Category: 2017

  

I don’t mean to scare you, but that’s what migraines are – when they’re bad and when they’re frequent. A chronic illness. It’s important that I remember that, because otherwise I’ll try to hard to cure what isn’t curable, dooming myself to guilt and failure. And I’ll try to hard to do what others can do, without even thinking about it. Also resulting in guilt and failure.

  

 

Today my daughter sent me this supportive quote from http://thebloggess.com/2017/04/18/sometimes-you-can-go-home-again/

“My family knows that my mental and physical issues cause chronic exhaustion so often I’d have to go to bed just when the night got exciting, but that’s just a part of being me and I’ve come to accept that if I push myself too hard I might end up in a pit too deep to come out of.  And it was fine.  Disappointing, of course, but fine.  Until Easter Sunday when I woke up and realized that I had no spoons left.  Hailey and I got dressed in our new Easter dresses and I helped my nieces get ready but already I could tell that I could either go to my uncle’s for Easter and visit with a giant house full of dozens of people I love, or I could safely stay awake for the hours I would be driving back home that day.  But not both.  So as I helped my family load up into their cars I told them I had to leave.  And they understood instantly and supported my decision as only people who truly love you can do.  And I felt so lucky.  And so unlucky.  And sad for Hailey whose Easter dress would go to waste and who was so sad but so instantly understanding when I explained that I just didn’t have it in me to do something that normal people could do without thinking.” –by thebloggess.com

Thank you Laura, and thank you, Bloggess.

The title makes it sound like I’ve never been to church before!  I was raised in a Presbyterian church, which was a bright spot in a generally difficult childhood.  Then when my own kids were growing up, we regularly attended a Quaker meeting (quick explanatory note – despite the old-fashioned sounding name, Quakers are liberal progressives who champion civil rights for the underprivileged in our society, and their meetings are similar to a Buddhist meditation service).

But since I met John, I haven’t regularly attended anywhere.  He doesn’t like to attend any kind of service, and I really value our weekends together. But…I’m now working from home in a rural area, and I really need to be connected to my community.  Placitas has two churches, the Las Placitas Presbyterian Church, and the San Antonio Catholic Mission.  So the Presbyterian church is my obvious choice (unless John wanted to go back to his Catholic roots, which would be fine with me, but he doesn’t.)

I’m not a stickler for creed or denomination.  My own religion is “Why would we imagine that we could somehow understand the vast workings of the universe?”  Every religion out there is wrong.  But “no religion” is probably not an accurate or useful answer either.  My opinion is; the more we try to define it, the more wrong we are.  Accuracy decreases as precision is increased. Right?  Ok, that’s getting a little geeky and I’m trying to keep these posts short.

Anyway, I really liked the service yesterday.  The theme was Earth Day (in particular, the importance of bees).  Apparently the pastor is also a bee keeper. Being an environmental scientist, the earth day theme really resonated with me.

The other thing I liked about it was the frequent use of Spanish in the service.  The service was conducted in English, but we sang two songs in Spanish and also did two readings in Spanish.  Given that most of us were middle-aged or older white English speakers, I could imagine that someone could criticize it by saying it was contrived.  But it is in keeping with this church’s heritage, est. 1893 by José Gurulé and Rev. José Ynés Perea. I thought the inclusion of the Spanish language was done respectfully, and I appreciated it.

Oh, and I almost forgot. They just bought a bunch of solar panels for their roof, and yesterday was the “Dedication of the Solar Array.”  The church is now “Net Zero.”  Way to go!

Padre nuestro, que estás en los cielos, santificado sea tu nombre. Venga tu reino. Hágase tu voluntad, así en la tierra como en el cielo. El pan nuestro de cada día, dánoslo hoy. Y perdónanos nuestras deudas, así como nosotros perdonamos a nuestros deudores. Y no nos dejes caer en la tentación, mas líbranos del mal. Porque tuyo es el reino, el poder, y la gloria, ahora y por siempre. Amén.

In case you’re wondering why there are NO PEOPLE IN THE PICTURES, I took the photos on Monday (today), when I went back to buy a book I saw advertised last night on their website.

They have beautiful quilt art currently displaying in the large hall outside the sanctuary.

