Friday I changed my diet to avoid starchy food because I found out I feel better
when I don’t eat it. When I did that, some weight fell off as well. My
weight stabilized in the low 160s. In the last few weeks, however, it has
popped back up five pounds. Now I’m in the upper 160s. I’m the same
person, doing the same things, and eating the same food. What happened? What happened? Ting happened. That’s right. It’s Ting’s fault. My back and shoulder were hurting so I
thought I’d give Ting the acupuncturist a shot at it. He’s good at pain
relief. He did a pretty good job on the shoulder. He did a medium job on
the back. Problem is, every time he fixes something, I go out and play
racquetball on it the next night and make it hurt again. The other problem
is that when you go see Ting, he doesn’t just fix the body part you brought
for him to fix, he messes with other stuff. Other stuff I don’t understand.
He talks about energy paths, and meridians, and other stuff I can’t
remember. I think he messed with my metabolism. It’s Ting’s fault. I dropped Judy off at the adult day-care center on my way to work this
morning. She has that pass. Seventeen pools terraced into the hillside
overlooking the San Juan River, all fed by the hot springs, all ultimately
emptying into the river. They’ll occupy her until lunch. The people on both sides of us left. The first to go was the guy from Del
Rio Texas, in a fifth wheel that looked suspiciously like a converted stock
trailer, up here with his son for a week. He was fun to talk to. Anybody
catch Survivor, with the guy called Big Tom from somewhere in the south? He
would get to talking, and everyone would just look at each other, stumped.
If he got excited about something and started talking fast, you couldn’t
figure out what he was talking about. The guy from Del Rio was like that.
What??? But the people that took his place were bad. They had two rotten dogs that
barked and growled at our Annie. The guy on the other side was from
Beaumont Texas. We liked him, but he left too. The bad people on the left
left. The guy with the chows pulled in on the right side. He takes good
care of them though. He’s a better neighbor. Then the Samboree happened.
A bunch of “group” people. All from Los Alamos New Mexico. All Good Sam
members. They’re all together. There are a lot of them. I think we’ve met
them all…. What a great bunch of people. Lots of people. Lots of pets.
All the pets are well behaved, or at least well managed. These people “get
it”. They are wonderful neighbors. They even invited us to their
“Breakfast in a Bag” get together tomorrow morning. Maybe we’ll check that
out. Interesting array of tow cars. Five Jeeps in a row: two Wranglers, two
Cherokees, another Wrangler. Every day I get to come home for lunch. Sitting by the river in the lawn
chair today, eating lunch, watching the metallic iridescent blue flash off
the backs of tree swallows swooping over the stream in the sun. It’s a nice
way to spend lunch. Finished up at work today. Got it completely wrapped, and the report
completely written. We didn’t have the right people in town to have the
exit conference, but I’ll be in the neighborhood next week, so I’ll come
back here on Wednesday for the exit conference. I think Judy managed to sample every pool at the hot springs. They all have
names. The Waterfall. The Cliffs. Clouds in my Coffee. She even ventured
into the one called the Lobster Pot. Briefly. I’m going to miss the birding here. But then we’re still stuck at 294 on
the bird count. Guess it’s time to move on. At least get us to Ouray so we
can pick up the black swifts. Then we need to find our way down to the
Grand Canyon neighborhood to pick up the condors. I thought we might get
there from here, southwestern Colorado, but it doesn’t look like we’re going
to do any long weekend excursions. The condors might have to wait until our
June trip to Arizona. It turns out there was no need for my lunchtime run today. I went off this
afternoon to snap a picture of Treasure Falls and I found myself on the
trailhead. I thought of Stephanie, the trail runner, my inspiration, on the
way up, and ran the entire thing. It was switchbacks. Steep. But it felt
good. I marveled at the falls. I ran back down. I feel unreasonably
strong. Strong. I need to go play a racquetball tournament, or hike the
Grand Canyon, or something. That’s it! I’m going to go run the Grand
Canyon. Well, maybe I’ll run down, and walk back out. They have thirty-five acre riverside lots for sale here. That wouldn’t be
bad. Thirty-five acres on this river. Tomorrow. Off to Silverton. We haven’t driven there on the road yet this
trip; just rode the train there. The campground manager came by our site tonight. She said they liked us so
much they just wanted to give us a present. And did! That’s never happened
before. That’s it. I don’t want to leave. I’m anxious to move on to the
next job, and the next adventure, but I like it here too much. I don’t want
to go.
