If You Are Lucky Enough to be in the Mountains...

...then you are lucky enough.

Or so reads a sign on a cabin near Yosemite. Where there is no wi-fi, no cell phone service, no Starbucks. But the coffee is richer, the beer is colder, and the company is better than anywhere you'll find it "on the grid."

It's not challenging to find ways to procrastinate in the mountains. Windy roads and deer keep one from driving too fast. Stories are told with more colorful imagery than the latest summer blockbuster. And every cup of coffee comes with an up-to-the-minute local weather report.

So please excuse my brief absence. After all, procrastination takes many forms.

Have you met the most interesting man in the world? There's a social commentary in there about the success of an ad campaign based on mystery at the height of the no-privacy, no-mystery, all-access-pass media orgy of reality TV and InMyFaceSter culture. I had a great time employing this tactic with a new acquaintance I met up in the mountains--a friend of a friend I hadn't seen in years. A little mystery always makes for a good story.