I was cutting down a tree the other day when I realized a chainsaw would probably work better than insults.

If that joke flew over your head, don't worry about it.

Is it a good time for jokes yet?

Too soon?

Too late?

I've been contemplating my return to this world of words and sometimes fucked up images when I feel like creating them.

A break meant to be only a few days away morphed into nearly two weeks of being gone.  Typical me.

I see the local drama.  Hive stories.  Nothing new there.  To be honest — which will most likely get me in "trouble", since that's how honesty works — I'm looking forward to the day this tiny community can grow with roots that aren't attached to so much baggage.

Thinking back to when Hive and all of us broke up with Steem, I remember writing about how the situation was similar to a bad breakup.  I've seen others use the same analogy as well.

Moving on to three months later and now it feels like I'm dating Hive, and Hive is still dealing with this bad breakup.  I don't mean to be rude but, it's kind of annoying.

Just when Hive was about to give me that sloppy blowjob I've been kind of hinting at for the past few months, the ex calls and apparently they're still on crack, stealing money, and being loud on the phone at two in the morning.  So I guess I'll be whacking off in the shower for a few more weeks.

I like how Hive looks though and the personality is sweet, most days.  Intelligent as well, so that's a bonus.  I don't want to dump Hive because of all this bad breakup drama.  Willing to give it a chance because it's not Hive's fault the ex is fucked in the head.

Anyway.

I'm sure that made a lot of sense to some people.

I think we all can agree waiting will be worth it.

This time off has given me some time to think.  I needed that.  Still not in much of a creative mood.  Not really interested in creating any new artwork and the words you're reading have been and will be anything but polished.  Doubting I'll be back full time any time soon.

While I was away from these words and your eyes, my secret happy place burned to the ground.

That's not even a metaphor.

Not long ago I wrote about a trail I found.  I've been familiar with the area all my life.  It was my first time on that trail.

Roughly two weeks later I'm being evacuated because some dumb shit doesn't know what "Fire Ban" means, lights a fire, and those very flames ended up burning thousands of acres worth of pristine wilderness to the ground.

I remember seeing the smoke on my way home after paddling a kayak two miles, hiking up some sand dunes then into the bush just to find a quiet place to smoke a big fat doobie and trip out on bird sounds.

That was such an awesome day.

The smoke was several miles away.  I thought maybe a farmer is burning some grass.  That's common around here but frowned upon when conditions are dry and windy.  Not even a month ago I was helping my dad burn some cattails down.  We had flames reaching for the sky, thirty feet high at least, for a few tense moments.  Things quickly settled down though, which is normal, when you know what you're doing, making sure to burn the edges first so it can't spread.

Whichever asshole lit the forest fire nearly made me dead.

A small cloud of smoke seen from miles away turned into flames I could see by the end of the day.  It looked like the sun somehow touched the earth as it went down, then melted and spread out everywhere.  So I watched, because it was far away, there was nothing I could do, and I wasn't allowed to light my own campfire on the beach because the neighbors are super nosy and like to call the cops.

Then the cops came.

They were knocking on my door.

I've been living in this cabin alone ever since they said the world was going to end and we needed to be socially distant.  I don't get too many visitors.

I watched the cops knock for about five minutes.  They knew someone was home.  The lights were on.  Music was loud enough.

I wanted to see how long it would take for them to see me sitting on the deck behind them.  It was funny to me.  One of the cops was awkwardly spying through the kitchen window, "I think I can see someone."

No you can't.

Before they got a chance to break some windows, I lit another joint.  The sound and light got their attention.  This was the first time I got to smoke weed in front of cops since they legalized it so there was no way I was going to pass up that opportunity.

They told me the fire was out of control, heading this way, and asked if I knew if any other residents were staying in the neighboring cabins.

Some live here, some only visit on weekends and summer.  I clued them in by explaining if you see a vehicle in the driveway, there's probably someone home.

They told me to leave ASAP if I hear them on the street making noise with the sirens and talking over the loudspeaker.  Also recommended I get in touch with any neighbors I knew of and help spread the word, so I did.

The next day, about noon, all I heard were sirens.  The smoke was thick but I couldn't see flames.  Two helicopters were flying over the lake, filling water sacks as they hovered over the water, then flying off into the smoke.

That was crazy, then the cops came, told everyone to leave, so I went for a long-ass drive.  Ended up sleeping in the vehicle on the outskirts of some town I never heard of.  Drove around for another day.  Went back to the cabin, and it was still there.

The wilderness was gone.

I then spent a couple days volunteering.  They gave me cool boots that went up to my chest with shoulder straps, a cool vest with reflectors so I don't get lost at night, or something.  We broke off into groups, I got to use an ax.  We all walked around looking for hot spots.

The three people I was with thought that joke at the start of this post was pretty funny.  The lead dude who knew what he was doing told me to, "cut down that tree," so I started insulting it.

To conclude...

That's been my life for the past couple of weeks.

As stated: I doubt I'll be back full time creating content.  Maybe a little bit here and there as I find the time and motivation.  Not quite feeling it just yet.  My brain isn't here, it's somewhere else.  I'll find it eventually.

This time around I simply don't want to vanish for many months, though I could do that, easily, since there's a lot of life to live, and I enjoy it.

I'll see you soon.

Have a nice day.

**Credits:

All art and images seen here were produced digitally, by me.

"When you get burned, don't forget: Once the flames are out, everything grows back, looking green."*

^{© 2020 @NoNamesLeftToUse.  All rights reserved.}