I regretted missing still another b-bash, but finances are still a bit redlined, as they've been since early in the year, and the health of a beloved old girlfriend, dicey since last fall, has lately tumbled, making me reluctant to stray more than a few hours out of town. It was good to see the pictures, though, and I hope to be included some year.

We did accept the invitation of a kind (and prosperous) friend to spend the past week at her cabin in the Sierra foothills, and [link|http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/Sites/aus_pix/riverrun.jpg|here's] where I was at about 1300 EDT on the day in question. About half an hour earlier I had watched a snake bodysurf down a waterfall—about fifteen feet to my left; not visible in the picture—into the swimming hole and swim about ten feet Loch Ness monster fashion before descending underwater. This looked to be a "blue racer," a species of garter snake, another of which I'd caught sunning itself on a rock in the same pond a few hours earlier that day.

cordially,