Cross State with Tony Hillerman

I drove from Puyallup to Spokane today, a 6 hr drive. Long drives go faster with books on CD and the drive across Washington state is 250 miles--that counts as long enough to listen to a good book. It was nice weather--sunny and not to hot. Usually the desert is heatwaving and the sage is cracking dry. I needed a little airconditioning the last trek of the drive, perhaps the last 100 miles through the golden grass fields. This evening I've donned a sweater. Back in B'ham I heard it was warm--ah, the old switch-a-roo.

Back at home, my neighbor gardener is watering the plot. She says it's easy because she waters both at once--no worries. The cat is being fed by a friend and it's down-time for the week. Sort of a rest and recovery week for this poor divorcing woman, who could easily see herself in the shoes of Tony's character, a young Navajo cop.

The cop is not so good on the job because she's more interested in plants, picking up seeds and -thinking about the environment where they're growing. I feel the same, place is important to life. And the state of Washington is full of unique landscape, scab lands, dry falls, canyons, plateaus, buttes, valleys, mountains, rivers, lakes, ocean, etc. It's a great drive, seeing deserts, the columbia, rolling Palouse, etc. And now, pine trees. Very refreshing, all this pine.

Tony's character is worried about the spirits that come off a dead person--so as a cop who has come across a body, this isn't a good thing. She now needs a shaman to get the critters off of her. Interesting. Maybe that would work with an ex.

More about the Inland Empire tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Flower