Sunday, October 29, 2017. My Girls, The Carpenters. The Marys have become industrious lately. And when Mary Ann hunkers down on a project, she accomplishes astonishing results. She is fueled largely by the news that our Los Angeles-based son Jude, with his wife and son, will be here for Christmas this year. MA will not let them see our house in its current condition. That was a big surprise, but one that delights MA. As for ML, she is already putting in a long day at the office (where she creates environmental art that sometimes uses a welding torch). But when MA declares that a goal must be reached, ML becomes her carpenter.
MA's particular task is to build a twenty-five-foot-long ramp that rises about three feet from the patio surface to the top of the deck. This is to allow our old dog Susie to walk from the lawn to the living room, something she could no longer handle on her own. The dog has bone cancer, declared some two or three years ago, and rendering her three-legged. It's a miracle she's alive, say all the veterinarians.
The Marys worked with scrap piled up in the carport for years, and perhaps decades. ML has also bought a new table saw, a nail gun, and a few other brand-new tools. We have performed a lot of work on the Cool Water Ranch House over the thirty years we've lived here. Meanwhile, my old table saw and circular saw, covered with dust, sit on my old work table. They work fine, but don't live up to the Marys' standards.
The so-far of it is amazing. The girls knocked out this project in two days. We are all astonished that Suzie took one look at the ramp and walked right up to the top, where the food was. I will never again deride MA for her sometimes overreaching ideas.
[caption id="attachment_37764" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Choriqueso would be good in an omelette.[/caption]
As for me, it's a normal Sunday. I sing at Mass as usual. The Marys follow their routine of having midday lunch at La Carreta in Covington. There we ate two tubs of choriqueso, a Tex-Mex egg dish with steak in chilpotle sauce, salads piled high in front of both ladies, and my usual dessert of Mexican-style flan. And we all get back to work until it gets dark outside.
We have turned the traditional work assignments around, with my two beauties nailing and sawing away, while I spend the afternoon at my desk, writing and keeping the NOMenu going.
La Carreta. Covington: 812 Hyw 190. 985-400-5202.
