21 May MMV

So I didn't go to Flying Star this morning. Went straight to work at the Manor after drinking a couple of Red Bulls. Rode with Charles in his '72 Mercedes. It's quite impossible to ride in that thing without feeliing like a king. I could get very used to it. It's an incredible car.

Not a bad day but a tiring one. Got up around 95ish and was working in the sun a good portion of it, tearing out the pansies and violas around the fountain, which stands in the middle of the circular driveway, in front of the house's front door, at the end of the long gravel driveway. The fountain guy was there to get it running while I was working and it's now absolutely stunning. Did much the same to the limestone planters on the south and north terraces. Then to Sonic to eat -- I swear, it was dog food -- and Charles' car wouldn't start. Figuring out the air conditioning in that vehicle is insane, it's sort of like the drawbars on a Hammond. Finally to a house in the gated kuh-mewn-it-tee on Tanoan Country Club, up in the Northeast heights, near the Sandias. Coming around the bend I make a snide remark about one particularly grotesque house that looked like an office park transplant; winds up that's where we're working. The lady of the house is a delight. The garden's about as nice as it can be, given the extant inept architecture. That's all I care about. Charles was heatstroked and exhausted and I'm a bit tired myself, but we're likely going out for a couple of drinks later on this evening. I'll be driving since I'm the one who seems most capable of drinking not too much. Where we'll go I don't know but we'll probably wind up at Foxes. That place is an institution.