I just celebrated a birthday and usually avoid gifts, etc. This year there was one thing I wanted. Janet bought me an 18-inch machete with lovely leather case. Now that I own a small farm filled with fruit, coffee and lush tropical plants, I wanted a machete to carve out my place. It was a blast holding them and trying to figure out size shape etc. It was kinda like a baseball player picking out a bat. My only past machete experience was walking the nightime streets of Managua, Nicaragua a few years back My local host said that after someone stole the chocolate cake he was eating, he always armed himself at night. I wielded it on our walk home. Luckily, we arrived without incident. It would have been hard to explain why a peaceful guy from New York was walking the dangerous Managua streets brandishing a huge machete.
I'm hoping for a lifetime of mellow peaceful experiences with my new birthday present, cutting down fruit and carving paths through my lush farm in El Empalme outside of San Ramon.
