Sidetracked Charley

I have blogged numerous times about the artificial quality of marking time. The end of one years is but the beginning of the next and where we set that day is capricious at best. But civilization seems to want to do it. And there are many proofs of that from Stonehenge to Mayan Calendars to hash marks on prison walls. At one time in my time clock days I was a cost and scheduling engineer. And we had elaborate computer programs which laid out complex industrial building projects over the span of years to be printed out in charts and put on the conference room wall so everyone could debate if we were ahead or behind schedule. Life and living takes what it takes. In my retirement from the scheduled world of construction only last frost and first frost seems to matter. But I have purchased a new propagation system and find myself trying to walk back, with help of the garden journal, when I should start my broccoli and Brussels Sprouts to be put out in the garden the first of May...

I really have been an accidental gardener. I moved around too much to really put down roots outside of containers. And if I chanced, for a short period of time to have a plot where I could work the earth I was haphazard in what I would grow. Or attempt to grow. Now and again I would be wildly successful at something like horseradish in North Carolina. That started a war with my neighbor. She was also not fond of my shredded computer paper mulch. Frankly, I found that funny because all the birds favored it as nesting materials for blocks around. I learned to cook Zucchini because it was the only plant I was successful at in my rocky patch in Sandia Park, New Mexico. I even wrote a cookbook, and for years did a cooking column titled Goats Don't Eat Zucchini .  And they don't. But skunks eat corn. They even know when to do a midnight raid on your about ripe corn. In Questa I discovered why chicos. It is a labor intensive corn product made with corn a week from ripe or before...

So yesterday I listened or watched the news all day. Mostly listened as I stacked wood on the deck or organized my pantry. I escaped for ten minutes to go pick up organic eggs and sweet Italian sausage. But from the moment I got up I had this expectation of something significant happening in the news. I did not want to miss the actual event even though I knew I could rewatch on YouTube and many other streaming services. And the news gods did not disappoint. Now we have you! I have a better than average legal mind. Dad loved the law so my early understanding of it was from him. And I have worked as a contract administrator with a construction firm, and a municipal court clerk. So when the news gods called out their legal talking heads I was in heaven. Our president is an unindicted co-conspirator, and involved in collusion, and probably treason, and if not president would be indicted for various felonies. He obtained his office through illegal acts! So he is not legally pres...

Shadows on Stone A bit in wonder over the slow blue wave .  Maybe because there has been so much going on in my personal life. Maybe because the Orange man is still in the White House it has been hard to absorb what this could mean. Or that I no longer believe in the two party system. I am not picking another 1% representative to back for president.  I find myself thinking more local and immediate than two years from now. And a news program talking about the power of agendas being put up for vote, and a conversation with a friend more involved with state politics started my mind working. For New Mexico January 2019 is the beginning of a 60 day legislative session. And a governor in the state house more predisposed to some of the things the previous Republican governor kept vetoing.  A good time to put forward some state issues we have been fighting for like the approval of not following daylight savings time. Or legalization of recreational marijuana. And it could ...

November storms In the song the Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald there is a stanza about the gales of November. People on the shores of Lake Superior talk of the Witch of November. Something bad is always going to happen in November. Marc and I actually used the word divorce in November. Though it would be December before I move out and April 1st before it was final. When he died in early November a few years after our divorce I tried not to know the date. But I was already predisposed to hate November. Mom first spoke to me about her breast surgery in November though she said she didn't want to ruin the holidays and would wait until January. Too late. She had already ruined November for me.  And while she didn't die from cancer until a few decades later she did it on Thanksgiving ruining December as well. My sister has already been warned about putting off surgery. In the old TV show Northern Exposure about Alaska the mayor goes about in late October and early Novemb...

Sundog Dawn The holidays and me are a love/dread relationship. Heavy on the dread. I once wrote an article about Murphy's Laws for the Holidays. Number one was if it can go wrong it will go wrong on a holiday. Mom died on Thanksgiving. And I was hit by a drunk skier on Christmas Eve. Everyone wanted me to go away until after Christmas. When I was finally able to get an appointment with a neurologist he looked at my MRI scans and said, "Well, the good news is you didn't die." I start gritting my teeth before Thanksgiving which may be the reason I broke a tooth this morning. Dentist is out of the office but I will call Monday anyway and see if there is anything which can be done. I know don't chew on that side. And my guess is it a tooth with a root canal because it doesn't hurt. But my tongue plays with the gap, which has edges. Minor compared with some of the news which has been churning around me and those I care about deeply. And for those I don...

Woodpile The first Tuesday in November seems like such an awful time for an election. It seems to up our chances of foul weather to give us an excuse to not vote. And quite frankly the last of September and first part of November is when I, and most of my mountain friends, are busy getting ready for winter. Not that we cannot drop everything we are doing and head to the polls. If, mind you, we remember to drop the chore of stacking wood and heading out. Our neighbors wouldn't even be surprised to see us covered with wood chips or sap. They probably are too. If they are in town. A lot are out in the hills hunting for the elk for winter meat. Elk hunting isn't a sometime in the next month sort of thing. You get drawn for a tag for a specific area and a limited block of days. This year our county offered early voting options which did not mandate we travel for two hours to the county seat to vote. It was really nice because the two cords of wood for the winter had not bee...

