Today, on January 2nd 2016, I received two parcels from readers a world apart.

Mescaline Franklin, the man who is sponsoring my exploration of the eastern United States mega-ghetto, sent me:

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness in paperback

H.P. Lovecraft, The Complete Fiction—five pounds, easily

Hans Christian Anderson, Classic Fairy Tales

Ishmael, the Mountain Man who is betting that I will never want to return to the ghetto of the Eastern United States [An hour glass-shaped Latina could go a long way towards convincing me of staying on in the Rockies after Shayne kicks my ass on the Commissary Ridge] sent me the following:

Challenge of the Trail, video by Jeff Hengesbaugh and Wes Housier

Foraging the Rockies, by Liz Brown Morgan

Big Damn Book of Sheer Manliness by the Von Hoffman brothers

I’m on it, guys.