September 27, 2020 – Unless something comes up that makes it impossible, and believe me my life is trying to ruin it, I will be driving to Aztec, New Mexico on Thursday in a rented car for a three-day sojourn. I will be joined by my brother and his son who are separately driving from Dallas. We managed to get the money together to complete and close our purchase of this remnant of a house which is on the northerly-most mesa just south of the Colorado border. If I remember right, it’s about 9 miles north of Aztec. I can’t wait to see it. I first saw the place in 2013, when I was under contract to buy the lot next door. It was love at first sight, a lot with a creek-sort of thing, made into a pit that is supposed to be a pond, and a worn out little house, trash everywhere. It’s just my kind of place, you know, something that needs love, a lot of love. But I’ve been tracking it ever since, through a foreclosure, then the bank losing it in their system, then a tax sale, then an unsuccessful bid at the tax sale by my brother, then my own negotiations to buy out the purchaser who I scared into not wanting it, all seller-carry. And they say I’m not good at what I do! Well some people do, but they are wrong. Let’s hope my memory of this place from 2013 does it justice and it’s not a piece of rubble on the ground in 2020. Anyway, I am newly energized that this might be the beginnings of something good, a time of building – something I have been looking to do since I started this place in the very long time ago of 2013.

In the meantime, I am teaching myself guitar now. Again. I have a few project songs, but fitting in with all things project, my Land Rover is not doing so well. It probably needs an O-2 sensor, but I’m trying to get it to pass smog inspection without having to have work done on it, so that meant clearing a code, then driving around for miles and miles on Friday to try to get the truck to register a good reading. I drove for 70 miles around various freeways that go toward Pasadena and back. It still didn’t have enough data to get a catalytic converter reading, but it was fun to drive it. My truck makes me want to listen to country music. And the country station served me well. They played some fun songs, and when I was almost home, they announced a new single from Miranda Lambert. It’s called Settlin’ Down.

Miranda’s songs often resonate with me. This one was no different. It’s the story of the mental conflict one has when one is a bit of a wild child, but still wants to or is thinking about settling down. It makes me wonder whether Miranda is happy in her current marriage, or perhaps it’s a call-back to her messy divorce from Blake Shelton, or perhaps she’s just a bit crazy in general. I think that’s it, actually. I get that. And it’s okay.

I loved the song from first listen, and I decided to work on learning to play it. I have only a few things figured out, and it’s not popular, so there are no tutorials. I feel like I’ll be making things up with this one. It’s a true test to see if I can figure out how. That still remains to be seen. But the song’s fun to play because I really love singing the words, all of these lines (not in this order), oh and in in the accent of my people (she’s from my home county after all); these are just so good:

I’m a little wild child and a homing pigeon

Bare feet on the tile with my head up in the clouds

One heart going both directions

Is happiness on the highway? Or is it parked in the driveway?

Yeah, I could love a picket fence if it wrapped around the world…

 Yep, I can so relate. And right now, happiness is both, in the driveway (gotta hang on to everything in this challenging time for me) and definitely on the highway. New Mexico bound. Gonna start wrapping my picket fence around the world, or at least around the Southwest, one place at a time.

Wish me luck! I’m gonna need it, both for the house, and for learning this song’s three guitar lines without a tutorial or a guitar teacher. But I am determined! Once I get it, then I might just talk in the accent permanently. Yeah, I just might….