The Wood to be stacked When I lived in Questa with my late husband. I participated more completely in the gathering of wood to heat the house. We would initially venture up the Cabresto Canyon to an area dead and down trees could be harvested. Marc manned the chainsaw and I fetched and carried back to the trailer. Then home to unload.  After three or four days of gathering it was time to split the wood and stack. The local myth was the more cords split and stacked the more secure the marriage; the more stable your residency. On the day I moved out and over the mountain there was five cords of wood by the garage. I had totally participated in every single piece of that. But on December 10th the day after I moved in to my house in Black Lake I had to begin looking for wood to burn. I hadn't a clue how to get the precious commodity if I didn't have a pickup, a flat bed trailer, a chain saw, and a log splitter. I discovered the full pickups of wood in the parking lots in ...

Halloween Snow Halloween is generally when the ski areas begin to make snow. It is considered a point in the weather that temperatures are such that snow can be kept on the slopes. Halloween is also myth holds when we get a first snow. But it is usually just a teasing snow. A couple inches here and there. But this year it was 10 inches at my house, 12 inches at my friend's house up the hill, and the ski area maintains 16 inches. After last year's non-winter I was totally unprepared for it to arrive this early this year. Firewood had not been delivered and I had only enough for one fire in case the power went off. And it did go off. For almost eight hours in one chunk and then off and on much of the rest of the day. Fall had seemed like it was going to last forever. My attentions had been on putting the garden to bed, and mulching all the beds. Even sowing some seeds for the first snow to cover. Hoop house frame But with the power off an no wood in the ...

My high school was known for its debate and drama departments. Not its sports teams. And in my five years at the University of New Mexico our football team came close to only setting one record: The most football games lost in a row. And it shot that down by winning one on a fluke. The Democrats are a lot like UNM's football team. If they can lose it they will lose it. And with less than two weeks to the midterms they seem ready to do just that. Mind you the Democrats are not my team. And not the Republicans either. I am am independent with a small i. And the only reason I am sitting in the stands watching this defeat is I care about those in this country who blindly believe in the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave bullshit. We aren't. We haven't been for at least a decade. And if this goes on any longer we will never be get the chance to be that again. The worst things about college football is one horrible defeat can be quickly followed by another, and money b...

Dog Gone Alley Last year the big expansion of the "garden" was the poppy bed on the front of the deck. This year the new flower beds have been in Dog Gone Alley, a double gated entry to my backyard, and dog camp. It seemed a perfect place to put at least one raised bed for flowers. And as it has better sun for Iris than other locations I decided to make it an Iris bed. To which I add Italian Garlic (garlic has gotten lost in my hoop house) and most recently globe thistle. That left me with the other side of the walkway through Dog Gone Alley. I resisted doing another raised bed and instead yesterday went for the natural sowing method often used for wild flowers. I scattered seeds of Mexican Hat over the varied low vegetation (dandelions and a couple other creeping weeds) topped with potting soil and then mulched with straw. I also mulched the other side. And while I still had lots of mulching straw in the bag I bought (I bought two so much more to mulch) I mulched ...

Hold You Head Above the Crowd For anyone paying attention the last few weeks have been very, very, very stressful. And that is the goal of the other party. Makes us afraid, make us angry, make us give up. Surrender is not an option. Because if we go that route the Christian Right will get the Doomsday they have been planning for. Rapture for them, the righteous white, they believe. And doomsday for liberals. But you don't have to focus on the monsters without zippers. At least not all the time.Though an effort to stay totally away from news makes me anxious. So I ration my exposure. And then the rest of the day I watch reruns of comfort TV, garden, paint, take photographs, and tend to my dog guests. In the days leading up to Nixon's resignation I quit all news and quit all activism and the Republican party and Washington, DC. I hid out in the mountains of New Mexico without a TV. If friends had not called me to alert me of his announcement I would have missed it. There...

As a child I was drawn to horror flicks. These were generally in black and white and shown late at night on the only TV in the house. So I was generally alone in the living room in the dark with the sound really low. I was warned off this practice by my mother who was sure The Monster from the Black Lagoon would give me nightmares. Never did. Tarzan, afternoon reruns, however were a totally different animal. Mother, hoping to get a total night's sleep without a screaming child, explored why Tarzan gave me nightmares.  "Because they are real," I responded. "They are just actors," Mother explained. "But they have no zippers down their backs," I said.  Ever the very attentive to detail child I had seen the zippers on the monsters. I knew they were wearing costumes. But not the bad men on Tarzan. They were real. Africa, the dark continent existed. And there were evil white men who killed and enslaved. They also existed outside of...

