Such a day! Spent most of it on a picnic by the river with two amazing women. Phyllis (poet), Anita (artist). We ate, swapped stories, sat in the sun, the shade, felt the wind pick up and sing through the trees, marveled at the incredible blue above us, heard a frog croak and a fish jump in the river.
There was hardly anyone in Pilar today and we soon learned why. The areas for camping and lingering are National Forest and they're closed due to the government shutdown! Outrageous. We met a couple from Albuquerque who had driven all the way up intending to camp for a couple of days. No dice. They were angry. Everyone who mentions this shutdown is angry. Many people in this region work for the National Forest, and forest land covers miles and miles of our landscape. Not one bit of it is available for camping right now. I'm not sure if hiking is even allowed. One can sneak around the barriers and hope there aren't any officials around -- but they're probably on furlough!
What's even crazier is that as we were leaving in the late afternoon, one of us wanted to use the restroom. Not so fast - the restrooms are shut down, too. She was furious -- "bad enough that hungry people can't get food stamps, babies won't get formula," and elders are afraid social security will be cut, but now "an old woman can't pee!"-- she shouted to the universe...
In spite of that glitch, today was just what I needed. A walk in the morning and kindred spirit friends together all afternoon by a flowing river on a gorgeous October day...
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