It’s evening now, but today was one of those mornings in paradise.
The ancient washing machine that empties into the kitchen sink—if you remember to hook the hose over the edge—had come to a stop with a clatter and a scrape. As she pulled out the wet laundry to hang it on racks in front of the wood stove, the words tumbled out:
“I’ve had it with this. I have really, really, really had it…”
Well, so have I. Had it for years, in fact. She meant the frontier lifestyle in the old adobe, which pulls in some other things, but I was already sore from a self-critical load on the very same subject. I just don’t know what the fuck to do about it, which is how I replied. Two mistakes right there.
I apologized, of course. (More than once.) We’re in this together, she knows how it is.
And you all know there is a way out. We can go somewhere boring where houses are cheap. We can buy something cheap here and eat dirt and die. We can rent a nice house and get tossed after a year. Or I can buy us a ranch and a new 4WD… Maybe not by the end of the week, but hey: If she misses her old girlfriends, she can hop on a plane. I’ll hook the kayak up to the Jeep and go looking for whales. We’ll have a beautiful greenhouse and grow kumquats and beer.
Tell me about the rabbits, George. Hell, I just did.
John Hamilton Farr lives at 7,000 feet in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, U.S.A. As New York Times best-selling author James C. Moore tells it, John is “a man attuned to the world who sees it differently than you and I and writes about it with a language and a vision of life that is impossible to ignore.” This JHFARR.COM site is the master writing archive. To email John, please see CONTACT INFO on .png)
If you think you’d ever want to check out Portland I’ll show you around.
Why thank you. One never knows! There’s a reason I came here, though. Taos definitely matters.
Yall need a vacation! I told you women will camp out for awhile, but when it really comes down to it they actually like washing machines, dryers, septic tanks that work, heat that comes on, and their hair done. When spring arrives and the flowers are abundant all of us will have a clearer thought. Hang in there, you’ll decide, that golden light will dawn.
Some actual gold would fix things right up. 🙂 That’s really what all this is about. Either we have astounding luck, I up my game, or we relocate somewhere cheaper. Prefer first two choices, but any will work. This is the year!
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