Hmm - Now What Was I Doing....?

What was I doing last year on February the 13th? In Goa with Jo and the kids. And the year before? Skiing in Santa Fe. And looking further back, unless I enlist the help of this blog I probably don't remember. But if I go back to 2004 - before the kids and before the blog - I remember vividly.

Two nights before, on Feb 11, I had driven Jo to the Amtrak station in Austin where we boarded the delayed Texas Eagle and soon retired to our sleeper cabin. In an hour in San Antonio our carriage would be shunted and then hooked to the Sunset Limited coming in from New Orleans and headed to Los Angeles. A few hours later we'd detrain at Alpine and drive off into the west Texas sunset in the Avis car that would meet us at the train station. But when we awoke the next morning hoping to see the wilderness of Pecos county, instead we saw the back of the Alamo Dome in San Antonio.

So it wasn't till very late that night that I turned off Highway 67 somewhere between Marfa and Presidio near the Mexican border and started driving down this utterly dark dirt track to nowhere. Jo was convinced this was not going to end well till the stone entrance and low adobe facade of Cibolo Creek Ranch finally came into the the limited view afforded by the rental car's headlights. The staff had all gone home for the night but they left a note for us and a nice fire in our fireplace.

The next morning we woke up to an amazing sight. The hills of Big Bend and Presidio county starkly towered in the distance and close by. The sky was that brilliant desert blue. And the bare trees and cactus were covered in glittering ice crystals. I walked Jo to a glade with a chandelier created by a frozen natural spring and in this icy desert wonderland asked her to marry me. And when she said yes I put a ring on her ring finger on the wrong hand because neither of us knew any better. But it's kept.

And today, February 13th, 2013? Jo is laying on the couch and I'm on my way to Walgreens to fill a prescription for Tamilfu. And then I'll have to quarantine her from the kids and my dad.