Busy, Busy, Busy Weekend

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The Party's over. It's time to get on with life.

It was a packed, fun weekend. Melissa arrive here Saturday morning, and we visited a little while and just relaxed, then we headed into Ruidoso for the Blues Fest. In Ruidoso, I found a parking place, and we climbed this very narrow staircase to the main street, then walked about five blocks to the location. For some reason, this staircase, which I have climbed many times, tickles me, so I thought I snap it. It is an indicator of the charms and challenges of this area. You find very little that is level. The street at the top of tthe stairs is relatively level and the parking lot I'm standing in at the bottom are both fairly level, but getting from here to there, wherever here and there are, is rarely an easy path. BTW, the walk to the festival was up the stairs, two blocks of slight incline, but on a reasonably level sidewalk, then three blocks up a very, very steep hill.

At the top of the steps, we turned right and walked a block. I asked Melissa if she was hungry .... yes; did she want to eat at the festival, probably hot dogs, burgers, maybe barbecue, or eat at a burger café we were passing, .... burger café. Good choice. It's a place that makes excellent angus burgers. We both had an avocado-swiss burger, fries and a drink.

When we finished, we walked another block of easy stroll, then tackled the hill. There was actually a shuttle running this route, but we missed it, so we trekked up the long hill and arrived a bit winded. Along the way we both took time for some phlower fotos ....

Melissa had not seen Red Hot Pokers ===>
and she was fascinated with them. She took a number of shots of them before we continued.

Melissa's undergrad degree is Photography and Writing. She is now working on her Master's degree in Architecture. She was in Albuquerque last week to take a course and the Universtiy of NM. The course sounded amazing. As I told you last week the class visited a pueblo, and through the remainder of the week they visited several others to look at the natural materials, design, etc. There was focus on what we could call "going green," how the angles of walls effect the heating and cooling, and talks about building to suit the environment. I have to laugh at times about how people come into these mountains and the surrounding desert and build a huge 2-3 story white house with colonnades, blue trim and roof. I often wonder if they don't see how the house sticks out like a sore thumb. I don't mean everyone should go with adobe or evergreen colors, but please! I wouldn't build a hacienda style home in Georgia or Maine or Wisconsin! But maybe that's just me.

At the top of the hill we entered the grounds for the Blues Fest. I realized as soon as I looked around that I'd made an error. I should have thrown in a couple chairs for us to sit on. There were large picnic tables under an awning, but in the main field in front of the stage, people were in chairs. It turned out to be no problem, because we found ample room under the tent, shared a table with a rotating group of people with whom we thoroughly enjoyed visiting.

The music was good. I didn't know any of the groups playing, but it didn't matter. Blues is blues is blues, and none of it is bad! Melissa and I visited with each other and with our table mates while listening to the music, walked around a while to look at what the few vendors had to offer. T-shirts, jewelry, hats, the usual junk. I bought a toe ring with a frog on it, really cute.



Near the stage, people danced a lot. In fact, they danced almost anywhere, and it was fun to watch.










I laughed when I realized that most of the musicians in the groups were, uhm, older. It kinda makes sense. I think Blues is a music that most people have to grow into. I've known few really young people who are true Blues fans. Perhaps you have to live long enough have something to be "blue" about.

This guy in the red shirt must have been all over the place. I only took a few pictures, but he was in about half of them! No, it wasn't on purpose .... I didn't even know it until I looked at the pictures at home.

I noticed something interesting while there. I don't know if it has to do with the area I live in, but there were people there in shorts and t-shirts, women in dresses and strappy heels and men in light sport jackets, people with heads of dreadlocks and an Afro(what's with that??), people dressed almost like hippies, folks in cowboy hats, boots and jeans, and several Apaches. I wouln't have thought of a cowboy (a real one, thank you very much!) being into Blues. And the hippy-dippy folks .... did they think it was Woodstock because it was in a field? Maybe I'm underestimating the drawing power of the Blues. Anyway, it was interesting.

We left around 6:00, before the headliner. I heard from a friend that it was really good. However, Melissa was getting really tired, and truth be know, so was I. I asked her if she wanted something to eat before we left town or preferred to have something at home. We decided that I'd make my seafood pasta, and Melissa loved it. And yes, Caroline, I will make it for you when you come out!


Back at home, I noticed that my patiently awaited blossom was open on the cactus! This is what it looked like on Saturday .....












And on Sunday, several more buds had opened!














And my little $1 geranium is going to town! A couple others are about to bud, and soon I should have blossoms on 4-6 of them.


Sunday we met Allan for brunch at a newly opened café in Capitan. It was good. Not great, but good. We had a great time together. Allan and Melissa hadn't seen each other since, as far as we can remember, 1980 or 1981. I think they enjoyed catching up.

Melissa had developed a little blister-like thing on the inside lid of one eye, so we drove to Ruidoso and got some medication for it. We talked about going for a short hike, and she planned to leave for Santa Fe in the afternoon, but by the time we got back to the house, Melissa had a migraine setting in. She laid down to sleep, and was out for nearly three hours. By the time she woke, she decided to stay another night, because her vision was still not quite right. So we had a light dinner, she washed a few clothes and we turned in.

Today she left about 9:00 and I was back into my usual routine. I treated myself to a pedicure this morning, and had a yoga class in the afternoon. I watered my neglected little garden and the newly planted plants, fixed a light dinner, and suddenly, I'm so tired right now that I could probably fall into bed and sleep 12 hours!

Maybe I'll just do that!

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