Long Weekend's Journey Into Extended Working Holiday

So here I am, at home! No, not Tahoe and the Sierras where you are used to me writing from, but home, the home where my heart and soul lives - the Rocky Mountains! Specifically I am in Denver, where my bestest of best friends live.

A week ago I pulled an all-nighter to wrap up a myriad of little projects I had going in Tahoe so I could catch a plane to Denver for a long weekend get-a-way. GinGirl, one of my oldest and dearest friends, cashed in some of her business miles largess to fly me out from Tahoe for a reunion of the Sick Twisted & Wrong, and as a surprise gift for NatureGoob's 40th birthday. Actually his 40th + ONE birthday if you are counting, because peoples, things, and schedules all conspired to nullify any birthday party plans last year for his real 40th birthday.

Not that this year was completely devoid of conspiracy and deceit ... oh no! once they got me here they sprang the trap! "Oh MeeesterBeeelll" ... as long as you're here ... how would you like to work on this project? ... and maybe this one?? Oh and by the way, Carol needs you look at this and fix that, and ... Hey! just how long can you stay???

So here I sit, with the Garden Guarding Gargoyle nearby, pondering "How Long" ... ummm ... well ... luckily I'm rather footloose and fancy-free these days ... seeing as how GinGirl has a firm grip on my return ticket, and it's a thousand mile walk back home to Tahoe, I will be in Denver with my favourite friends, in my home of homes, until the middle of November on, shall we call it, an extended working holiday.

P.S. My captors have agreed to give me access to Gather ... 15 minutes twice a day ... this limited access will impact publishing as will the lack of access to my files and images back in Tahoe; however, I will try to get the Weekend Qwiki Quiz back online for this weekend and post what I can when I can!

P.S.s. Those of you that were planning to Trick or Treat at my Tahoe place, sorry I won't be there to pass out the candy bars; likewise, to any who are scheming to TP and egg my house for Halloween ... I may be gone, but my neighbors the bears and coyotes are still there!

... ghost story ...

Ghost Story

... Mac Abre wiped his brow, it was getting late.
The sun was slipping beyond the trees, and in the
twilight the shadows danced as the evening breeze
rustled about the graveyard. He had finished the
hole, the final resting spot. It would be filled
tomorrow with a coffin, but this evening, it was
a gaping gash in the earth, a wound that would not
heal 'til filled with a body in the 'morrow.

Mac Abre stepped up close to the edge to admire
his handiwork. He blinked his tired eyes. Had
something moved in the darkness of the pit?

Mac peered deep into the waiting grave ...
suddenly! a fluttering specter rose up from the
bowels of the earth and flying past him escaped
into the dancing shadows of the surrounding woods.
Mac clutched his chest & ducked his head in fright
... and then ...
old Mac fell head long into the grave he had dug
...

... one spirit leaves, making room
for the internment of the next ...
- such is the life of a ghost.