Cats vs Men

Sitting outside under an almost full moon in June, 2018, Ft. Davis, Texas....our newest, adopted cat came and joined me on the patio....a stray we named Biscuit due to her constant biscuit making motion she made when she first came around...before we could even touch her...oh, anyway, as I rubbed her head and scratched under her neck I began thinking of how many cats I had and loved in my life.  I realized I have had much, much, MUCH better, loving, faithful relationship with cats than I ever had with men.  With the one, shining bright exception....my husband Joe R.....Joe is for Rockin'.  He's as great a cool, hip, loving, loyal cat you could ever hope to, be blessed knowing, get to be friends with
Cat...with a capital C!

We don't mind the changes Ft. Davis gifts us

You asked how the change has been.  We've adjusted to small town living very well, I think.  We don't mind that the local grocery closes at 8, 7 on Sunday.  That the library doesn't charge overdue fines and does provide inter library loan services.  That we can take a walk at dusk and walk in the middle of main street and there are no cars coming either direction.  That on these walks we meet the nicest people who share the peaches they just picked off their tree.  That this little town is so dark and quiet at night.  That the post office closes for lunch between 2:30 and 3:30.  That the mail is not delivered to your house if you live in town.    That some tourists drive a little too fast through town.  That many, many  motorcycle clubs come through here to stay and play.  (I actually love seeing all the bikers and bikes.  Especially when they all line up out front of Limpia Hotel.) 

I am enjoying the small town community vibe.  I grew up in a small town and hated it!  Everybody knew everybody and their business.  And that's probably the case here.  But my business is being retired and living in a gorgeous part of Texas.  I'm sleeping so much better these days.  No traffic stress, no noise stress.  I must say I do miss having access to movie theaters.  A lot.  There is a small, old theater in Alpine with 2 screens but so far they have not been showing my kind of movies.  They seem to cater to kids and hero movies.  We made a trip in early June to Odessa so I could see a couple of movies and we also did HEB, WMart, Home Depot.  But it's a 2.5 hr drive and an overnight stay.  So we can't do it that often, really.  Don't really want to, doncha know?

We miss the dining opportunities in Austin but are fortunate to have some very good food trucks in Alpine, just 24 miles down the road from here. And a Sweet and Savory bakery food truck just opened right around the corner from our house.  Alpine has a Japanese food truck, a Thai, a Cuban inspired, a Cow Dog eclectic hot dog truck, and a couple of others we have not tried.  And Marfa has a pizza place that is worth the 24 mile, picturesque drive.  They make a perfect....and I mean perfect...Margherita pizza.

Oh, one more note....we recently drove out to the McDonald Observatory. (I found a letter from my mom and she said that 2 of my uncles helped build it.  They were iron workers.) The drive to the observatory is stunningly beautiful.  Found out if you are a local, you get in free to most stuff.  We will certainly go to a star party some time.  At night, big scopes...woohoo! 

On moving, sedated cats and west Texas

Well, we are here!  Fort Davis, Texas.  In my opinion, one of the prettiest places in Texas.  But, then, I love big sky country.  And the night skies are just amazing, swathed with a zillion stars.  There is very little light from street lights or home lights here.  We are close the the McDonald Observatory (16 miles from FD)  and light pollution is not happening around here.  There are rules in place that streetlights have to be of a certain kind so as not to put too much light into the atmosphere.  Ft. Davis is much, much smaller than Alpine, 24 miles south of us, and so it is very quiet here.  I just love it!  And so does Joe.  He lived here as a kid and said it was like coming home.  And I've loved this area from the first time I came here with previous husband back in 1984.  He and I vacationed in Big Bend National Park many, many times and then when I met Joe we started vacationing in this area...Big Bend included...in early 2000.  

Guess you are wondering how the move went.  Well, it was just hell for me.  But mostly because the night before the movers came we were trying to get as much stuff ready as possible and were up til about 1ish.  Then up by 7 and I barely got 5 hours sleep.  Nowadays, I can NOT function on that amount of sleep.  So I was a zombie the next morning.  When the movers arrived, the rain began.  Yes, the entire week before the move was gorgeous, perfect weather.  The night before the move, my severe storm alert radio went off multiple times warning of tornadoes, hail, etc, blah blah blah. 

Next morning...The movers pulled up, the skies opened.  They came on in and were the nicest, most polite young men and were just great about everything.  They would do prep work until the rain would let up, then they would load stuff on the truck.  I finally gave up and took a pillow and blanket out to my car...the Avalon....and let the seat back all the way and went to sleep with the rain on the car roof soothing my frantic mind. 

Woke up, drank coffee, went to vet for mild sedative for our cat Monk, came back, movers pulled out and headed west.  Joe's brother Tim had left already pulling a UHaul loaded with Joe's precious plants and trees and my precious rusty wire art.  Joe and I spent another hour going through house mopping up mud and water and loading up anything that we deemed needed to go but hadn't made it onto truck.  Both our cars were parked on the lawn by the house and since it had rained inches and inches all morning naturally one of our cars was stuck in the grass/mud.  (I didn't say I told you so but sure wanted to when I saw that Joe had parked cars in the yard.  Of course, he didn't know it would rain all morning long and turn yard into a muddy hell.)  So, I got behind wheel, he got behind car to push, told me to leave window down so I could hear him, I gunned the gas, the car took off and the mud flew!  All over the driver's side and all over my left arm!  Boy, did we have a stress relieving laugh over that!  It was a wonderful moment in the mud.

