in taxes going forward.

There was also the reward of good coffee and decent food.

Then on the way back, the rain began to hit for real.

There’s been plenty of it, too much of it, up in Prettytown. The flooding went viral nationally. But out in the Desierto Pintado it has talked a big game and failed to fall to earth.

Until today.

The land is home to birds: quail and roadrunner at the least. There is room for one more hummingbird, if not a colony of the sweet little bastards.

In the random comments of another random video, a Larry quotes a Henry David, to the effect that you should:

“Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine.”

That’s what today was about.