Sidetracked Charley

Dawn July 2, 2014 I rolled out of my driveway in the predawn hours of Wednesday pulling a Uhaul trailer with 50 of my best pieces of art. It was the first time I had driven at night in over six months. Now was the test as to whether the cataract surgery had truly worked miracles. And it had. I was in awe of the night. And the dawn. And the only thing I had to do for three hours was drive a route I had taken often. After a very, very busy four months it was wonderful. Much of the trip it was even too dark to look for photo opportunities. I could think. This is not my first revealed  truth article. There is something about the vast open spaces of the plains between Cimarron and Raton that invites introspection and epiphany. Do people with their smart phones and all the apps on board ever think? With Siri and email by voice and cell phone towers everywhere and hands free cell phones does the vast majority of this technically advanced society ever stop and hear themselves thin...

When I first bought my house here in Black Lake I had my dining room table at the window facing east and would sit and sip my coffee while watching dawn creep over the mountains or the huge clouds build during the monsoon season. That window is now the door to my studio; a studio I designed to take advantage of all that beautiful sky. The process of building it, however, shut me up in the recesses of my house with my computers away from the dust of construction and all the windows I had so dreamed about. I have long ago moved back into all those forbidden spaces but somewhere I lost the habit of morning coffee spent before a window watching the clouds turn pink. I begin my day on the desktop computer looking at a corner and blinds down on the western view. It is still dark at that time, and if the blinds are open I feel exposed to the traffic (odd word for my little lane). Two days ago it occurred to me that I should take my morning coffee into the studio and boot up the laptop instead...