1. Surround yourself with wadded up Kleenex. Make sure it’s freshly used and in the path for others to inadvertently step on.

2. Spit multi-colored matter into those and other receptacles. Added effect if you do it while people are eating.

3. Cough until your voice is hoarse enough to pass for an old, crotchety witch on the phone. Hack repeatedly, with enthusiasm, throughout the day.

4. Don’t shower for three or four days.

5. Roll around in bed long enough to spark snarl and dread-lock formation, then leave it that way because you haven’t showered for three or four days.

6. Avoid all iron-rich greens, and sleep, at all costs so you can become anemic and exhausted and get those cool dark circles under your eyes.

7. Adopt a teenage son so you can add frazzled stress to the repertoire of nasty conditions affecting your overall appearance and persona.

8. Avoid leaving the house for as many consecutive days as possible to stay out of the sun and pale the skin to accentuate the ashen, sullen look.

9. Wake up in the night gasping for air (the more raspy and frightening the gasp the better) to scare your fiance/spouse/lover/parents awake, heart pounding.

10. Make sure your chest is full enough of junk so that it makes a disgusting gurgling, growling noise when you breathe in, and an eerily convincing, whistling, howling noise when you breathe out.

Happy Halloween!

I’m going back to bed.

Posted by tee in fun stuff
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

Posted by tee in photos, sense of place
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

The whole world smells like wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. Nanook and Kenya chased and nipped at their puffs of breath in the cold - and it was cold - I pulled out the scarf and gloves this time and the dogs pulled me in the direction of various groups of deer and darting rabbits.

Those two are as strong and fast as horses; if we had snow on the ground and a sled I could have some fun. They have two friends up the main road a way - an older Samoyed and a young Great Pyrenees who always greet us from the end of their driveway and accompany us for the rest of our walk, then come back to hang out at the house with us for awhile before trotting back home.

I love when it’s teetering on winter; it’s still such a honeymoon love affair with crisp, cold air after a hot summer and the thrill of a possible first thick snow overnight still teasing us when we climb in bed at the end of the day. Everything smells so good, so warm and spicy, and like the cusp between all the other seasons, I wish it would stay.

Posted by tee in de la vida, favorites
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

The top 20 memorable moments from the trip, in no particular order:

1. Finding out 20 minutes after we pulled out of the driveway that there was an oil leak in the rear differential.
2. Walking along the Arkansas River in Salida after lunch.
3. Driving through a blinding rain and thunderstorm at the Utah border.
4. Waking up to fog on the mesas in Green River, Utah.
5. Passing the snow and light of the Rubies near Elko, Nevada.
6. Cresting the hill and seeing the lights of Reno spread out in the valley after a long day driving.
7. Finding Smokey the Duck healthy and happy at Virginia Lake after releasing him there four years earlier.
8. Having a heaping plate of Pirate’s Pizza Antipasti - best salad on earth.
9. Catching the first glimpse of Lake Tahoe coming over the mountain on Mount Rose Highway.
10. Sifting for tiny rocks in the sun on the shoreline at Nevada Beach.
11. Waking up to snow falling the next morning.
12. Having drinks and playing pool with a fire going.
13. Walking the boardwalk at Sand Harbor.
14. Seeing Joshua after more than six years!
15. Picnicing riverside along Hwy 395 near Topaz Lake.
16. Winding the rollercoaster roads south of Mono Lake, punctuated by wild horses running alongside and across the road.
17. Spending an hour trying to decide on dinner in Las Vegas.
18. Shane losing (and then later finding) his wallet in dark somewhere between Vegas and Kingman, AZ.
19. Having a stranger pay for our lunch in Winslow, AZ and then disappear before we had a chance to see or thank them (the second good thing that happened after Shane finding his wallet).
20. Passing San Antonio Mountain and breathing a sigh of relief that we were finally back in the valley.

Posted by tee in photos, sense of place
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

Everyone’s still asleep but me and the dogs, and I’m surprised even I’m awake. We got into my mom’s in Reno around dinner time yesterday afternoon, then got a call from Joshua - an old friend who had come down from Sacramento, on a leap of faith that he’d find me after hearing I was in town, to spend a couple of hours together while we were here.

We had a good time, relived a whole lot of great moments and memories, and he got to finally meet Shane, and Sherri and Caleb too, and to see how much Sarah had grown in the six years since he’d seen her.

The McCarran loop was waiting. So much here has changed.

Posted by tee in wandering
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

Hot tub’s shut down. Towels drying. Pie and ice cream. Cold, starry skies. Fireplace. Billiards. Movies. Drinks. Later we’ll shower and pack. Tomorrow, hopefully some time in at the beach before we head back down the mountain for a night in Reno, then point the van toward home on Thursday.

Family visits over the weekend, Shane flies out next week for a few days, and then it’s time to think about the holidays.

Whew.

Posted by tee in wandering
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

Posted by tee in photos, sense of place
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …