Forklift needed

My youngest is many years from enlightenment, and I'm not just saying that in a snobby metro chic Berber carpet Buddha way. He is not ready to travel light or live nomadically. He has attachment-to-material-possessions issues. We had to rent a Chrysler Town and Country with fabulous stow and go seats to haul his belongings back to swampy Dallas from the UNM dorm. This summer I hope he'll spend time in his creatively-visualized mental Mongolian yurt contemplating what is actually NECESSARY for life on campus. Yo, mom, w's'up? I'm om om-ing on the Gobi range.



His older brother went to Italy for a school year with his necessary possessions in one duffel and one backpack. This is a good example for the Lobo. Alas, when he returned from Europe his belongings reconstituted and took over three rooms of the condo. I'm thinking that's a lot like sea monkeys.

On the drive to Albuquerque we took the Texas Plains Trail scenic drive from Silverton to Claude on SH 207 down into Palo Duro canyon and climbing back out. I was afraid to risk it on the way home because we were so heavily loaded. The canyon bottom is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to be marooned there forever with all my son's dirty laundry.

The geneaology hobbyists in my family have traced our ancestors back to the Unknown Liska, aka Liska, unknown. The Unknown Liska is alleged to have walked from Kiev to Prague with all his belongings in a wheelbarrow. In some versions of the story the Unknown Liska also toted his cabbage-eating mama in the wheelbarrow. Who was that masked Liska? He left a silver bullet! The Unknown Liska did not have a computer, monitor, and printer. The Unknown Liska was lucky if he had a pair of socks. The Unknown Lobo had a large mesh bag full of dirty socks.
The Lobo's father often waxed poetic about the glory days when he could carry all his worldly goods (including both the twelve- and six-string guitars) in the backseat of his puke yellow rusty 1970 Chevy Nova. In those days my favorite books were the two volumes of Nomadic Furniture (How to Build and Where to Buy Lightweight Furniture that Folds, Inflates, Knocks Down, Stacks, or is Disposable and Can Be Recycled) by James Hennessey and Victor Papanek. Alas, in tough times I sold those two volumes at the used book store.

If the Lobo can't find a job for the summer, maybe he can volunteer his services constructing brick and board shelves for clueless college students.