Author: wetleatherdog@gmail.com

Posted on

Where Does Suzanne Go When She Goes?

Bow Tie o’ the Day’s paw prints and bones are letting you know that as our ABQ trip wound down, I was sooooo missing Skitter. The way I wore Bow Tie– and the fact that I was rolling my blue eyes– tells you that I stood all amazed and was trying very hard to keep my mouth shut. Why? Because we were far away from home in ABQ, and when Suzanne had a spare couple of hours to explore the surroundings, where did we end up? At a fabric store, of course.

In the hotel lobby the day before, Suzanne had been looking at the tourist pamphlets and advertisements. Wouldn’t ya know it– she found an ad for a fabric store called Hip Stitch. AND the ad had a coupon for a free quarter-piece of the fabric of your choosing. I knew resistance was futile. The fabric store ended up being the first of the two “sights” she saw in ABQ.

To be fair, I willingly drove Suzanne to the fabric store. She said we didn’t need to go, but I knew she was secretly desperate to get to it. You already know I can’t say NO to anything Suzanne wants. And I have to admit that nothing pleases me more than to watch Suzanne’s face be happy in a fabric store. There was no way on earth I wasn’t going to make sure she got there.

Suzanne got a bunch o’ fabric. I made out like the proverbial bandit I am, as well– because I found some terrific cape material. And then we had to buy another suitcase in which to haul our new fabric home from ABQ.

BTW   Suzanne has already started creating my magical ABQ-material cape. Let me assure you right now that based on what I can tell from watching her work on it, the finished cape will be a light year or two beyond cool and hip and groovy. 😲 I’m sharpening up my pester skills so she’ll want to git ‘er done tonight.

Posted on

I Wasn’t Ready, But I Did It Anyway

Tie o’ the Day and I managed to sneak in a bow tie on a t-shirt, for double amusement. While Suzanne labored at The University of New Mexico from 9-5 every day, I ferreted out ABQ wonders to see. Tie helped me keep my eye on the fuel level in our rental car. I have told you and told you before, and I will tell you again and again: A piece of neckwear can be helpful in a multitude of ways– like reminding you to fill up the gas tank after you’ve driven every road in New Mexico.

In fact, a tie is a lot like a dog in some ways. It wants to make you happy. It loves you beyond reason. You can be a complete jerk, and your tie will still think you are the cat’s meow– just like dogs do. If you can train a mutt to do tricks and tasks, you can train a tie to do the same.

I, on the other hand, am somewhat untrainable. Or maybe “unchangeable” is the right word. Okay, the right word is “stubborn.” There. I wrote it: I’m stubborn about one or two or 8,000 things. I stuck to my stubborn-inity about lifting my own luggage and keeping up with the vacay goal of seeing as many sights as possible. Unfortunately, I stubborn-ed my way into bringing home an unwanted souvenir: a cold.

SURGERY RECOVERY ALERT! Skip this if you’ve had it with my yammering on about how my recovery is coming along. I’d skip reading about it if I could, cuz I’d like to skip the whole recovery altogether.

Here it is, four months after surgery, and I still get caught by limits. The things I can’t do are certainly fewer and far-er between, but some of my shouldn’t-do’s are so simple– like putting away clean serving dishes onto a high shelf. Nope. Still can’t do that.

It’s frustrating to hold back on doing what I feel like I can do, but know I still should not do. I mean– really! How can it be that visiting one tourist spot a day is the totality of what I can do without having to couch potato the entire next day? So in Albuquerque, I just pushed my way through the exhaustion and drove where I wanted and investigated what there was to see. I knew I would pay for it. But oh, well. I know that since surgery, my immunity is low and my body is putting all its energy into repairing my innards. Thus, I easily caught a cold, which has leveled me.

I know a cold is a tiny recovery bump, but I also know I must baby it a little, so it doesn’t become something bigger, which my immunity system can’t handle. I think it was worth it to grab some vacay time though– to be somewhere that isn’t my own house, doing something besides sprawling out in my own recliner.

