Sept 13

Thought we were going to have a storm last night -- big breeze, lightning off in the distance, a little thunder, but no, it moved on. However, it cooled stuff off, which was nice.

It's 7am and there's some loudspeaker in the distance -- 393! 394! To the starting line! -- have no idea what's going on. It's been repeating. And now it's calling for different numbers. 404! 405! To the starting line! Sure hope there's not a racetrack near here. That's all we need.

It's a bike race! It's along the frontage road right beside the traintrack. I've seen bikers out there from time to time. It's a nice long straight road (as are many in Arizona) so I thought they just used it for practice. But it looks like there's going to be a race. The numbers are up to 420 now.

I watched Nature on PBS last night and it was about a marathon race through Death Valley as a framing device for exploring the area. I think those people are crazy, certifiably. They weren't even running at night! A few did finish. One was a woman who came in about third; she was maybe 50, lean and brown and tougher than I can imagine, though she looked totally spaced out there at the end. The photography was astounding, and the critters interesting, especially the fringe-toed lizard. Death Valley is beautiful, in its own austere way, but not somewhere I'd want to spend too much time. Well, maybe for a day or so -- in January.

Didn't hurt so bad last night so think I'm starting to feel better. Got my Bowlin shirts so now look official. And I had a brilliant idea here in my rig -- the screen door has a smoked acrylic panel on the bottom half. I've been bothered by the heat and light coming in so early, so I took the panel off the bottom and affixed it to the top half (it had the clips so it's meant to move, or you could have panels all the way). Now, the light is blocked some and the heat rises so the breeze coming in the bottom is a little cooler than it was when it came in the top. I'm so smart.

436! To the starting line!