Sidetracked Charley

Paradigm Shift by Skydancer Was looking at my blog stats and noticing that ones where I deal with art or science seem to be the most popular. Mind you my readership is not huge on Sidetracked Charley. My followers on this blog are less than a third of my followers on Creative Journey. I can only assume that more people are interested in my poetry and art and opinions on such than they are on the follies in my life. And so it should be. I do not pretend to be a reality show. But I digress. I was going to write about paradigm shift. One of my favorite scientific theories. Well, next to chaos theory. And I have become rather enamored of late with queuing theory, but those are other blogs for other days. Paradigm shift (or revolutionary science ) is the term used by Thomas Kuhn in his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) to describe a change in the basic assumptions, or paradigms , within the ruling theory of science . Since the 1960s, the term has als

  I love Navajo silver work and am especially fond of feathers. I have pendants and earrings and a necklace of hand drafted feathers. But this story is about one particular feather pendant I bought in August of 2004. That was the year of my sister's and my first Thelma and Louise road trip to Utah. I had bought my Astro van of Vango fame the previous December. Debbie did not have her jeep yet. In fact she still lived in Texas and I picked her up at the airport and we headed to the canyons. There are a lot of memories of that 12 days in the wilds including the new alternator for the van, a new camera for my sister, barely making it out of Cottonwood comb before the rains hit, and the case of the vanishing lug nuts. The lug nuts came as we were heading back to the airport through the Navajo Reservation. We had stopped for lunch in Page, Arizona and noticed a lot of hostile Utes wearing anti Glen Canyon Dam t-shirts. But we were in a good mood and nothing was going to ruin it for u

I have always blamed my mother for what I can headline thinking. My sister and I both have it but I cannot think of a single headline my mother actually uttered even given her past as Kansas City Star cub reporter in her youth. She was full of dire predictions based on our actions. Like say if I stuck out my tongue, "What if your face froze like that?" Headline in my head: Young Girl to Undergo Cutting Edge Surgical Procedure . Or the time I threw sand into the obnoxious neighbor's face after he smashed my sand castle. Mother: Do You know what your actions could cause? Headline: Violent Neighborhood Feud Claims More Lives . I think I had just read something about the Hatfields and the McCoys that week. Growing up only made matters worse especially surrounding any breaking of the rules. Like the time I signed out of the dorm (Yes, Virginia, in my day we watched carefully over the "virgins") to go to Juarez with friends. Mom thought I was spending the weekend

The Denver and Rio Grande Western ran the Chili Line until 1941. There was a trestle on that narrow gauge line which ran between Espanola, NM and Alamosa, Colorado which was known for derailments. It had too steep a grade and too tight a curve. I feel lately like an engineer on a steam locomotive headed for that trestle. I am currently derailed without a clue of how to get back on track. The Blizzard Lizard, my transportation for six years had gasped its last. And it has been a long, long time since I have sought a used car. And then my ex-husband was alive to help. I really feel his loss at the moment as much as I feel abandoned by transportation. I got a fortune cookie recently which had the fortune: You will receive a wheeled adventure.  I hope that was not about getting back from outside Cimarron when the van broke down. I hope it is about a new (or new to me) car. I know I have to seek a replacement but at the moment I have not a clue what I want really. See previous blog about

B.F.Skinner invented the Skinner box which is an operant conditioning chamber. An operant conditioning chamber permits experimenters to study behavior conditioning (training) by teaching a subject animal to perform certain actions (like pressing a lever) in response to specific stimuli, like a light or sound signal. When the subject correctly performs the behavior, the chamber mechanism delivers food or another reward. In some cases, the mechanism delivers a punishment for incorrect or missing responses. With this apparatus, experimenters perform studies in conditioning and training through reward/punishment mechanisms. I have decided that life is a malfunctioning Skinner box. When an operant conditioning chamber malfunctions and the reward and punishment are scrambled for a specific behavior the test subject just goes to a corner and shivers. I am there folks. I am trying to keep my eye on the prize as it were but I am unsure if I will get shocked if I dare reach for it. I

It is off season, and like the elk, I am rather enjoying it. Grass is still rather scarce as winter is just leaving, and money is rather tight for much the same reasons but the silence and peace in my mountain resort community are priceless. This is the New Mexico I grew up in and thought I had moved back to. I was rather shocked that it had been discovered. I always joked that we allowed the building of US 66 and later Interstate 40 through the most boring parts of the state so people wouldn't stop. Now that I depend in part on tourism to bring art lovers to my studio I am rather split. But fortunately the tourists seem to go for the peak times ~ when the snow is the deepest and the weather is the warmest. This works for me because it leaves the off times for me to enjoy my state of wilderness. If you are a bird watcher this is a great time of the year as the migrants make their way back to our neck of the woods. How wonderful it is to sit on your porch and see the bright blu

Seems like just yesterday when I was waiting for it to be 2011 as if it was a magic charm that would make all things better. Now here it is the middle of May and I am still holding my breath waiting for the other shoe to fall. Yesterday was one of those absolutely delightful spring days here in the mountains and I decided to dare to plant the cold crops in my two raised beds. The black plastic over them all winter had worked and they were weed free so with very little prep I got in the garlic, onions, radishes, carrots, spinach and four different types of leaf lettuce. I had lunch on the studio stoop between spurts of re-potting my squash seedlings which won't go out to the hot bed till June. And I worked on preparing the hot bed. I know it isn't June yet but I am testing the water jugs. The theory is they get hot during the day and hold the heat at night. Before I put the bags of potting soil between them, and plant my precious squash seedlings and install the plastic cov

Tuscaloosa Tornado It is May the second and there is snow on the ground with more forecast for today. Current temperature here in the Sangre de Cristos is 19 F. But then I don't have to worry about super cells like the one that spawned the tornadoes throughout the south this month. My storm has been Mercury in Retrograde. Since Mercury is my ruling planet I am a firm believer in the evil retrograde can do. It began on March 30th and went direct on April 23rd. April has been a horrid month. My van is still in the shop because my mechanic pulled his back. I am very grateful for the loan of an aging Corolla by my long time friend and neighbor. Without it I would have been wheeless since April 7th. April is not a good month to have to come up with an "extra" $1200 right after having come up with an "extra" $500 in March for the tooth extraction. Meanwhile the price of gas has been spiraling up and up. Years ago I gave up credit cards. And the contractor from he