Morning Breath

Why is it that one can shower and brush the teeth immediately before entering a cocoon of slumber, and yet still wake up with morning breath fit only for the queen of the dead?!? Apparently this is simply one of those "facts of life." Everyone has it, the elephant breath wake up call.

We brushed our teeth.

And headed out the door rackets in hand to play fronton. En route to the bus Zach looked over at me, an almost sorrowful concern in his eyes, and said - "I wish my armpits would stop waking up with morning breath." Its a hard life.

Once we made it to the courts we warmed up a little and waited for the squeegy experts to finish sweeping the rain off the court. Somehow we managed to stake a claim on the court, although there were other people standing around. And once it was dry enough to perhaps be relatively certain we would not face certain death (by slipping), we started getting a feel for things. Jose and Zach decided they would play against Alberto and I. We had no sooner determined these teams, when Jose sent a ball whizzing straight towards Zachs head. Somehow, by means unknown to me, the ball missed his skull and sent his heart racing. "Play ball." (Alberto's second favorite phrase of the day) We had some pretty decent runs with 7 or 8 hits back and forth between teams. I managed to play defense fairly well, by always finding myself right in the line of where the ball was flying and where either Zach or Jose was running to come hit it. There were only a few minor collisons with no sustained injuries. At one point Jose hit a whiz-banger straight into Zach's left calf, and a few plays later, another one right into Alberto's right kidney. Not very long after that he hit one clear out of the park - over the 45 foot wall into the cemetery next door. We had two back ups waiting so play wasn't stopped for long. Im not sure who won. But after maybe an hour Jose and I rotated out so that Zach and Alberto could play with some guys who had been standing on the out-of-bounds line obviously eager for their turns. These gentlemen were older. One was a spitting image of Dr. Hopper, and I knew if looks were a cue then this would be a fun round.
While the game got started Jose and I decided to go hunting for the lost ball over the fence. Before things got too interesting. We made our way back out to the parking lot, around the mosquito lake that has been fermenting for quite some time, and to the 12 foot rock wall. In some places there were shards of broken glass sticking out of the wall (which was maybe 8 inches thick) to deter kids like us from jumping into the graveyard probably. We found a patch of the wall where we were relatively sure there wasn't any glass, and by a good stroke of luck, a shorter wall to step up onto for a boost up. Jose went over first and told me "This isn't a good place, you should stay here and wait for me" I kicked my way up the wall and perched myself on top to await his return. Just a few minutes later he emerged from out of the forest (of trees, grass, weeds and tombstones) victorious. The lost yellow ball was safe in his hand. He looked up at me, handed me the ball - which I took as my signal to jump down out of the way. My feet had barely touched the ground when Jose called out "HELP!" I hurried back up and saw him sort of climbing, sort of crouched, desperately clinging to the wall. I reached out for his hand and pulled him up to where he could get a better foothold and his other hand on the top of the wall. He made it the rest of the way just fine. By this time Zach and Alberto had begun quite the fight against their new opponents. As Jose and I came back within sight of the court the ball Alberto had just hit came sailing towards us and landed on the roof that is over the bleacher like seating just outside the courts. They motioned for us to see if it would bounce down on the other side. We watched and waited and it didn't. I walked towards the makeshift ladder (it is really just a steel support beam with 4 inch pegs sticking out of it (like a telephone pole)) and put my head below one of the pegs to look around the beam and ask if they wanted me to climb up and get it. I found out they didn't and drew my head back and somehow landed the little cleft at the bottom of my right temple directly - full force - into one of the pegs. There was a weird crunching sound (my teeth clamping together - thankfully my tongue was nesteled safely inside away from them) and then a searing pain shot out of my temple bringing that stinging feeling to my nose, the hot feeling in the back of my throat, and tears to my eyes. Its a good thing they didn't want me to climb. I brought my hand to the side of my head to make sure there wasn't any blood (there wasn't) and just backed away slowly - so as not to bonk into anything else. You see, this is actually my second time to hit my head since being here in Mexico. The first time we were walking down the sidewalk, and I ran face first right into a little electrical meter box. My forehead's first thought was "OWWW!!!" followed closely by "why would anyone put that at eye level" followed shortly by the realization that actually eye level for me was well above the heads of most everyone else and out even out of reach for some. Circle back to fronton now. I walked back onto the court and sat down for a drink. Nothing in my head is broken - at least nothing that is visible. ;) There is a pretty colorful little bruise and it is still really tender to any touch. The ball was recovered - Jose climbed up to get it, and after coming back down to sit by me he told me "I think I might just do more climbing than playing today."
Alberto and Zach won one game and lost another. Then Dr. Hopper's look alike wore out and a younger fellow stepped in. Alberto bowed out so that Jose could have another round. After Jose managed to launch two balls (one practically to the moon and into the cemetery, the other right on top of the concrete wall balanced perfectly in front of the chain link (that goes up even higher to keep more balls inside) out of play, we called it good for the day and headed out. We stopped by the caseta (post workout replacement for those boys) and then walked to the Llano to check out the possibility of tickets for a show at the live theater. Jose headed home and we caught our bus to Tule.
Upon returning, quite ready for a good shower, we discovered that the water tank was empty and showers would have to wait until after 9 or 10 when we could turn the pump on. My digestive tract was feeling a bit uneasy (it has since Saturday - felt kind of upset - up high approximately where the large and stomach might be located) so I opted for a nap. We rested and much later cooked some tasahoe for dinner. After blogging we turned on the pump and then were able to shower and got all tucked in.