Summer Travels with Flat Ryan

Yesterday, the Engineering Geek and I--and Flat Ryan-- got up at dark o'clock in the morning so that we could be on the road at the crack of dawn. We needed to be north of Capitan, NM by 9 AM for the Western Rally for the Constitution, which was put together very quickly at the behest of people from the Western US who did not want to travel to Guilford Courthouse National Park in Greensboro, NC.

The New Mexico Rally was to have been at the Fort Stanton State Monument, but the state government wanted much paperwork and would only give the go-ahead a few days ahead of the event, so it was held on private land north of Capitan, in the Lincoln National Forest--which is Smokey the Bear Country.

The EG and I, along with several others from NMPA, attended the all-day armed rally in order to represent our organization and to hear speakers that included constitutional sheriffs, former Congressman Steve Pierce, and others discuss Article I Sections 8-9 of the Constitution, and the current government's gross overstepping of bounds, and possible solutions including the Patrick Henry Caucus leader's concept of returning control to the states.

Here are pictures on the way down and at the rally:





We started in the dark, but shortly after sunrise, we were on NM 41 heading from Willard to Corona. Here we are very near the gEOGRAPHIC Center of New Mexico, though we didn't stop at the ranch that holds the marker. Heading east, we can see the northeastern corner of Chupadera mesa to the right, and the Gallinas Mts. to the left.







This is a one of the famous New Mexico roadside tables that marked the lonely state and US highways long before interstate rest areas became fancy. This one was build by the CCC during the depression, and you can see the trademark stone steps in the forground. The way to the bathroom at these roadside tables was a set of steps over the barbed wire fence, leading to the nearest cover.





The old trading post and drugstore in Corona, New Mexico, just inside Lincoln County, at the intersection of New Mexico 41 and US 54.
Located in the beautiful setting, Corona is the gateway to Billy the Kid country, but a sleepy little town miles from nowhere none-the-less.





Looking west toward the Gallinas Mts. that NM 41 brought us across, you'd never know that anything was once here, but . . .

This is the location of the old Greathouse Stage Station and Tavern, where in November 1880, Billy the Kid and two companions were surrounded by a Sheriff's Posse. In an attempt to arrange the famouse outlaw's surrender, Sheriff Deputy James Carlisle was accidently shot and killed. William "Billy the Kid" Bonney escaped unharmed.

At the Rally for the Constitution, Bob Wright, Patriot, exhorts the crowd on the meaning of a constitutional state militia, while a very good country dance band waits to play a number behind.

In the background to the east are the Capitan Mts., although Capitan itself is to the southwest of this location.

The Rally was interesting, and fomer congressman Steve Pierce seems to have become less conservative and more libertarian/ constitutionalist since his defeat last election. He is running again this election, and was the only national level candidate from New Mexico to speak. Our ranch is located in the same district, so we will have to decide whether to vote for him. It's more promising than it was in 2008 when he ran for Heather Wilson's Senate seat.

Most of the speakers didn't say a whole lot new, but a radio guy from Oregon, who was live-streaming the event on the internet, was one of the first people I have heard in the broad patriot movement get up and discuss the real issue in big-picture terms: Collectivism vs. Individualism, he announced, and proceeded to describe what that means for us philosophically and practically.

And although a spattering of rain did send away some of the New Mexicans who had gathered, the rest of us rather enjoyed the cooling effect of the afternoon monsoon rain.

February Roadtrip: Roundtrip Alamogordo

NEARLY WORDLESS SPECIAL

It has been a record winter here in central New Mexico for snow and cold. El Nino has prepared us for a mild fire season this coming spring and summer. But in the meantime, a three day weekend, and a visit by Sheriff Richard Mack to Alamogordo's 2nd Amendment Task Force made it impossible to resist an overnight road trip to the warm southern part of the state.

Accompanying me and the Engineering Geek south were my business partner, the Professional Revolutionary, and Flat Ryan, who had arrived by mail from Atlanta. Flat Ryan is here to learn the geography and culture of New Mexico for a few months in order to teach his three-dimensional avatar upon his return to Geogia. He appears in two of the pictures below.

We took the 40 east to Moriarty, and then drove south through Estancia to Willard, where we cut southeast through Cedarvale to Corona.

Shortly after leaving Willard, we encountered a windfarm perched on the northeastern edge of the magnificent Chupadera Mesa. Below the very space-age looking electricity-generating windmills, was an old fashioned windmill used to pump water for cattle.

In the lobby of the Flickinger Theatre in

Alamogordo, Sheriff Richard Mack poses

with Flat Ryan before giving his speech on

"The County Sheriff: America's Last Hope"

based on his book by the same title.

Sheriff Mack, of Graham County, Arizona,

was one of two plantiffs for the Printz-Mack

vs. the United States SCOTUS decision

that reaffirmed that the County Sheriff is

the highest officer in his county, and has the

responsibility to protect his people against coercion by federal agents of any kind.

After the event, we went to a Patriot Alliance Reception sponsored by Alamagordo 2ATF, the Lea County Tea

Party Patriots, and our own New Mexico Patriot Alliance.

