Open Studio Days...

The Friday/Saturday after Thanksgiving each year ( for the past 16 years) is known for "Open Studio Days" here in Ajo, Arizona...for the past 3 years, this ol' Fart and Lizard Flatz has been a part of the event.

It is the "first" social event of each new "snowbird season" down here in this part of the Sonora Desert;... a time when we all "re-greet" one another, share a smile, and welcome old friends back that we haven't seen since some "weenied out" and ran away from the intense heat that arrives down here every Summer.

These past couple years, I have grown to absolutely "love" the heat...and the absence of 3/4 of the normal Winter population that inhabits this place...the "quiet" when our "winter residents" are gone...is also looked forward to each Spring with great anticipation by some of us...hee hee...but...not at this time of the season.

This is "early" season...and it is a greatly anticipated time of "renewal" for old/new friendships in this little desert town.

The past 2 days, I had many, many folks stop by the studio just to say "Hi!"...some I first met 3-4 years ago when I first came to Ajo, and hadn't seen since...some, I see each year when they arrive back...seems kinda "weird" in a way...many seem "kinda like Family" in some strange, yet "comfortable" sort of way...it is "nice" to have friendships like this...despite my oft times desires to be left alone...

uh, you do know just how "screwed up" my thinking processes are, right? my last post was "complaining" about drop ins,...and now this week...here I am talking about how much I enjoy them!...damn!...am I ever going to make sense???

...anyhow...the "Tour" went pretty nicely, this year; I greeted many friends that I hadn't seen since last Spring, when they'd left...and even one couple that I hadn't seen in 3 years came by...

Kelly and Al Bayfield stopped by ( thebayfieldbunch.com ) seems that they're "boondocked" just the backside of "A" mountain here ...only about 2 miles, or so, beyond where my shop is at on Rocalla...last I'd seen them was right after I'd found this place and had decided to stop the wandering for awhile...has it really been 3 years, already?...damn, time flies, doesn't it?

As I sit here, at 3:30 in the AM...I feel a tad..."remorseful" and even a little "sad" that ol' Wanderwolf hasn't been taken out of this fenced yard for over 2 years now...thinking about friends like the Bayfields,... and George,...and Froggy Donna... out there, under the stars, and just "wandering" around freely, gets my mind drifting again...drifting with the notion of wandering again myself.

Much as I do love this town, and this shop,...and this "place",...I do, also,...miss the "open spaces" and vistas available when just wandering.

I think that I'm going to start getting ol' Wanderwolf back "road-worthy"...my original plan was to work on/at this studio for 5 years...I'm well over "half way" thru that time frame...it is time to also start "readying up" for leaving this all behind and getting back on the road again.

There's a lot to do...still alot to finish here on the studio...and a lot on Wanderwolf to bring back "right"...but, I have about a year and a half to accomplish it in...

I'm gonna get busy...

Thanks so much, Al and Kelly, for stopping by! perhaps, by the next time our paths cross, it'll be somewhere out in the vast beyond!

Ya'll try and have a Great Day!...ya hear?