PNewL PNewS
Volume 30 Issue 4 “All the pnews that phits.” December 2022
In Which Buster Learns About Cactus Prickers and How Much He Dislikes the Car
I decided it was past time for a road trip so…let’s go camping!…in November!…on my way to a meeting in New Mexico! And as long as I’m going as far as Albuquerque, how about flying to San Francisco for a Girl’s Visit because I can fly direct? Made sense to me at the time. It actually worked pretty well…except for the quivering dog and the way the wind howls across Oklahoma in mid-November, and the cactus.
I thought he’d get over it or get used to it or something, but no--Buster shook every time I loaded him into the van and for most of the time the van was in motion…for approximately 2700 miles. I finally realized letting him sit in my lap, he would fall asleep and stop shaking. It was only dangerous three times during those 2700 miles and fortunately he weighs less than 30 pounds.
I allowed an extra day driving out to ABQ because…what if Buster escapes and I have to spend time looking for him or he hates campgrounds and I need to acclimatize him to the road? I never thought I’d have to coo at him for hours at a time. “You’re going to be okay, you’re fine, you’re safe, we’re together.”
Coincidentally, Asheville and Albuquerque are both on I-40 which allows for a lengthy opportunity of boring—but frighteningly fast—driving so I decided to take an alternative route on the way that took us into Georgia and Tennessee and Alabama and Mississippi and back to Tennessee where we connected with I-40. It turned out to be a good plan—the roads are suprisingly good and, well, pretty. Rural south is…hmmm…rural and peaceful looking. I-40 isn’t all bad but those states in the middle of the country? There’s just no really great way to get across them. Suck it up and drive--don’t think about the sand through the hour glass. And in November? The wind is amazing and there isn’t much out there to block it.
We had good campground experiences for the most part. Buster loved campgrounds and we walked for miles up and down the various circles. One in northern Texas was named for a lake that is no longer there. No one else seemed surprised. I guess they read different reviews than I did (which included a lake). That place had great trails because Yamaha had partnered with them to put in dirt bike and/or ATV trails and it was off season. This is where the cactus prickers and just plain old hiding in the grass prickers started. It was a little herky jerky on walks, pulling things out of Buster’s paws, but it was okay.
We spent our last camping night on the edge of a small town in Oklahoma. It was lovely—at the town reservoir with water in it!—and a great sunset. On the other hand, they locked the bathrooms at 5pm. (Where’s the OMG emoji?) It seemed out of place that there were huge houses overlooking the campground and the reservoir. I think the couple in the trailer next to us did not like each other very much. And it was so cold and windy I kept thinking this must be what it’s like to be homeless. I was kind of miserable, but Buster was fine—we weren’t moving.
Then we got to Albuquerque, parked in Wendy and Joel’s driveway (They were in California!). I got to talk to Wendy a bit on the phone which was nice. We got to walk around their neighborhood which was also nice until Buster wandered into a front yard and came out with lots of fine long prickers sticking out of his side. He didn’t like it much and isn’t too smart so this happened a few more times.
Then I went to Northern California to see some of my nearest and dearest and we had a really good visit and Buster went to Puppy Camp which was depressing and I tried not to think about it. And the meeting happened at a very pretty place and was a wonderful reunion of a lot of people I hadn’t seen in years, and then I got Buster and threw him in the van and instead of taking five days, we got home in three!
So I guess Buster isn’t going to take to being in the car, I guess some dogs just don’t but it’s not like he gets a pass, we’re just going to have learn to put up with each other’s shortcomings. Happens in the best of relationships.
• Dear Frontier: I still really really really don’t like you (I’m trying not to say hate.), and if I had a choice, I would leave you forever. Have a nice day.
(Ironically, some big grant to provide internet services to rural areas was given to Frontier. I may be stuck. Sigh.)
• There are a bunch of free movies available on my “smart” TV. They are consistently… lightweight and, well, not very good. A mother just told her kid that she would never be alone if she had this snow globe. SERIOUSLY??? Who writes this stuff? I am going to watch an episode of The Sopranos. I never watched it before. I know I’m the only one in history. The writing is a lot better.
