Category: home

A quiet place to rest

Yesterday at work I had a meeting in a nearby building. I decided to be all eco-friendly and stuff and walk over.

As I toodled along, I was surprised to come across this:

I found it…peculiar.

It’s a nice cement bench with detailed Fish and Wildlife stuff about the “creek” that lay there in view of the bench (behind the, uh, chain link fence).

Here’s an unobstructed view of the “creek” from a small bridge.

(yes, the quotes around “creek” are on purpose)

Folks, where I come from, we call that an arroyo.

And we don’t sit by it and watch the weeds grow. We just don’t.

Is this like the LA river, where, to quote Wikipedia: “For most of its length, it flows through a narrow concrete channel?”

Does something that flows through a concrete channel really qualify as a river (or creek)?

I found it strange, on this walk, to find one random bench with a view of…a weed filled arroyo.

Truth really is stranger than fiction.

Photos by Karen Fayeth and her trusty iPhone

Home again, home again…

…dancing a jig.

Had an easy and non-eventful drive from the greater Barstow metropolitan area to the Bay Area where we were greeted with an oppressive haze from the multitudinous fires burning. None near where we live, but all around. Ugh. The sky is terrible. It’s cold. It’s windy. It’s not Oh Fair New Mexico.

And there’s no green chile.

I’m unpacking, doing laundry and getting ready to go back to work tomorrow. Boo!

I asked The Good Man what he wanted for lunch today. “Green chile,” he replied and we both sighed in sorrow.

“I didn’t get enough mexican food while we were in New Mexico,” he lamented. We had it every day….

What do they call someone who introduces another to their addiction? Cuz that’s what I am. I made a Brooklyn boy a green chile addict. Heh!

Meanwhile, life goes on. The Feline is fine but a big clingy. She missed us in her own way.

Back to normal life, I suppose. I miss New Mexico more than ever…..

So long

Am bone weary today after a long day of driving.

After staying in Albuquerque Sunday, visiting Old Town, shopping, buying, eating, we slept under a swamp cooler and got up this morning, ate breakfast, and hit the road.

There was quite a bit of sadness when we hit the New Mexico/Arizona border and I had to leave Oh Fair New Mexico behind me.

It was a good visit. Too short but quality.

I think the drive on I-40 west is one of the most beautiful. The flat top red dirt hills look like slices of perfectly cooked prime rib. The skies so blue. Beautiful. Good to see it again.

Arizona, on the other hand…..

But that’s been left behind as well. We’ve done three states today and are resting now in the greater Barstow, CA metropolitan area. ugh.

Tomorrow, we press for home.

What a wild ride. Photos and stories to come, I promise.

Use your words.

Something is wrong with the fuzzy one.

No, not The Good Man. The one that’s more fuzzy.

The Feline.

Something’s amiss and we can’t seem to figure out what, exactly it is.

It’s not from lack of The Feline *trying* to communicate. Oh no, she’s communicatin’

A lot.

Our normally fairly quiet cat is now taken to meowing. Insistently. Incessantly. Bowl is empty, the hailstorm of meows is ceaseless. Fill the bowl, the meows stop for a while, replaced by crunch, crunch sounds. Then, when sated, the meows begin again.

They don’t sound like pain meows. Her ears aren’t hot and she’s not acting sickly.

Just the opposite, actually. She seems in fine health. She’s dropped a couple pounds and her nose has healed up nicely. She seems in great spirits.

So what’s with all the meowing?

I have heard about these devices made in Japan that will “interpret” your cat’s vocalizations.

I can’t help but think if we got one, the translations would be something like, “You people are boring. Get off the couch and hunt something! And what’s with this food? Could I *get* some of that stuff out of that can with the picture of the mermaid on the side? And while we’re at it, I need bottled water in this bowl. And this collar makes me look fat!”

Maybe sometimes it’s better not to reach out and paw someone…

I’ve got concerns.

First, read this brief article from the ABQjournal:

(edited for length)

“Someone stole a Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department patrol car early Wednesday and apparently took it for a joy ride.

But the fun may not have stopped there for the bandit who took the patrol car from a county storage yard. Police are looking into the possibility the thief impersonated a sheriff’s deputy while using the stolen car to make traffic stops— while drunk.

The New Mexico State Police— which has taken over the investigation— is looking into a report the driver then used the car to make at least one traffic stop in Chimayó. A woman called State Police and told them that a man in a sheriff’s vehicle had stopped her and that he also seemed drunk.”

Ok so…questions and observations:

1) What size cajones does it take to steal a Sherffi’s car from the county lot? Or maybe not cajones, perhaps this is better measured in liters, or pints or….whatever measurement Mad Dog comes in.

2) Who hasn’t had, if even for a brief moment, the odd dream of making a stop in a patrol car. Blue and whites flashing. Sauntering up to the driver’s window, double knit beige polyester pants whiffing as you walk, mirrored aviator glasses in place. You utter something like, “Do you know how fast you were going?”

Someone was actually drunk enough to pull it off…and get away with it (so far).

3) How freaked out must the woman have been when she was stopped? WTF must THAT encounter have been like?

4) “(Santa Fe County sheriff’s Capt. Robert) Riggs said that in his 20 years as a cop, he hasn’t seen anything like this before.” You gotta work REAL hard to show a cop something he hasn’t seen before. Even in Santa Fe.

5) Is it wrong that I’m rooting, just a little, for the guy to not get caught? I know, I know, just because a crime is dadgum funny doesn’t make it any less a crime.

6) Once again, I’m ever so proud of where I come from. Go on Oh Fair New Mexico. Most other states take themselves WAY too seriously. We’ve still got the comedic edge. And that makes us special.

(Yes, yes, theft and drunken driving aren’t funny. But ya gotta admit, this guy had some flair.)

Just missing the ways of where I come from, for better and for worse.

Good news is I get to visit pretty soon.

Countin’ the days…