In which coolers are crushed and chili is barely touched

This is another one of those evening after the night before kind of posts. Last night was ANITA's Ft. Sumner barbecue night. The motel in which I'm staying (the aforementioned $380,000 Billy The Kid Country Inn) has these great picnic tables and old iron barbecues. So everybody chipped in their $20 and a run was made out to Clovis to pick up supplies (except for alcohol which was purchased at Fred's — apparently the only place for 90 miles that has a Sunday liquor license). Much food, drink and merriment was had.

In my case probably a teeny, tiny little bit too much drinking was done. But hey, I had fun (at least I'm pretty sure I did, some parts of the evening are a little vague in my memory). The comical highlight of the evening was probably when I tried to sit on a Styrofoam beer cooler. Actually I managed to sit on it quite well, sadly it didn't really manage to support my weight all that well and was pretty much destroyed. In fact I have a little piece of the wreckage here on the table with me, I might keep it as a souvenir. I ended up with a wet and muddy bottom, but fortunately no damage was done to the beer inside the cooler. There is even photographic evidence of the coolers demise which I might post here if I get a chance.

As you can imagine today was not the most productive day I've had on this trip. It started off with Kim knocking on my door at 9:00 am and rousing me from my chemical induced slumber (on the plus side I was at least on my bed, where I apparently passed out with the door open last night). I didn't actually feel to bad this morning. That was probably because I was still drunk and it took until lunchtime for me to sober up. All of which meant that the bowl of green chili I ordered, proved to be a case of optimism winning out over realism, and the chili came away with me after only a slight prodding at the dinner table. Still it tasted quite nice for supper this evening, after I had taken a couple of naps and was feeling a bit more human.

Right now I'm sat alone at the picnic table watching a cute little black and white kitten chasing and eating grasshoppers. It seems to be having a whale of a time, not so sure about the grasshoppers. And yes, I also have a beer here, although it's only number two and I'm not sure if there'll be a number three.

Whilst I've been sat here the local police and sherrif have cruised past upwards of six or seven times. I'm not really sure what they're looking for, apparently not a physicist drinking a beer and typing on his laptop.