FALL CLEANUP AND READING...IN THE ATTIC

My cozy attic, with the  window looking out to the 

north, is not a place I frequent much in the hot 

summertime...tho' it is air-conditioned, it doesn't 

seem like a fittin' place to hang out in 100 degree 

weather such as we've had, seemingly---all summer

long.

It is a fine place to be in the fall, when the brisk 

winds rattle the house and the leaves are beginning

to scurry down the street, along the curbs...and there 

is an unmistakeable smell of autumn in the air...the

aroma of green chillies roasting is everywhere...

Ah, and when the snow comes I love to slip off

upstairs, throw a small log into the tiny but efficient

wood-stove, put on "Rio Bravo" or "Shakiest Gun In

The West," open a can of Beanie Weenies, and 

settle down on my surplus steel GI bed, sipping 

a good old Barq's Big Orange! Maybe under one

of Mother's old quilts...

Now on this mid-August day, the light is beginning to

remind one of autumn-- here at 6000 feet, in the shadow

of the Sandias. The mornings are getting cool, and

my attic called and here I am...planning to spiffy-

up the place a bit, inventory the "larder," (snacks)

and my special beverages, in my Avanti fridge.

Sometimes when I come up here (it being a place

filled with all kinds of memorabilia), I get sidetracked

and head off down "memory lane."

What else could you expect from a man who sees

his old beat-up straw hat, worn on so many cat-fishing

trips...his KaBar hunting knife, rakishly stabbed into

the end of the knocked-together pine bookshelf---or

Dad's old minnow bucket over there in the corner?!

Everywhere I look, this place is filled with happy stuff---

even the pictures on the wall...and especially the books 

filling the six-foot-wide bookshelf. Did I mention my fifty-

year-old Red Wing hunting boots over in the corner?

(They need a water-proofing job...)

I thought to pick out a good book about Alaska...maybe

to re-read an old one. Nothing greater than to settle

down with a "log cabin book," snow and ice everywhere,

temps below zero---at the end of a hot summer!

These wound up in my stack on the garage-sale table.

I pulled up my former office chair (with the rollers) and

began to peruse the stack.

"FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS," by Dolly 

   Faulkner.

"THE  IMPOSSIBLE RESCUE," by Martin Sandler

"THE WINDS OF SKYLAK," by Bonnie Rose Ward

"CHASING ALASKA," by John Green

1. "TRAILS,"

2. "THE LAST HOMESTEAD,"

3.  and "HOMESTEAD RECKONING," a TRILOGY

    by Warren Troy, who once homesteaded at

    Kachemak Bay, Alaska...and now lives at Willow.

    These Troy books, though being novels, really 

     capture the true ALASKA, tell a most interesting 

     and compelling continued story.

I settle down on my bunk with some Ritz crackers 

smeared with JIF EXTRA CRUNCHY peanut butter

and my last NEHI GRAPE---and "THE WINDS OF

SKYLAK," to re -read--- maybe the best Alaska book 

of all!

After a time I began to doze off---my thoughts 

drowsily thinking: "Who's been into  my "larder" up

here, eating my man-food? I must buy some more

tamales, Spam, sardines, and onions...and get some

more Delaware Punches, out of Mexico @ $2.00

each.   zzzz-zzzz-zzz.....

***************

BY MIL

8/11/16