  

I love how there’s a recycling box casually set in front of this historic kiva, and folding chairs piled behind it.  Everyone’s got kivas around here, no big deal!

 

 

These weeds are days – no, hours – away from making hundreds of thousands of burrs.  You know the type that glue your shoe laces together?  Imagine those and 3 curly-coated dogs.

  

 

(What? Did you think this post was going to be about pot?)

This looks great, but is not a testament to my mango-cutting skills.  Great mangos are a sloppy, drippy, sticky disaster.  As soon as I find one, I’ll post that photo too!

My new favorite website, I don’t even know where to start! http://www.directfrommexico.com/

  

 

I tried to wash the dog’s beds without checking first for holes…

I was planning on not reposting things directly from the internet without at least making some reasonably extensive comments on them.  But I’ve decided to exempt comics.  Comics speak for themselves.

https://xkcd.com/1827/

We live out in the country, but we are within walking distance of a small group of commercial establishments including a corner grocery, a nice restaurant, an art gallery and a little cafe.  It’s totally the best of both worlds!  We particularly love the little Placitas Cafe.  They are super friendly, casual, and best of all, they have live music 2-3 times a week! http://placitascafe.blogspot.com/

Late yesterday afternoon I was talking with my Placitas real estate agent, and he mentioned that his band was playing at the cafe in an hour. So I called John at work and told him he better get home soon or I’m going to the cafe without him!  He made it home in time, we headed down to the cafe, and the band was fantastic!   Just really a lot of fun.  http://www.placitasrockzone.com/

 

 

I read an interesting article in Discover magazine.  We all know that plants can grow toward the sunlight, which doesn’t seem that surprising that the cells in the leaves can sense sunlight.  But they did a study where they trained plants to associate a fan with subsequent sunlight, and the plants grew toward the fan.  Just in case you’re thinking, “Yeah, well, maybe a breeze stimulates growth.” (which is what I was thinking), they trained a different set of plants to grow AWAY from the fan.  So plants can learn to use stimuli other than sunshine, to figure out where the sunshine is going to be in the future.  Wow!

Here’s the article.  http://discovermagazine.com/2017/may-2017/smarty-plants

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

 

Here’s our house on Homesteads Road

John purchased this house 20 years ago, long before we met.  He lived in it happily for 10 years, but since we got together 10 years ago, it has sat neglected.  Sometimes it’s been a rental, and sometimes it’s been empty.  It has currently been empty for 2 years since the last tenants moved out.  It was on the market for 9 months during 2015-2016, but there were no offers.

Up on top of a hill, this house has absolutely amazing views, but it gets hit hard by the frequent winds in New Mexico.

The interior is dated, which I don’t mind, but I don’t like the chopped-up layout.  The kitchen is tiny.  There is a small living room, and in a different part of the house a very small family room.  I would have much preferred a single, open living space.

All the bedrooms are on the second floor.  This is fine for us now, but may become an issue as we age.  And it definitely affects our ability to sell the house, since this is a retirement area and buyers are looking for 1-story homes.

Also, indoor-outdoor living is very important to John and I.  We like to eat outside, and I often work outside.  However, in this intense desert climate, being comfortable outside requires shade and wind-blocking courtyard walls.  So we’d also want to build a courtyard and covered patio.

We spent several months working hard with an architect to design plans to open up the interior, and add an addition.  Last month we gave the plans to a couple of builders for bids.  On Tuesday our first bid came in, at $431,800!!  What a disappointment.  We are not intending to spend anything resembling that amount of money on a remodel.  In this area, we can buy a very nice, new house for that amount of money!

So now it’s back to the drawing board.  Or actually, I’m not going back to the architect for more drawings.  I’ll just talk to a couple of contractors about a much smaller remodel that doesn’t require architectural plans.   The windows are failing and need replaced.  We can upgrade some of the flooring.  We can build a pergola outside and even put up a small courtyard wall.  We can also spruce up the kitchen (new countertops, paint the cabinets), but I don’t see an easy way to expand the kitchen without getting into an expensive, domino affect.

It’s a disappointment, but the views are still as amazing as ever, and we are looking forward to completing the new, much smaller remodel.