January 31 - the Kindness of Strangers

Thursday, January 30th, I set aside a few minutes for my primping and grooming. I'm getting a little bedraggled. I bought a beard trimmer after the old one died and tried to trim things up a little. I still need a haircut.


I went to Twisters for lunch...for the first time. I could have fed a family of four with what they gave me and I just got a 1/4 size burrito thingy...too much food and I don't like French fries covered with chile sauce.  I went to the 'other' Albertsons for some groceries. I like it better than the one at Enchanted Hills.


I went home for a while but had to meet some people for a walk up untoi the foothills to see a frozen waterfall. When it was time to go my Subaru wouldn't start. I didn't have time to mess with it so I took the truck.

The waterfall is cool. It isn't much of as waterfall...mostly a cascade...but it is impressive. It is spring fed and really only amounts to a trickle but in the winter the trickle freezes and the spring keeps feeding it and it gets pretty big.  We walked along up into the canyon a little but it was too late in the day to go far.  We had 12 people and there were lots of pictures being taken. I'll go back there again -- it is near the trail head for a major trail up into the Sandias. One of our walkers knows about the area and said it was an old Spanish gold mine district with lots of old mines.  Ten of us went to the Range for supper and had a good time.  A couple walked by and said "Hi Rich" to me...I must look like a lot of people.


I got home a bit late and Watson was pissed off. He got fed and got his meds.  TV was my DVD of  Leverage.




Friday, January 31st, started off bad. I tried to figure out why my car wouldn't start. It was acting stranger than I expected. The radio and lights worked but not the windows and the ignition was dead but it made a whining groaning sound at times.  I checked fuses and other things but nothing seemed wrong.  Finally I called Subaru roadside service and, after some confusion about which car it was and my membership, they sent someone out to jump my battery. I figured it would need to be towed but when the guy got here it started up once he jumped the battery.


I needed to drive it a while to charge the battery so I headed out and went several miles out to Unser and then back on Paseo de Volcan...when I discovered that I was low on gas...very low.  I drove to the Murphy Express gas station and got some gas and then the car would not start up again.  I was stuck without any jumper cables. I went and told the attendant and he looked to see if they had any cables....nope.  I decided to walk to WalMart to get some jumper cables and the attendant offered to loan me his car and gave me the keys.  l was amazed that someone would do that...give a stranger their car to go somewhere and trust them to come back. I thanked him and drove his car over to the store and got my jumper cables and headed back. It took less than a half hour. The attendant was going to jump my car as soon as he got off work...about five minutes...but an Indian lady drove up in her pick-up and helped me get started.   I drove over to Walmart and bought a new battery.


All the while this was happening the wind was blowing at 35 mph with gusts up to 45. Tumbleweeds were flying around. There was a dust storm -- dust was everywhere. You couldn't see the Sandias for the dust.


I got home and decided that I needed to fill the pond...it was about five inches low. The fish are doing OK and the algae seems to be diminishing little by little. It looks like I have some growth in the water lily pots.


Earlier in the day I tried to get my gate to open...back when I figured they would need to tow my car away. I couldn't get it to move. I figured the battery was dead in the clicker so while I was in WalMart I bought a new battery. Well, the gate still doesn't work even with the new battery.  I'll need to get out the House Book that Jules made to see how to fix it.

I had spaghetti and meat sauce for supper...a lot. I made too much pasta but I ate it all...it was good.  My TV for the night was Leverage again and then I listened to my audio book for a while.