The week ahead is a must-recover-from-vacay week. I am, however, planning to drive to Delta to visit Mom in a few days. Her spirit is always rejuvenating. I hope my visits give her the same energizing uplift she gives me. What I do know about when we are together is that we never shut up and we never quit laughing. That’s gotta be good for us both.

Posted on

Not Snowed-in, But… A Tidbit From L.A., CA

 

When we were on our brief L.A. junket last weekend, Bow Tie o’ the Day and then Tie o’ the Day got their pics snapped while we ate dinner in our hotel’s restaurants. This mini vacay will henceforth be known as The Only Vacation We Ever Took, During Which We Never Left The Hotel, Except Once– To Uber To And From A Nick Cave Concert At The L.A. Forum. Yes, that clunky, overly-long, descriptive name is what it shall be known as, in the history of my life. You’ll be able to look it up in the index.

From Saturday afternoon until Monday morning, we slept and napped and dozed and somnambulated. And when being tired made us hungry, we dined in the hotel restaurants.  We simply could have ordered room service, but I thought that would be just a smidgen too lazy– bordering on the pathetic. But don’t think I didn’t consider doing it.

Posted on

Doing Some Travelogue Catch-up

So….. A week ago today, we were in L.A., attending a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds concert at The Forum. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s an obscure band, so don’t feel un-cool if you’ve never heard of it. But Suzanne’s life would simply not be complete if she had never seen them in concert at least once, so it was important we make Suzanne’s life complete. And by “complete” I mean complete until the next thing she needs to do to make her life feel complete.

For the duration of the event, I actually wore only the wood guitar Bow Tie o’ the Day, but I did wear my guitar bolo with it for a minute, just for this picture. I wanted to show it off.

Although I try to not match in terms of fabric designs and colors, I sometimes choose to be thematically matchy.  It’s almost etiquette to wear a guitar to a rock concert– especially if it’s a bow tie. Wearing a real guitar might create logistical problems. 🤡

Posted on

A Photo On Our Homeward-bound Flight

Bow Tie o’ the Day was spittin’ mad at the alarm clock this morning. We had to get out of bed at 4 AM to make our 6 AM flight from Albuquerque. We were back in SLC by 7:30 AM. Nap time!

I am double tired today because– not only did we have a mere few hours sleep at the hotel last night– Suzanne snored every minute of those few hours, which meant I did not catch a wink.

She doesn’t do that normally. I think she did it on purpose, just to amuse herself. Every once in a blue moon she does something like that just to act like she controls our lives. I don’t know why she has to flex her boss muscles. It’s not like she needs to prove anything. We both know she really is the boss of us. And that fact is not fake news. Even Skitter knows who wears the” big girl panties” in the family. 🤠

 

Posted on

An Unexpected Joy Of This Trip To ABQ

Smiley faces Bow Tie o’ the Night tops off this ensemble– which was made possible by the fact that I forgot to pack my pajamas for this trip. Consequently, I have HAD to wear my fancy, old timey swimming suit to sleep in. I’m so happy about the whole thing that I just might accidentally-on-purpose forget to put my pj’s in my suitcase for every trip.

My swimming attire is comfy and amusing. It’s difficult for me, or anyone in my presence, to take things too seriously when I’m wearing it. I’m wearing the button-down shirt because I was heading to the vending machine for a Diet Coke, and I was trying to disguise the fact that I wasn’t wearing a bra. The shoes are my cool animal print Sloggers. And yes, I had to wear Bow Tie. I can’t be seen without some kind of tie– even by hotel guests I don’t even know. It’s a trademark at this point. I’m like the sharks that will die if they stop swimming. If I stop wearing neckwear, I will most likely disappear.

