Shortly we moved here, I read a story in the local paper about Taoseños going to Manhattan (NYC) to “chill out.” If you lived here, you’d understand.
First of all, it was a beautiful day. Just stunning. Second, I could barely hobble out of bed to appreciate it, thanks to a migrating sprain or spasm in my left foot. (As I type this, it’s moved from my ankle to my hamstring muscles. Who knows what that’s all about.) Anyway—third—my wife had a telephone appointment and I needed to be out of the house, so I made plans to take the car to have the oil changed (fourth). This would have been easier without the flat tire, of course. That would be fifth, but I’m not counting any more.
Oh yes, the tire. Fortunately, I discovered it when I went outside to check the odometer reading on the Vibe. Unfortunately, the left rear tire was completely flat, and my wife had driven to Curves and back that morning. Uh-oh. As I was digesting all this, she suddenly came running out of the house in a state of high panic over a “catastrophe” in the kitchen! I knew what she’d been doing, namely preparing a delicious beef stew to heat all day in the slow cooker. What could possibly go wrong?
Because we need a laugh!
“What happened, sweetie, did you break the liner?!?” I asked helpfully as I strode into the kitchen, that being the only catastrophe I could envision in this enterprise.
“NOOOOOO…” she wailed, pointing to the ceramic “pot”—the actual cooking receptacle—alive and well in the dish drainer. The stew was in the slow cooker, all right, but liner-less, and a couple of quarts of beef broth and other liquids had exited via the drainage hole and were flooding the countertop, soaking boxes of tea, and running all over the floor!
[High tension! Manly efficiency! Soothing and hobbling! The foot, remember...]
Thirty minutes later, my sponge mop and a roll of paper towels had restored the peace (sort of), and the reconstituted stew—with chicken broth this time— was cooking away inside the ceramic liner like it was supposed to. In the confusion, I’d almost forgotten that my wood guy had called earlier, and we were expecting a cord to arrive in the middle of everything. Whew, and on with the day!
I used a hand pump to get the flat tire up to 22 psi before I decided that would do, then took off for Garcia Tires (“Fastest Tires in the North”), just down the road. A fine young man with many missing teeth and bad hearing found a nail (!), patched the tire, and declared it to be “in good shape.” I had my doubts, but paid the boss $16 and headed down the road to to my favorite quickie lube job establishment. Since the last time I visited, the manageress had lost at least 30 pounds, acquiring significant tattoos and piercings in the process. I was beginning to see a pattern here but chose not to analyze. (We’re all doing the best we can, right?) On the way home, I stopped in at Walmart to buy camera batteries and saw the silly little dogs in the photo above. Maybe things were looking up!
Back at the house after lunch, I met with my wood guy and rejoiced. In this part of the world, there’s nothing like knowing you’ll have wood when the snow flies. It’s not cold enough yet for that, but we could both see clouds moving up from the south and knew we were in for some rain. After he left, I decided to pack the three-foot-tall jade plant sitting on the back patio into my truck and take it over to my wife’s studio. (First would be rain, then wet snow flurries, and later a freeze.) It was still an absolutely gorgeous day.
The property where the studio sits is up for sale. My wife has an excellent relationship with her artist landlady, now living in Santa Fe with her husband, so we took advantage of the warm sunshine to circumnavigate the house, which I had never observed up close. DAMN, chilluns! It was almost perfect, with character out the gazoot. Adobe walls, patios, and secret garden spots. I saw a cool room at one end with its own little porch and realized that was MY studio. There was plenty of land, over an acre. The view of Taos Mountain was outstanding. I felt like I was home and could see myself living there for years and years. The landlady would love for us to buy it, and it only costs half a million dollars!
[AAAGHHH!!!]
Later, thunderstorms marched through the dusk. The wind picked up, and the temperature dropped enough for me to start up the wood stove. We had a great dinner—the stew was delicious—and the wife and the cat are now asleep.
Pretty soon I will be, too.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
g’day prof John,
1-all muscle spasms arise from magnesium deficiency
http://www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/jalali/magnesium.htm
-take a long epsom salt bath& buy magnesium Chloride tabs/caps [mgOxide is no good due to laxative effect]
2-there is a possibility that You have a BloodClot [DVT]
3- Gunk makes a great flat-fixer upper called ‘Puncture Seal’
-just thread it on to the stem [wch should be at 12 o'clock] & see the magic happen
[-the ol' bronco two had two nails in the pass rear sidewalls,wch made the tyre scrap, but figured let's see if PS will work--that tire never lost air for seven years,at wch time it was traded in!]
PS should be in every motorist’s emergency kit
cheers
Appreciate all that. Possibility of blot clot is very real, I think, due to all the sitting I do. Will investigate toot sweet.
Will the studio landlady let you rent? We can only dream!
It may come to that for the owners—that they will have to rent it out—but I imagine someone will buy it. The landlady and my wife are spritually attuned, shall we say, so if any possibility for our living there does come up, my wife will know about it.
as usual….living vicariously through John has become more real….I , TOO, have been dealing with Calf cramps…but mostly at night….thought it was Potassium I was missing….even started drinking Tonic water with Quinine….(Grandma’s healer…)
but still get them periodically…..????? Just old age or should I be worried or just take magnesium?? hmmmmm
Thanks for the info though…….
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) mentioned by dar above is nothing to fool with. I could very well have that, except I think it’s muscular in my case. I’m going to see what my doc says.