A Happy Thanksgiving from Bob Dylan and the P:W Crew

Hello everyone. Its Thanksgiving!

Ah, I miss my family. Damn, and what is it about Dylan that makes everything melancholy? Anyhow, here is the latest:

Whew! Last night I made some homemade tortillas and homemade refried black beans and Spanish rice with grated carrot. Props to Pedros and Antonio in particular, since I got the rice recipe from him. The carrots added a meatiness to the rice that really complemented the rest of the dishes. I also made chile rellenos again, and again, everyone loved it. I was told by the womenfolk here at the hostel that I would be cooking today. A kitchen full of women and your truly... That should be fun.

Yesterday, I also went surfing to the sunset after I squared away all the intial preparations for the dinner meal. (Homemade tortillas are amazing, but take a lot of preptime dammit). If you can picture me in a camo bandana, brown and barechested, awkwardly riding a circa 1980s girls cruiser bike painted like a cow with one hand, clutching a 7 and a half foot board in the other, I rode my dreadsteed to a beach called Langosta a couple of kilometers away. It was the Bucephalus to my Alexander, and I was on my way to conquer the sunset estuary point break.

The sunset was liquid yellow, tinged with orange and red, with the sky hanging a giant, nearly full moon behind me in a frame of deep blue. The clouds were cumulous, low and purpled. The light of the sun burned at a low angle to the water, so the details and texture of each wave popped out in dazzling relief, and when the water crashed over me the waves were illuminated from behind in a flash of brilliant jade green. The violence of the colors was apocalyptic; their ferocity was offset by a pregnant stillness in the air broken only by gentle offshore breezes...

All of this was reflected in the surface of the water so that paddling out to the waves was like paddling out over sky; it was an impressionists mottled gold, paint bucket fantasy. Waiting for the set to roll in was serene, and before you knew it, suddenly from the horizon they would approach... The lighting and the speed of the waves gave you time to savor the approach, all this made catching them a leisurely pursuit. When I caught a wave and surfed it in, I could see the bowl of the moon burning white. It was really spectacular.

I have seen so many sunsets like that. I have watched them alone from secluded beaches, watched them from the board I was riding, bobbing out in the bosom of the ocean, watched them from my favorite fish shack enjoying a blackberry shake. They bleed together in a place where you dont count time; they are like different members of the same species... Similar, but with their own personalities and eccentricities.

Despite how amazing this sounds, today I miss my family the most. I miss Sarah and I miss Katie and Criss, Tim and Kate, my Monine, and I miss Lee. I miss my family back home in Riddle, and I miss Jon and Crystal. (However, I do not miss Cricket, the little turd with fur that lives with my parents) If I could be anywhere it would be with them. I am really thankful to have such a great family, and I am thankful for my opportunity to be here.

I am thankful for my lady
for her laughter
and for her choice to honor me as her partner,
for her grace
and her acceptance;

I am thankful for my persepective
for the love of my family and friends,
for opportunity
for what my suffering has taught me
and for having such a bright future ahead of me;

I am thankful to be here.
I am thankful for the ability to see and love and cherish;
I am thankful to be alive.

From Central America, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A Longosta sunset. Alas, not mine since I am without a camera, and not nearly as beautiful as the yesterday, but you get the idea.