Morning Visitation

One of the things I enjoy about living here in Boise (in addition to the great weather¹) [I know, who adds footnotes to their blog posts] are the hot air balloon appearances between 7 ² weekend mornings throughout the summer. In recent years we've had two emergency landings in our subdivision one in which my neighbor was rudely awakened when a balloon grazed her roof before landing one street over. No damage to either (home or balloon) and the chasers had the balloon packed up before many neighbors were even out and about.

Certainly, hot air balloons are not unique to Boise but they do add to the eclectic character of the city that has a quaint downtown, a Romney temple or car dealership on alternating corners, a wonderful outdoor amphitheater for Shakespeare, a Ten Commandments monument (no longer in the park -but I won't go there) and in the midst of it all -a stray llama or two (or three).

This past week I was driving over to a friend's place in the Collister neighborhood and here was this guy walking down the street with three llamas in tow as though they were just out for their afternoon constitutional. Just one of the things, along with the hot air balloons, that evokes a spontaneous smile. No scotch necessary, but caffeine? Am I breathing? Sometimes methinks if this city were a person it'd be schizophrenic.

¹ Although if this past July represents a global warming trend our wonderful banana belt will soon be gone and we'll just be Arizona North.

² Phraseology borrowed from a long-time apunctual³ [how about that - a footnote-appended footnote] friend to indicate about when we'd meet up but allowing for an hour or so margin of error on either side.

³ Apparently I've created a new word but I rather like it and it is my blog. Apunctual: The new truthiness.