There is a special sound cowboy boots make on tile floors, especially a handmade cowboy boot clicking across Saltillo tile. Handmade cowboy boots across Saltillo tile floors in a self-styled health resort in New Mexico.
Sierra Grande Resort, I was checking in after a long weekend in El Paso. Short drive in a rent car, stopped, I wonder if that was the same border patrol stop that got the rapper? Stopped briefly, I think.
- I’m not riding dirty.
As I checked in, there was another guy, followed me in, I had on work clothes, the South Texas fall uniform, slightly more relaxed than Austin, a mute, loud print shirt and shorts, with my “airline” sandals on. Piper slip-on model. I like that shirt, got it in Santa Fe one year, Amerindian-esque patten on brownish background, ochre woven in the design. Pink bandanna holding my hair down.
The fellow in the boots, he greeted the svelte inn-keeper with hug, and a, “It’s been too long since I’ve seen you” merry mumble. The desk clerk, perhaps a business owner, she had the indeterminate-age hippie-chick look. Could be in her 20s or her 50s, no way to tell. Long, wavy locks, peasant skirt, leggings.
The guy in the boots? Salt and pepper hair crowned a bald pate. Fade jeans, and slightly crumpled, aged Hawaiian shirt.
My people. Gentle, familiar, yet, unknown. I felt right at home. The apparent inn-keeper and her assistant who showed the way to the outdoor mineral bath that evening, I just know I’ve seen them before. Perhaps it was two, three years ago when I stopped through on the way to some place else.
New Mexico, and T or C is timeless like that. It’s right above Hatch, NM. On the map. Truth or Consequences, New Mexico used to be called Hot Springs until a TV (radio) show — with that name — it was an advertising stunt. Town outlasted the radio (TV) show.
The resort is perfect. I discovered an added bonus, too.
To some it’s a feature and to others an annoyance. The phone, tablet, computer all said the same thing: No Service.
How cool is that!
With the iPad 3, and iPhone 5, all on the Death Star, there’s a blind spot that runs right up the center of New Mexico. This isn’t the first time I’ve had this kind of problem. Been ten years or more, but I’ve seen this once when the cell phone, it was really both analog and digital, it didn’t work in New Mexico, but did work soon as I crossed the state line.
I’ve toyed with several applications, programs, that store data “in the cloud.” Here’s the problem: I had an idea, something I wanted to add to a December horoscope. If it was stored, “in the cloud,” I wouldn’t be able to access it while on break.
Last summer on the Olympic Peninsula, I got that “no service,” too. I like it. It’s refreshing. Good for the mind, body and soul.
Best sticker was in the Black Cat Used Bookstore, “Truth or Consequences, NM: Nothing to do, and all day to do it.”
Two-Meat Tuesday
(Kindle Version)
Title: Two-Meat Tuesday
ISBN-13: 978-1411638723
Two-Meat Tuesday – Kramer Wetzel