New Mexico Living -

I've been here a couple of weeks or so since the family left and it surely is quiet. I miss playing with or holding the grandbabies, I miss seeing their parents and having actual conversations. And I miss becoming more acquainted with my daughter-in-law. Oh well, I guess.

Since I feel motivated to give the kids something for occupying their house, I've started the last of the packing and cleaning. So far packing has been minimal, stuff like the bathroom wastebasket and a few stray toys they may have left behind on purpose. And I've started a small heap of stuff to bring with me when I see them next. Things like a partial package of diapers, a toy Forrest and I used to play with, things like that. I am glad to see his rope was taken, we played for hours with that rope. Sometimes it was a fishing line, sometimes a rescue rope and sometimes it caught his stuffed dog or fought off monsters. Even when he really, really liked a game and we played it a hundred times I didn't care. It put me in mind of how fast my own kids grew up and how soon once becomes be too much.

One of the other things I do is sweep the front sidewalk. Did I mention the wind tends to blow in the afternoon and sometimes its still blowing in the morning. On calm mornings I sweep in front of the house door and the driveway. Three days ago I started to sweep. I cleaned by the front door and partially moved a drift of door by the garage. That drift seemed fairly big and I was tired of walking through it on the way to Scout. Unfortunately it was in the afternoon so lots of the dirt blew back to around the house. After I made a path I quit.

Now its two days later. A good portion of the garage dirt blew away however I found pebbles in the lee of the car to clear away. And this time I decided to measure the powdery dirt in front of the main door. I easily picked up a quart and then swept the rest back under some nearby cedar bushes. It looked like my quart came from under those same bushes since I found bits of cedar debris on top of it. And it looks darker than the driveway sweepings, so I think I will try planting in it.

Humidity runs around minus 10% so water evaporates while I hold it. If I showered and then walked around the yard (6ft block fence folks) I'd be dry when I returned, covered with fine dust but dry.

Another task is dusting. All that wind blows the very fine dust in through every nonexistent crack a house has. Down here, you don't need an energy audit to tell where the leaks are, all a body needs to do is look for dust patterns.

Thinking of dust, Scout has the same problem. One of the first things I did after parking her in the house lee was wash the bedding. And for a few days there were no clouds of fine, air-choking dust when I moved covers to lie down, no coughing fits, no taste of clay when I breathed. Now I understand why all the homeless looking people also seem the color of dirt.

Alas, I hear the siren call of dust bunnies and must heed their call.