Sidetracked Charley

I and my family of fur pets have been out of balance for more than three months. I do not know if it is my PTSD effecting my fur kids or the loss of Scrappy effecting my pets who are effecting me or if it is a dynamic spiral. I do know it was depressing because I take a lot of comfort from my fur kids and they just were not providing it. Wee Willow went into stomp and meow mode. This is a cat I honestly thought for years could not meow because she never did. Until we lost The Darkness. Willow literally only stopped meowing when she was asleep. I figured she needed a new pal so brought Scrappy into the house. It was not an immediate solution but she went from meowing at me to hissing at him until one day they were fast friends and kitty bed buddies. Scrappy fit into studio life wonderfully and the house calmed down. Until Scrappy's violent death on December 20th. Life has been anything but normal since. Wee Willow went back to stomping and meowing and I tried to pretend it w...

Something to hang your hat on There is a scene in Star Trek; The Voyage Home where Dr. McCoy asks Mr Spock about his experience being dead and brought back to life. Spock declines to discuss it because there is no common frame of reference. I had my first glimpse of what that was all about one summer in high school when, miffed at my parents and their silly rules, I rode my bike into a neighborhood too far. Not the wrong side of the tracks just the block beyond where my farthermost friend lived. It stuck me as I was peddling through how very different their block was. Ours was obsessed with immaculate lawns, and the windows all had drapes rather than curtains or shades. We had trees in our yards. Trees and lawns I figured were of major importance because it was where we all hung out in the afternoon. Sitting in the shade, on the grass looking for four leaf clovers. I am not sure what peace negotiations were going on in the world then but as a serious student I always watched t...

The almost two weeks of continual snow was unusual but not the return to spring like weather. It is one of the things I enjoy so much about New Mexico. The state only seems to play with the seasons. Sunday was in the 60's and so it was difficult to stay inside and do taxes. The snow was almost all gone but what replaced it was small streams, new ponds and mud. Definitely gardening was out. Could not resist trying to put a shovel into the ground, however. A few inches down was still frozen. And doing any structural repairs to the polytunnel would mean walking around through mud and standing in melted snow. I'm flexible. I grabbed my camera and shopping list and headed down to Las Vegas. I am more and more choosing it for picking up supplies. It is further and requires more of my day then a quick hop over the mountain to Taos but it has several advantages. The Walmart there is a super one and aims its products at a more educated and upward mobile clientele than Taos or Espa...

I have lived in Colorado. In fact Vail and Aspen. I know snow. I will never forget my last winter in Denver. They had a mayor who believed plowing the roads encouraged the storms. Besides it would melt come spring.  It began snowing on the week before Halloween and continued to snow through Memorial Day. We seriously never saw the curbs on our street. In June when the snow finally melted there were chuck holes big enough to bury a Volkswagen in. I know because our neighbor did. The doors would not open so we all devised a plan to get him out through a window. Colorado has winter. New Mexico pretends to have winter. Sometimes we are better at pretending than others. Like the last ten days. But I am informed that our total snowfall in that period of time was less than 40 inches. In part that was because it was a spring snow and some of the flakes melted upon landing.  Still it was nothing close to the 86 inches in Boston. Now that is winter. I only had my driveway plowed...

Replenished Wood Shed I think it was around the 17th or 18th of February when everyone started talking about snow . You will note in the photo above there is lots of uncovered grass. The January thaw which began in December right after a minimalist white Christmas continued all through January and half of February. Oh, not that there wasn't talk of snow. The weather channels and sites always seemed to threaten snow. And there was a small, slight chance here and there that issued an inch or less which because of temps instantly melted. Snow became something which happened in Boston or Maine, and all but the ski areas here seemed rather grateful. So when the talk of a major storm heading our way first started we all rolled our eyes and said, Oh, yeah, sure in unison. I was nursing the last of two cords of wood (October and November called for more fires). I was looking at the garden beds and planning for spring but there was just something about the wind or lack there of. Or...