The Grump Goes to Santa Fe

Once upon a time, there was a Grump. He didn't always used to be a Grump. Maybe it was his skepticism of the value of a staycation. Perhaps he was frustrated with people judging his water-carrying backpack, saying that he was much too close to home to dress like such a tourist.

Some people just don't like Santa Fe.

"Santa Fe people," thought the Grump "are a bunch of hippies. I will not smile, no matter how much my cute wife wants a photo of me in front of the Santa Fe sign. You must never smile at a hippie or they will steal your power."

When faced with the prospect of walking to Canyon Road to browse the art galleries, the Grump crumpled his oversized hat in frustration. "We have perfectly good art in Albuquerque," he muttered.

Shopping at the Santa Fe Plaza only seemed to create a Sleepy Grump. "We rode the Rail Runner train here," he was quick to point out. "You can't get any of this junk home. It's all overpriced anyway. The music in this store sounds like lasers. It's stupid."

After that, the Grump refused to look in his cheerful wife's direction any more when she had her camera out.

Would the stupendous Santa Fe staycation be destroyed by the Grump? Wasn't there anything in Santa Fe that could interest a nerdy engineer?

The Grump spotted something at the Railyard Park. His MBTs took him straight to it, lickety split.

"A bench suspended in the air? Is it just more foofy Santa Fe art or can you actually sit on it?"

The Grump sat down cautiously, prepared at any moment for the inferior Santa Fe engineering to land him in the dirt.

He didn't fall.

"Hmmm," thought the Grump, hardly a grump at all anymore.

Of all the fun things to do in Santa Fe, it had been a floating bench that turned his frown upside down!

Then his delightful wife stopped in the middle of the road to take a photo of a whimsical tree and asked him what he thought might be living inside.

And he went right back to being a grump.

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Kitty Deschanel

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