If you’re wondering how the hexayurt held up at Burning Flipside this year, whoa, man, that thing is nicely designed. While everyone else was shrieking and scrambling to hold their tents down as Ginormous Torrent of Rainstorm plowed through Flat Creek Ranch, Marty and I and a friend of ours were holed up in the yurt, sittin’ pretty, eating snacks and chatting over the clamor. (Heavy rain makes the inside of a hexayurt just about reverberate.)

With all the wind and crazy, the hexayurt did not budge. There was clearly no danger of it falling over, or even becoming less structurally sound somehow. There were two or three tiny drips coming through the taped edges—where we’d half-assed our construction, no doubt—but Marty added more tape and we had no problems with water. That is, until the storm was over and we started tracking in mud. Yeek. Oops.

Here are some pictures from the outside, if you want to see what we put together! (The noise is one of the generators nearby.)

And backtracking a bit—because the countryside was simply beautiful on the drive there, I stopped to take a clip of some of it. Texas hills are truly fantastic.

May feels to me, strangely, like the turning of the year—as if its pivot is not New Year’s Day, but a certain week in late spring when we all go running around in the wilderness like heathens. I’m sure that if I attended Burning Man, that would feel like the pivot. But because Burning Flipside is my thing, instead, it’s the pivot. There is a clicking and snapping in my brain that says it’s time to turn things over. Geeze, it’s only my second year. I’m still a n00b, man.

But this year I’m gonna live in a yurt.

That’s gotta count for something.

The last week or so has been a huge blur. There’s a limit to how much one person can get done in a certain amount of time, but I’ve been pushing it. Today’s list is the biggest, because early tomorrow morning we’re packing up the car and wandering out into Texas Hill Country. To that end, this is really a scheduling post, so that you all know where in the hell I am while I’m not answering your emails or picking up my phone.

From May 21-25, I will be in the middle of nowhere—really!—braving the hot sun and dust and desert creatures in Flat Creek with nothing to protect me but some insulation panels and, uh, TAPE. It will be wild. There are no computers in the wilderness. As such, I will (obviously) not be answering email during that time. I am also 99% certain that I will not have any kind of mobile reception, so although you’re welcome to leave me voicemail, please do not expect responses while I’m gone (swift or otherwise).

From May 26-27, I will be back in town and on a super tight deadline. We’ll be getting Marty ready for A-Kon in Dallas, and making sure nothing slipped past our radar while we were camping. It will be fairly difficult to get a hold of me, but possible. I would beg you to only send me emergency items during this couple of days, because time will be very short.

From May 28-31, Marty and I will be in Dallas at A-Kon. I will be working, but internet connectivity may be spotty or non-existent, depending on whether the hotel’s wireless works and possibly on whether I can find an alternate ‘net location without compromising my ability to help Marty run his table. It’s best if you don’t depend on me for anything desperate while we’re in Dallas.

June 1st I will return to my apartment and pass out for three days underneath the floorboards, eating small insects and rodentia and rebuilding my strength for the day when I may rise again to once more wreak my unholy havoc upon the world.

Oh, wait. That was Marty’s copy. Uh. I’ll be around the first week of June. I’ll be tired, but I’ll be here. ;}

I’d say the next four hours are the best time for you to contact me if you have something absolutely urgent that must be dealt with before I head out of town—so get on that, it’s probably your last chance for a couple of weeks. Otherwise, I’ll be back in the saddle (or toppling, exhausted, out of it?) the first week of June, and we’ll catch everything up then. (In fact, by then, a normal work week will feel like a blessing from Heaven. Looking forward to that!)

If you are just dying for more posts and you can’t stand to be without something Megan M. for a whole! week! you can feel free to check out The Social NetWorker blog at Social Work prn—my posts there will keep going up Tuesdays and Thursdays as usual. Magic! As for my Personal Revelations, I’m sure I’ll have a great store of them when I return from the hills.

Just hang on a week or two, while I turn my brain over. ;}