Bionic Russ

I'm taking yet another detour from finishing writing about the Europe trip, but this was just too funny and looking back, I should have written about it right after it happened because a lot is going to get missed. Anyhow, Marsha and I are in west Texas. Specifically Alpine. If you've ever seen David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" think Big Tuna, TX. The place is full of characters. First, you have the draw of the Marfa mystery lights (wiki article). We went out to see them last night. On the side of the main highway from Marfa to Alpine, there is a roadside pullout and an official viewing platform. What I saw were headlights, and that is also what the significant crowd was oooooing and awwwwing about. I'm going to have to go with the belief that what I saw wasn't the mystery lights and that the mystery lights are far more....well....mysterious than that. Somehow though, I think my belief is wrong and there actually is a place in Texas where you can pull off the side of the highway to view headlights on a perpendicular highway. I think I'm going to open up the Marfa mystery snack stand and charge $8.00 for hot dogs. Anyhow, the point of this blurb is to write about a story that my new friend Russ told us while he held us hostage in the hotel lobby. When Russ asked where I was from, I answered "Wyoming". Russ had just sold a ranch in Wyoming and figured that we were now kindred spirits. The story of how Russ and his wife decided to sell the ranch and move involved his new titanium knees. See, Russ was out feeding horses one frigid January morning when suddenly he lost his balance, fell off the hay wagon, and had to crawl 1/4 mile through a foot or more of snow back to the house, knocked on the door, only to have his wife come to the door and look right over him. She didn't see him because he was laying on the ground. Russ had to tell her to look down. As he told the story, he was clearly miffed that she hadn't immediately pulled him into the house, but rather wanted an explanation as to why he was laying in the snow. Russ' new titanium knees had, apparently, frozen in the cold and locked straight so that he couldn't walk. Russ went on for what seemed like hours telling stories. I think I'm going to try to remember to carry a notebook with me more often. Some of his stuff was comedy gold! I'm pretty sure that the the hay wagon isn't the only wagon Russ has fallen off of.