You, dear reader, must suffer through this blog. But, to quote the immortal Popeye, "I yam what I yam." My kids get suspicious when I keep taking photos of them, and I am in no hurry to post photos of myself, so, instead, you get long blocks of text about things that are going on inside my head. Lucky you!
(Mmmm. Yams sound really good right now, actually. Dinner?)
So, today Husband got stuck on the side of the road on his way to work. Actually, he was lucky in that it wasn't literally on the side of the road that the van stopped moving in a forward direction; he was able to make it to a gas station, at least, so he was out of traffic. That meant that I was able to buy a package of gum and some water bottles from the convenience store when I finally arrived to switch cars with him and wait for the tow truck while Husband continued his delayed journey to work.
The tow truck was late, of course. Because I had run out the door to drop the boys at school before heading into the outskirts of The Big City to rescue Husband, I didn't think to bring anything to read, so I sat and chewed my gum and delved into the magical world of my imagination for over an hour.
(You could have used your phone to entertain yourself, you idiot.)
I really only use my phone to text my children, put stuff on my calendar, and play solitaire, and I didn't feel like playing solitaire. But look! I did find these pics I took recently:
One of our neighbors gave me a big bag of homegrown jalapeño peppers. I used some of them in a salsa, but I did it without using gloves. Yeah, I see you nodding! You know what happened! I know better and I still de-seeded jalapeños gloveless! Not only did my hands feel like they were spontaneously combusting for a couple days, but I also managed to touch the area around one of my eyes after I thought I'd washed the pepper oil off, and that produced a lovely burning sensation, as well. So, in this picture, I wanted to document that I am sometimes smarter than I look. I was making cream cheese-stuffed jalapeños. (Note my Cutco French Chef knife on the cutting board. I love that knife so much I would marry it. I'm not even kidding.)
A couple weeks ago, our town got five inches of snow all at once. When I say "our town," I really mean that snow only fell within the city limits. There wasn't even a snowflake a half mile out (we're in some special little section of land between the mountains and the Great Salt Lake where clouds stop to cry all their tears before moving on, weak and limp, to other places). Everyone's cars were sliding around and getting stuck all over the roads. Anyway, it had been a couple days since that snow, and no one had yet made tracks in the field when I went to take our dog, Marmite, and his buddies, Millie and Bonnie (my in-laws' dogs), on a walk. The little dogs (Marmite and Millie) enjoyed it for about five minutes--bounding around like tiny kangaroos--after which they got really tired and I had to break a trail for them by shuffling through the snow in my boots. The dogs had a great time, but I was exhausted and sweaty by the time we got back home.
Elannah took a selfie with Marmite. Oh, wook at the cute widdle puppy all snuggled up wif his favorite human!
(That was way more information than anyone wanted about those pictures, you know.)
So, I entertained myself mentally until Tyler, the tow truck guy, showed up and hoisted the van onto the towing bed. I hopped into the front seat of the tow truck for the 30 minute drive back home, which disconcerted Tyler a bit, I could tell. He admitted he had been out late the night before and his boss had had to call him and wake him up. "But I wasn't out partying!" he assured me. I told him he probably felt better this morning for not having been partying late into the night. He agreed.
Then we struck up a lively conversation. I asked him stuff about himself, and that got things rolling. Where would he live if money were no object? Montana. Bozeman, specifically, because the people are so nice. Is tow truck driving his main job or is he a mechanic, too? Nope, he's just a tow truck driver, but it keeps him busy all day. Where did he grow up? Riverton, Utah, but he's lived in Wyoming and Montana, too. Etcetera. And, just before we got to my house, he told me he'd spent a summer working on Antelope Island repairing the old pioneer structures out there. They were originally made of mud and stones and were falling apart. He said he and his team had to scour the nearby land for rocks and then mix them with mud and a bit of concrete to rebuild the structures.
"Oh, man!" I said. "I should have been picking your brain about that from the beginning!" I told him of my interest in building according to the landscape, and he was pleased with my barrage of questions. I would have asked more about it, but by that time I was guiding him to my house and it was too late to delve deeper into that fascinating bit of his life experience.
He put the van back in my driveway, and I shook his hand, thanked him for the tow and the conversation, and offered him one of the bottles of water I'd bought at the convenience store, which he accepted. I don't know if you tip a tow truck driver, but I didn't have any cash on me, so the point was moot. Then I went into the house and he drove off.
(People are going to think you've got a crush on the tow truck guy based on the fact that you are repeating all this stuff about him.)
Please. I'm old enough to be his mother, though I should have complimented him on his very neat and trim beard. I was just really excited to get out of the house and meet another human being to whom I am not related. And sitting in the van waiting for him to show up was a lot of fun, too, because I didn't have anything else to do but think. I got a lot of good, solid thinking done. It was very satisfying.
(This makes you sound like the most boring person on the planet.)
I yam what I yam.
Breaking News!
Husband has just finished putting in a new alternator on the van. He just started it up, and it's running as smooth as you could wish. I can hear it through the window. Husband often fixes the vehicles, and he's learned a lot of basic mechanics skills over the years. Rowr!
Also, Husband suggested the random title when I told him I was trying to come up with something. There you go.
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