El Paso: a day of dust- 0 miles

I woke up to Jon asking me how I felt about taking a rest day. I felt like sleeping. I let Jon go ask if we might not be imposing if we stayed. It was cleared with the household community and we pulled out the maps. Texas will take us a while, but first I needed to change my tires. I brought my bike out to the porch where Daniel was getting his haircut. I was able to entertain Emma and Daniel for a moment by allowing them to release the air pressure, but soon they were on to other things. I moved about as quickly as I like to when doing bike maintenance and about four hours later I was done. In all fairness I was given tubes with broken valves. This meant I actually changed two tires and three tubes. Somewhere in there Freddy showed up from two blocks down asking for help with a recurring flat. Mostly Jon fixed him up, but I lubed his chain and told him that a clean bike is a happy bike. We walked back to Crazy Cat's to return the tubes and get a chain. Mine had stretched .75%. The whole while we had our eyes shut except for the moments we blinked. It felt like the dust was being drilled into my skin when it gusted. I wouldn't try to ride in it. My bandanna that was given to me in my mohawk days blew off...never to be seen again. We proceeded to a coffee shop where I tickled a small by that kept flicking me. Then he kept wanting to be tickled. His father, whom I had thought was his grandfather, scolded the boy for playing with me. The kid was there for about an hour without entertainment, conversation, or attention while his father read the paper and drank coffee. What would you expect him to do? I went back to the house even thought I wanted to go to a different cafe that was having an open folk sing-a-long five miles away. An excellent dinner of homemade cornbread and beans shortly followed. i was once again excited by the presence of people under the age of 30 which here take the shape of Jesuit Volunteers. They took off for the symphony with children's tickets in hand and Jon is on the phone under his bed. I'm sure it's not the only outlet in the house.

Comments

ktdodat said…
I have a friend named West. He frequently mentions his fake brothers North, South, and East. He also has the last name Houston. Even more fun when you have a city for a last name too...

I also have a student named Seven. Makes me wonder if he has six older siblings, but no he is an only child.
February 23, 2007 at 11:36:00 PM MST
Anonymous said…
Oh Rebecca...where's the new post? I'm so impatient! I've come to rely on the regularity of your blog posts. I come home from a day of repetitious tedium (Yes, I actually watched a videotaped teleconference on HIPAA today) and check your blog to read about sun and wind and interesting people and to look at all the generously uploaded photos of all sorts of alien landscapes. I'm getting tired of El Paso, you know. Let's move on! : ) Because, yeah, I'm sure you have reliable internet access at all times, and aren't busy biking or anything...

I miss your energy Rebecca--I finally had a social gathering at my house the other day, but everyone was so quiet! It was fun, but there was a void where you should've been!

It's crazy cold here. Well, by Sitka standards. It's in the teens, but you know how the humidity here makes it seem much colder. On the other hand, it's been clear and sunny, so everyone is perking up a little.

Hmmm...I don't know what else to say, except that if I don't see a new post by tomorrow I'm going to feed your blog smooth-move tea! And that's a threat, not a promise...

Oooh. I'm going to post "anonymously"--we'll see if you know who I am...haha!
February 27, 2007 at 9:57:00 PM MST
Rebecca said…
Leeann... I hope these are the posts you wanted.
February 28, 2007 at 2:21:00 PM MST
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