10/13/22 (Thursday)

We had our first class covering the electrical systems of earthships today, and my head is spinning. Takes me back to my AP Calc days in high school where my brain would just shut off once I reached a certain level of confusion. Parabolas? Hyperbolas? Huh? Similar to my thoughts in that high school classroom back in Tewksbury, I wondered when I would ever need to know and apply this new information about volts, watts, and amps. Even if I do go on to construct my own earthship in NH, I am not going to be doing my own electrical work. That sounds like a recipe for disaster--an illegal one at that. Sitting there with no windows to stare out of for a bit of a repreive, I couldn't help but think of a quote from one of my favorite movies, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion: "...Like, there's a guy in a rowboat going X miles, and the current is going like, you know, some other miles, and how long does it take him to get to town? It's like, 'Who cares? Who wants to go to town with a guy who drives a rowboat?'"

Today was our first day on Deborah's site. This is the third unique site I've done work on. Her earthship is basically situated on a huge drop-off with no retaining wall as of yet. Anyhow, I enjoyed learning more about carpentry. I worked with my classmates Shelby and Kora to cut and drill pieces of wood to frame the greenhouse windows, which are slated for installation next week. I mostly measured and drilled, though I did use the table saw once (not my favorite tool, especially after hearing that a former student--an experienced carpenter, nonetheless--sliced his thumb off with one while allegedly trying to teach a group of women on site how to make a cut...). Sidenote: I am not sure why the majority of earthships are continuing to be built with custom glass rather than standard glass for the greenhouse windows. They're almost twice as expensive. One of our instructors suggested you could tweak the design a bit by adding additional courses of tires so that you could use the shorter, standard cut of glass. Sounds like a pretty ingenious idea to me!

Once we called it a day at Deborah's, I needed time to recharge (a result of being an introverted octogenarian millennial). A relaxing solo trip into town was in order--preferably being able to locate a cute little coffee shop to work on my blog a bit. While I am thankful we have wifi in our earthships, it's certainly not the fastest connection. I lucked out in finding the Espresso Bar in downtown Taos. After a quick glance at the menu, I was going to go with my usual "fru-fru" coffee beverage of choice (caramel macchiato or something of the like), but when I stepped up to the counter to order, I saw a sign advertising coffee flights! The perfect amount of "fru-fru"--yes, please! It was such a cute little tray of caffeinated happiness! Black Tie (my new favorite "fru-fru"), Caramel Macchiato, Brown Sugar Matcha, Brown Sugar Oat Latte, and Cold Brew with Oat Foam. DELISH!

My writing oasis (aka The Espresso Bar) was going to close at 7pm and I didn't want to be one of "those" people who stayed until closing time, so I packed up and took my leave around 6:30pm. I had a hankering for some authentic Mexican food, so I headed for La Cueva Cafe--a quaint little cafe with a cute patio and very small indoor dining area. I sat inside and ordered a homemade lemonade and the shrimp enchiladas--solid choices, as I was informed by my waitress.

Got back to the ranch just in time to join some classmates for a campfire in between our three simple survival earthships and the architect's office (where two other classmates were lodging). At one point, we had 14 out of 18 of us there; not too bad! I had bought some smores ingredients earlier in the week, so I busted those out. Everyone seemed to enjoy them though we had to forage for acceptable skewers (nature's variety). Enjoyed the campfire and my smore with a java stout from the Santa Fe Brewery--a lovely evening!