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