Friday I changed my diet to avoid starchy food because I found out I feel better
when I don’t eat it. When I did that, some weight fell off as well. My
weight stabilized in the low 160s. In the last few weeks, however, it has
popped back up five pounds. Now I’m in the upper 160s. I’m the same
person, doing the same things, and eating the same food. What happened? What happened? Ting happened. That’s right. It’s Ting’s fault. My back and shoulder were hurting so I
thought I’d give Ting the acupuncturist a shot at it. He’s good at pain
relief. He did a pretty good job on the shoulder. He did a medium job on
the back. Problem is, every time he fixes something, I go out and play
racquetball on it the next night and make it hurt again. The other problem
is that when you go see Ting, he doesn’t just fix the body part you brought
for him to fix, he messes with other stuff. Other stuff I don’t understand.
He talks about energy paths, and meridians, and other stuff I can’t
remember. I think he messed with my metabolism. It’s Ting’s fault. I dropped Judy off at the adult day-care center on my way to work this
morning. She has that pass. Seventeen pools terraced into the hillside
overlooking the San Juan River, all fed by the hot springs, all ultimately
emptying into the river. They’ll occupy her until lunch. The people on both sides of us left. The first to go was the guy from Del
Rio Texas, in a fifth wheel that looked suspiciously like a converted stock
trailer, up here with his son for a week. He was fun to talk to. Anybody
catch Survivor, with the guy called Big Tom from somewhere in the south? He
would get to talking, and everyone would just look at each other, stumped.
If he got excited about something and started talking fast, you couldn’t
figure out what he was talking about. The guy from Del Rio was like that.
What??? But the people that took his place were bad. They had two rotten dogs that
barked and growled at our Annie. The guy on the other side was from
Beaumont Texas. We liked him, but he left too. The bad people on the left
left. The guy with the chows pulled in on the right side. He takes good
care of them though. He’s a better neighbor. Then the Samboree happened.
A bunch of “group” people. All from Los Alamos New Mexico. All Good Sam
members. They’re all together. There are a lot of them. I think we’ve met
them all…. What a great bunch of people. Lots of people. Lots of pets.
All the pets are well behaved, or at least well managed. These people “get
it”. They are wonderful neighbors. They even invited us to their
“Breakfast in a Bag” get together tomorrow morning. Maybe we’ll check that
out. Interesting array of tow cars. Five Jeeps in a row: two Wranglers, two
Cherokees, another Wrangler. Every day I get to come home for lunch. Sitting by the river in the lawn
chair today, eating lunch, watching the metallic iridescent blue flash off
the backs of tree swallows swooping over the stream in the sun. It’s a nice
way to spend lunch. Finished up at work today. Got it completely wrapped, and the report
completely written. We didn’t have the right people in town to have the
exit conference, but I’ll be in the neighborhood next week, so I’ll come
back here on Wednesday for the exit conference. I think Judy managed to sample every pool at the hot springs. They all have
names. The Waterfall. The Cliffs. Clouds in my Coffee. She even ventured
into the one called the Lobster Pot. Briefly. I’m going to miss the birding here. But then we’re still stuck at 294 on
the bird count. Guess it’s time to move on. At least get us to Ouray so we
can pick up the black swifts. Then we need to find our way down to the
Grand Canyon neighborhood to pick up the condors. I thought we might get
there from here, southwestern Colorado, but it doesn’t look like we’re going
to do any long weekend excursions. The condors might have to wait until our
June trip to Arizona. It turns out there was no need for my lunchtime run today. I went off this
afternoon to snap a picture of Treasure Falls and I found myself on the
trailhead. I thought of Stephanie, the trail runner, my inspiration, on the
way up, and ran the entire thing. It was switchbacks. Steep. But it felt
good. I marveled at the falls. I ran back down. I feel unreasonably
strong. Strong. I need to go play a racquetball tournament, or hike the
Grand Canyon, or something. That’s it! I’m going to go run the Grand
Canyon. They have thirty-five acre riverside lots for sale here. That wouldn’t be
bad. Thirty-five acres on this river. Tomorrow. Off to Silverton. We haven’t driven there on the road yet this
trip; just rode the train there. The campground manager came by our site tonight. She said they liked us so
much they just wanted to give us a present. And did! That’s never happened
before. That’s it. I don’t want to leave. I’m anxious to move on to the
next job, and the next adventure, but I like it here too much. I don’t want
to go.