I remember that as a wee kid I occasionally wanted to sleep in my swimming suit– especially when I got a new one. I doubt I was the only kid who wanted to catch some z’s in pool attire. I have no idea why it seemed like such a fun thing to do, but I also did not understand why adults had such a hard time allowing children to do this innocuous thing. In my circle of pals, I was the only kid whose parents had no problem with the idea. I was always allowed to sleep in it. Whenever I asked Mom or Dad if I could do it, I got an answer along the lines of, “I don’t care if you sleep in your holster and cowboy boots. Just go to bed.” Ah, the joys of being the afterthought baby of the family!

My parents were exhausted pros by the time I made my appearance on the planet, so they were loose-goosey with me about inconsequential things. Their previous parenting had taught them which battles mattered and which battles were much ado about nothing. The “nothing” battles  needed to not be fought, and sometimes not even commented on. Apparently, sleeping in a swimming suit was a “nothing” battle.

Mom told me flat-out once that she and Dad would spoil me, but that I was not allowed to be a spoiled brat. She said she and Dad were done doing all the vacations, etc. they did with the other kids, so I shouldn’t expect any of that. She said, “We’ll give you stuff and let you do what you want. But you’re not allowed to be a snot.” She wasn’t completely serious, but she sorta was. I got the message. If I was respectful of others and kind to them, I was a-ok with my parents. I didn’t go without material kid things. But mostly, I did not go without constant love and care and security. I was spoiled with those things every minute of my childhood. And of my adulthood. And of my middle-age-hood. And of whatever age-hood I’m in now.

Posted on

Six Eyes Are Better Than Four

Bow Tie o’ the Day didn’t get apprehensive or nauseous on our balloon ride this morning. Yesterday’s rain was nowhere in sight, so we drove just a bit north of Albuquerque to Rainbow Ryders. They had not lost my flight reservation, so it was all thumbs up for me to levitate in a basket with a dozen strangers– at 7AM.

Now you might think that for me, choosing the exact right bow tie for the outing would be the most important thing. Normally, that is true for most of the things I do and the places I go. But no! This morning the most important preparation I had to make with more-than-the-usual great care was to use an entire tube of Fixodent to glue in my dentures extra snuggly. I mean– if you lose those things from a thousand feet in the air, you ain’t gettin’ ’em back. It would certainly make for a wild story and a host of amusing photos, but gee… that’s pushing my loud life over the boundaries. And my wallet wouldn’t be happy about it either. I cannot abide buying things I already have.

It was a tight fit for us peeps in the basket. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but I was glad most of the group used deodorant and had brushed their teeth before they showed up and climbed in.

Bow Tie actually helped break the uncomfortable-ness of being a group of strangers. Bow Tie became a focal point of comments, which broke the ice. And a couple of women asked for TIE O’ THE DAY’s web address– because of how much they adored Bow Tie.

And even though I asked her if she wanted to go, Suzanne did not decide to go with me at the last minute. And I knew she wouldn’t. In fact, I am grateful she didn’t try to go. I was just being polite when I asked her to accompany me. See, Suzanne has this motion sickness issue. She is The Queen o’ Motion Sickness. It would not have been pretty. She’s such a queasy gal that the fact the ride was so smooth it felt as if we weren’t moving wouldn’t have mattered. And it was smoooooth. We Bucket-list-checker-offers were six feet off the ground before I realized we had begun our ascent.

Kris, our balloon pilot, maneuvered us down to a mere two feet above the Rio Grande. And then he took us up over trees on the banks almost immediately–barely scraping the trees’ highest leaves. Terrifying in a fun way. Still, it was smooth sailing.

When you land, you feel it. Not hard, but you know you’ve touched down. Kris recommended we sorta bend our legs at touch-down to soften it a bit. He also said touching-down with straight legs has occasionally snapped a leg bone or two. Bend our legs at the knee, we all did.

And to wrap things up, we all got a certificate for surviving our ballooning. And Kris poured us all a glass of Champagne to toast our accomplishment. Guess who couldn’t drink. I looked at it, smelled it, listened to its bubbles. Then I dumped it and drank my Diet Coke. Pilot Kris looked at me knowingly and said, “I’ve got 15 years sober. How many do you have?” I told him I’ve got 11. How did he know, when I hadn’t said a thing about being an alcoholic? Do we all look alike to each other? I have a theory: I’ve heard of radar and gay-dar. And, apparently, there’s drunk-dar.

