I just consumed perhaps the best homemade taco meal ever made. Thanks , of course to a Texas-style care package that my lovely friends Marcos and Jose sent over. I opened this mysterious 30 lb. box only to find it filled with old-school Lone Star beer, classic taco seasoning, a pound of tortillas, Lucas, and then some. Delicious! You guys rocked my soul with that care package.

A lot has happened even with only 7 days left. I spoke to a faculty member who works at the University of Maryland (UMD) and NIST, as he came to meet with me regarding graduate studies in fire protection engineering. He heads up the FDS research there, apparently at the #15 ranked research school in the nation. That makes my head warm like a toaster. UMD has been eons more responsive than the other school than I am considering, and its funny how an hour and a half meeting can rearrange your whole view of a lifetime. This happens to me more often than I can even dream up. So, next week I will be visiting the UMD campus and get to meet the fire superstars and plentiful brainy resources there.

Will I be feeding my brain with fire in Maryland or Massachusetts in a year?

On a much more easy to stomach scale, as far as this weekend goes, I have just been catching up with some administrative stuff. Getting ready for some fall courses: to take some and to teach some. Perfect. Also, I’ve been preparing the Society of Fire Protection Engineers Student Chapter for a rockin’ semester. Writing out words and words about fire, FDS, community, teaching, fire, cables, cables on fire, and soybeans.

But wait, getting ready to move into a new house is another thing excitedly looming in the humid August air! A thinking room therein will contain a huge black chalkboard, fire books staring over my shoulder - waiting to be written from, a large window facing West to take in the cool orange sunlight in the evening, three colorful pens for editing, and enough paper to contain my thoughts for a year. I can’t wait, Ami and John.

Of course, transitioning into this means that there are some friends that I will be whisked thousands of miles from after I leave here, Gaithersburg. You remember that friend that was so amazingly insightful and inspiring to be around, that friend from four, maybe five years ago? When was the last time that you - yeah, it’s kind of like that. A mindful, overhanging death of a micro-era. Celebrate it with delight - the life edition.

Finally, my presentation is next week, so perhaps I should get to it. 15 minutes to leave my ding in the minds of a powerful few. It was a respectful privilege to do what I did this summer. 1000 pages of thought and exploration can only pinpoint what that thing was.

This summer really has had no price tag. So much development came from thousands of seen and unseen places, much like the making of a sweet, sweet, simple taco dinner.