Wednesday “blew” in with more of the same. Add to it moisture which was good and bad, the humidity on Tues dropped to 12 percent and in TX that’s almost unheard of and some locals were rubbing the prayer beads real hard, personally I got out the Chapstick, been there done that. While the moisture helped, it killed my $16 wash job (that would have been $5 down here) – oh well.

Spent most of the morning shopping for stuff, it’s a sort of mutual exchange sort of thing, when someone goes NOB they bring back things unavailable at the Lake for other folks. Also, friend George had acted as a shipping point for several items I didn’t want to attempt to ship through Customs like a bunch of blank ID’s and passports that I can forge and sell down here – hey, living ain’t cheap! - just kidding of course, I had ordered a heat shield for the weather station sensors and wiring for the radar detector that I left built in the Mark VIII and a HitchSafe which is a slick little safe drawer that slips into the trailer hitch receiver for a spare key etc. I have a deathly fear of locking myself out of the car after being used to the Mark having digital buttons on the door.

High on my list was 8 cans of Krylon UV resistant clear spray for my neighbor and her art teacher. Turns out the stuff isn’t readily available except at Michaels and I had to go to two different stores to get 5 cans and the other 3 were just plain clear from Wal-Mart. Also some stuff from Walgreens and an oil change etc. and finally about 4 hours in the storage area opening boxes and searching for the elusive disks and other stuff, all the time with the wind howling past the open storage area door bringing top soil from New Mexico I’m sure.

After a shower to wash off the dust I headed to Marge’s, my neighbor in Lakeway, and it was great to see her and eat with her again plus she sent home a loaf of banana bread. It was a bit eerie looking at my old house across the street. For twenty two years each time I walked home I saw something that needed fixing or painting or upgrading – now, all I say was someone else’s house, I didn’t dwell on it and hard as it was to leave it last year, it’s just a memory now. I guess some wounds heal, others never will.

All the time the wind blew and it was a cold wind and dropped to freezing a couple of nights. I was looking at the weather station here seeing very nice warm temps, but then again it was super cold and snowing to the north so no complaints.

More NOB observations; as I walked into the Wal-Mart I’m used to having my ears assaulted by the biggest humongous boom box blaring distorted “music” from a large stack of like items you can take home for a few hundred pesos. This Wal-Mart was quiet, spooky quiet like almost no noise, no clutter, now families clogging the isles, I’d forgotten how “upscale” a Wal-Mart could be. I think another thing that is very different is that everything NOB is finished, the pavement is nice, the grass and shrubbery are finished, the overall polish of everything is evident. NOB we live in a polished world with curb appeal being a high priority compared to SOB where the personal areas, inside the wall areas, are nice, but outside is someone else’s problem.

If I could do one simple thing I would have every kid growing up spend a year down here to gain the perspective of what they have NOB no matter their personal situation. It would open eyes and dramatically alter the way we view America. And, this area I live in is not by any measure the poorest area of MX, in fact we are probably in the more affluent States and areas. The snake people north of here live along the side of the highway in shelters that are little more than tents made of blankets, tarps, old signs, anything to protect them somewhat from the elements and they hunt snakes and sell their skins on little makeshift stands beside the road to survive as we zip by in our expensive air conditioned cars listening to satellite radio. No es un mundo (it’s not one world)

More in the next edition titled: “I took a nap in the middle of I35 – really!”