Sidetracked Charley

  First let me say the bear photo probably has nothing to do with this blog. It is just one of the photos I have taken recently that Windows 10 has allowed me access to. And it is a photo of which I am very proud of. And which scared my sister because she thought I was more intelligent then to get this close to something that large and unpredictable. I didn't admit it to here but I was scared shitless after I took my photos. Obviously sometimes my right brain gets in the way of rational thought. Like when the Hondo fire came over the crest within a half hour of my house in Questa and I took roll after roll of film with a 50 mm lens, not a telephoto, and was unaware of the sparks falling out out of the black clouds of smoke over my head until a week later I got the prints back.  But there are events and emergencies in our lives we cannot hold a camera as barrier between it and us. Real life which is not even recordable when it is happening. But sadly I am gifted or plagued with...

  The family story goes that they could not get me to run away from home so they ran away from me. Certainly seemed that way in January 1964 when I unpacked my trunk in my dorm room. I was still in Albuquerque, where I mostly grew up, but my family was in Lakewood, Colorado. I met my friends from high school as usual at the Student Union Building but it wasn't the same. They were townies and I was now a dorm resident. I soon gave up getting a sack lunch from the cafeteria so I could eat with them. When the various breaks in the school year came my new friends went home. I, at first, went to where my family lived. But clearly that was no longer home. I began making plans to spend breaks somewhere else. Or to stay in the dorm and study in the library. I could stand alone. This morning in a chat with my sister she asked why I cared about the election outcome so much. I love history. Why she asked. Why people do what they do. What they did. It struck me that my studies are in so many w...

  Red sky in the morning.  Sailors take warning. But I am likely to be out on the deck taking photos of it and not heading to a safe harbor. But then just what is a safe harbor these days. I assume it is my home. You know where the Governor of our state has urged us to stay. It was a Dog Gone Park day so I was content even if all of them were still on Day Light Savings time. BTW dogs don't get that. And what is it we are saving all this time for? But that was my mood until a long term stay over's owner called. No, it wasn't to extend the stay. It was to pick her up in the safest way possible. Boca's owner had tested positive during a trip to the airport. Now she had to quarantine for 14 days and of course she wanted to do it with her dog. I have Dog Gone Park set up so owners do not have to get closer than seven feet. Masks required. Dog through inner gate into holding alley. They get this so well. Better than their humans if truth be known. Boca's travel bag was al...