es, indeed - this is Arizona, where you can (if you wish) call a landscaping company, and they will bring rocks to your house - they will sell you rocks, because - God knows - we don't have enough rocks to go around. There's a shortage.

This particular pile of rocks has a name, but I've forgotten what that name is - I think that this area is referred to as "The Boulders" but that may just be a real estate developer's creativity. There's a Presbyterian church at the base of this pile of rocks, and the sanctuary actually opens up to the rocks - they have boulders in their worship room coming up out of the ground; there are pews built around the boulders, they have boulders for walls and room dividers. The church seems to have been built to honor the boulders themselves, and it is a pretty cool place. (It makes me wish that we were Presbyterian - but, if we were Presbyterian, then Ethel would just not go to a Presbyterian church, instead of not going to an Episcopal church now that we're Episcopalian).

Meanwhile, back at the motel - not long ago, Ethel was in the kitchen, waving goodbye to the dishwasher installer and my money. (We had to get a new dishwasher, since the old one didn't cost as much as the one belonging to our neighbors didn't work). While we have a shortage of rocks in Arizona, we have no shortage of appliances; currently we have two stoves, two dishwashers, two refrigerators, and a chest freezer. We have two dishwashers and two stoves because the old ones didn't cost enough money to be fashionable didn't work. We have two refrigerators and a freezer because Ethel wants two refrigerators and a freezer (actually, I wanted the freezer, because Ethel won't buy me frozen fruits; I have to buy them in quantity, and keep them in the chest freezer).

At some point, we'll have to get a refrigerator to keep our rocks in. I've already used one of the stoves to heat rocks (to lay on Ethel's back; she decided that she was tired and needed a day at the spa, so I could either lay out the cash for something stupid in Scott$dale, or I could put new-age music on the stereo and lay Ethel on the kitchen counter with hot rocks on her back. And we'll probably need a rockwasher (don't laugh - Patrick the tree-top ectomorph keeps buying larger and larger rock polishers. He goes out into the desert and brings back a rock, and then polishes it. Don't ask me; I tend to think that rocks are for falling over and bleeding onto; I've never looked at a rock and said "You know, that rock needs polishing").

But right now, I can't buy any rocks - in fact, I can't buy any food. I have to admit that our dishes will be much cleaner now that we have the new dishwasher, since we won't be able to buy food, and we wont' mess up any dishes. Come to think of it, with no dirty dishes (because we can't buy food) this dishwasher will be much quieter - and much cheaper to operate.

It's like making money!

That we can then go spend on rocks.