Thanksgiving Greetings

Thanksgiving has just past and I was too full and too sleepy Thanksgiving evening to sit at the computer. I would have been typing with my forehead if I had tried! We hope that your Thanksgiving was full of turkey or ham, pie, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, good veggies, maybe a little good wine, and especially family and friends. If you’re not tired of my musings yet, here’s a 3-week status report.

Family and friends

We had Thanksgiving dinner with our friends Steph and her mom Skee at Skee’s house, along with their extended family. There were 15 of us. I showed off my pie-skills, contributing a homemade apple pie and pumpkin pie. Have to get used to cooking with different kinds of apples and squash -- yes, actually my “pumpkin” pie has always been made with squash. This year it was a butternut, since the types I’m familiar with back East aren’t found here. We ate too much. We were hugged often and well. Felt wonderful.

We were fortunate to have our first back-home visitors today. Our next-door neighbors from Comus Rd were visiting their son, his wife and their granddaughter, Rory, in Alamogordo for Thanksgiving – both are in the Air Force – and drove up to see us today. It was a long drive for them (almost 3 hours each way) for a plate of spaghetti and a tour of both our home and town, and we were so pleased to see them and show off a little; not the spaghetti, maybe, but the town. I hope we sent them home with the impression that we might have moved west, but it’s not entirely wild here. There’s a good cup of coffee in a nice coffee house, and they duly noted the restaurant advertising fine wines and microbrews. Todd figured that was all a decent town needed.

Habitat for Humanity

We did attend the dedication for the new house built by Habitat last weekend. We met a bunch of people who have been involved in Habitat activities here, whether building the house or working at the Habitat Re-Store or both. I enjoyed meeting and talking with folks, and learned that almost everyone is here from somewhere else. Some folks have been here 3 or 4 years, and some as many as 10, but I don’t think we met anyone, except the family for whom the house was built, who are locals.

Then, we met the couple for breakfast the next day who invited us to the dedication, Gerry and Sue. That was lots of fun, especially since they knew most everyone who came into the little restaurant. But then the restaurant was in the gallery district, across the street from Sue’s gallery and most of the people to whom Gerry and Sue introduced us were artists/gallery owners.

Nicky will start volunteering at the Re-Store on Wednesday and work their weekday hours, which are Wed, Thurs and Fri, 1-4 pm. I’m going to be really curious to see what that’s like for him.

Community stuff

Last night we attended the Christmas parade in town. Fun and different for us. The parade was to start at 7 pm. We got there at 6:45 (!) and still got a place to park about 1 1/2 blocks from the parade route (!!). They stopped all vehicle traffic down the main street through town which was the parade route at 6:30 so by the time we arrived, it seemed that the entire town population of 12,000 was sitting on the curb, on lawn chairs or leaning against the buildings down the several blocks that the parade would pass. At every cross street, there were pick up trucks with their tailgates facing the main street, with families having tail gate parties. Promptly at 7 pm all the street lights were turned off, as were the lights in most of the businesses along the street. The parade was made up of floats – think Macy’s on a very small-town scale, and with no balloons. The floats usually consisted of a pickup truck pulling a flat trailer. On the flat bed imagine a living room scene with couch and/or rocking chairs and some form of fireplace with stockings hung, and everything strung with lights and filled to capacity with family members from little to older. There were a couple of exceptions, but that pretty well describes the majority of the 17 or so floats; all the floats were sponsored by some local business. There were two marching drum corps – one from the high school, one from the University, a bicycle troupe, a tumbling troupe and the local dance studio. Of course, Santa Claus put in an appearance. The parade lasted about 20 minutes. Then everyone wandered down the street, loaded their chairs and coolers into their trucks and headed off. We were with Steph, her sister, and some other friends, and we all headed for the Twisted Vine, the local wine bar for a glass of New Mexico wine.

