i am pretty attached to this place... land of the free home of the brave

happy birthday america... i celebrated your birth by hanging out in a very american placelava hot springs, idaho. i am not sure if the town is named just lava, or the whole lava hot springs. my friend's parents live there. i really liked them. this is cindy's mom showing us her garden... i liked everything about her... especially her t-shirt. i liked the dogie patches. i dont love dogs. i respect people who do... but i myself am no lover. but this one... i could probably spend a fair amount of time with patches... i think it is a him... he was really sweet and excited... sits for hot-dogs and even got sprayed by a skunk protecting his people... and my animal un-loving heart almost melted when i left little patches and he looked like he wanted to cry....

after hanging out with patches i went on a walk. among the wildflowers i found sage. this plant... oh this plant... i remember smelling it as a little little one in idaho. later, when i re-smelled it in the desert as an adult i remembered my days as a wee one in idaho on the farm... now i also associate sage with living in the desert... flowers are beautiful and i accept them always, but sage... if someone handed me a fresh picked bundle of sage... um... i would probably decide they were my soul mate... or a soul mate impostor... happy birthday country. even though it is getting more and more expensive to live here and i don't trust the elected decision makers, i do trust that you are stable... i trust that for the time being and into fathomable future there will be sage to sniff, rivers to float and mountains to climb. so, despite your shortcomings i still love you.