 

Posted on

Rain, Rain, Don’t Rain On Albuquerque Tomorrow

Bow Tie o’ the Day is trying to keep me hopeful. It’s rained here the last two mornings, and I have a hot air balloon flight scheduled for early tomorrow morning. If there’s rain, there’s no flight.

I feel like I was duped into reserving my space in the balloon basket. Whenever I mentioned I was going to Albuquerque to anyone, they’d ask me if I was gonna do a balloon ride. I decided I should do it to see what all the hubbub is about. But I thought the kind of balloons they were talking about were like big balloon animals created by clowns. They’d be the size of horses and elephants, and I’d just throw a saddle on and head for the hills. I didn’t know they meant hot air balloons– kinda like the Hindenburg.

Okay, so I did really know what the balloon flight was all about. And I know that ABQ has a bigly hot air balloon festival every year, so balloon rides are part of the ABQ culture. But I thought you’d appreciate imagining clowns twisting balloons into large animals, and putting saddles on them.

I’ve never been a daredevil in terms of physical activities where you could maim yourself. I might be a clash fashion risk-taker, but I doubt I could break bones or decapitate myself with my fashion choices. I’m not an askeered person about death-defying adventures. I just know my limits and my likes.

I’m not antsy about tomorrow’s balloon flight. I’m not going to run out and up my life insurance or anything. However, I must admit that there is one tiny hole in my courage that kinda hopes it rains in the morning, so I can skip the ride without chickening out– and then I can whine to everyone about how disappointed I am that it was cancelled.

Posted on

Here, There, Everywhere

Bow Tie o’ the Day and I are ecstatic to be back posting. This is a photo I took at LAX, when we were waiting for our return flight to SLC. I have no idea who the silly critter is who’s behind me. All I can tell you is that no matter where I moved to do my snapping, she was there photo-bombing my selfies. I didn’t mind. I was happy to know I added interest to the child’s wait at the airport.

Anyhoo… I hate it when I completely disappear from posting for a few days. It’s happened three times since the end of June. And I don’t like it one bit. All three instances when I was unable to post for a few days at a time were the result of WiFi glitches.

First, I wanted to post from the hospital according to my usual schedule during my surgery week. But WiFi wasn’t working in my room. I had to nix that idea.

Second, I wanted to post daily when Suzanne and I beached around on Dauphin Island. But the WiFi on the island was hit-and-miss due to Tropical Storm Gordon having spent time there the day before we arrived.

And then, in L.A. over the weekend, I discovered we would have had to pay to get access to WiFi in our room. I am not cheap. I am not a skinflint. But I will not pay for WiFi in a hotel room I already paid an arm and a leg and 2/3 of a pancreas for. No, sir! Not this dame! It’s true I could have sat in the lobby– where the Wi Fi was free– and plunked away at my posts for a one or two hours each day. But I ain’t doing that either.

And yesterday (Monday) we were mostly in airports: LAX to SLC, and then from SLC to ABQ. Writing and posting wasn’t really a possibility under those circumstances. Never fear! TIE O’ THE DAY is back online. At least until we’re not again.

Posted on

And Icarus, To Boot

Bow Tie o’ the Day and Hat o’ the Day flapped their wings to fly us all the way to the hazy city of Los Angeles this morning. The flight crew was grateful for the help the attire provided, and our flight went swimmingly, as they say. (I don’t know why they say that.)

In these photos I am taking a break in the hotel lobby, just minding my own beeswax– la de da de da…. And then suddenly my head whipped around in a fit of paranoia and fear. The Hilton Los Angeles Airport conspiracy is on: $3 for a 20 oz. Diet Coke. I’m afraid. Very afraid. Suzanne and I will need to take out a second mortgage in order to support my cola habit for the weekend.