Seven weeks down, Nine to go. Road report from Blogorado

This semester my schedule functions in two-week cycles in which the first week is hectic and jam-packed with obligations for 5 or 6 days, and the following week will only have 2 or 3 required attendance elements. I was fortunate that this Fall, my "light week" coincided with Blogorado, which is where I am now.

Sadly, Himself had other obligations and would not be going, so there went my ride. I had a major test on Wednesday (passed!) and two assignments were due, one by Friday night and the other by Sunday night. I ruefully told friends a couple weeks back that it was not in the cards for me, as much as I wanted to go. Mrs. SCI-Fi asked me if I'd be willing to come if she could coordinate a group effort for transport, and I said I would. She is a very determined lady, and through the kindness of various folk, I had rides to and from Colorado, and was sweetly offered the hospitality of staying at the home of Farm Family.

The week was hectic leading up to the trip, and I turned my due-by-Friday assignment in on Thursday morning before heading out with one gallant fellow. It's about 5AM and I just submitted my due-by-Sunday night assignment to the professor through the university's drop-box system for submitting documents-- living in the future has its advantages.  Now I am free to enjoy the remaining day or so I will be here. A different gallant fellow will chauffeur me back home tomorrow.

I am so happy to not miss Blogorado like I did last year, and I'm very touched that my lovely friends would pull together to make the trip possible for me. There is no tonic in the world to rival the therapeutic effects of time spent with friends and family, and most of the friends here ARE family to me, now. My cup runneth over.

Friday turned out to be drizzle-fest, so we congregated at Farm House and people drifted between chatting in the kitchen/living/dining rooms to gathering around a respectable blaze in a fire pit out in the (huge!) shed. Incredible cookies and breads flew in from the northeast, as did a batch of unfortunate lobster that were flown with attendees from Boston. In the traditional way, men folk gathered around a treacherously high barbecue fire and seared a nice passel of steaks. FarmMom makes the best cinnamon rolls evah, btw. Good food.

Saturday will be a shooting day at the range, but I may sneak off with a hen party to look at the local antique places. I'm sure I'll be at the range before the day is out.

I expect to head home after breakfast tomorrow, and as always, it will be bittersweet to leave here. I observed to several people that I think our group truly gelled that first Blogorado in 2009 when on the way back to town from the range on the final night of the gathering, Ambulance Driver took out a sizable buck with the radiator of his Dodge Dakota. Up until that moment, we'd had a cordial congeniality. 20 or so folk on the side of a dark road by a field at 9pm on a November night, we truly bonded. Many of us learned the importance of a cordless Sawzall when dismantling a deer in the field. It was one of those great, unplanned things that cemented us as a group. I was delighted to be here then, and I'm so glad I still get to play their reindeer games.

Have a great weekend!