NORMALCY

We are realizing that some degree of “normalcy” is setting in and that is good. We’ve made our second trip to the grocery store, gotten our prescriptions switched to the pharmacy here, put out the trash, done laundry and a little house cleaning. I’ve been cooking more than I did last year since we are trying to cut back on eating out. Nevertheless those good Mexican restaurants and the New Mexico chili do beckon! Yesterday at noon we finally made it to La Posta (see previous posts) in old Mesilla. I always enjoy going there since it was the first Mexican restaurant that I ate in when I came for a visit in 1961. That was also the night that Dan and I became engaged. It’s nice to see that both the restaurant and the relationship are still going strong!

We have started reading Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, together. Since we are reading it aloud it may take awhile, though. Already I feel guilty about coming to the barren west when she is writing about leaving it! Anyhow, we hope that it will lead us to make some additional changes in our eating and buying.

So far we both seem to be tempted to have an afternoon siesta each day! (Maybe that is caused by being so close to Mexico?) I have tried to avoid it since I am still waking up early and want to try to overcome that tendency. Dan does well with a short nap but I always feel groggy and don’t like having to wake up more than once a day!

Today we are going to his home church for a luncheon with other “primetimers” and a program on physical fitness. Maybe we’ll get a few pointers and meet some new people. Our physical fitness regime has been limited to walking and stretching exercises so far since we are awaiting the re-opening of Club 50, our little circuit training fitness center. It was sold to a new owner over the holidays and they are waiting for all the paperwork to be completed. Hopefully it will open tomorrow. The new owner has assured me that it will be “no later than Friday.”

Tomorrow we plan to travel to the southwestern part of the state and visit the Gila cliff dwellings and several other sites of interest. Maybe we will be able to post some pictures from that trip. Our plan is to take a side trip each week when we can. We look forward to sharing some of those trips with family and friends when they come to visit. It looks like our first visitor will be Dan’s brother, David, who is traveling by train from Indiana in about two weeks. We are both looking forward to his visit. It will be fun to hear the two brothers both wallow in nostalgia as they re-visit their boyhood home, schools, and other “haunts.” Last year I joined Dan in walking from the house where he lived to the school --- along the path that he went. He was able to tell me who lived in all of the houses on the way! Of course, they probably don’t live there now! In fact many are not living anywhere on this earth.