Strange letter from the Postal Inspector

I had a strange letter from the Postal Authorities
this week. They had opened a letter addressed to
me from South Africa. They said the letter was
seized by US Customs and Border Protection agents
during an interdiction operation. Said operation
was organized to identify and detain illegal mailings
from entering the United States. The letter was
passed on to the Postal Inspection Service who seize
and destroy lottery mail. They then sited chapter
and verse on the laws prohibiting such things and
urged me not to participate in such schemes.

"The letter is being forwarded to you. No additional
investigative attention will be given to this matter."
Now, why not? If this is illegal, why not pursue the
ones who posted the letter in the first place? I
suppose because it came from a Foreign Country, they
cannot.

In any case, it's the kind of letter that comes mostly
through e-mail and I would have thrown it away anyway.
Now, I'm tempted to save it...just for ???

Ariel was here most of the week. She was home
recovering from a fever-cold on Monday. Here
Tuesday-Thursday. We picked her up on Friday,
but by the time we got home she was complaining
of an ear ache. I administered Tylenol and within
30 minutes she was up and running. That lasted
only an hour when she was again miserable. I
called Carl and reported her condition. I knew
he had been at work at 5 AM for an Install and
that if all went well he might be able to leave
by 1 PM. He said it had gone well and he'd
leave early, but didn't know just when. Ariel
and I drove home. She slept much of the way
and the rest of the time was in tears.

Carl drove up just as we parked in front of their
house. Ariel immediately told me I could leave
now and go home to Grandpa Robert. Clearly, Daddy
was here and I would only be in the way and
worse Daddy and Grammy would probably talk! And
she wanted Daddy all to herself.

Sadly, she did have a bad infection and the ear
drum burst sometime later. At least that makes
the pain go away. She's now on antibiotic ear
drops. She said it had been a long time since
she had had an earache. I can't help but think
the daily trips to the swimming pool this week
were probably a BAD idea!

In any case we had a good time the days
she was here and felt good. She helped
Robert split logs on one or two days and we
played games and watched "The Young Black Stallion
a couple of times. One day Trace Hybertson went
swimming with us; she also made friends with Lily,
a girl about her age whose grandma brought her
to the pool everyday. The other two days she
and Lily played together in the pool.

Lions and... and bears, Oh my!

I went upstairs this evening shortly after 8:30 PM
to turn on the electric blanket on our bed. Robert
usually does that, but he was out. I turned on
lights as I went and did so as I entered our bedroom.
Usually the blinds are drawn at this time of the year,
but since my treadmill has arrived I open them all
when I am "doing my thing" on the treadmill so they
were all open. Just as I turned on the bedroom lights
the motion-sensitive light went on and there on the
patio was a full-grown mountain lion. It was headed
away from me across the patio towards the mountain.
When the light went on, it turned, slowly, and looked
back and appeared to look right at me. The light was
in its eyes so I don't know whether it saw me or not;
the bedroom light was also on. In any case it looked
back for a moment or two as I exclaimed under my breath,
"Oh, my god, Oh, my god, Oh, my god!" It then slowly
turned back and wandered off into the dark
with a flick of its tale as if to say, Oh, it's only
you. This is not the first lion I have seen out there and I
suppose not the last. Each time it gives me a start and I
admit a thrill! At the same time I would happily give up
the thrill for them to go away.

Robert, as I mentioned, was not home. He had gone to a
book signing of James Kunstler's latest book and a talk
by Kunstler. I had no one to exclaim over this new
sighting...

Ariel was here today. She and Robert split wood and
worked in the barnyard.

Later Trace Hybertson walked up from his house, after
lunch to go with us to the East Boulder Recreation Center. The
two kids swam and played in the water for from 2:30 until 4 PM
when I dragged them out. I should have left them for another
half hour because Carl didn't come until 5 PM ( the appointed
time, he often is there earlier). They played and ate snacks
from the various vending machines.