We're in Arizona, where I'm not running many miles uphill on this road towards Spud Mountain in the San Juans in Colorado:

                   

Ever since I got back to the lowlands, I've been expecting some magic to happen such that I would be able to run again - say, the way that I was running a year ago, when I injured my heel while running repeats on the treadmill. But this hasn't happened - entropy never reverses itself. Once you're a pickle, you'll never again be a cucumber.

We're going to be staying in Arizona for another week, as KimPuckett¹ wants to visit her father back in Indiana. Bud is not well - he's definitely dealing with entropy in its worst form. He's 83 years old, and he's reached that point in his orbit where one thing isn't fixed by the time that something else goes wrong.

I'd like to put in my request here to NEVER be 83 years old.

I could have gone back to Durango without her - she could have flown out of Phoenix and into Durango for not much more money - but somehow the idea of being at the Love Grotto without her isn't very appealing. And I don't like the idea of driving up there without her, either.

Come to think of it, I'd like to put in my request here to NEVER be without Ethel for any extended period.

So I'll be at home with Silas and the dogs until Ethel gets back next Wednesday, at which point we'll head up to the Love Grotto at Purgatory (that'd be the LG@P : ) That's assuming that Bud is okay at that time - he's so sick now that we are pretty much putting everything on hold. I'm not even bringing Mom out from Alabama right now because we have no idea when we might have to suddenly drop everything and head to Indiana with a greater sense of urgency.

At least I'll get to run with my friends in Anthem - assuming that they are willing to run that slowly (I'm in the worst shape that I've been in since I started running - never have I been this much out of shape) And we're getting new bedroom furniture tomorrow, so I'll be able to get things organized in there.

But it also means that Silas and I will be in the house together, without Ethel as a buffer zone That's way too much testosterone in one place - it needs a blending of estrogen to keep it from being an explosive mixture. But, at the same time, I won't have Ethel around, so I might be more subdued that normal - for all I know, I won't even get off the couch. Silas might be able to run rampant through the house, making messes willy-nilly, and I may be unable to do anything about it.

Meanwhile, back at the motel - we've just found out that our "new" washer and dryer, that we bought still with the original wrapping and taping and documentation when we moved into the new house, actually DON'T HAVE SERIAL NUMBERS ON THEM, indicating that they might have been stolen; also, we found out that the short circuit, which resulted in a small fire in the wiring harness in the back of the dryer happened before, and was fixed with duct tape, which means that they weren't new, either.

So, while Ethel is gone, Silas and I might get to spend our quality time together, at the laundromat : )


¹Ethel's name is Ethel - but, in its native form, her name is KimPuckett- and, yes, that is one word, with two capitalized letters, like MacDonald or O'Henry.