Walker, passed by Two on a motorcycle

As I do just about every day, I am taking a short walk. Walking is a part of the creative process for me. I cannot do my work right if I do not walk. These two just passed me. The image is blurry. There is no way to control shutter speed on the iPhone and I kept walking even as I took it. I don't care. Sooner or later, all of life's images become blurry anyway.

The toddler figures it out

As it turns out, all this button pushing and knob turning, door opening and such that Lynxton has been doing and scaring us half to death with and driving us crazy - it's just been his effort to figure things out. Now he's got the microwave figured out, he knows that you open the door, put in an item of food, press a few buttons from the upper panel, then press the lone button on the second to lowest panel, the microwave comes on, makes noise, starts turning inside, you step aside, patiently wait until it dings, then you press the great big button at the very bottom. The door pops open and grandma or grandpa takes out the food item. Then you close the door. In fact just before he closes door, he says "Doh da do!" - "Close the door!"

I never wanted to be a man called "grandpa!" because I never wanted to acknowledge that the process of growing old applies to me. Now, sometimes, I feel like I could enjoy being a full-time grandpa. I still don't want to acknowledge that the process of growing old applies to me, though. Somehow, having young people in your life kind of keeps you feeling young - when you're not too exhausted to feel anything but exhausted.

Kalib's parents snatch him away from the lawn mower so he can learn how to go to Kindergarten

The boys' mom and dad showed up tonight to pick up Kalib and take him back to Anchorage with them. They are leaving Lynxston with us, because he is still too much for his mom to handle. She is much improved since I last saw her, but still she is very sore and on medication and Lynx is a rowdy guy. Kalib did not want to go. He wanted to stay here. He loves it here - I think in part because of our big, wild, yard which tonight he got to mow a bit of, but maybe he likes his grandma and grandpa, too. He had to go home, though, because tomorrow he starts a "Kindergarten Readiness" program.

He will learn how not to take a nap (I don't think that will be much of a challenge for Kalib. If he took any naps during this longer-than average stay with us, I was not aware of them), how to use a back pack and how to ride a school bus.

That ought to be pretty damned exciting.

They bought pizza for us all and I took a little break to help eat it. They just left. I need to get back to work. I don't want to, but if I work until midnight I can get in two more hours and 20 minutes - if I go until 1:00, three more hours and 20 minutes.

I feel lazy, though. I don't want to do anything, but visit Margie, Lynxton and Jim. But I've got to get this done, so back to work I go. Well, maybe I'll be lazy for a few minutes, anyway, go back into the house and say "hi" to Margie and Lynx. Jimmy can stay here to watch things. Or, he can follow me into the house, if he chooses.

Uiñiq is 99 percent done - but that last one percent...

Uiñiq Magazine is 99% done. That last one percent can be a real struggle for me to complete as it seems like no matter what I do, there is always one more task I need to do and then one more after that, and one more after that… it can feel impossible. Thank goodness for Jim, my good black cat! He has taken up his workstation between my keyboard and the images I must adjust and convert to CMYK on my computer screen. Jim is doing all he can to smooth out the process for me.

I have taken great pains to keep the images in Uiñiq out of the public eye until the magazine actually comes out. The secton of face behind Jim is only a tiny, tiny, cut-out from a much larger image. I don't think it gives anything vital away. In fact, it might increase interest by making Uiñiq readers more curious to see what the full picture is going to look like when they finally see the magazine.

A prophet called "Fireweed"

Around here, they say you know summer is over when the top blossom of the Fireweed blooms. As you can see, it still has a little way to go to get to that top blossom. So maybe this incredibly sunny, warm and even hot summer will linger a little longer yet. As for me, this summer has so far been the summer that really was, yet never happened. I will explain another time, when I am sitting at my computer typing into my blog, rather than walking down the road dictating into my iPhone.