Well, since the Yankees haven't made a move as the trade deadline looms and since I don't really want to talk about yesterday's ugly loss to the Mariners (they were due for a W; Seattle had lost 18 straight) I'll talk about That Thing in The Desert: Burning Man.

And while I am really not at liberty to discuss certain facts and details surrounding this week's developments, but in the 10 years that I've been going, this is the first time it sold out. There are maximum capacities numbers of participants as dictated by the terms of the agreement with the BLM (Burning Man occurs in property owned and operated by the US government's Bureau of Land Management and this year - as people were warned - the event sold out a month before it begins.

The only real bad part of certain people being shut out is that there could be a difficult to manage cluster-fart at the gate should people without tickets show up in mass despite being told that tickets will not be available and that they should not do so. Hippies don't think this means them! But getting in a few days before the event opens officially at least I won't have to see it.

And again, I am "doing my own thing" after camping with the same large group for many years; I broke off a few years back, nearly got pulled back into a smaller camp, but such is not the case. I may have a few friends in my proximity but all people who will not cause any camp drama-- especially hard when there is NO camp! That's the best way to avoid camp drama in my less than humble opinion.

And for possibly the first time ever, I will be hitting the playa with the same person I hit it with last year. See? Some things do change for the better... And although it seems to be "poor planning" I have come to believe that I have this thing down. No expectations other than it will be hot (but after this heat and humidity seemingly not as big a bother) and it will be dusty and that parts of it will suck and that so much of it will be beautiful. I do go out there to suffer some (and I do- trust me) but this year I have taken some preliminary steps to correct some of my issues from last year (broken down gear, too much time all by myself, etc.) but I am sure new challenges will present themselves. That, I do sort of expect since it is Burning Man after all and it's SUPPOSED to.

Cheers,
Brian