Back to New Hampshire

Breakfast at the Austin Street Cafe

Where to start and where to end…my time in Marfa seemed to fly by.  The reunion with Kate, Sally, Melinda and Amy was a major delight.  Once again we fell into that easy cadence of familiarity:  the five of us have been friends for just about forever.  Each time we assemble I am filled with gratitude that we were able, as young girls, to choose the company of such excellent people.

Over the course of the weekend we toured the Chinati foundation and Donald Judd’s personal compound, visited local shops and galleries, ate lots of good food, and drank our fair share of margaritas.  We sampled texas martinis: essentially a margarita shaken up with a jalapeno, as well as migas, corn grits, and pecan waffles.  We laughed and we cried.  Not only did my computer bite the dust, my pin number was refused at the ATM and my password for my email account was denied.  I began to worry that perhaps my computer had been hacked and my identity stolen:   being unable to access anything gave me the odd sensation that I was a ghost.  It was just an illusion however;  turns out my laptop’s hard drive failed (no virus or hacker) and my ATM and email accounts mysteriously granted me access after a few days. Just practice, I guess.

And then all too soon the weekend was over; my friends flew home and the boys came back to Marfa after a weekend of fishing in the gulf.  We ate their catch (from waters unscathed by the BP spill) that evening, and then we got down to work.  Our little house is closing in on a century and spent many years as a rental, so it is a (delightful) work in progress.

I wave goodbye from the same perch on which I waved hello

Fortunately, in that southerly latitude, the days seem longer.  Yet again, all too quickly, we needed to return home to New Hampshire.  The plan was to drive to Austin, where David had a meeting.  This afforded Pete and I with the opportunity to meet up with my sister Laura and her family at Lake Austin for some barbecue and a little water skiing (Pete, not me). Although it was Peter’s first experience skiing on something other than snow, he got up on his third try and stayed up. Pretty darn exhilarating; even just as a (proud) spectator.

By 6:15 the next morning I was on a flight home as I had a CT scan scheduled the following day. All went smoothly until I got back on the highway north post scan. Lighted signs announced that emergency repairs were being done on the road surface and that three out of four lanes were closed. Sigh. It took more than an hour to travel perhaps two miles. I have mentioned before that patience is not one of my virtues, but I decided to consider this a little exercise in character building.  No need to take it personally (I said to myself) and it could be worse; how about the guy who was now stalled in the far left breakdown lane. At one point a small army of unmarked police cars and vans emblazoned SWAT came roaring down the southbound lane, and once again I was reminded that somebody was in a far more uncomfortable position than I. Fortunately (as I really had to pee), the exercise reached its conclusion at the two mile/one hour mark. I joined Mary and Raleigh for dinner at their house and we toasted my return (they are so much fun) with champagne.

Yesterday was spent picking up the mail and such, as well as stopping off at my favorite thrift stores. I am not only a regular customer, I have friendships with the proprietors, and they begin to worry (really) when they’ve not seen me for awhile. The final stop was at the farmers market in Laconia for some pulled pork sandwiches; David, Pete, Buddy and the hermit crab (one died enroute–it was an amazing five years old)  due home from their long trek in the truck from Texas.

So, I am back to regular routines and once again have access to a computer. On Monday I will go over the results of my scans with Dr. Shaw. Here’s hoping for, if not resolution, stability.