For a Desert It Sure Rains A Lot

I think it has rained every day I've been here except for yesterday when it threatened but never rained. I take it that the monsoon season has started. New Mexico has a short monsoon season but it is usually in August, I thought.  This is a crazy year so maybe it is starting earlier. It smells nice after the rain and everything is greener than usual. Of course, it all dries up in only an hour or so.

Well, I'm waiting for this vacation to start. Any day now would be fine with me. This apartment hunting stuff is for the birds. I decided that I've seen enough. I've seen about twenty and they are sort of a blur in my memory. I took some notes but I should have taken pictures.  I have about six that I can be happy with so when the time comes I'll contact them and see what is available and at what price.   I'm going to do something fun tomorrow.

Brass Tacks...
I spent a good part of the day with my builder talking about the house and going over house plans. We decided to try to scale it back down to about 1600 square feet again. It seems to grow a little bit each time we work on the plans and it is time to get it close to final. My needs and my wants are two different things but I need to have a place where I will want to live. We opened up the kitchen by removing a wall and putting in an island with a space for bar stools. That will expand the living room a little and might allow for a few adjustments on size. I was originally wanting it closed off but I'm changing my mind a little. We expanded the garage last time because I had a long bed truck but I traded it in for a short bed so we can shave off a little space there. I have a good builder and she is open to ideas and keeps up with new trends. There are some new laminated kitchen cabinets that have a very modern look to them. The fireplace will be simplified from what we were going to do because there is a new product on the market that is sort of modular and that looks like what I want. At this point I'm still going to build but still keep one eye open for a resale that would make me happy as a reasonable compromise. Nothing major will happen until I get out here permanently.  She says the first hurdle will getting the bank to approve the loans.

The Range Cafe
I ate supper at The Range Cafe in Bernalillo. This was during a downpour so I was glad to be off the road. I had two Chile Rellenos, considered a "small plate". They were good. The Range is a good place to people watch because if has a mixed clientele...old and young cowboys, Indians, young couples with kids, professional ladies, old and young tree huggers, retired atomic energy scientists, and me.

I stayed in Bernalillo for a little while because I wanted to see them pull up the sidewalks at 9 PM but they didn't do it....maybe because of the rain. 

Downtown Bernalillo