Well, we've been in Las Cruces for 5 full days - and it hasn't been below 95 any of them. And it doesn't look like it will get any cooler the rest of the week. It's not so hard on us, but for Lucy, our Yorkie, it's not business as usual. Way too hot, even in the morning, to leave her in the car while we eat lunch, or do anything. So she stays in the motor home [the air conditioner has been on almost all the time we've been here], or we take her with us in the car when we're driving around or going to Darrold's house, which is cooler. The last 2 evenings have been somewhat better - low 80's by 9 pm.
This is the longest stay for us in Las Cruces. We were going to leave today, but decided to add at least 2 more days. This has been a good stop for mom. She and Darrold are particularly close, and she is staying at his house. Much easier for her to get around - all on one level. Her knee has been acting up since she left Kansas for the reunion in Oregon - Darrold has noticed the difference since he visited mom this last spring at her house.
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| Mom, Darrold, and Alvina |
On Friday, we visited mom's sister, Alvina, at her son's house on the east side of town. Alvina is 98 and is having age issues [memory, hearing and mobility to name a few], but it was a delight to see her again. The last time mom & Alvina were together was for Alvina's 90 birthday here in Las Cruces. It was a good visit, and we decided to get together again on Saturday for an afternoon grilling, courtesy of Alvina's son, Roger. Everyone contributed something, and, of course, there was too much to eat. Good food and good conversation, but it was soon time to leave.
On Saturday morning, before visiting Alvina, Rita & I took in the Las Cruces Farmers Market. We had been to the market years earlier in March and it was too early for a good turn out. This one was much better attended by the vendors and the public. Almost immediately we found a booth selling recycled tin cans. Peter, seated, and his son use a very small oxy-acetylene torch to cut designs into used tin cans. The work is all done by hand, and the designs are all freehand. No copying a design from a template, although it sounded like they have a number of basic designs that they work from. They start with a particular shape, cut that into the can so that it is evenly distributed, and then work from there to cut additional designs in the areas between the initial work.
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| Table of smaller tin can items |
Peter has been doing this for 40 years, and his 26-year old son, for 20 years. He's sold his designs on the QVC channel on tv - said they sold 1,500 [500 more than he had] in 30 minutes. Didn't find out where he was from [guessing, here in Las Cruces]. Rita was impressed enough to buy a small candle holder - $15. They make lamp shades and sconces [see the one hanging by the son's shoulder in the above picture]. They are not inexpensive [shades that are prewired can run $250 and up]. They have made custom items that run as much as $1,000 or more.
While strolling through the market area, we came across a group of nuns in black habits. At the time I didn't have my camera with me. I was soon wishing I did as I saw one of the younger nuns wearing red high-topped basketball shoes. What a treat! Vowing to get a picture, I returned to the car with Rita's tin-can purchase and some fresh corn-on-the-cob, grabbed the camera and headed back. Hoping the nuns were still there, I spied them, including "red shoes". I quickly snapped a picture to prove my story. Alas, it was too good to be true. Rita had overheard the nuns talking to others about the play "Nunsense", which our Small Group from church in Springfield, OR had gone to see. We now believe this "flock" of nuns was just the cast members from the play, which is now playing in Las Cruces, and had come to the market to have some fun. At one point we saw 3 of them having a sing-a-long with a local performer for a song or two.
It's getting late, and I need to wrap this one up. I hope the pictures come out for all of you. I tried to resize them so you could all see them. There is much more to talk about in Las Cruces - the wonderful frozen custard place just south of our rv park, the trip to Hatch, NM [35 miles north] for burgers on Sunday afternoon, and two of the major crops of this area - pecans & chilies [Hatch is called the chili capitol of the world, or is that the United States?].
So long for now. Hope to post the rest of chapter 4 soon.
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