I wish I could shake up the Magic 8-ball and figure out what the hell is going to happen with our economy. I'm not very good with predictions though, as evidenced by my last Blog post - about a month ago.

But I'm deeply troubled by what what appears to be an unraveling of the country that is accelerating by the month.

There's so much I don't know, but all I can do is try to be a better person. That means making friends this weekend with folks at the Moon Mountain Music Festival.

I enjoyed hanging out with Nina and Alice, two friends I made who live in the city of Bend.

We ate sausages and bacon, danced, and drank coffee and smoked a little. It was aieet.

The festival was incredible. I arrived up at Elk Lake, which is situated along the Cascade Lakes Highway in the shadow of Mt. Bachelor, at around 2 p.m. Saturday - grabbing the last available tent site.

I immediately ran into friends that I know - my yoga teacher and hair stylist Sundari and her husband John and family. Piper, who brought her cousin James from Philadelphia and my work mates Jen, Katie, Laurel and Wayland. All good times were had.

Laurel Brauns and Julie Southwell played an amazing set, but I hid off on the side not wanting to converse yet.

After seeing Piper, I began a walk around the lake, which is about 7 miles but looks a lot less from the start.

My walk started on some nice forest road, which became a manicured trail winding along the lake. Long-time residents enjoyed the Fifth of July sunshine on their docks while the music from the festival echoed across the lake.

I asked a young looking woman about the quality of the trail around the lake, and she told me I could get around it. She had a look on her face that didn't quite get it, I thought.

She said I might encounter some rocks.

Later, I ran into a nice woman Justin and her friend I forget her name who were tanning. We chatted for a bit about the festival, which they thought was sold out because they had tried online and couldn't buy tickets. I told them it wasn't and they said they might try it later.

Eventually I hit the end of the trailhead, but it was too far to turn around so I began the bushwacking.

I got through it eventually with some trials and tribulations.

I made it back to the festival, where I ate a delicious bowl of ravioli with wild mushrooms in a cream sauce and savored two pints of Cascade Lakes brews.

Long-lost friend Drew showed up too. Good talks.

Danced the flamenco with Piper. Hot. Spanish. dancing.

Enough said right now about the Festival/Gotta go to work again tomorrow...."(