A STATUS UPDATE FROM LAS CRUCES

Progress on all fronts! 

First, since many of you have asked: my back has recovered.  After we visited the chiropractor in Lordsburg last week and she got my top half and bottom half moving in the same direction, each day brought gradual improvement.  I can hike, twist, put on my socks and shoes, make the bed – all the stuff I take for granted each and every day.  Thanks for all your good wishes.

Next, Luna.  Don’t read this paragraph if you are disinterested in her bodily functions (you probably don’t have a pet?) – amazingly, many of our readers/correspondents are!  Yes, she pooped – and the act of closely monitoring each trip to the cat box gave me what I think is the next clue to the puzzle of her health problem.  I dawned on me Tuesday morning that she was peeing at least twice as much as normal, and about three times as much as she was taking in… and all the while feeling better and better.  The bloating was not from lack of pooping, but from fluid retention! 

Eliminating copious amounts of fluid coincided with the end to her lethargy and a return to her normal, well established patterns of sleep, play, and demands.  So… what causes the fluid retention?  A comment from the emergency vet about a “gallop rhythm” in her heartbeat might be another clue – a heart problem?  So we are in a holding pattern, waiting to see if it happens again.  If so, we’re off to the vet with our new observations.  If not… we’ll see.

The leaking toilet:  Odel lined up a visit from a mobile repair service in town, Larry’s RV & Marine Repair.  What a great guy!  Larry was personable, funny and incredibly knowledgeable!  In less than an hour, he had installed a shut-off valve on the fresh water supply to the toilet (can you believe they make RV’s without such a thing??!), fixed the seal that was leaking and replaced the cracked and leaking sprayer unit.  He gave us some excellent advice on our pump problem, which will keep it going until we get a replacement from Shur-Flo.  I wish EVERY city had a Larry.  His phone his phone number is 575-373-4979 (office) or 575-649-0139 (mobile).  I added our recommendation to RVserviceReviews.com.

With Luna feeling better, our only complication left at the end of the day Monday was THE MAIL.  While in Rodeo, with firm plans to head next to Deming, we had both our personal mail and the Boomer mail sent c/o General Delivery, Deming, New Mexico.  We felt a tug as we roared past Deming heading east on Sunday; on Tuesday, we took the Jeep 60 miles back to Deming and picked up our two packages of mail.

No point in making a 120 miles round trip for a bunch of bills and a few checks from renewing Boomers!  With the mail safely in hand, we headed to St. Clair Winery, the largest in New Mexico, following up on a suggestion on our friend Bobbie’s blog.  I had been most intrigued by her comment that she and Jim ALWAYS visit the winery when near Deming to refill their half gallon jug with custom-blended red wine (the blend being dry wine and sweet wine, in a ratio appealing to your palate).   

We spent about an hour at the winery, a friendly and unpretentious spot with a long roster of wines, about half of which were available for tasting.  We bought a couple reds, and Odel tried a Riesling he enjoyed, so three more bottles went into the box.  I tried a selection of their fruit blend wines, and ended up with a peach (and grape) wine and a pomegranate (and grape wine), both to be saved for a hot summer afternoon - such a fantasy at the moment!

We added to that a half gallon of red wine, 5% sweet and 95% dry.  Sold in a jug with a screw top lid, it is to be consumed within two weeks – we’ll each be sure to have our “medicinal glass” of red daily.  Cost?  $3 for the refillable jug; $6 for the contents.  Trader Joe’s, eat your heart out!

Mellowed from our wine tasting, we continued down the (deserted) road to Rock Hound State Park.  We had a grand day for hiking: cool temperatures with lots of sunshine and no wind.  Thumping along the steep, rocky trail felt GOOD!  We relaxed on a trailside bench, looking down from our high perch to the campground, and to Deming in the far distance.  The wine, the sunshine, the exertion, the cooing of quail exploring among the cactus – it all conspired to quiet our thoughts and bring us into the pleasant present moment.  Life is good, indeed.