Flagstaff Fire & Chincoteague Pony Penning

The Flagstaff fire here in Boulder is 90% contained.  The federal fire team is leaving, and the fire is not contained only in extremely rough terrain.  Hopefully, our summer thunderstorms will not create any more lightning-strike fires.  Fires are still burning around the state, but the only one of true concern, at the moment, is the Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs.
  The annual Chincoteague Pony Swim and Auction (Pony Penning) will take place on July 25 and 26 this year.  Even though I've missed seeing the last ten events in person, I'm still excited about it - and I wish I could be there.  (Just for fun, I tried to find a hotel rental for next year, and could only find a one-bed attic room in a bed and breakfast 35 miles away on the mainland....  I guess I'll have to ask Maureen for a sleeping spot, if I actually get to go.)  At the age of 56, I am still perplexed by the very real "pull" that Pony Penning exerts on my psyche.  Mom grew up on Chincoteague, was definitely pony and horse crazy (she used to walk down to Beebe Ranch every Sunday, so she could ride the ponies with her cousin Alma), and she talked to me frequently about growing up on the island, and how Pony Penning was always regarded as a Homecoming time by 'Teaguers.  Maybe I feel the need to be on the island because we were there, every summer, for as long as I can remember...  I know that I miss the calls of the seagulls and other birds, I miss the salty smell of the sea, I miss the sulphuric smell of the local marsh mud, and I miss the smell of gutting fish and fresh oyster shells baking in the sun on the secondary roads.  I miss the sound of the waves lapping, or booming, on the beach, and the way that sound carries across the water or through the fog.  I even miss the mosquitos!- What a silly person I am.
  I had a delightful day at home with my kits yesterday.  And I enjoyed playing with Maggie May last night.  I did not enjoy having the door bell ring at 1:34 and 5:07 this morning.  By the time I actually awoke, found my glasses, put on a house coat, and made it to the door, no one was there.  Apparently Jose Sanchez arrived on schedule from Madrid, as there is a black Honda parked at the carriage house - I wonder if he rang the bell?
  I think I'll drive up to Nederland this afternoon to peek in the shops and visit the Carousel of Happiness....  I hope you have a good week.