Today is Mountain Day. I miss my Montana mountains, but the Blue Ridge in the Midatlantic are beautiful in their own right. We love driving in the Shenandoah—and there isn’t any forest fire smoke, so far. But whenever I see pictures of the Rockies, I sigh.

About 10 guys were here in the basement today, plumbers, HVAC, and general contractors. They concreted over the plumbing trench and ran new airflow ducts. After they left I discovered they vented the dryer out the back of the house onto the patio. Not happy, especially since I clearly stated where the exhaust should go (out the side). Now that they’ve put a hole in my siding, even if they do move it, they’ll never find matching siding to replace their mistake. The water was turned off for 5 hours, which made me think about how our not-too-distant future might involve water rationing. It certainly is a reality in some parts of this country; thankfully not here, although we should all be water conscious, regardless. I moved my home office back upstairs to avoid the noise and banter.

On the job it’s nearly time for our semi-annual performance evaluations—much loathed by all, including us writers who are supposed to be good at writing. I have been teaching a seminar in how to write a good performance evaluation, and I still hate doing it.

Another drizzly evening, although not raining hard enough to test for basement leaks. Com’on rain!