I Think This is Wednesday

Yes, it's Wednesday...I'm not sure if yesterday was one day or two.

I'm not too happy with my Taurus. It has too many bells and whistles, is too big, is black and it maneuvers like a boat. I'm not very good at parallel parking anymore and this thing won't fit on street parking. I also don't like driving at night in strange places and having a black car isn't helpful.

Last night I decided to go find something to eat and get a few  groceries. I ended up at O'Neill's pub on Central Avenue...a place I know and it has a parking lot so I could just stop the car and get out. I had beer and a Reuben, which was pretty good.  I stopped off at the local Whole Foods to get a few groceries and then got back to my motel and wedged the car into a parking spot.

Anyway, I made contact with my builder so we had a nice lunch (thanks, Betty) at El Pinto. You can buy El Pinto stuff at our home grocery store and I especially like their green chile sauce but I had no idea that the restaurant here was the same folks. How cool is that?  We caught up on news and had a good long talk about lots of stuff. I'm sitting firmly on the fence with a bunch of decisions and actually don't have to decide for a while. My land is still there but looking kinda ragged because people have been dumping stuff up there in the neighborhood. Since no one lives up there it is unsupervised and people have been taking advantage. If this continues it won't be such a great place to build.

I decided to look around at homes for sale just to get a current idea of what was available. I'm just naturally picky, I guess. I feel a little like Goldilocks...some are too big, some are too small, some are just right but the guy next door has a meth lab.  Betty also talked about an old home down in the center of Albuquerque that needs rehabbing and that sounded interesting enough that I will drive down and take a look.

It's bigger than it looks

I'm still having fun with the Black Behemoth...my car. I needed to get gas but didn't know where the filler door was but I guessed right when I pulled up to the pump. But how do you get the tank filled if you can't see a way to open the little door? Hmmm...maybe the manual will tell me...I guess it's in the glove compartment. Hmmm...how do you open the glove compartment??  It took me about five minutes just to get the tank open. It wasn't hard but just not apparent. The car occasionally tries to communicate with me but I don't speak Ford.

I hate to complain but as long as I'm grumpy about the car I may as well continue. My motel (Suburban Extended Stay) has been my home here on each of my trips for at least five years. I like it's location and it offers a safe and quiet place to stay. It is easy to get around town from here and I can walk to my favorite coffee/bakery shop and to Rudy's BBQ if I want. Most people here are business folks who are here temporarily and need a place for a few weeks or so. It has a small kitchen so I can cook if I want. The cost is dirt cheap -- only $34 a night. I probably can't stay at home much cheaper. BUT...over the years the place has been going slowly downhill and they are cutting back on basics. Where I used to have coffee filters, a human-sized coffee pot, dish towels, cooking utensils and enough dishes for a couple people for a couple days I now have one frying pan and two various utensils and not much else. The coffee maker shrank down to a thimble-sized contraption.  They still provide toilet paper and bath towels but not much else.  I'd be happy to pay a couple dollars more if they would provide basic stuff that I need. I know, I know...what should I expect for that kind of money.

End of grumbling. The weather here is beautiful. It was 70 degrees and very pleasant today and will be warmer tomorrow.