Blowing in the Wind

It’s freakin' cold here. I came to Southwestern Arizona to escape the bitter cold of Colorado. We’ve had three consecutive mornings of 31 degree weather, what the hell? Okay, so it’s only a small cold front that appears to already be moving out, but if this continues I may just have to go further South into Mexico. Hey, I wonder if the Cartel is hiring ? Hmmm.. Hey…maybe I could be the personal chef of some drug king pin. I’m sure they offer great benefits and being a personal chef would give me one of the more secure positions within the Cartel, as long as El Hefe' doesn’t get food poisoning. Yikes …

Okay so four days have now passed and we’re back into the mid 40's at night and the mid 70's during the day ! Ahhhh, it's early December and I'm away from the snow, nice ! Changing the subject, have you ever thought about what happens to an R.V. when its old and in a state of disrepair? Well, it winds up here in Quartzsite, Arizona! Now that the masses of people are arriving daily, I’m noticing trailers, motor homes, and campers in every shape, size, color and form possible. From the half million dollar luxury Prevost model, to my personal favorite…..the homemade goodie on the back half of a 1978 Dodge van. That’s right, the front cab compartment was sawed off and a metal wall was welded in to make it a complete living compartment…..god I love these people, so creative! Then, of course, there’s the old school buses with tye dye paint, the converted tour buses, the 1968 trailer with four different wheels that are all on the verge of going flat, to which the owner exclaims, “ahhh Quartzsite…I made it!” Consider for a moment the shear ingenuity and resourcefulness involved, it just blows my mind and makes me want to respond in kind. I am now contemplating the possibility of building a corrugated box house and attaching it to my food trailer. I have the plans all drawn up in my head, this addition would allow access to the kitchen so as to serve me and my customers. I can see it now, Eddie B Building himself a shelter, lined w/large black hefty trash bags attached with duck tape. The walls will be painted in a graffiti theme, awe picture me, kickin' back with a book I bought from my favorite naked bookstore owner, Paul Winer, sippin' some Colorado coolaid in my home away from home! The simple life, ain't nothing like it !

As you can see, I've got allot of time on my hands. During the slow times, thoughts and memories flash through my mind, one moment I'm in the present the next I'm thinking of the past. This self inflicted analysis has made me more aware of the irony of life. The brutal truth is, that many times the words we speak in a “tongue in cheek” manner will become our reality. Case in point; five years ago I started my business out of this very food trailer. My wife Rita, came up the with the name Eddie B Cookin' and honestly at first I didn't like it. I wanted something more fancy and upscale sounding. I begrudgingly agreed to use Eddie B Cookin at the beginning, thinking that I could eventually change it down the road. Well, it caught on. Not only did people associate me with the name Eddie B Cookin, but they loved the food I cooked. I became Eddie B Cookin and I loved it. Before I knew it, Eddie B Cookin became so popular that the obvious next step was to open a restaurant. My Wife and I did that very thing, and together we opened Eddie's Uptown Grill in early 2008. My dream had come true! I was the owner/operator/chef of a fine dining restaurant, that also had a catering/ concessionaire business all wrapped up into one. We opened to rave reviews. Not long after opening the restaurant, everyone wanted to know what I would do with the food trailer. My reply was “that’s plan B, my back up plan in the event our world economy melts down, then that trailer will become my mobile kitchen, it will feed me, my family, and others while we all take refuge in the desert”. Bam!! Move ahead a few years and look what's happened; the world economy has melted down, I lost my restaurant, and here I am exercising plan B, living in the desert with my food trailer, feeding other people…..What the F@#K...!! Call me Nostradomas!  Watch what you say, cause off handed remarks can come back to bite you in the ass. Some people believe that words are powerful things, once spoken a person can create their own future. Personally, I don't believe that crap, so all you metaphysical practitioners out there, it was not the universe making my words reality, it was a shitty economy! Speaking of which, if business doesn’t pick up quick, I’m going to convert this damn trailer into a fortune teller business. Actually things are beginning to pick up, I made enough to pay my electric bill this month ! Yahoo !

Not to toot my own horn, but I have been blessed with an innate ability to adapt to extreme cultural change. I mean its all relative….don't get me wrong, If I'd been thrust into the Kalahari desert in the middle of summer, in my birthday suit, being bitten incessantly by 1 pound tsetse flies, all the while co-mingling with hundreds of African cannibals wearing only codpiece g-strings, I’d probably have a tougher time adapting. But as it stands today, so far 36 out of 37 days I have enjoyed nothing but bright sunshine. This time of year it's windy as all hell at times….many times actually, but the locals tell me that predominantly the winds are a fall time of year thing. The desert environment is really growing on me. The more time I spend with my neighbor Jim observing his gem cutting skills the more I want to become a prospector. Quite often I’ll go for long walks in the desert with my dog Gwen and I find myself taking notice of the unique quality of rocks. I know….I know, for you city dwellers out there, you’re thinking “Eddie….they’re just rocks.” That’s the beauty of a simpler life though, I see things differently. I have the time to smell the roses as they say. I now see that they're not just rocks as no 2 rocks are the same. These stones have been developed over tens of thousands of years at some lower level within the earth’s crust. Many of them are used in everyday life as magnetic materials, sulfides in life healing drugs, tools to sharpen, cut, drill, scrape, pound, and heal. Okay, okay so I’ve got way too much time on my hands. Seriously though, a slower, calmer, life results in time to see the magnificence of even a rock.

I will end this this segment with a certain thought that's been racing through my mind, “Eddie what the hell are you doing?” I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps I'm in some freaky mid life crises?…….and if so, aren’t mid life crises’ about red corvettes and girls half my age. Who in their right mind would choose living in a tent in the middle of the desert surrounded by outcasts living on the fringe of acceptable society...ONLY ME….yet that still small voice in my soul keeps saying, keep pressing on... Just take it all in baby and share the ride, share the stories: like the lonely desert dweller guy or girl who frequents my stand just to talk, or the old guy on a bike that wants to share his paranoid views of the world with me, or the guy who believes they keep moving the immigration check point closer to us….(why would they do that?) or all the old, well at least older than I snowbirds that drive 5 miles per hour……Man that’s annoying! Earlier I made a remark of the trailer owner who pulled in to Quarztsite, Az and said “I finally made it here”. Well, the truth is, there are many, many people here, including myself with that mentality. We are all outcasts, and in some weird way we all have arrived. Some are here by choice, some are here by accident, some are here cause they broke down and don't have the money to move on, some are here to hide, some are here to escape colder climates, some are here searching for themselves, and some are here just to make a buck. With this world spinning out of control, I have found peace and contentment living on the fringe of mainstream society. I must be catching on to something cause I'm not the only one, there's allot of us out here riding on the wind in the Autumn of our lives. Hope you keep checking back as there is still so much more to tell, I'd appreciate it if you would pass this blog along….. More later, Eddie.