There are some very interesting people who have found and settled in Silver City. At the Twisted Vine, we met a man named John (I either didn’t catch or don’t remember his last name). John and his wife moved back from France in 2000 or 2001 and settled in Silver City. The French couple with whom they were close friends in France came as well and settled here. John worked, we gather, with Dr. Jarvik of the artificial heart. Our interlocutor was a man named Robin who is a friend of Steph’s. Robin is himself a very interesting character who seems to know almost everyone in town thanks to volunteering “at just about everything that needed a volunteer” as he put it. At thanksgiving dinner, he was giving us a brief history of the town’s diversity, both the good (very open and accepting) and the too-bad (different cultures, e.g., Hispanic and white don’t mix much, if at all, outside of work – there is still significant segregation and bias).

This Wednesday, we will go to the first of several Christmas performance or choral pageants. This one is free and is being held at the Fine Arts Theatre at the University.

Outdoor stuff

We went for a hike on Saturday for about 2 ½ hours on National Forest land called Burrow Mountains with a small group. We didn’t get up into the mountains proper, but chose to follow a trail up a river valley. It was a beautiful day with temps about 58 and sunny. We packed a lunch and water; I carried my binoculars and bird book, but didn’t get to put either of them to much use. I’m learning I’m going to have to categorize my walks – Birding means no dogs and no other people unless they are also birders; Taking Nutmeg means no birding and moving at sniff-pace; Hiking means no dogs and no binoculars because the focus is on moving. Coming back down the trail, I tried to make a small jump from one rock to another where we were crossing the stream bed, but slipped. I fell ass over teakettle, scaring everyone else but me. I think it happened to fast to get frightened. I do remember thinking as I went upside and down that I sure hoped I wouldn’t hit anything vital on the rocks. And I didn’t. I can’t imagine how, but I didn’t hit my head, my hip, my shoulder, my elbow or anything – well, I did scrape my ankle slightly on a rock. Today I’m a little stiff, but 3 advil took care of that. And here we were worried about my diabetes… Now, I’m christened and no more falls are necessary for breaking me in.

This afternoon after Todd and Suzanne left, we grabbed Nutmeg and headed up to another point at the edge of the National Forest. We didn’t walk far because we were losing the light, but it was enough to whet our appetites to come back and explore. Today’s trip took us 15 minutes to the trail head. Saturday took about ½ hour. No wonder Silver City made the National Geographic’s list of best places for hiking and birding. You step out your backdoor and you’re at a trail head into the forest.

Amazing factoid

I’ll close with this amazing little fact. We filled the tank in the Volvo the 2nd day we were here. That was 3 weeks ago. We have used a little more than ½ of that tank of gas. And the Volvo is the only car we have right now, having given Nicky’s away back in September. I used to use a tank a week to commute. Now I put all my commuting miles on my slippers rather than my car. We’re now wondering just how far we can make a tank of gas last.

Wishing you a wonderful December. Love, Sonnie and Nicky

Silver City Update

We’ve been here a week and a half now and we keep pinching ourselves that we’re really here, that we’re not on vacation, and that we don’t have to pack our bags and go back to DC. We’re beginning to feel our feet firmly on the ground here. We think we’ll stay!

We’re unpacking. Nicky says we’re 2/3 unpacked – well, yeah, if you only look at the living room, dining room and kitchen which only have a box or two left in each. If you look at the two bedroom/offices, you’d wonder if we’ll be unpacked by Christmas. And there are no pictures on the walls yet and I have some painting to do, but hey, we’re only here less than two weeks.

In not quite two weeks, here’s what’s happened:

