Morning, Gentle Readers! This short blurb is inserted in the morning traffic to explain some of the discontinuity in our normally well-disciplined production cycle. We had opened an account of meeting the Deep State a couple years ago which will continue in due course. It launched at an unusual time- early in the evening of our national holiday on the 4th of July.

We had done our best to keep to tradition. There were baby-back ribs and chicken with both macaroni salad and cole slaw, guests well fed, and brilliant sunny skies that made us appreciate the culinary aspects of Independence. The effort to be prepared left us a little tuckered by the time the guests moved on to other events. To restore some energy, a brief nap seemed to be in order, and the staff reclined on their beds to recoup vitality.

So, when eyes popped open, it was to a degree of dis-orientation. Gentle light penetrated the louvers of the shades. The clock read “7:59,” and of course had no “AM” or “PM” indicator. Some of us- the ones with eyes open- assumed we had slept late this morning with the sun coming up. We bounded from bed and assembled the coffee and plunged a finger into the switch to activate the blue light that signals “percolation.” We enjoyed a smoke out on the Patio as things began to jar a bit. There was no morning activity in the parking lot, and a series of small explosions began to ring out from the Buckingham garden apartments adjacent to the Big Pink campus.

Returning to the interior, we poured a cup of steaming black coffee sweetened with rich honey and placed it on the table next to the Barcalounger. And realized the dawn was getting darker.

Yep. We had slept only for a couple hours and awakened only to sunset, not dawn. As the light dimmed, the cacaphony of the fireworks began, and we turned on the flat-screen to see what America was up to on this holiday. We did not touch the coffee once we realized it was tomorrow’s blend, and once we succeeded in placing ourselves in the “PM” mode, managed to pull the covers up and sleep through the night.

So, forgive us. Production will resume as scheduled tomorrow now that the explosions have died down. Orientation is everything. At least that is what that Army Major with the long hair tells us on the news this morning! We are glad ours is only about AM/PM!

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