• I go through cycles—ones when I can’t find things I use a lot followed, unexpectedly, by one where everything surfaces. I’m in the latter right now and it is so refreshing.
• Buster, the dog, is a hunter. I have to accept that. It’s not my favorite part of him but I don’t know what else to do. He got a couple voles last week. I was impressed as he is not always successful. With the bird feeders back up, he’s keeping an eye on the squirrels that clean up the seed off the grass. He stalks them. He got close once but…sorry, pal…there’s no way.
• Speaking of voles/moles, my neighborhood is overrun. My yard is soft and mushy with tunnels everywhere. Same in the fields across the road. When we had the freezing temperatures around Christmas, the tunnels became ankle bending and trip hazards. It sounds weird but walking, like I do, over the same terrain every day, it’s a wonder when the ground I walk on changes so dramatically.
• I don’t see items on a website that are in a box specifically for readers to notice. My eyes go straight over it. Put DONATE or LOGIN in the upper right-hand corner in plain text and I am there. Put it in a red box? I do not even see it. I have started training my brain to look for the obvious and it has been hard.
• After a burst of cleaning-out-files energy, I have bags of paper to shred. Apparently, December is not a popular month for shredding so here they sit.
• I have driven in each of the 50 states, so while I was on this most recent road trip, I started to add up the number of states I have slept in. I am still working on it as there are a couple I need to think on more. For instance, I know I have slept in one if not both of the Dakotas but I need to look at a map. And West Virginia* and Maryland both seem like good candidates but I can’t figure out when. On this trip, I added Oklahoma and Alabama, though I may have slept in Alabama coming back from New Orleans but it was dark and it was a funky motel and it could have been Georgia. Too much information? I am at a solid 42 with four three in question and four I need to aim for. *I just remembered when I slept in West Virginia!!
• I headed into Christmas Day with few demands on myself. I wanted to make two dishes for a good meal, both Asian, one soup, one noodle. And I wanted to cut a steek into a sweater I started in February in the “Bang out a Sweater in a Month” challenge which I did not finish in a month and put away until I made it the centerpiece of my Christmas Day plan. It is now dark and Buster is snoring and I have obviously failed miserably at all of them. The ingredients are all where they were yesterday and the sweater is in a bag at my feet. I actually want to finish the sleeves before I steek and I was obviously misinformed (by me) as to where I was in the pattern. My goal is to now finish the sweater before the year ends or perhaps on 1/1 so I can list it in my 2023 Challenge. (Oddly, I like knitting challenges.)
I did eat today, though, looking back, I am not sure what it was. You know: breakfast, lunch, dinner, like every day. I finished cooking bagels I started the night before—I added buckwheat flour which may have been a mistake but not a big one. I made a NY Times Cooking recipe that involved puff pastry and almonds and cranberries. I made chicken stock and started the yogurt. Three dog walks. Finished my Joe Pickett #21 audiobook. It was a productive day, just not the one I had planned. That’s the nice part of having my own Christmas Day.
Things to be Thankful For & NY Resolutions
During the pandemic I kinda dropped this tradition, partly because of space and partly because, well, it was the pandemic and a lot of things changed. I just looked at the last time I did it and it’s all the same dang stuff on the Resolution side so I’ll skip that and try to resolve something…
Things I am Thankful For
• Roger the dog for 3/4 of the year and leaving the legacy of being such a good teacher for Buster who has become a pretty good friend despite being a rascal, too
• Friends and family
• The interesting way people kinda wander in and out of my life—and that they wander back
• Between the holidays, I kept thinking about the year and feeling really grateful. The work and play and travel and the new people who are becoming friends, especially in the creative world. It all feels a little bit remarkable. Somehow I thought as a kid you just coast after a certain age. Hell no!
Happy New Year! Here’s to you for getting this far!
1 comment:
Hi peggy,
Thanks for recounting the tale of your trip to New Mexico with Buster~ loved hearing about your travels across the middle states & beyond with all the November wind.
May Roger RIP~ glad u have a new hunting buddy~ Cheers, C.
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