phil ringnalda

350 message(s), 349 unread.

Delete spam.

340 message(s), 339 unread.

I miss spam.

Delete goofy search referrals from aolsearch and msn, read and delete real referrals, read and mostly delete list mail, leaving only (non-flame) comments, direct requests for help, and unanswered list questions.

38 message(s), 0 unread.

Another hour or so, and I can start trying to catch up on two weeks of blog reading.

But Idaho was gorgeous, a complete and utter delight. There are few things I know more smooth, elegant, and soul-filling than the sight of a big Westslope cutthroat taking a dry fly. Perseids leaving trails across a billion stars come close, though.

In other good news, the Biscuit Fire managed to not burn up my house while I was gone. While it’s still about the same distance away (roughly ten miles east), and not terribly likely to get much closer (one of the few advantages of our summer fogs), I really don’t think it’s a good thing when your neighborhood forest fire gets its own domain name.

So far, it has mostly just burned the entire Kalmiopsis Wilderness, which reminds me of Harkabeeparolyn, on being told in The Ringworld Engineers that saving the Ringworld will require killing the floating city, the Machine People, the little red carnivores, and the Grass Giants, saying “But this is everyone we know in the world, even by reputation!”

According to the maps, everything I know in this corner of the world is burned, or burning. What I’m trying to remind myself is that, despite the big solid angry red blotch on the map, it’s not really all burned. Much of it will be mosaic-burned, with some new openings that will please elk in a couple of years, and deer and blue grouse a bit later, and other areas with just the underbrush burned out, pleasing the deer and ruffed grouse as soon as next spring.

But still, the list of burned areas reads like the list of everywhere I know in my backyard, even by reputation.