Stewing

I had just about decided to step out for a run when the rain talked me out of it. Instead I’m making green chile stew. Manaña, baby.

Hoo-boy. It may be raining here, but I bet the actual water is landing at Hal’s place up Weirdcliffe way, because the wind is flat-out howling out of the south.

If you haven’t had a real beer for five years, a fake one tastes remarkably like beer.

Herself went back to work today and it’s just me and the cats here.

There’s a dog-shaped hole in the kitchen, which feels like an abandoned house.

But it’ll warm up a tad when I start making some green chile stew. It always gladdened The Boo’s hungry little heart to see me moving around and about in his living room, laying hands on knife, pot and cutting board.

And y’know what? I may even have a beer with it. Non-alcoholic, of course. Surely I must be training for something.

• Late update: From Esquire (where else?) comes this list of  “tasty near beers that don’t suck.”

Get. Out.

You can see company coming a long ways off from the intersection of Spain and High Desert.

“Dude: You need to get the fuck outdoors. Seriously.”

That was my man Hal Walter, who knows an attitude problem when he sees one. (He’s been observing mine since 1983.)

Thus, the getting the fuck outdoors has been gotten, and seriously, astride the Bianchi Zurigo Disc. Didn’t get run over or nothin’.

I feel better already.

R.I.P., Andrew Tilin

Former Outside editor Andrew Tilin died Saturday after being struck by a vehicle during a club ride in Austin, Texas.

He was 52, with a partner and two kids.

You can read the magazine’s report here. The Austin Statesman also has a report.

Sounds like bad weather was at least a contributing factor. Let’s be careful out there, folks. It might not help, but it can’t hurt. And my condolences to Andrew’s friends and family.

Like rain falling on the city

The sky is crying.

It was gloomy around here the past couple days, and not just for the obvious reason. The weather finally turned and we got something like a half-inch of rain; a long, steady soaking.

Something seems dreadfully wrong
with this picture.

Even the normally stoic Turk grew unsettled, first spending an unusual amount of time under the bed, and then following me around like bad news.

This morning he was finally back to his routine: yowling outside the bedroom door when he’s decided that I’ve logged enough shuteye; jumping into bed for a brief cuddle; and finally nodding off as the sun crept over the Sandias.

Herself is easing back into business as usual, hitting her workout classes and fencing with the taxman, whose clammy hand is even less welcome in our pockets than usual.

Mia performs her one-cat show “Sit Like a Cat,” based on a poem from the Ted Kooser-Jim Harrison collection “Braided Creek”:

We should
sit like a cat
and wait for the door
to open.

And the unflappable Miss Mia Sopaipilla, who came to us from the same shelter that gave us Mister Boo, continues to provide some much-needed comic relief. The other day it was zazen on my drawing stool; this morning it was mortal combat with a long-forgotten toy mouse.

Me? You’d think I should be chronicling some velo-business for fun and profit, what with CABDA just concluded and Frostbike, NAHBS and 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo ongoing.

But I’m not, so maybe I’ll go for a ride instead.

• Editor’s note: Gassho and deep bows to one and all for your condolences following the passing of Mister Boo. Sifting through the piles of photos and videos depicting the sprightly young Boo of days gone by, and seeing the pleasure his presence provided beyond our own household, helped us remember the good times, bright moments that often fade under the harsher light of day-to-day caregiving.