Kage Baker was a firm believer in listening to feed back.

If readers took the time to tell you something, she felt, they were owed the writer’s attention. At least long enough to decide whether or not the idea, suggestion or observation was pertinent.

She was also very, very fond of our wonderful friends Steve and Carol Skold. Those wonderful people fed and housed us so many times, they should have been able to claim us a charity. So when Steve requested that I notify people when I was going to miss this blog – so they wouldn’t wonder what new calamity had befallen me – I could hear her saying, “Damn right!” in the back of my mind.

So: We are temporarily down for service to my melting brain.

It’s unlikely I will manage a real blog tonight – I just got home from a busy weekend up North, and a long trip down I-5. Where it was 100 degrees most places. It’s only in the 80’s here on the edge of Griffith Park, but the light is going funny due to portions of Southern California being currently on fire.

Also, the I-5 around Buttonwillow is apparently being dug up, and possibly moved elsewhere. Both North and South bound roads are down to 1 lane each, and are moving at negligible speeds. There are CalTrans trucks and Gas Company trucks everywhere. And the area is crawling with the Army Corps of Engineers as well, plus lots of camo-painted earth-movers.

Space aliens? Giant gila monsters? Triffids in the Monsanto corn fields? A friend has suggested that Thor’s Hammer has finally landed and is being quarantined.

All I know for sure it that it took me far too long in the heat to get through there, and now that I’m home – I’m tired. There are fudgesickles and watermelon in the refrigerator, and I am going to go commune with them.

Stay cool, Dear Readers.