Today all you get is this buffalo.

So, I just came back from Tucson, Arizona. I didn't tell you before I left, so that you wouldn't break into my house and steal all my dirty laundry and vintage garage sale furniture while I was gone. No hard feelings.

This is southern New Mexico as seen through the cracked windshield of my 2000 Dodge Caravan. It doesn't look much better without the crack and thumbprints, actually.

I went to Tucson with my husband and kids to be present at my Grandpa Hy's funeral. He died, at the age of 101, on the Ides of March, but we waited til as many family members as possible could be together to put him to rest as befit the final remaining member of his generation, and then stay to spend Thanksgiving together.

My Grandpa Hy, a force of Nature.

Anyway, the story of this trip has three parts:

In Part 1, my family and I get ready to travel and then take a twelve hour road trip to Tucson, during which time I have ample time to reflect on how truly weird we all are.

In Part 2, we say a final goodbye to Grandpa. I get to know this part of my family better. This is sort of a trip to the Homeland for me. This generates many reflections on Why I Am the Way that I Am.

In Part 3, I visit Fourth Avenue near the University of Arizona and decide that my son can go to college there because they have cool trash cans. Wait. They are really cool. This is a really good way to help your children make important decisions about their future.

Then we drive back through some of the most godforsaken parts of America, and arrive home again, after being fascinated by very strange statues in the middle of Nowhere.


So, there are my next three blog posts. But today, all you get is this buffalo, who, despite being made of pure silver, is destined to spend his life behind a chain link fence in Hatch, New Mexico, overshadowed by a giant man who is about to eat an RV.

The economy has really been hard on a lot of us.