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Mostly taken through the windshield, so no one get their hopes up about quality.
Next stop — Santa Fe Opera. Gussying up for Falstaff tonight.
Daily gratitudes:
- MKL
- A hotel that’s a smidge swanky
- That my COVID test was negative (even though I feel like crap)
- A good cat sitter
- Clouds. Always clouds.
Not all who wander are lost applies particularly to me.
Daily gratitudes:
- MKL
- Adventure Days
- Setting up house
- Rain
- Planting
Today’s gratitudes:
- Goats
- Grazing alpacas
- MKL
- Tulips blooming today
Today’s gratitudes:
- That K does not have COVID-19
- Sleep
- Lemon ginger tea
- A repaired stair
Today’s gratitudes:
- That MKL came up for the day
- Only nine more days until I actually live with my husband
- That the Fire Department is trying to contain the fire four miles northwest of here (which is really stressing me out)
- A successful experimental smoothie
I’m really not traveling the county roads in numerical order – though that might be fun.
Today’s gratitudes:
- Dirt roads
- An annual State parks pass
- Meadowlarks
- Getting gas for under $4.00/gallon
Via a rather circuitous route that included Hwy 69, Hwy 96, and Hwy 165.
Today’s gratitudes:
- Trying to figure out the cat
- The first tree in bloom
- That K is back safely from her trip
Today’s gratitudes:
- What aspen leaves look like when they start to bud
- Fuzzy socks
- Robins
Amazing how much difference a day can make. It feels like the extremes are more extreme up here. Weather never just fades away. It’s either on or it’s off. No in between. I either feel like Jack Nicholson in The Shining going mad or Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music twirling on a sunny mountaintop.
In other news, Pharoah and I are getting along famously. He made an appearance on my Zoom staff meeting this morning, slept on my stomach all night last night, and was absolutely shocked at my taking a bath.
I don’t think he’d ever seen a human do such a thing, so he delicately walked around the rim of the tub. Thank heavens for his sure-footedness, as I’ve had a cat fall into a bathtub with me once and it is not an experience I would choose to repeat.
Today’s gratitudes:
- A helpful, ethical well services guy
- Living with a cat again
- Sunshine
- Snow falling from the pine trees
I’ve driven hundreds and hundreds of miles already this year. My drives have been from The Retreat to MKL or to the ruins of the cozy house. Of course, it’s wonderful to have time with MKL, but most of my trips north have involved my sifting or just sitting in the ashes or managing some detail of recovery. In other words, these drives have been taken with a heavy heart.
Yesterday, though, my drive was different. Instead of turning north, I turned south on the highway and headed for New Mexico to meet up with K for one night in a town about midway between us. As soon as I hit the unfamiliar blacktop of I-25 South, I felt free. The sky opened up to a vast blue and I felt tearfully excited that I was going to see my girl.
It was a lovely, easy drive, with Truck most eager to hit illegal speeds. It was warm and sunny and I had Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers as musical accompaniment. I blew kisses to the many herds and singleton antelope I saw along the way, they being my comfort and shamanic power animal, so often appearing in my travels.
While I’m not choosy, particularly when it comes to New Mexico skies, I prefer a few clouds to add some extra drama, but the clarity of the day, with a three-quarter moon resting in the crook between the mesas, made for a liberating trip. I love how, heading south from the Retreat, the Spanish Peaks appear suddenly before me, welcoming and enticing. Across the border, after Raton Pass, a New Mexico snow-capped mountain range peeks out from the west horizon, dipping behind the brown hills and reappearing unexpectedly in a slightly different place a few miles down the road.
Once, years ago, when K was in high school, she was having a rough patch and she said, “I just want to get out of this state.” And I said okay. So we got in the truck and drove to Wyoming, thrift shopping, exploring, and stopping at the hoodoos at sunset to clamber around. That change of scene, that change of state, was just what she needed. A day with her in another state was just what I needed right now. I’ll share pictures in the coming days.
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