I am on my way to the Peaks of Otter to meet my friends Ken and Sandy. We will drive back along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Roanoke, enjoying the spectacular views. They will be staying for the weekend and I am excited to show them my hollow.
I certainly spent enough time cleaning up the house. I washed all the windows and doors and scrubbed the floors in the bathroom and the kitchen, along with vacuuming the entire house. It hasn’t been that clean since it was built.
I got a tax notice recently that said that the hollow was still assessed at the same price, but that the house had declined in value a few thousand dollars. Since I am not planning to leave for at least five years, it really doesn’t matter.
Two days ago a bear tried to get in the cabin and tore out the screen to the storm door. It was partially my fault since I was leaving the regular door open to ventilate the cabin better since I still have many books up there. Now I have closed the door and there should be no more problems.
Next week will mark my three year anniversary from colon cancer. I am doing very well, as my last tests showed, and I will really celebrate my fifth anniversary.
The work on the chapbook is moving along and I like Marina’s artwork. I think one of her sketches will make a nice cover. I still have no blurbs from Herb, Gyorgyi and Lou, so I might have to push them a bit.
My teaching is going well, but I did catch two students cheating and I am going to reduce their grades by ten points.
On my last hike up to the orchard I saw a heal-all and a lyre-leaved sage, the latter totally unexpected.