43.43 somebody’s birthday i was invited, over a month ago, by my friend Nick, from Louisville, to come to the gay campground this weekend for a bear weekend. i felt like shaving my head and decided to play with my facial hair. . . which i don’t do often, so i gave my self the warlock Van Dyke . . . it’s ok. i’ll shave it off next week. shave shave shave. some day i’ll just stop shaving again. my hair will grow a little bit every day. . . meh. . . it’s nice seeing Nick. we set up our tents at the end of the ridge. . . walking up to the pools, i saw a black rat snake. . . it didn’t flee very much so i picked her up. . . she bit me, but just a little. i held her for a while, i used to have a pet of this type snake. . . i wanted to throw her over my shoulders. . . but just held her for a while and let her go. many people fear snakes; i take them as a blessing. i spent a few hours chatting with people and shifting from the hot tub to the pool to cool. . . back at the tent, Nick told me he watched the snake climb the chair next door… he made a nice dinner on an electric griddle. some neighbors told us it was their birthday and invited us for brownies. . . i told them it was my birthday too! the last day of my 43 day birthday this year. so i ate some brownie: first processed sugar thing i’ve had since coming off the fast. i took it ritualistically. thanks! the torrential rains swept through. as they’ve been doing. . . back at our tent site we realized we set up our tents in a drainage basin on the ridge. . . . . . my tent is new. it’s dry inside, but the floor is like a waterbed, swollen and jiggly. the tent is entirely surrounded by water. Nick’s tent is soaked. ahhh. so it goes. i hope we sleep well tonight and have fun tomorrow. i have some good hugs today. one good kiss. and nice talks with guys from Milwaukee. . . what an accent! Ah, America! i’m gonna take a break from posting for a while now. let me know if there’s anything you want to see or hear me talk about. love ya. ...dominic