Sidetracked Charley

Bird Painting Practice When things get totally dark I want to go into hiding. I hide in books, and movies, and gardens, and creating. I embrace words, and inks, and plants, and redesigning my house. Things which do not disappoint me. Yesterday I binged the Travelers on Netflix. Before streaming I would binge read. Just outside my bedroom door was a spot of carpet right in front of the wall heater. I would sit in what Dad called my frog position and read from morning to night; from Friday after school until Monday morning when I was told I had to go back to the classroom. And once at school I would sketch characters of the book along the margins of my notebook.  Such behavior got me notes about not using time wisely or not paying attention in class or would achieve more if she applied herself to the task . They just never totally understood my task to which I applied myself very well. It was ignoring the reality of their moment. When life got too stressful I just sought ...

I began going back to Las Vegas after my head injury because it has the Social Security office. And I hated going to Taos so much I even went to Santa Fe medical appointments via Las Vegas. I came in from the Mora direction and then had to find myself to I 25, which is not clearly marked. And Social Security is hidden behind Walmart. So I came to use the term lost again in Las Vegas. Given my wanderings around it would seem I could have found everything by now. But when you are being led by a camera and interesting old buildings I am just thankful I am not hopelessly lost. I have found the important places like the Castaneda Hotel by the railroad. The train station looks new and not what I saw from the train. Need to google that. Glad they are renovating the hotel. And I found Highlands University because they were filming Longmire just across the street. I found Luna University because I was looking for a background casting call for Longmire.  ...

The Palisades in afternoon light Truth is where you find it. It can be in a book or a movie or a short scene from television episode. Or, quite frankly, for me in alone time on the road to Raton. Or maybe the road to Raton is just the processing time I need; the pause to meditate on the signs showing up in my life. There was this StarTrek episode with Harvey Fenton Mudd as a pimp for women to be wives of miners on a far and distant planet, Mudd's Women. He gives the women pills to transform them into goddesses and it turns out it is really an inside job. How we perceive ourselves is so much a part of how others perceive us. I first saw this show originally decades ago so it has been stashed in the back of my mind for a long time. Yesterday it joined up with another scene from something I just watched in season four of Longmire. It dealt with a rape victim and how part of her was stolen and she needed to call it back to her to be whole. Nobody could do it for her. It isn...

And it is off to the Ball The runway is still being repaired in Angel Fire so I had to throw my bags in my car and get to Taos early to meet my dates Henry Standing Bear and Walt Longmire. Lou Diamond Phillips Robert Taylor as Sheriff Longmire  It is cold and dark here on the Taos Volcanic Plateau before dawn but I think I have been promised a catered breakfast once the jet takes off for Ohio.  I am told a couple other members of the cast of Longmire are coming too but it is suppose to be a surprise. They had heard of the great fun to be had at the 6th Annual Willow Manor Ball . Seems last year's date, Johnny Depp has been talking about the Trinidad Rum Bracelet by Jessica Duke At the last moment before I left the house I spied my Jessica Duke silver bracelet from last year's ball and put it on. Something old to bring to the new adventure. See previous blogs for everything I have packed. And stay tuned for breaking news on the fun to be had at...

When I was younger I devoured books of far away places - Greece, Rome, Egypt. Historical novels were my cup of tea. Then one day I discovered Agatha Christi and I was off on a mystery binge that lasted decades. But if you could put a mystery in a historical novel I was a fan immediately. Writers like Mary Renault, Anne Perry, Dorothy Sayers never wrote enough in my humble opinion. I loved their research into the period they placed their mysteries. And the further away from home the better. Now I seem to be coming home. It began with Tony Hillerman and his mysteries placed on the Navajo Reservation. A friend turned me on to James D. Doss who writes about the Southern Utes. I started seeking out obscure and not so obscure mystery writers of the Southwest: J.A.Jance, Michael McGarrity, Cliff Black. Nothing set in Phoenix please. Has to be a small town and have a cast of western characters. You really have to live here to appreciate that. PBS turned me on to the new Longmire series...