WHAT I GAVE UP FOR LENT

Ash Wed. started with a license plate sighting as I headed to Joshua Tree, CA from Phoenix. There it was plain as day- LGM- 666- Minnisota plates. A retired whiteman with his wife in a Continental looked at me as I passed. Hmmmm? By the time I'd reached JW (THEGUITARPLAYER) in Yucca Valley I'd forgotten all about the plates. JW lives in a cinder block shack high on a rise, surrounded by moutains in the distance on all sides. It's a big sand bowl of desert plants and critters. Once inside it's like a 1940's bum shack with ten cats crawling all over everything and pissing on the pillows. One electric hot plate serves as range and the dishes were stacked in what remained of the shower. Crude? You could say that. Filthy? You could say that too. He feeds the cats like chickens, tossing cat chow on the floor.
I bought a six pack and opened a plastic jug of homemade tequilla I scored in Mexico, fried up some salmon and fresh asparagus and taters on the hotplate. JW doesn't eat meat or cooked food. Neither does he drink alcohol. He does smoke massive quantities of herb. I drank. I ate. We watched TV and caught up. A couple phone calls were made and I began to feel a bit queasy. By the time I had realized the tequilla was catching up to me it was too late. I hit the front door at a dead run and cats scattered. OUT WITH THE BAD! It was then I realized it was Ash Wed.- the beginning of Lent.
I don't remember much after that until I woke up with my nose buried in a cat piss soaked mattress four foot long. All motor skills needed to open the mattress had abandoned me. My tongue was swollen and as I smacked my parched lips the cats peered down at me from all sides. JW was sound asleep. The desert was dark and silent yet bore witness to what has passed in the night, there in the dust of the driveway- one very nice fish dinner given up for lent. Tonight I get a motel. I can only give up so much.