The saddest day of the year for us. And we always know it's coming.

[DFW]

We have just spent our usual vacation on the outer tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. Today was our last day. I say "USA" because it's a cumbersome trip to get here from our home in the German Rheinland. A genuine pain in the ass to tell the truth. A sleepless night packing, the short flight to Schipol Airport (Amsterdam), the long flight to Boston, spending the night there, then a taxi back to the airport, renting a car, then the 3 hour drive out to Truro (with a pit stop to pick up my 12 string from the incredible Fran Ledoux in Marstons Mills, the unsung hero of fretted instrument repair on Cape Cod).

But when we get here--oh MAN do we get our reward. Nature pure, crystal clear water on either side, and out here, there's only a 6 mile wide sliver of land between the Bay and the Ocean. Anything could cross your path. A raccoon, a coyote, a wild turkey, a hummingbird, an oriole, a goldfinch, a blood-red cardinal, a deer, a possum, even a skunk. In the water, seals swim up to within 20 feet of you--not necessarily good, as the water is now so warm that Great Whites are infesting the area as well.

And then there are the people--after 30 years of making this trip, we know plenty of the locals, and I do a guest hour on the local community radio station, have been doing it for 30 years now. A local art gallery owner we are friendly with, a painter, and Russian girls that stop me on the street because they remember me from the year before when I spoke to them in Russian while they were packing bags at the local supermarket in a work-study program. The crusty old white-haired woman who owns an over-priced parking lot in Provincetown--but we park (sorry, "pahk&quot there anyway, because she's so entertaining, and we know she only has three and a half months to make her whole year's income. We haven't been going out to the (usually good) restaurants much, since my wife is a gourmet cook, and we get the freshest local seafood there is in the tiny shops run by local fishermen.

The weather has been the best EVER this year. I had a pile of mail sent up from Dallas. I hardly looked at it the whole time. I had intended to write some more of my second book on rainy days. Except there haven't been any. Just great days with this amazing air they have out here. We've had some visitors. Mostly family, one old friend of my wife she has known for 30 years. But all are gone, and we are eating our last meal, packing, and wondering how the HELL did 27 days go by so quickly?

Tomorrow, the real world starts again. Damn. I could get used to this.