After getting back from our Valle de Bravo road trip not one person in the family volunteered to go pick up the dog with me, so I trolled them with this picture of me getting all the love and appreciation for having returned for her.

We first met these guys in Portland about 100 years ago. Dirt dwellers who turned full-time vanlifers like a decade ago now. Good times are had when our paths cross, which always seems like it is just a matter of time when you run in the circles we do.

If you drive a cement truck in this town you know the drill. Inch forward until the low hanging wire snags, exit the vehicle, use your broom to lift the wire up and over the last bit, then get back in and continue on. If that fails, recruit any random passerby to stand on the back of the truck and do the broom-work while you drive forward.

Ali and a few friends during a weekly breakfast. I must say, she has branched out much better than I have since we crash landed into dirt life last year. I think I could disappear for a year before realizing I hadn’t spoken to another person. Meanwhile she stays constantly busy and social. Not that she doesn’t drag me out to social events now and then, but I have really perfected my Irish goodbye.

For the record, that bug-eyed mutt in Julie’s hands was one she had found out wandering the streets a few days earlier. She isn’t to blame for its painted nails. I don’t know why I feel that should be made clear, but I do. And hey, she found the dog a nice home a couple weeks later.

They go to a new place in town every week and then Ali comes back, shows me a picture, and says, “Oh my god, the food there was so good, you have to try it sometime.”

Ali and I went out to dinner this night, caught a bit of sunset from the roof, had some really good Italian, and then walked the beautiful quiet streets home.

Local kids’ theater put on a pretty good production of Matilda. My kids haven’t shown any interest in participating, but they know everyone involved and it’s fun to go watch them.