Cat in my car, gently sedated and quiet, and we left Waco...grinning.  Joe in our old Honda Accord, me in the Avalon.  Four hours later I couldn't go any further and he followed me to motel we know in Junction, TX, and I got room and he went on another hour and a half to Ozona where he got a room alongside his brother Tim and the UHaul.  So they were up at 5 next morning so as to make it here to Ft. Davis to meet with movers to unload into our new home.  Me and Monk slept until 10 and then hit the road.  I got to FD about 4, movers gone, north wind blowing through the house, storms brewing south of us and eventually unloading rain and a brilliant lightning storm upon us as we sat at the table on the covered patio outside and just grinned our tired asses off. 

The movers had sat up the beds so we slept like Lincoln Logs.  Brother Tim, always an early riser, had left when we got up as he headed back north with an overnight stop planned in Odessa where he stayed with a cousin.  Later he texted a thank you for letting him be a part of the move!  Can you believe that?  What a guy.  And he is.  Just like Joe.  A real person with a bright spirit. 

We are busy every day unpacking and trying to find things and just loving every moment of being here.  Got our library cards!  Joined the health food store co-op in Alpine today....yay, organic produce and a bulk section!  I am on cloud nine about that!  And a bottle of bubbly from New Mexico (Gruet Brut...try it)....has kept me in giggles.  But I'm telling you...that moving day was HELL! 

My dreamy version of Trump's wall

 I dreamed I was walking in Austin, in a business and residential area and I came to a spot in the road where there was a higher than normal curb...say about 2-3 inches higher. And it was made of small rocks and native stone.  As I looked both directions I could see the curb went on and on for a long way.  When I stepped over it, suddenly 3 or 4 Mexican military police or soldiers appeared...with guns.  They told me that once I had stepped over that wall, that I could not re-enter the US without a visa.  As we talked and argued and I was getting upset all of a sudden I see a big limo drive up and Donald Trump and Melania got out of the limo and asked what was going on.  I told them I couldn't get back into the US and I asked if they would help me.  Melania said "I don't know you, why should I help you."  Donald nodded but said he would talk to the Mexican president and see if he could help me.  So that was my dream and when I woke up I just had to laugh.  There was "the wall" and there was Trump.  Only it was the Mexicans who built "the wall" (only it was a very short wall or a tall curb). 

Leg scars and cutoffs

His name was Lee.  I think he was about 18 or 19 years old.  Hired by my friend Tom Buck to do handyman chores on the ranch.  Oh, he was a real cutie....lean, dark haired, wearing tight Levis and a beat up cowboy hat. 

He lived in a little trailer somewhere on the ranch, but had his meals in the house with Tom and the rest of us.  And he was part of the social circle so was usually always around, all weekend.  He'd do some chores, then come in the house and eat, drink, smoke, whatever and go back out.

Saturday night he came out in the living room, having just finished taking a shower, and he was wearing cutoffs...which, in itself, was odd because it was pretty darn cold outside and I was sitting right by the fireplace.  The wooden kitchen table was pulled up near the fireplace so I was sittin' comfy.  He sat down beside me and opened a beer.  I looked down and noticed he had a huge, long scar on his right thigh (which was the one closest to me).  So, naturally, I asked him about it.

(Now, you should know that he was a very friendly guy and we had been talking a lot ever since I got there, and I thought he was a real cutie.  Also, you should know I'd been drinking some wine and was feeling my oats...or grapes...or whatever.  My tongue was a tad loose...just a tad.)

But I didn't just ask him about it.  I reached down and traced the scar with my finger...ever so lightly and asked "How on earth did you get that?"  He told me....I can't even remember how he got it because running my finger over that smooth, firm, young skin was such a rush, all I could hear was the blood rushing through my hot little veins.  After he told me, I reached down and touched it again.  This time, though, I also ran my finger over skin that wasn't scarred...nothing too blatant, but I gave him a really sweet smile while I was doing that and saying "Man, I bet that hurt!"  My hand was inches away from causing us both a lot of trouble...so I stopped...went back to sippin' wine and dreamin' those dreams. 

What I wrote - twenty years ago...

...for a creative writing class at Southwest Texas State University

Sublet line: What I wrote

(The prof. gave us 30 minutes to compose...whatever we wanted.  I was at a loss...don't like writing in class like that, but....here's what happened.)

Sit down, relax, stretch your fingers, stretch your mind.  Reach out with a fearless heart, reach and feel bravado rush through your veins like gold on fire.  See through eyes of crystal clarity, see your many visions of dreams now dead; see them once alive, built upon the purity and innocence that lives but briefly in a child.

Ramble in, ramblin' woman.  Run with the words, run along with the words like a good shepherd.  Watch your thoughts of black and white and prisms of color take shape and form sentences too sacred to share with anyone but your subconscious self.  Watch as your mind grabs your thoughts and snatches them and hides them back in a corner so dark even God's light would be dimmed.

Run to, not away from,  your clever imaginings of structure and meaning.  Give life to the romance in your mind. Fear not the snickers and smirks of those who can't see the shape of a heart rising from a wisp of smoke.  

Take your time, at any time, to imagine, to feel, to express on paper what you fear to express aloud because you have to think and dig for the simplest words that will express the complex way you feel; and while digging, the moment to speak passes and you scurry back into your mind-cave, licking your ego wounds, eyes closed, like a cat contentedly licks between it's outstretched toes.

Open, don't shut the gate behind which words lurk and wait for the freedom of your beautiful, creative, twisted, confused, clever, sexual mind to call forth, to whistle for attention.

Hold your hand out and let your higher power gently but firmly take hold of your hand, your mind and guide you, stand beside you while you grace the moments of your days, while you sleep and wake and talk and love and hate and smile and laugh and cry.

"I came from a dysfunctional family.  My mother was a nervous wreck most of the time.  At the grocery store when she would be at the checkout counter, she didn't carry a coin purse. She carried a Snoopy Pez dispenser loaded with Valium."