It appears that I'm...

the only one who is agitated over the way my blog formats itself. Several people have said it's OK. If you all who have been blogging for sometime aren't annoyed I suppose a newcomer like me should learn to relax and let the syntax fall as it will.

Still dry here, the garden suffers, but, I'm on it.

Fixed liver and onions for 'la comida' The liver sold here is sliced really thin, it's like wet sheets of maroon blotting paper. It's quite good though. The key is in the cooking. It must be fried fast, just a sizzle a quick flip and another sizzle and to the plate.

Our next door neighbor is remodeling his house and making it into a pizzeria. The houses here are joined by a common wall so all of this will be very close to us. We are not happy about this change but there are no zoning laws to interfere with his idea so there is little that can be done. The only tactic left open to me is to hope he fails miserbly.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Why is "phonics" not spelled the way it sounds? anon. (?)

MEXICO (as I see it):


On the hottest of afternoons Indian women, wrapped in layers of
fabric, may be seen at the traffic signals throughout the city,
selling or begging.
So cleverly are they snuggled in their cloth cocoons that
one would never suspect that somewhere in the overlapping
material, up high or down low, toward the front or at the back,
there will be the bump of a baby sleeping among the folds.

AND

I have taken a liking to tequila since the first time we
met. Tequila, however, has treated me rather rudely.


THE SERIAL: Oxygenated Water

I left off here: Darrell's in the
back seat so he could stretch out his leg. He said he
felt better when he could get himself into a
semi-supine position."
I don't know if semi-supine was one of Uncle
Arlin's words or if his cousin Darrell had really said
that. Either way, it didn't make any sense to me.
But, I didn't say anything about it and Uncle Arlin
kept right on telling his story like everything was
clear to him.

continued...

"Since Mike had been left in charge of the car it
was my job to negotiate with the wino. It took us a
little while to come up with one because those old
farts were always lurking around the side streets on
both sides of Van Buren. The cops rousted them if they
were hanging out on the main drag. Finally, we
located a grizzled-up old scruff sitting on the curb
about a half block off Van Buren.
"He looked just like all of them old zeros down
there. I can't describe him much. He was short and
ugly, stubble bearded and smelled like the worst you
can imagine in the world. I called him over the car
window and began to parley.
'Look here mister we need some whiskey pretty
bad.'
'Oh yeah?' he says.
'How about going in this here liquor store around
the corner and get it for us?'
'I might,' he says, 'depends on what you're going
to do for me.' It was plain to see we had run up on a
real altruistic type person.
"I said, 'You buy us a half-pint of whiskey and
we'll toss in another just like it for yourself.' Well,
let me tell you, the ole boy said nothing more than,
'Yes sir, that'll get her done. Gimmie the money.'
'Wait a minute,' I said 'we've had this experi-
before.'
"There had been times when we had given money to
these old rummies and had them go in the front door and
right out the back door of a liquor store. They'd
leave us sitting out in the car with our thumbs up our
butts while they're long gone down the alley with two
bottles of booze.
"I said to this crusty old sort, 'No you ain't
going alone. I'm coming with you.'
'All right, come on then.,' he said.
"As we were rounding the corner to the store the
old guy asks, 'What's the matter with that boy in the
back seat?' I tried to play it off, 'What do you mean,
what's wrong with him? There ain't nothing wrong with
him.'
'Hell, kid, I ain't blind. I could see his leg
is bleeding and otherwise messed up. I was looking
right at him through the window.'
"There was little else to hide regarding the
matter since the old boy already knew damn near as much
as we did about the situation, so I said, 'Yeah, well
it ain't none of your business but he's been shot.'
'What you say? Shot! What the hell you bob-tails
been up to?'
"I ran down the gist of it all while we waited in
line at the liquor store. After we got the whiskey and
were heading back to the car he says to me: 'Looky
here, you boys could use some help, cause it's easy to
tell you don't know what you're doing.' I had no
trouble agreeing to that. The wino went on, 'You best
take me along with you and let me have a look at that
boy's leg.'
"When we got to the car I confabbed a minute or
two with Darrell; since he was the oldest and the one
hurt, it seemed it ought to be his decision.
"This here fella says he knows something about
this sort of thing and he says he'll take a look at
your leg if you want." Darrell figures, at least, we're
safe with this old bum. He's no cop, that's for sure
and we felt that was ninety percent of the battle right
there. If he's not a cop, he's probably okay. Finally,
Darrell says, 'Yeah, yeah, get in old timer, we'll take
a swig from these bottles and talk it over.'
"The old wino plops himself in the back seat with
Darrell and, first thing, snaps the seal on his
half-pint by giving the bottle a slap on the bottom
like he was spanking a baby. Then he threw his head
back and hit her long and hard. As far as the other
bottle of whiskey was concerned it wound up in
Darrell's hands. He might have let Mike and me take a
little taste but if he did, I don't remember it.
Anyway, off we went again driving around the city.
"The old man says, 'Well, let's have a look at
your leg.' He gets Darrell's trouser leg rolled just
far enough to take a peek at his calf muscle. He
begins to mash around a little and Darrell starts
threatening him with his life if he so much as begins
to hurt him. 'Calm yourself, son, I got to see what's
happening, don't I?' the wino asked. 'There, that's
good enough.'
"As he raised up to a more comfortable position
the old guy took another long pull off his bottle and
continued, 'It appears to me that the bullet is not in
your leg, that is to say, I figure the bullet went
clean through. You've lost a lot of blood and you,re a
mess but, in fact, the bullet ain't there.'
"That was a real good piece of news as far as we
boys were concerned; the bullet ain't there! That
relieved the pressure on Mike and I or somebody else
from trying to pry a bullet out of the leg of a bad guy
like Darrell. The old man went on, 'What we need to do
is get you cleaned up a bit to make sure you don't
catch no lead poisoning or nothing.'
"Darrell thought it over for a minute and then set
out the situation for us, 'Well, we damn sure can't do
it at my house, cause if I go in there like this I'm as
good as a dead man. The bullet might as well have
passed right through my brain. My old lady ain't up
for none of this.'
"Mike and I had met her and we knew he was not
lying. The bum nodded like he already knew her too.
I've now forgot his wife's name but I remember that she
was a whole lot more than you'd want to face. We all
agreed that we sure didn't want to go to her house to
clean up Darrell. We had to get him spruced up enough
so he could sneak his sorry ass in there without fire
and brimstone breaking out.

continued...