My Experiment with Solitude in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado by Juliana Aragon Fatula

I'm camping in the mountains in springtime. Fresh snow blanket, blue sky. Sunrise. Crisp clean air. Love. Respect. Love. Perfect. This love. Baby Bear and Papa Bear playing in the snowflakes, crystals like broken glass.

No worries. No noise. Music, dancing, singing, celebrating 59 years in the making. A masterpiece.

Today is Monday. I'm solo camping. Vince, my husband went back to town to work. I'm staying in the woods to write, meditate, be present. It's interesting. I dig it. Will I actually get any work done or will I sing and dance all day and all night? Either way, it's cool.

So, I'm also learning the ins and outs the dos and the do not's of my 24 ft. Love Shack. That's what I've named my mobile home. It's also the muse for my murder mystery. My Private Investigator, LA Aragon, lives in an airstream. Her office and home.

So I'm sitting here in my kitchen/livingroom/bedroom and I'm looking at my 380 auto and I'm thinking, I wonder how long it would take me to unclip a mag, reload, unload and reload. So I try it. The weapon feels odd in my hands. It's steel grey, cold, heavy, loaded, with the safety on, of course. I look in the mirror and see myself as LA the private dick, with her weapon, loaded and ready for investigating and going undercover. My imagination has never been a problem. It's reigning it in that is impossible.

I turn on the mini generator we bought in case of the Zombie Apocalypse. I hit the choke, grab the cord, yank at a 90 degree angle to jump start the engine. Change choke positon to RUN. Let go of cord. Always, every day, during daylight charge the battery on solar energy and save generator fuel for emergencies. Like you need a cup of hot chai and the microwave won't work w/o the generator, same for TV/VCR/DVD.

Radio does work on battery and I'm listening to "Amy, what ya gonna do? I think I could stay with you awhile, maybe longer, if I do." Reminds me of mi comadre, Aimee, the original uber hippy. She's a character in the mystery as my sister and plays Eva the IT genius.  We make quite a team. The Colorado Sisters. That's the name of the book. I'm still writing.

I'm having so much fun. I live in a make believe world everyday. Imagining how these two Chicanas are going to solve the murder. Wish me luck. It's a work in progress and one I never dreamed of doing. I was an actor, a performance artist, a storyteller, a poet, and now I find myself chin deep in murder, mystery, victims, suspects, plots, twists, and clues.

There's no cell service, no internet, no television, no phones. I love that. I have everything I need and no technology to interrupt my flow. It's delicious. So, I decided to crunch some carrots and drink a virgin bloody Mary.

I'm pretending I'm back at Dillon Beach, CA in the Bay area. It was chilly on the beach. July but cold wind off the Pacific Ocean. Here at my camp the weather has changed from sunny and blue skies to cloudy, windy and cold. I have plenty of food, water, snacks, Peewee Herman, and warm clothes, blankets, boots. I'm ready if a snow storm hits. The snow has all melted but I see patches here and there in the shade of the magnificent pines, hundreds of years old.

It's so nice relaxing, to just live in the moment. No worries. Nada. I may start  using the Love Shack for my writing room at home. It's parked in the driveway and close enough to pick up Wi-Fi but far away enough to ignore the answering machine.

It's 3am on Tuesday. The wind woke me. The Love Shack is rattling and it sounds like someone is outside knocking. I peek out the window into the dark. The sky is clear. The stars are out. Twinkling and showing off. Star gazing, one of my favorite past times. Magnificent cosmos.

It must be cold outside because the heater keeps coming on and blowing hot air out of the vents. The wind, the heater, the dark noise. Creepy? Yes. Fun? Yes.

Here are some of the great sentences I wrote for my experiment alone, isolated from technology.

"I'll keep your Colorado Sisters' secrets. I won't tell a soul. Can I just tell one person? Never mind." Doty, the transgender civil rights attorney for the LGBT headquarters in Atlanta.

"Ay se va. Forget it. Grab your calcos. Let's ride." Eva jumped on the back of the Harley with Shakespeare and left dust in everyone's face.

"After the nightmares she's survived, she should be locked and loaded. Good for her. Is she a member of the NRA?" TO Eddy asks his niece, Eva.

"LA always checks her weapon, her security cameras, and keeps the only door locked down, always. She don't take chances." Eva tells Shakespeare.

"You have to be a Mexican, to be a Mexican. Que, no? You have to be a woman to be a woman." Doty said to Eva. "Que, si?

"You must have been his boy-toy." The victim's ex-wife, Lola, yelled at Tony. Gives you motive doesn't it?"

Yes, I'm disturbed. That's why I am so loved. For my 59th birthday I received 75 birthday wishes on Facebook. Just when I thought about quitting Facebook, it sucks me back in. My family, friends. and even Facebook friends are supporting me in my new adventure and with support like that, I'd be crazy to stop writing. I'm going to keep writing, imagining, and creating until I can longer hold a pen in my hand. Que, no? http://conundrum-press.com/category/authors/juliana-aragon-fatula/