Idle Thoughts on the Road Over the Mountain

Rural Route Boxes

When ski season is over there is something so absolutely wonderful about hitting the local routes. My favorite is down 434 to Las Vegas, the most meditative is 64 to Raton, but the most frequently taken is 64 to Taos. It is a winding path over Palo Fechado pass and I have taken it often enough I think I could do it in my sleep if it was not for all the crosses beside the road where someone tried that and failed. I do go on auto pilot.

Part of my mind is accessing the quality of light and whether it would benefit me to pull over and take the shot. Camera is almost always in the car. Part of me is making amendments to the shopping list and another coming up with posts for FaceBook if I dared text while driving. There is always the blog I will write when I get home. I think I was unduly influenced by And to Think I saw it All on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss first published in 1937 would you believe. Long before I was born and even longer before I started reading it to my sister.

I am not sure what was more harmful to my upbringing: the book, that we never lived on or near a Mulberry street, or that my parents never asked what I saw on my way home. But the tales I could have told.

Today it was idle thoughts. Disconnected thoughts. Watched the first episode of Wolf Hall this morning and was unduly (favorite word of the day) influenced by a dining scene where people, including Lord Cromwell, ate with their fingers. I am well aware the fork was invented in 400 A.D. but not introduced to the British until Henry I. Though for some reason I had connected it to Henry the VIII. So why then were these lords of the era of Cromwell eating with their fingers and not forks? I love catching our historical errors in popular entertainment.

But what most amazed me is how well and mannerly these diners were eating. A far cry from family hour at Denny's. As I was eating sushi while driving home, and of course sucking my fingers because I had again forgot to pick up napkins, I found myself adapting their very mannerly way of sucking their fingers in Wolf Hall. It really makes a lot of sense if we are already cutting out straws to reduce plastic ( I defy someone to drink ice tea without a straw while driving. On a curvy mountain road of course.

I also pondered shopping lists which are much like the Pirates' Code, merely guidelines. I had remembered the shopping list which in the past has proven to be merely a test of memory. The number one item, I had not picked up at all, four or five items I bought were not on the list, and one thing should have been on the list, but was not, and not only did I forget to put it on the list but I forgot to buy it.

One of the items for which the entire trip was planned was not on the list at all either, but by chance, I stopped in at Tuesday Morning looking for pasta bowls (which they again did not have and were not on the list), and in the bargain section found what should have been on the list at 70% off. Small rugs to use in my design and manufacture of a truly unique and wonderful kitten tower.

Remembering the white rugs in the jump seat of the pickup got me thinking about my design. I do this too with paintings. Should I get madly famous I will be a huge disappointment for auction houses because the vast majority of my designs and sketches are created and erased in my head.

Before I knew it I was home. Do not remember the last four miles of the pass because I confess I am in La Route des Villages Paris-Cannes road rally in my mind.

Regardless of all that I made it home, was not met by the butler, but unpacked my chariot anyway. And to think I saw it all on Palo Flechado Pass.