Busy morning here in Gold Canyon today. Right after breakfast I hauled out the Dirt Devil and vacuumed the house. I swept the walk and took out the garbage. Sue got her shopping list and gathered up her reusable grocery bags and went to the fruit market and the grocery store. When she got back it was time for lunch. I went to the driving range for about an hour while Sue made a big tortilla dish for supper. When I got back I got a text from Millie — they are an hour away, in Globe, and expect to be here for happy hour at 4:40.

And so it was. Ed and Millie have spent the last several weeks in northern Alabama, on a ‘work-away’. Sanding and painting a house. From the tales they tell, it sounds like it was quite a bit more fun than what comes to MY mind when I think about sanding and painting. I’m sure it was, although I’ve come to see that the Hildebrands have a positive view of most things and seem to enjoy whatever they do, and they’re game to try just about anything. So they moved their luggage into the guest bedroom and we had our little happy hour in the back yard. Around 6pm we took them for a little walk up the hill behind our house to see the sunset and to get up close and personal with a couple of cacti. We meandered back down before dark and came back to the house to eat that big tortilla dish Sue was working on this afternoon.

There was some talk of card games and TV shows and movies after supper — but just talk. So that’s what we did tonight — just talk. And talk. And start to catch up a bit on what’s all gone right and wrong with the world since we last visited like this (on our Danube cycling trip last September). And before you know it, it’s midnight. Time to go to bed. Agree to get up around 7, have some coffee, and probably go for a hike before lunch. We’ll see.