Cooked!

I'm not exactly sure what prompted the exclamatory theme of this month's posts. But, with just a few days to go before we put April in the books, I'm going with it.

When it comes to staying in Santa Fe, we gotta tell ya, we're about done.

It's been windy here. Really windy. The only glimmer of light since our friends left has been the arrival of new friends. Donna and Keith arrived here yesterday after being buffeted by the wind from El Paso. It was wonderful to meet these good people we had only known virtually. We look forward to getting together this week and hiding out from the wind...together!

Today's forecast called for an extra windy day. Wind gusts of 65 mph-plus were expected this afternoon, so shortly after breakfast we decided to get out while we could and enjoy a walk. Our park is encircled by a lovely .75 mile walking trail that treats people and dogs to panoramic views of the mountains. We're cat people, of course, but we've enjoyed our daily walks on this very scenic trail. We've worked up to five laps around the place, which adds up to a good 3-mile-plus walk that we do at a pretty hefty clip. At 7,000 feet altitude, we figure these daily walks are doing something to build our lung capacity!

During today's walk the skies suddenly turned dark and precipitation began to fall...as sleet! There's nothing quite like being 40 minutes into a walk and being pelted with falling ice. It IS Spring, isn't it? We got our 3-plus miles in anyway and were none the worse for wear.

Shortly after arriving home and getting out of our wet walking clothes, we got word that the wind was on its way. Wind gusts of 65 mph were clocked in Albuquerque, and they were headed our way. We brought in our freshly repaired but still windward slide. The gusts came, as expected, by mid-afternoon. After we had dried out and rested a bit, we decided to head to the local mall and enjoy some time strolling out of the wind. The mall was pretty depressing. Many stores were closed. But, we managed to make a few purchases in hopes of boosting the local economy.

We got home in time to check in with the local news and learned that the wind gusts were expected to die down after sunset. With plans to grill a couple of chicken breasts, we relaxed in our smaller-than-normal rolling home and waited for the winds to quiet. Around 7, we determined that the winds were well past their peak. We extended our windward slide and began to prepare dinner.

As Paul prepared to light the grill, we noticed that the winds had not exactly died down. Instead, they had just shifted. The gale force winds were no longer hitting us broadside. Now they were hitting us head on from the north. When Paul stepped out to light the grill, the gale force northerly winds had other ideas. Paul returned, frustrated, with chicken in hand. The grill wouldn't light. It was time for an alternate plan.

I dug out the almost never used instructions to our convection microwave oven. I quickly deduced how to broil a couple of chicken breasts. Following the instructions, we put the chicken in a baking dish, put it in the oven and pressed the magical buttons for "Compubroil 2", whatever that means!

We watched with amazement as the circling chicken was subjected to increasing temperatures. Some 20 minutes later the oven reached 425 degrees. After nearly a half-hour with chicken in the oven, the display changed. "Put food in oven," it declared.

Say what?

The two meager breasts were nearly cooked by that time. Quickly, we extracted the chicken and managed to pull together the veggies, pasta and bread and make it a meal.

It was well after 9:00 pm when we finally sat down to this adventurous meal. Outside, the wind howled at a faster pace than it had all day. Both toppers on our big ass slides whipped in the winds as we sampled our first bites.

Everything tasted great, of course. But after subjecting ourselves and our home to gale force winds for nearly a month, we are just about cooked. It's time for us to go.

We're outta here on Sunday. But, before then we really want to make it up to Los Alamos to see the sights. We've been waiting for a wind-free day to do that. Truth is, that day may never come. Actually, tomorrow's winds are supposed to be fairly calm. Of course, by the sounds of our toppers flipping up and down right now that's pretty hard to believe. It may be calm tomorrow, but it's supposed to be cold. Like 40-degrees!

We don't care. We're going anyway. Like we said, we're cooked!