An unusual drive to work...

Why is it that most of these days I work the most exciting part of my day is the commute?   I stayed up late to talk with Thomas when he got home from work about 12:30 am.  I am tired this morning and kind of stared dazedly out the window as I started my commute.  Fall is here.  The changing seasons mean a lot more than leaf colors in these parts.   At the lake I saw half a dozen trucks and horse trailers, and then around the big corner or the UU Bar Ranch there were about 8 semi trucks...where's the beef?  A little farther on there was a traffic jam...not on the highway, but on the other side of the fence, serveral cowboys on horseback were driving cattle.  It was fun to watch as I flew past.  There were a few other cowboys scattered about as I drove, and some unsuspecting cow out grazing, too.   The wild turkeys have really moved in from somewhere.  Sometimes I feel like I am driving through joke as one turkey crosses the road, then another and another.  Why did it cross the road?  To get to the other side?  The antelope are also clustering: a month ago I would see three or four together, but now there are 20.  I think they've seen the trucks on the side of the road with big men and their binoculars and shotguns scouting out the hunt that is soon to come.   And most unusual...no deer.  Not in the road, on the side of the road, or even over the fence by the small pond where they usually nibble on grasses all day.  Most peculiar....   Anyway, I am going to a training for work tomorrow, so I am hoping to leave earlier today.  Maybe the ride home will be more exciting...

Falling in love...

Everybody knows I already fell in love with Thomas...old news.  But there is much worth falling in love over.  I love Arrupe's prayer "Falling in Love": Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way.  What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.  It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.  Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything. This place I live in is beautiful, and I fall in love with it over and over.  The colors of the sunrises and the sunsets are stunning.  I can't help but grin sleepily out my window at the way the light plays on the clouds and the trees and the lake.  A heron has been at the lake when I come home from work, and I like to see its thin outline against the water.  Living so far removed has decided a lot for me, and I don't regret it. Tonight on my way home from work, my breath was sucked away as I climbed up around the curves of the lake and there, hovering on the horizon, was the most beautiful glowing moon.  My voice caught in my throat and all I could manage was a deep exhale of "Oooooh."  As the road wandered from side to side, the full moon stuck in the trees and shrubs from one side to the other until I came to a bend that suggested the moon was just hovering over my house.  I wished I could capture the image: the sky fading from dusky blue to purple behind the ripe disc of light.  I was enamored and didn't want to take my eyes away. Ohhh...I fell in love all over again...

Unlimited long distance....

Oh yeah....unlimited...... Sure, after 8 pm and on weekends...it's a fairly standard cell phone feature.  But out here I was thrilled to have a land line, and it is more comfortable to talk on than a cell phone.  So paying for unlimited long distance means there is no limit, except for bed time, to my phone calls...not the time of day or day of week!  Not surprisingly Thomas would rather choke on a piece of my tofu than talk on the phone, which just means he's not tying up the line.  I only bring this up because the weeknights I come home to no Thomas, nearly every weeknight, I can pass the time knitting, online, or reading, but the past couple of nights I have had really, really great phone calls with friends.  Thanks, Deb & Cathy, for our really great discussions and rememberings and other stories.  It's good to be connected.-

Homemade...

Today I took a drive down to the parish hall with our maintenance man, Chris.  Chris is one of my new favorite people.  He's a lot of fun to listen to, and his stories are great.  But more than anything, he will smile while he tells you he's great and when he's not.  He always has a positive attitude, the kind that rubs off just seeing him.  (Side note: I remember Dick, a volunteer at MCR, talking about a lady at work who inspired you to walk away if you saw her coming toward you because her grumpiness was so contagious.  Chris is the opposite.) So we get in his little green Datsun truck and head off.  When finished at the hall, he asked if I would like to see where he lives.  So we drove up there, and I told him what a great view he has.  His wife, who is Mexican, was outside, so Chris asked if I wanted to see Maria's garden.  It was absolutely fantastic.  We wandered around, and Chris delighted to show me the squash climbing up the pinon trees, still flowering 10 feet in the air.  He showed me the tomatillos and the stalks left of the corn.  It was a lot of fun when Maria joined us.  I spoke a little broken Spanish and then felt more fluid speaking with Maria about the plants, asking questions about her garden.  She broke open and shared so much.  It was very life-giving.  I was even invited inside to see her other plants.  I have certainly met my match; though I have so much more knowledge, she has tons of experience.  I look forward to next year's garden season, so we can compare notes. While inside Chris noted the pile of freshly made flour tortillas.  Maria quickly wrapped two up for me, which I devoured tonight with green chiles and garlic...delicious!  We talked about food, being vegetarian, tamales camarrones (shrimp tamales), eating healthy, nopales (a cactus I enjoy eating, which made Maria excited; she did tease me that it is meat because you eat the flesh of the cactus), chiles and spicy food, and some more about plants.  It was really refreshing, and I think we both were beaming.  I had met Maria once at church, but she didn't comfortably speak English.  I don't know how much of it she speaks, but I that Sunday I wasn't sure if she liked me.  Now we're friends.  When Chris came back to the office from lunch later in the day, he brought me a jar of Maria's salsa caliente.  It is very good, and I am looking forward to the exchanges of homemade goods over the years....especially if she makes the tamales camarrones!

Pen pals...

