Sidetracked Charley

The Once Great Hoop House I read just today that the Taos Pueblo has not reopened since it closed at the beginning of the pandemic. I believe I fully understand. The Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak Fire and dozen day evacuation has me radically re-examining my life too. I am thrilled my home was not burned down. And no doubt the residents of Taos Pueblo are thrilled their community and its lifestyle survives the two year pandemic. They may even be very glad to not have to cater to the visitors. Living in the home of a friend for 12 days gave me a chance to see how others live. And living in another town as not a visitor but not a resident allowed me another view of that town and my neighborhood. Initially I just became overly involved with my house now that I was back in it. I had left it in a horrid mess. Running from room to room finding everything you wanted or needed to take aways from the fire with you leaves the house a total mess. I was shocked. Putting it right seemed so overwhelm...

  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...

Sundog Dawn The holidays and me are a love/dread relationship. Heavy on the dread. I once wrote an article about Murphy's Laws for the Holidays. Number one was if it can go wrong it will go wrong on a holiday. Mom died on Thanksgiving. And I was hit by a drunk skier on Christmas Eve. Everyone wanted me to go away until after Christmas. When I was finally able to get an appointment with a neurologist he looked at my MRI scans and said, "Well, the good news is you didn't die." I start gritting my teeth before Thanksgiving which may be the reason I broke a tooth this morning. Dentist is out of the office but I will call Monday anyway and see if there is anything which can be done. I know don't chew on that side. And my guess is it a tooth with a root canal because it doesn't hurt. But my tongue plays with the gap, which has edges. Minor compared with some of the news which has been churning around me and those I care about deeply. And for those I don...

Epiphany is the end of the twelve days of Christmas. The Mayans had a 10 to 12 day period at the end of their year. Days which did not fit into another division of the year. Other cultures in prehistory have had this pause, as it were, in the regular course of the year. A vacation from time? A period of meditation and reflection? Epiphany on the Christian Calendar is when the wise men finally met the baby Jesus. It is also when God appears to someone as in Allah appeared to Mohammad. Or it is the profound and sudden understanding of something. The example used in one dictionary was when you suddenly know where your missing car keys are. Really? I always see epiphany more like satori - sudden enlightenment and a state of consciousness attained by intuitive illumination representing the spiritual goal of Zen Buddhism. I took just enough catechism to be entranced with the minor days of the Catholic Calendar. I loved Epiphany from day one. It was such a non-holiday. I also about th...

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...

It is 4:09 a.m and I have been up for two hours. For the record I do not do the fall back part of daylight savings (is there a daylight bank were it is stored?) at all well. In fact I am not sure if we are just entering daylight savings or exiting it. But I digress. This blog is supposedly about thinking out of the box when I should be sleeping. At least the clock said I should be sleeping. But I am not sure I believe any of the clocks. Friends of mine on the ethernet know I am much upset about the current tenant, who thankfully is moving out not a day too soon. I have, rather automatically, put a for rent notice on Craig's List. But in my gut and soul I really do not want another tenant. The last three have been from hell. And the last two have cost me money. With the current soon-to-be-gone tenant I have not been able to have my studio open. There has been no place to park with his sometimes six (yes, 6 large) vehicles and three trailers. People have not been able to see my...