• The mule deer stand at the windows looking in at us looking out; there are several young ones and they, like their moms, are so tame you can walk the dog right by them and they barely blink.
• The night sky is clear and clean with a bizzilion stars, and you can see the Milky Way.
• I still haven’t spent much time seriously looking at the birds, but I can tell you there are 3 different types of juncos, finches, black cardinals (they have a fancy name that I can’t remember just now), a small falcon that went by too quickly to identify, and several other types just around our yard, and it’s not even high season for birds.
• Nutmeg is getting walked a couple times a day through the neighborhood – great for her waistline and great for ours. Since we live in a hilly area and we are at 6,000 feet elevation, I sure am glad I quit smoking a little over a year ago.
• We went up into the Gila National Forest last weekend for a “bird walk” but it turned out to be a “Nutmeg” walk, since she sniffed every leaf, stone, twig and grass that we passed on the trail. Nicky got exercised over the information sign for the gray wolf; to whit – you can injure or kill a wolf if it is attacking you or another human and you can injure or kill a wolf if it is attacking livestock, but you cannot injure or kill a wolf if it is attacking your dog. Not that we’d see any gray wolves on the trail, in all likelihood. And besides, who’s the interloper here???
• Nutmeg got her first of two rattlesnake venom vaccines – we’re truly in the wild west. No vaccine for humans, though. We have to talk loud and carry bells. Oh…no…that’s for black bear. Well, those are here, too.
• It’s a low of 30 degrees at night, and mid to high 60s during the day – shirtsleeves are very comfortable.
• Nutmeg is still verrrry clingy – today she was curled up in the kneehole of my desk while I worked. Sunday, when Nicky was working on the dryer and had his legs stretched out on the floor, she was lying right on his legs. She stayed in the laundry room so long while he worked on getting the dryer to work that I think she had a case of heat prostration that night. At least something was going on such that I called the vet on an emergency. After all, we are still raw over Pepper.
• Speaking of whom, this may sound very strange, especially to those of you who are not woo-woo, but Pepper made it home to Comus Rd in MD in spirit; I had a daytime vision of him in his favorite place to lie in the sun in the winter – under the white pine tree just off the deck in back of the house. He was healthy, bright-eyed and content. And tonight our neighbor told us that she swears that she heard Pepper barking over there during the last couple of days. I believe her.
• I started back to work on Monday. Spent most of that day gerbiling around trying to get reoriented to work. By today, I was getting pretty productive. We have discovered a number of small details that we didn’t anticipate as possible obstacles that will require some creative work-arounds. There’s already talk of bringing me back to facilitate several meetings, but no clear idea of when.
• And speaking of work, my computer has been acting up the last 2-3 weeks, and yesterday, I noticed it was getting pretty ‘sick.’ We had seen a store in town that specialized in HP and Dell computers, sales and service, so I called them. They said that, yeah, they could work on it; I could either bring it in or they’d come to the house for an additional charge. Remember 15 minutes to anywhere? We just unplugged the computer and Nicky ran it to their store (10 ½ minutes) this morning. I could pay $25 to ensure same-day service or get the computer tomorrow or Monday at latest. I declined the $25 same-day charge. At 3:30 pm they called to say it was done. When I picked it up, I commented on the speedy service, and they said, “oh well, we didn’t have that much going on today.” Small towns – if the service is there, it’s great. If it’s not, then Las Cruces is only 2 hours away.
• Nick has been invited to a dedication of a newly-finished Habitat for Humanity house on Saturday and to have breakfast with a Habitat Board member on Sunday. His wife runs one of the art galleries in town and we met her when we were here in September. Nicky had corresponded with him and they had agreed to meet once we got here. Nicky dropped him an email the first of this week and this is the result. I’m going as well. Nicky thinks he’ll probably start volunteering at the Habitat Re-store in early December.
• And finally, we’re in a neighborhood that seems very friendly. A lot of people walk, and we’ve met 3 different individuals/couples while walking. One of them who is also newly arrived brought us the flyer for her choral group’s, the Hi Lo Silvers (get it?), Christmas program. ‘Course you all know Nicky – extrovert extraordinaire – he could make friends with the cottonwoods after which our road is named.
  
  Thanks to all of you who called or wrote with thoughts of Pepper and our loss. We appreciate and miss you all. Yet, it feels so good to be here; I know we made a good decision to come. Love, Sonnie and Nicky

We made it to New Mexico

We made it to New Mexico last Sunday afternoon, somewhat less than intact. Our friend Sally drove with Nicky in a rented minivan with some of our most important stuff, and I had the dogs with me in the Volvo. Sally’s job was to keep Nicky awake, and she succeeded admirably. The drive across country was in parts beautiful and almost always interesting--something I’ve always wanted to do. Of course, I always wanted to be able to stop and see things other than just I66, I81, I40, I30, I20 and I10 and the attendant gas stations, burger joints and Comfort Inns. The colors coming through the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge area of Virginia and Tenn were spectacular; we managed to hit them at their peak – breathtaking in many areas.

