Keeping the Wheels Moving

***APOLOGIES: ***

As I began writing the next section of my tale, I realized that I made a mistake in my timeline (for those of you who have been regularly following my yarn). Oops! It looks like I have some editing to do! It will all get worked out in the final draft, but I leave you with the tale as it sits today. Tell me if you pick up on my glitch. 

~___*___~

The sun was shining. The road was smooth and ran long in front of us. Conversation flowed with an easy banter back and forth. Few awkward moments interrupted the journey. Today, I was hitching a ride with a big rig and life was good. The driver even bought me lunch, when we stopped about an hour into our journey. The memory of my previous drunken ride faded out behind me, as the kilometers clicked by on our way to the coast.

That is, until a worried look crossed the driver’s face. And then he started to gear down. In the uncertainty of what was going on, silence took over the cab. When the tires finally crunched onto the side of the road, we slowly came to a stop. It appeared that my blue skies were now marred by a nasty cloud that amounted to truck failings. In case you were wondering, when an AZ truck has mechanical problems, the driver is usually pretty much powerless to do much about it. More often than not, the drivers are not mechanics and the engines are a little awkward to manipulate. My driver was no different. Even if he knew what was wrong with the truck, he was unable to fix it. He was now stuck, until such time as a mechanic showed up on the scene. Despite the presence of a CB to call in a request for help, he would have to wait several hours before he would be mobile again. It appeared that it was time to switch rides again.

While the truck troubles were not his fault, my driver felt horrible about abandoning me on the side of the road. Perhaps he had forgotten that that was where he picked me up in the first place, but he now insisted that he help to get me another ride. He advised me that when the sun went down in the desert, the temperature would drop significantly. There were not that many hours left in the day and he bemoaned the idea of me stuck out in the cold after dark. I figured that he would not steer me wrong, so when he CBed the truck that was following him to stop and pick me up, I was grateful for his assistance. He had already done so much for me and now it looked like he would get me all the way to the coast, despite the inability of transporting me there personally. I also figured that this might prevent another drunk driver from careening me off of the side of the road, so agreed to his plan.

Within a short span, I was hauling my back pack down out of the first truck and loading it into a second one. This time there were two drivers, but at least another woman now joined me as a passenger in the truck. She gladly pushed her parcel up ahead of me and took a seat in the back of the cab on the long bunk with the second driver. I lucked into the passenger seat to share conversation with my newest driver of the day. By the time we were rolling again, there wasn’t much day left though. It was enough that I was moving West again though. 

Well-Deserved Break Coming

Markéta Irglová opens. Iron & Wine headlines. Add to that dinner and drinks with Me, & I suspect that I’ve got the perfect evening in store. 13 days & counting!




And that is 160 characters folks! Haven't played in a long time, but thought it was high time. Go see Monkey Man for way more offerings!

Saturday's Email of the Week: Busyness

Saturday's Email of the Week

Oh, oh, It's Staurday night! My week passed in a blur and now is almost over. To be perfectly honest, I have not even thought of my computer today either. Ran the kids to their rolling & tumbling class this morning. Ran at the gym (cross trainer actually, but whatever). Ran home for lunch. Threats of frost this evening had me racing to get my rosemary plant out of the ground and into the house. I barely had time to wash the stink off & get a present wrapped, before getting T. to her birthday party this afternoon. Run, run, run some more! Another birthday party tomorrow will have us out of the house again, but I hope that I will be able to find a few minutes of down time at some point. Mind you, the floor is in desperate need of a cleaning...

Ach, worries for next week. It will be another packed week in anticipation of the short week following, but that's okay. For right now, I think that I will just leave this short and sweet. All the running seems to have my time management skills a little sharper, so there is small mercies. And in general, a smile plays across my lips. Life is good.

Today.

but of course perhaps this is my problem...

Alms For A New Day

It's getting so that

I don't recognize the girl

in my mirror

Telephone rings
fingers fly filling pages
notes for next story

children mourn days

before hum-filled house reigned with 

laptop burning vision

a paycheque- my dues

recognition won in alms

A New Day Begins

On The Road

After driving through Rundu and Grootfontein, we ended up in Tsumeb, where I spent another night on the ground under chilly cloudless skies. My travelling companions were headed to Etosha to take in some game viewing, but I had had enough. While I would have loved to see Namibia’s premiere game reserve, I could not afford to continue with my new friends. My pennies were feeling pinched and the date on my airline ticket had me counting the days. So I bid adieu to my rag-taggle group, was charged for gas and rental fees while in their car, and departed from them N$122.50 lighter. At that rate, if I had continued with them, I would have been left in the middle of the game park to bunker down with the lions again! Egad!

So I struck out on my own again, this time with my thumb as my only travelling companion. It was a brand new day and my third in Namibia. It was about to get a little more exciting, but NOT in a way that I would have liked. In fact, it shaped up to be one of the scariest days that I endured throughout my whole  stay in Africa.

So after my rented ride roared off, with high spirits I plunked my backpack on the side of the road and stuck my thumb in the direction of passing vehicles. It didn’t take long before one of those motorists stopped. In hindsight, I wish he had not, but things happen for a reason and on that day, I climbed in with a gracious smile. For my efforts, a crooked smile was returned, before the driver aimed his car back onto the road. The word “aim” was the best description for what he was attempting. I quickly discovered that my driver was three sheets, or more, to the wind. He reeked of booze and swerved all over the road. Every time he talked to me, the car veered in the direction that his head was facing in. I was terrified. My smile turned from gratitude to horror, as I clutched at the door, bracing for impact with oncoming vehicles. I knew it was a miracle that the driver did not flip the car every time he grazed onto the gravel shoulders and manically thanked my guardian angels for every near miss. Their wings were fluttering like mad that day.

How I got out of the car, I have blocked from my memory, but suffice it to say that I did. I felt like I was down a life or two, but still had miles to go before I could call anyplace home. With a little more trepidation, I clung to the side of the road again, praying that my angels would forgive me my transgressions from months gone by. Cars zoomed by and I remained where I was. I was only half discouraged, as my last ride remained fresh in my mind.

The arrival of a young woman broke me from my train of thought. She appeared to be about my age, perhaps a little younger, maybe a little older. It was hard to tell and no common language could rectify that. She was obviously a local woman and travelled with a large bag, minus the live chickens that I had become accustomed to.  I remembered that I was in Namibia though, and life here was a little more progressive. While both of us were still hitchhiking, it was on a good paved road and lines even ran down the middle of it to define left from right. As it was obvious that we were going in the same direction, we both gravitated towards each other, despite our lack of verbal communication. A shy smile passed between us and that was enough to let us know that we were on the same path. So when a big rig applied his brakes and rolled to a stop, we both ran together to jump in for the next leg of our journeys. I prayed that this ride would prove to be less eventful.