Sidetracked Charley

Mug Rugs   I have been putting off buying more fabric. It is something which my sister and I have done together since the pandemic began. She in Texas and me in New Mexico. Both of us on cell phones and our own favorite on line fabric stores. It all began with masks. And scrub caps for her and the nurses she worked with. We quickly found we were addicted to fabric. And addicted to shopping for fabric together. It was like going on four-wheel trips together. So then we had to come up with more things for me to sew up for her and her friends. Then my friends. Before I knew it Wild Goose Witchery was a business. Pandemic six pocket tote I enjoyed mixing fabrics as much as I enjoy mixing paints on canvas. But nothing was as much fun as our shopping trips. The two of us on our computers with our cell phones sending pictures of fabrics we found back and forth on messenger. She filling her shopping cart at Fabric.com and me filling my cart at My Favorite Quilt Store . Or Amazon. One of ...

  Remember when you used to be able to tell what county a person in New Mexico lived in by the first digit on the license plate. Bernalillo was two. Santa Fe one. They stopped that. Needed all possible six digits to have enough number combinations. And the area code of your telephone number also gave you a location. New Mexico was 505 and Colorado 303. Then Albuquerque and Denver got too big. Albuquerque kept 505 and the rest of our state became 575. West Denver kept 303 but east Denver was assigned 720. Northwest Colorado is now 970and Southeast is 719. Now they are considering another number for Denver.   Then came cell phones. And their promise of being able to keep your number forever. Stopped the need to reprint checks just about the time we stopped using checks. My sister, to prevent me from never getting another cell phone EVER after I lost my flip phone put me on her family plan. She lived in Victoria, Texas so my area code on my cell was 361. Texas is a mess. And the ...

  I have not liked this this time of year since my mother chose Thanksgiving as her exit time. For years my sister and I would get together for Thanksgiving and haunt all the empty state and national parks. On the 15th my sister left this earth. There goes Christmas. Mother was always afraid of ruining Christmas.  On the 16th we had a snow squall. Sounds innocent doesn't it? My experience with squalls had been sailing on the outer banks. And fortunately I sailed with a cautious and experienced sailor. They were things we witnessed from safe harbors. I now they happen on land and you can sink there too. Red River, Enchanted Forest Cross County Ski Area, and the Town of Taos have already applied for federal emergency relief funds. In fact the whole County of Taos. A friend in Questa reported the power just came back on. Do not get rid of your wood burning stove. And since solar panels fly it might be wise to stay connected to the grid. Yes, it was down but it is now back up. Tow...

  When more than two years ago I lost my basic flip phone which I loved and stubbornly clung to I declared I was not getting another cell phone. I had the Motorola flip phone only because I never ever wanted to stop at a phone booth in Espanola. But that is a whole other story. My tech smart sister bought me a Samsung Galaxy 50A smart phone and put me on her AT&T service. I saw it as a leash (and that is a whole other story too). I had argued I was not smart enough for a smart phone and for a while just turned it on when I thought my sister might call me. A practice I had employed for a while with the flip phone. Starker and another story. I never wanted to be that reachable again and did not give the number out to anyone. Really. I began learning its features just because of its ability to take photos which are awesome. And then sharing said photos like women my age share pictures of their grandchildren though with me it was Thicke or my latest painting. But to do any of that ...

Wheeler Sans Snow with the new lens   In consideration of the question - which should go - I decided not photography. It is my window to the world, and a tool I use for painting and marketing and recording. But I could alter my approach to it a bit. I opted for a new lens, 18 x 400mm zoom. It lightened my load. The world with my 300mm It doesn't always have to be all or nothing. Moderation in all things including moderation, says the person with over 20 orchids. That was not entirely my fault. I had 13 and I ordered four baby cattleyas. Somehow I received 10. I gave a couple to a friend. Split one of my old cattleyas and gave one of those away. A Moth orchid is having a keiki. Okay, so I am failing at moderation. Well, except for the camera bag. It is smaller. Yesterday, I spent the day in the studio cleaning up the orchid space so they are not so crowded. Besides I had to find space for the humidifier. Cattleyas like the world more moist. I also adjusted painting supplies. The new...

  I was warned about Windows 10 and its horrid treatment of photos. I fought to keep Windows 7 to the very end. I even spent money to repair that computer, bought a Windows 8.1 at the very end, and re-installed that program three times after Microsoft turned on my computer and erased it. I finally gave up but avoided a couple of its Microsoft pirate programs known to be really bad at vanishing photos. Helped for a little while. Now I am perched at the brink of deleting all photos from my Windows 10 computer and put them on an external hard drive. So I thought I would make a last ditch effort to organize the mess Microsoft has created and put at least my best where I can find them before exporting. Besides for the purposes of blogs I like having some photos on the desktop for use - if I can find them. Warning: Organizing photos into folders is not easy and Windows 10 wants to have its own say about where it puts them. Or what it allows you to delete. Or what it lets you share. And W...

From the Top of Spyglass Hill Went looking for signs of winter this morning. Drove past the base of the ski resort and no sign of any snow making activity. It was 28 this morning but do not know when it reached that temp. The NOAA forecast for the next seven days shows no snow. And for the fun of it I clicked on Wunderkind's November projection. None there either. I had a property and pets to check on at the top of Spyglass Hill. From experience I knew there was a nice view of the ridge of the Sangre de Cristos. If you look carefully there are a couple tiny white spots on the tallest peak. This is south facing and the days have been cloudless and in the 50's. Today is forecast for 58 f and tomorrow 61! Seemed a good day for a drive so I headed down the road to the Coyote Creek and Black Lake. Yes, there is a Black Lake. It is what is left of a huge peat bottom lake mostly rich meadow now. The Black Lake The first thing I noticed as a resident of the area is that the cattle are ...