Sidetracked Charley

Debbie and Crystal Fenced In  Most of the past week was spent in San Fidel. And much of it was sadly without visual commentary as my sister and I were doing things like the Feast Days at Laguna Pueblo where cameras were inappropriate. As the mission church there is quite stark and beautiful I am including a Google Images picture of it. Yes, it will be the subject of a painting. Laguna Pueblo Mission I do like the sky in this picture but on the day Debbie and I and her friends were there it was a clear blue day and hot. Over 400 vendors to shop and an invitation to one of the homes to eat. We had a grand time but were exhausted when we got home to the little house on the mesa. The following Monday was a shopping day in Albuquerque so we could get supplies for the fence and other projects we had planned during my visit. We met our friend Dianna in town and proceeded to see just how much stuff could be loaded into a Jeep Rubicon. We might hold the world record. Any challenge...

Sister and dogs on Sand Stone Bluffs With the tooth ache that rose to a high pain level last week I thought I would not be able to go to my sister's in San Fidel as planned. But I got in to see the dentist on Thursday after getting my van back on Wednesday from its last scheduled repair. Turns out it was just (like the way I say just?) a bad gum infection around the root of the back bottom molar. A couple hundred dollars of antibiotic later and I was able to roll on Friday morning. Only one day late. Ventana Arch I was going down to install dog door and fence to make my sister's life with her two fur kids just a bit easier. But on Friday afternoon we went exploring in the Rubicon and I was shown some things like the above arch I had not seen before in New Mexico where I grew up. Shadows of trees on Sand Stone Bluffs We were trying to capture the setting sun on the cliffs but got the shadows of the tall pines in the bargain. And the sunset. And the next day being...

See Wiki for More TW3, That Was The Week That Was, was really popular in my college dorm. No other program prompted us as much to abandon bridge games, studies, and dishing the dirt quite like it or Startrek. And no this blog isn't about it. It is about the week that was. My week. But it seemed like a really good name. My week was not earth shaking. I survived the paranormal convention held at the resort basically by staying away from town. But I am happy to report that for the second year in a row no landing of alien spaceships in Black Lake for attendees from other worlds. I did pick up a Western Giant Puff Ball mushroom, which in my opinion look rather alien, and place it on my property. They grow in fairy rings in high meadows and I rescued this one just a 1/2 mile from my house. My back meadow seems perfect for it. BTW mushrooms are the blooms of a subterranean fungi. My theory is when this one goes to seed (spores) it will establish the fungi in my yard. Progress repor...

This is my goal Let me say right at the outset of this blog that weight has NEVER been a neutral subject for me. I was born in an era of chubby babies being the healthy ones and I was not chubby. I was a healthy and active youngster with a very good appetite, but following a bout with Scarlet Fever my mother became obsessed with my weight. Or lack of weight. It only got worse when all my peers were getting their figures and I could still get into movies for under 12. I graduated from high school at 85 pounds partly because of what we now call bulimia but I figured was just a nervous stomach. Little did I know when I finally put on weight in college, living in the dorm away from the tensions of my family that Mom would shift gears and do everything to get my weight down. Other kids went home for summer break and got fed. I got starved. For the record let me say my highest weight in college was 130 and I got that under control with my old friend throwing up. This time consciously....

Herb/flower bed edging Yes, I know it is fall. And yes I am gardening. The last two springs in a row have been non starters. In April 2009 I got the H1N1 virus and could not lift a finger till late May. So I just scattered some seeds in my two 4 x 4 raised beds where I grow veggies. Raised bed cleaned, soil enhanced and covered for winter This May I was in Moab for two weeks and then my brother-in-law died suddenly. I essentially lost May to any constructive activity with gardening. When I got out of the fog of vacation and grief I had summer fairs to prepare for and once again just scattered a few seeds in my raised beds. Bad things happen when you neglect soil and weeds for two seasons. So when an on line friend blogged that she as doing some fall gardening it seemed like an ideal solution to my problems. The one trouble with fall gardening is finding everything you need like edging materials and bags of compost and gardening soil so I began scouring the local garden supp...

I have two in fact. My regular profile and my fan page for Binford-Bell Studio. Or I think I do. Seems this morning Facebook is having a melt down. There have been an increasing number of glitches of late. Facebook sites improvements they are making as a reason. That and their fantastic growth and most of that among a different age dynamic - the older set. We utilize the popular social platform very differently than the teenage set. First we blog. And we want those blogs to post on Facebook. And they say they can be linked in easily. Yes, it is easy to link a blog in but they don't live up to posting new material every two hours promise. So now Facebook is trying to head us off at the pass by making its Notes more of a blog platform with fonts even and the ability to underline and bold text. They are a long way behind on that! I would be happy if they would just do well what they were designed to do which is let us interact in real time around the world. This morning FB will n...

Not my refrigerator The above picture is not of my refrigerator door. That is obvious because I have no kids that draw pictures. However I take them and years ago found these plastic frames with magnets on the back so that I could post photographs of friends and fond memories on the refrigerator. Some of the pictures are very old. As are some of the magnets I have collected. Among the magnets is: Denial is a God-Given Survival Skill. And: I want a young man with old money. The latter is old enough I am willing to consider an old man with young money provided there is nobody else in his will. Then there are all the self-help magnets: Angel Fire Automotive, Timberlake Snow Removal, Colfax County emergency services and offices, Preventing Forest Fires, Fish and Game (or bears and cougars). And the not so helpful ones like Kit Carson Telecom, and Lovelace health clinic. I don't use either of those except to hold up a print out of The Four Agreements . Among the pictures are t...