Throughout history an appreciation of the arts, and the artisans who make the same, has been one of the glues that hold our diverse selves together. Art itself, can come in many different shapes, sizes, and mediums. Other than being left handed, which is supposed to indicate some artistic talent, one of my few personal exposures to the creation of art occurred in the eighth grade, when I took first or second place in an art contest. Not surprisingly, that artistic endeavor involved airplanes, or rather the current exploration of space to be more precise.

After that first meeting I returned to blisteringly hot Dallas to continue my Super 80 training.. This will turn out to be a lost summer with all this training. Had it not been for my absence, perhaps there might have been even more – not so by chance – encounters. As it is it was several weeks or possibly even longer before I had the pleasure of Andy's company again. It was probably the birthday party weekend. Before that, I'd been secretly delighted to learn there didn't appear to be a male counterpart, at least not a traveling one. One of the birthday party activities involved a treasure hunt, by pairs of people. Without going down any slippery slopes of how or why, Andy and I ended up paired together, and laughed our way around the camp in search of Maddies' treasures. I couldn't tell you if we won, lost, or even came close. I can admit to not spending very much of the treasure hunt looking for treasure, at least not the ones Maddie had hidden. I do remember discovering that Maddie inherited her mother's creativity.

One can not meet Andy without also meeting her children, the crew. These two should be the poster children for what intelligent, well behaved kids should be like. I always thought my own kids were pretty socially adept. Maddie and Andres make mine look like unwashed heathens. I had the pleasure of sitting around the fire one afternoon when Brendan and Andres came by. Tyler was there also who hadn't yet met Andres. We introduced them and Andres walked right up to Tyler to shake his hand. Poor Tyler just stood there sheepishly mumbling something about he'd never done that. We showed him how. That Andres has a handshake that men quadruple his age, and whatever five or six times his age is, would do well to try to emulate. Probably the first “serious” words I ever spoke to Andy had to do with what I thought of her kids. Even I wouldn't joke about that.

There were a few more opportunities to sit around the fire and chat. I found out one night that Andy's father was also a pilot, and that she was also interested in planes, weather, and things aeronautical. That came near the end of the night, and since I was – surprise – heading back to Dallas, Andy suggested I “drop by” for coffee when I got back.

Oh yeah, hope she's an early riser!

I first met Andy one night this past summer while sitting around Frank's fire. She showed up and sat down next to me. I don't remember if it was before, then, or after, when someone told me that she was the woman with the two kids in the site next to Bob's. She introduced herself as “On – dray – ah”. Having had a couple of beers, and being irreverent as hell in general, I said I would just call her “Andy”.

I don't remember her objecting.

One of, if not the first thing I noticed, is that Andy was not an unattractive woman. Pretty damn cute in fact, not at all something I would expect after living in Sweetwater for ten years. She also smokes. I may have even lit her cigarette – something I enjoy but rarely get to do in today's environment. One does not expect to meet a good looking, beer drinking, cigarette smoking woman driving her RV from campsite to campsite. My friends and neighbors in D-block just hadn't gotten around to telling me about the male portion of this happy family.

Andy drank her one beer and left. She also left all her empties. Some nights there's not too much going on around the fire and D-12 was all abuzz with comments about who WAS this woman who would show up, drink a beer, and then leave sans her empties. What comments I may have vocalized escape me, but in my head I was also wondering, “Who WAS that woman”? And not for any reason having to do with her empties.

Now I've always thought I was attracted to the more conservative type. Someone maybe just a little shy; attractive, yet subtle, not the type that would stand out in a crowd. Someone that it might take you a while to notice. Conservative living, conservative dress, speech, and thoughts. You could use a thousand words to describe Andy and conservative would never enter your thought processes. Andy doesn't enter a room, she explodes into your environment. You are suddenly in the aura of a lively, vivacious, entertaining, intelligent woman. Necklaces swaying, bangles a banging and ring covered hands waving in her million mile per hour slipstream as she relates her latest adventure.

Nope, not my type at all.

Yet, how can you not love a woman with a kindred irreverence who calls her business – Up Your …........... Ear? What are these thoughts going through my conservative mind?