Recovery

Tuesday was a good day to count our marbles, center our chakras and recover from the vicissitudes of the journey. Yolanda got the kids off to school, while Kyle, Dennis and i lounged on the back porch, watching the sun rise and and enjoying the cool of the morning. We watched the hummingbirds and butterflies, and found shapes in the lazy clouds drifting by. Such bliss!! Lunch was in downtown old town Cottonwood. The Tavern is next door to the old hotel, built in the gold rush days, burned down and rebuilt in 1925 (? my memory of numbers is wretched) and subsequently enjoyed by John Ford the director of iconic westerns, and by many of his stars: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Mae West, and the like. The hotel is being refurbished, but you can stay there as it is right now for $150 a night.

Cottonwood is a tourist destination, with many antique stores and chichi boutiques. The setting is so beautiful, with forested slopes on one side, and stark ridges and canyons on the other. And hanging halfway up the mountain to the west is a little valley holding the town of Jerome. We will go there soon.

The best part of the day was in the evening when the clouds built up and the thunderstorms began. We all stood outside watching the lightning, oohing and aahhing, and trying to time our mystic gestures and cabalistic words to co-incide with the flashes. "Lux!" I commanded, throwing an invisible ball of will at the heavens. Inside a cloud, an explosion of light created a burst of luminescence. Dennis said, "Watch this," and cast a wordless command under his lifted leg. A huge triple-forked bolt crackled down into the hills to the south. "Incandescens!"" I cried, throwing both hands into the air. flash to the left, bolt to the center, blast to the right. Then Kyle very calmly, very silently did nothing, and a crackling sheet of of electricity covered a quarter of the sky. The natives probably thought we were mad, standing in the driveway and laughing like loons at the weather. it was the perfect end to a peaceful day.