Gained five pounds in last few weeks. I gained it because I tried to eat pain away instead of taking pills. Because I don't drink I ate when frustrated with the world today. Definitely ate when tired thinking it would give me more energy. I ate for all the wrong reasons and it is time to get back to conscious eating. I don't diet. Just saying the word makes me gain four pounds. Never tell me I cannot have something I crave. I was bulemic in my youth. I promised a mental health professional I would not diet again. Moderation in all things. And so I don't feel deprived that includes moderation. Feeling deprived is not good. Instead of dieting I try to consciously eat. This last few weeks I forgot that. I was thinking of everything but what I was eating. It cannot be comfort food if it gives you no comfort. So this week I return to being conscious of what I put in my mouth. My default will be hot coffee or hot tea. Maybe even a glass of water before going to the re...

Ute Park Fire Burn Scar October will be my turn it off month . I am so tired of the "background noise" of our political battles. It is killing my creativity and sapping my energy. I feel this way every Monday after the Sunday news programs.  And must admit it is good I learned to moderate my temper pr there would be a lot of smashed electronics. The world on Sundays seems reduced to sound bites and talking points and devoid of any reasoned debate or discussion. This Sunday Kelly Ann Conway seemed the most reasoned. Really! We have come to this. So absolutely NO Sunday talk shows for the month of October. The rest of the week I will watch only Rachael Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell. They talk to their audience and give context. I will read all the rest of my news. I already know how I will vote this November. All the rest is just noise which keeps us plugged in, fearful, and confused. I no longer believe we will recover from this. I no longer believe in the governm...

Entry to the Binford-Bell Studio Last night when I climbed the stairs to go to bed every muscle in my body was weary, my shoulder hurt, my back ached, and I was totally aware of everything which had not been done yet for the Angel Fire Studio Tour this weekend. Some things I knew I was going to do this morning at the last opportunity like make the Snickerdoodles. And some things I had decided just didn't need to be done. And too long of a list of I cannot do this also remained. I am not one to admit I cannot do things, but I was too exhausted and too wounded to do them.  I have made it this far after my ski accident in 2001 by adopting the Adaptive Skiing model of "Argue for your limitations and they are yours." And concentrating on progress and not perfection. Not easy for a perfectionist energizer bunny who was always rewarded for doing. While I focus most on the CBT of that accident I also compressed three discs in my neck, damaged my shoulder in a complex man...

One corner of the studio with beaded jewelry and the new standing panel paintings. As most of my frequent readers know I have been busy cleaning up for the second annual Angel Fire Studio Tour . And of course I was not going to take the easy way out would have been a simple done and dusted. Fall is my usual time for a thorough cleaning and rearrange of my living space. And I confess I live mostly in my studio. With winter approaching it is a good time to make all ship shape while taking inventory of what might be needed to entertain myself if snowed in for a week like in 2006. Happily the studio tour occurs just when I am doing the fall dust off. Fall is also when my sister and I try to snatch a few days by ourselves and this year it was at the Kamaja Resort on the Rio Grande River. And just before that event I slammed the door of my pickup the wrong way, and activated an old injury of my left shoulder. My theory was a few days in hot tubs and pools at the resort would sol...

Bark Camp It seems all the vogue these days to not put dogs into kennel cages. And that is probably spurred on by the number of rescues who spent too long in cages waiting for forever homes. And it is probably an adjunct of the dog parks. And our dreamy liberal belief that all dogs get along when off leash. I have a huge yard which once held four llamas. My dogs, at the time two shepherds and a standard poodle, had a much smaller yard until I sold the llamas. I had begun a day job (all artists should have day jobs) of pet sitting cats and dogs at the homes of clients. Works well with cats. Once a day and they are happy. But dogs require more attention so I began having a dog or two at my house. It began with Summer, an aging golden retriever, when her owners went to Mexico for an extended period. Summer was so easy and got along with my cats (multiple at the time) and my dogs (Magique and Mardi Gras). In my small community word gets out. Soon a few of my friends asked i...

Red Sunflower There is a point in August when the wind comes from a new direction and carries with it a hint of cool weather coming. This year I was down on the Bosque north of Albuquerque when fall arrived. Thus proving it didn't have anything to do with my higher altitude in Black Lake. And it isn't just a coolness to the breeze but the smell of fullness or ripeness. Fall smells different than spring or summer.  Changes in color on the bosque I returned to my Black Lake home to find the wild asters in bloom, late cowslip. The rust colored sumac in seed is missed. We missed the wildflowers of the spring because of the winter drought which continued into early summer.  Mare and foal in the fall  I have felt off step through the summer with my edible garden efforts. Root crops did not produce and I lost my Spanish garlic crop for some reason. Greens and chard fed me well but Broccoli and Brussels Spouts were disappointing. But the flowers in my beds mad...

BoBear in Thicke's chair My father was famous for declaring, "No more dogs in this family." That never happened. We always had dogs. Dad at one time raised and trained award winning field champions: Irish Setters and Beagles. As an adult I understand the pain of losing a dog and having to find its replacement in the family, and my father's momentary desire to never do it again. And I did it once. Briefly. I worked for an international construction company who transferred me three times in one year. Finding apartments who would take pets was not easy so I tried it without a cat or dog. I don't do well without fur kids. I like them better than people. And I usually have multiples. The last two years is the first time I have had only one of each. Thicke has made it totally clear he does not want another cat in the house. And he works hard at his role of sole feline. Thicke posing in the sink And it has been three years with only one dog. After Mardi G...