Swine Flu School Cancellation - Day Two

I was looking forward to day two of the swine flu school cancellation and I wasn't to be disappointed.

The morning chores consisted of:

-the 14-year-old girl babysitting both babies for an hour while I did laundry
-the 12-year-old boy pulling weeds in the vegetable garden
-the 9-year-old boy "plucking", as he called it, weeds from the vegetable garden
-the 7-year-old girl pulling weeds from the vegetable garden
-the 12-year-old boy babysitting both twins while I finished up some housework

Because the kids worked so hard outside all morning, I decided that we would go out to lunch at the one and only local restaurant. The 17-year-old boy had spent the night in the big town with a friend as he was waiting overnight for the van to be repaired, so we were car-less, which was fine, because it was a beautiful day, so we decided to walk to the one and only local restaurant...


On our way, my father-in-law approached in his tiny green hatchback. My father-in-law is a 74-year-old man who stands 6 feet 5 inches tall. My mother has a door frame on which she has written in pencil all of her kids' and grandkids' progressive heights over the years and one day we decided that we needed to pencil in Grandpa W's height. His pencil line towered over everyone else's, including his 20-year-old 6'4" grandson. I think he's much taller than 6'5" when he has a door frame to help him stand up straight. So, whenever I see him driving in his tiny green hatchback, I immediately get empathetically uncomfortable because he literally is folded into the car, his arms bent unnaturally to hold the steering wheel and his head lowered so as not to touch the roof of the car.

He slowed his hatchback to a stop next to us as we walked down the deserted road and said only, "Are you walking because you want to be?" I smiled at his consideration and said yes, then looked over at my mother-in-law in the passenger's seat. She was already doing sudoku to stave off dementia and Alzheimer's even though they had only left their home 30 seconds earlier. They were on their way to the big town and she doesn't like to go to the big town, not many of us do, I think mostly because of the terrible parking, and she had all of her entertainment planned out for the 30 minute drive. We said goodbye and watched them drive off.

As we walked up to the restaurant, I noticed something odd. There were scores of half gallon plastic milk containers neatly arranged along the edges of the lawn. They were partially filled with water and I can only imagine that this was their automatic sprinkler system. I could be wrong, though.

We walked in and immediately my mind began it's search of what I could possibly eat for lunch. If you think being a vegan is hard, try being one in Mexico, where every single dish has meat in it or is cooked in animal fat. I decided to settle on a tostada with beans and guacamole. I asked the owner if he had guacamole, but he said no. I asked him if he had an avocado and he said yes and that he would made some guacamole for me and put it on my tostada as requested. The kids all ordered quesadillas. I thought that that would not be filling enough for them, but they assured me they would be, as that was what they ate every Friday at school.

We started out our meal with soda. It was a special weed-pulling day, so I allowed it on this rare occasion as a reward. I got mineral water with lime. We waited for our food to be prepared here...


...and here is what it looked like when it was done...



I told the kids that those did not look like quesadillas. They said they had meat, beans and cheese, which is more of a taco/burrito to me, but whatever. I took a bite of my tostada, then placed it back on my plate. The kids looked at it and laughed and said, look at the CHIP mom is eating for lunch! I looked at it again and realized that that's exactly what it was...a chip with a little beans and avocado...


When I was finished eating it, I ordered another one so that I could have two chips for lunch, and I ate all the kid's leftover bagged chips. Here is where the guy washed our dishes...


(I like the curtains.)
We got a taste of summer and I am truly looking forward to more days in the garden and more lunches at the one and only local restaurant...


Stay tuned for days three, four and five of the swine flu school cancellation as we go camping in the mountains of northern Mexico!

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