No, I haven't been practicing my new hobby of letter writing...one of these days. Last night I was invited to dinner at Marie and Dave's.  It was nice to talk with Marie and share some wine; we both had tough days at work.  The kids had all sorts of stories and whatnot.  So Maya asks me if I think Maddie and her family will ever come to visit.  I explained to her that two days before her birthday, Maddie is going to have a new baby brother or sister, and it probably wouldn't be for a while, but maybe someday.  It is really so sweet of her to ask, as the girls only got to spend a few days playing while all were in Portland for our wedding back in June.   Then Maya said, "I miss Maddie."  In true Mia/Sara form (sometimes I think these two are kindred spirits for the things they say), Sara said, "I miss...you know, the other girl?"  I told them that if they wanted to write a letter to the girls I could help mail them.  Maya was excited about having a pen pal, but had to go pick up before bed.  Sara, on the other hand, went and got her folder out of her backpack, a pencil, and a piece of blank paper.    Sara started with "Mia", then decided to squish "Dear" into the little space before "Mia", and sounded out her first sentence: "I like scool".  "Like" is a sight word she's learning, so most of the sentences were about things she likes about school.  She's only 5 years old and in kindergarten, so I was totally impressed with her letters and sounding out of words.  Since it was bedtime, I helped write the other sentences she wanted to say, and then she signed her name and drew a picture of herself saying "I like Mia".  The heart with "M" and "S" are for Mia and Sara.  I didn't tell her Mia is 6 already, so she added another "M S" heart with "5 5" underneath.  So precious! It went in the mail today, and Amy said she'd make sure Mia wrote back.  I can't wait to see the letters the girls come up with over the years.

Yummy dinner...

I guess I am not feeling too humble tonight because I just finished a really great dinner with my husband...and I cooked. Thomas picked up some avocados when he went up to Raton/Trinidad today.  There were some other things on my list, but avocados make a cheese sandwich extra special.  And you know, these days I am packing a lunch and eating three dinners alone....the kind of times one eats a lot of cheese sandwiches. Anyhow, they looked so good, and I remembered when I was in South America that sometimes as an appetizer I would be served these delicious avocado salads, just chopped up with tomatoes and onions and dressing.  So I looked around at supplies on hand and made this (sorry, no pictures; we were hungry!): a spicy, tangy avocado and crab salad.  Served over a bed of lettuce topped with bow tie pasta topped with chopped tomatoes, red bell peppers, and red onions: chunk crab and diced avocado in a dressing of grapefruit juice, lime juice, red chile powder, pureed ginger, garlic salt and pepper, and mayo.  I didn't actually get it spicy enough, but maybe the mayo cut the spice.  I could have used oil with the citrus juice, but thought the mayo would blend better for better consistency and coverage.  Oh, and Thomas got just the best avocados, ripe but not mushy and the skins peeled right off!

A growing pile...

Friday I was home early from work (four long days will mean either a fifth short day or no fifth day at all!).  Thomas and I ran the splitter for a good part of the day...four hours, maybe? "The splitter" is a gas powered wood splitter that makes short work of cutting down our big tree logs into fireplace sized bits.  Maybe not short work, but easier than if you had to split it with an axe.  Our firewood pile still looks a little puny to me, but gratefully Thomas hasn't insisted that we stack it in nice rows, as I remember the joy of that growing up. Saturday, Thomas and I were up bright and early to head up with the family into the forest in search of dead or down trees to fill up four pick up truck beds.  Unfortunately we were ready a little too early, as we hadn't gotten the message about leaving at 8 am (poor Marie got a lot of grief for this one...).  I am not sure if that contributed to our disposition, but neither Thomas nor I were terribly amused as we proceeded to drive past some prime firewood in search of a more perfect spot.  The further we drove, the more treacherous the road, and the worse my headache grew.  At one point we nearly lost it, as Thomas's dad lost traction on a particularly steep and rocky section.  We nearly had a collision, as he tried to back-up to gain a better path.  Thank goodness all was well. We did find a nice spot where the road forked.  We cut in all directions and began filling the trucks.  With a truck and a half to go, we laid out sheets and rolled up logs for a fantastic picnic.  At once Marie and I both wished we had a camera to capture the fun.  We passed sandwich trimmings, cookies and chips, soda, and some really great cantaloupe.  We laughed as Alice made Andres look her in the eye and tell her he had only had three Nilla Wafers.  He pulled it off, saying "I only had three", but she told him to repeat himself and say "three Nilla Wafers".  He did and looked away right at the end, and she called him on it with an "ah ha!"  He covered his face and moaned.  He can't fool his grandma! After lunch we finished off the trucks.  It was a much longer day than last weekend because we had to go back down the road we came up, now with full loads.  You could smell brakes and hot, hot engines as we caravaned out in low gear, but at last we hit smooth road and then the highway.  Thomas was pooped, so I unloaded the truck and put everything away myself.  Next up was laundry, changing the sheets, putting things away.  I didn't let Thomas nap too long, as I wanted him to be able to sleep before 2 am.  I am a lucky girl, as he has the weekend off, but he will have an extra brutal weekend next week.  In light of our luck, I proposed SWILLFEST!  Graciously, Marie offered to host us all.  We enjoyed great stories and much laughter, but by 10 pm the gang of us loggers were pooped and ready for sleep.  An early night, to be sure, but the snoring children on the couch didn't keep us from yawning. Today we enjoyed church in the morning and a mostly lazy day, but I was back at the splitter this afternoon.  That pile is starting to grow and grow...