Sidetracked Charley

  Must be getting close to primary time because I got a survey call. I love polls if they are the national ones like Gallup. A well constructed political can make you think. My parents were Democrat, in college I was a communist (or so my relatives from the Midwest believed), some of them were right of Atilla the Hun. I have been a registered Democrat since 2016 because I lie in a state with closed primaries. Before the next I will register Republican because I want to help choose who will run against our little Democratic Napoleon. She made the mistake of call arts non-essential and has done nothing to make up for the damage she and Covid did to destroy them. My party choices in New Mexico are Green, Independent, Democrat, and Republican. I know I am none of those. I want an open primary so I do not have to choose who I am voting for until I walk into the booth. Then I would love to also be able to "split the ticket." First question I was asked on this poll last night wa...

Ghost Elk The title comes from a Kermit the Frog song about being different, being green. Today in political speak it means being an environmentalist and believing in not using single use plastics among other things. In a way maybe Kermit is a lot like an environmentalist these days. It isn't easy being green. But I have felt like a frog in a shrinking pond much of my life so I should be used to it by not. And if it is me alone, I am comfortable in my own green skin, except for those brief glimpses of myself when I am shocked at what I see. My sister, also a photographer, does not like the image above. She is bothered by the fact so little of it is in focus. Frankly, that is what I love about it. Of 90 photographs I took on a day's adventure out of my safe valley It is among my two favorites. One of eight I chose to pay to have printed on canvas. My printer is also an artist and a friend. She liked it too. We both saw past its lack of technical photographic merits, or la...

The hardest part of going green with my new clothesline was the clothespin. Seems there is not a single product, even the lowly clothespin, that China cannot make worse. So what I thought was going to be a simple local store purchase because an extensive hunt. I want clothespins like Momma used to have. You know the ones that your little fingers could barely squeeze open and when applied to the skin of your sibling caused pain. I wanted them to hold the clothes on the line in valley winds. Seemed simple but NOT. Finally found some largish plastic ones at Wal-Mart that are labeled heavy duty. They will do for the moment, but I am still in search of the ultimate clothespin. So yesterday with the expected snow storm delayed and the new clothespins in hand I emptied my travel bag and did my laundry. My sister and I had been "mudding" in her Jeep and I had all those clothes to wash. So what might have been a three dryer load day wasn't. My clothesline and the clothespins held ...