We hit the Mississippi just at dusk and at rush hour (or what passes for rush hour for Memphis). Drove through the eastern edge of Arkansas in the dark and wondered whether Little Rock actually existed – no signs of life to speak of until we crossed the Arkansas River and found ourselves in the middle of city lights. Driving south through Arkansas, crossing by way of Texarkana into Texas and on to Dallas-Ft Worth area was mostly painless but boring. We passed the two most recent Presidents’ home towns – Hope (Bill Clinton) and Midland (or whatever Bush country is called). Hope was green and rural – Midland was oily, smelly and singularly unattractive with lots of oil well pumpers and related industry. Getting around DFW was a real trick; I think their highway system is more confusing that the DC beltway – by comparison, the new 495/95/395 interchange in Springfield is very straightforward and easy. We got off track twice and had to double back. What amazed me was crossing over a hill between Dallas and Ft Worth and seeing the environment change dramatically – suddenly we were on the Texas plains – Texas cow country.

Abilene Tx will forever be one of our least favorite places in the world, through no fault of the city’s. That’s where our dog, Pepper, died in our hotel room in our arms at 11 pm. He had been not-well for some time; if you had seen him, then you saw how thin he was getting over the last several months or a year. He was diagnosed with Cushings Disease just 2 weeks before we left; Cushings is a disease caused by either a penal or adrenal tumor that causes the dog to drink excessively and urinate excessively, but in the final analysis become poisoned by the failure to remove the uric acid by urinating. It is not a curable disease, and can only be moderated somewhat by meds. But the diagnosis was too late for Pepper physically because he started failing rapidly during the last few days at home and on the first days of the trip. Then on Friday night in Abilene, he died of congestive lung and heart failure – at least that’s my guess based on his final hours. We found an emergency 24 hour vet who accepted his body with much grace and sympathy.

Poor Nutmeg is so traumatized she won’t let us out of her sight. First, we uprooted her from house and familiar surroundings, then put her in the car for days on end, then she lost her buddy, then, from west Texas on, she couldn’t find any grass to pee on without getting prickly burrs in her feet. She’s still trying to figure out where to walk without getting stuck. Even around the house here, there are prickly burrs that ‘get’ her and then she just stands there with her paw raised looking pitiful. You know that we always kept the dogs out in the kitchen/dining room at home with a gate. Well, in part because we don’t have a gate here, but mostly because she’s so unsettled, we’ve been letting her follow us all over the house, and sleep next to the bed. Now, you know and I know we’ll never get her back into the kitchen by herself at night. She does seem to be settling down a little – we’ve been taking her for long walks around the neighborhood every day and she’s getting a buffet of new smells.

Likewise, we are beginning to settle a bit. Some of the boxes are unpacked, but we’ve been at it kind of randomly. First I start on the kitchen, then get distracted when one of us is looking for something and start unpacking boxes in our bedroom or one of the other bedrooms. So no room is completely set. We are also noticing just how big and echo-y this house is. What’s interesting, though, is that because the house “only” has 3 bedrooms, a living room, dining room and kitchen, we don’t really have more ROOMS than we had – we actually have fewer rooms in which to put things. So we have a surplus of tables, but not enough seating, and there’s no place to put some of my antiques that had perfect niches in the small house in MD.

We are enjoying the delightful weather and the sunsets – nothing like a western sunset, as I’m starting to appreciate. The temperature has been mild during the day, and we haven’t driven over 40 miles per hour since Sunday. No matter how slow you drive, you’re there in 15 minutes, wherever “there” is. Don’t come if you’re a shopaholic: the nearest Mall is in Las Cruces, almost 2 hours away. But if you’re up for sunny skies; great views; wonderful walks, hiking and birding; a terrific art-gallery-filled historic downtown; and friendly neighbors, c’mon out. We’ll figure out how to send pictures soon. Till then, with our love and thanks for your calls and thoughts helping get us here safely, Sonnie and Nicky