It was very nice down south, with temperatures in the 50's and 60's during the day, with a gentle southeastern breeze.

Allof my long sleeved clothes seemed suddenly too warm, and I put the winter coat in the trunk, using only a hoodie at night. Wonderful!

align="left">But Sierra Blanca had more snow on it than I had ever seen, reminding us that this very cold, wet winter is not yet complete. So we stopped near Oscura to take pictures near an old railroad trestle that spanned one of the Three Rivers.

Spectacular!

After stopping in Carrizozo for a cold Cherry Cider,

we cut across Chupadera Mesa on NM 55, instead

of going around it through Corona and Cedervale.

We stopped in Claunch, where the Library doubles as

the Post Office, and then took Flat Ryan on a short

tour of the Gran Quivera site of the Salinas

Missions National Monument. Here he is,

posing in front of a pair of manos and matates,

used by the native women for grinding maize.

From GQ through Mountainair, and then the last leg of the trip home, along the Manzano Mountains. Here, we stopped near Toreon to get a rare picture of the entirel Estancia Basin covered with snow. In the distance (middle right), blow-out dunes outline the form of a beach berm, formed when Glacial Lake Estancia filled this basin up to 7000 years b.p.



Years ago, I worked on the Glacial Lake Estancia project, identifying microfossils--ostracods--that grew in that lake. By looking at the relative numbers of various species, we could tell when the lake was rising and when it was receding.



The snow in the picture, beautiful as it is, indicated to us that we had returned to the frozen north! Thank goodness, no more snow is predicted until later in the week.

Boychick On the Hill

NEARLY WORDLESS SPECIAL

I have been very busy with my business this past week, and I have also gotten a cold that turned into pleurisy. I have not posted at all!

But while I was busy last weekend, the Boychick had a trip to Washington, DC with other members of his Confirmation Class, our rabbi, and our religious educator. The nature of this trip was to learn the process of lobbying on issues provided by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Although the RAC tends to view its own progressive political vision as the "Jewish" political viewpoint--remember there is no monolithic Judaism, two Jews three opinions--we decided to send the Boychick because of what he would learn, even though he was--as we told him--going into the Belly of the Beast.

In order to arm him against progressive indoctrination, we made him watch Michael Badnarik's Constitution Course at You Tube, and we asked him to watch The Philosophy of Liberty. We talked to him about possible issues for which the RAC dogma would likely align with a more libertarian and Constitutional political philosophy. As it turned out, on the issue he chose--immigration policy--the libertarian perspective is more radical than the progressive one the RAC promotes.

The Boychick, we are told, did very well and wrote an impressive speech to give to our senators from New Mexico. He loved the trip, and felt it was not only educational, but also that being with Jewish high school students from all over the United States (from 20 different Reform congregations) was very affirming to his Jewish identity, and awakened him to the wide variety of ideas that Jews hold. Sometimes simultaneously!

The trip was money well spent. The pictures below were taken by several different people, and posted at the Facebook site for the RAC. The Boychick does not--he informs me--take pictures.

Congregation Albert Group pose on the Capitol Steps. The Boychick is in the fedora, on the far right front, holding the sign.

















Havdalah--the ritual to end Shabbat--at the Jefferson Memorial on Saturday night, after dinner in Georgetown. The Boychick says it was cold, cold, cold!





















The Boychick, being cool in his new Oakley's purchased in Georgetown, pauses in his work on his speech for the New Mexico Delegation.




















Getting ready to Lobby in the lobby. The students are dressed in suits and skirts, looking very grown up.




















At the Airport on the way home. How do I know it was on the way home? The Oakleys. I never asked what it cost. It was his money.
And he looks cool.
I just hope he doesn't lose them!


And I hope he doesn't lose his perspective.


Jews come with a variety of political viewpoints. No matter how much the Reform Movement tends towards social progressivism. The Libertarian philosopher, Murray Rothbard was a Jew. As is Aaron Zeller, the founder of Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership. Statism is not a religious doctrine.

A Tale of a Burned Out Clutch

On Thursday I was driving up to Santa Fe to teach a full day set of IRD reading classes at Santa Fe High. I had three scheduled classes, all two hours long: Level 1 (entering first graders), Level 2 (entering second graders) and Level 3 (entering 3rd graders). I left the house early, at about 6:40 AM, and I was planning on arriving in Santa at 8 AM, in time to get a cup of Joe at the Daily Grind before arriving at the High School.

As long-time Ragamuffin readers will know, I drive up the "back" side of the mountains, through the Ortiz and the Galisteo basin to arrive in Santa Fe, via New Mexico Highway 14 and Cerillos Road. (See Driving North on the Turquoise Trail, Wednesday Afternoon Drive, and Afternoon Drives to Santa Fe).

I drove the Focus through silent Golden and up around El Corazon del Ortiz, and down through Madrid, where a few hippy residents, some cowboys, and a couple of guys who look like honest-to-goodness '49er miners were waiting for the Coffee shop to open. (Same crowd every Thursday AM. It must be a regular meet-up in Madrid). I drove through the canyons near Cerillos, where a cement truck turned in front of me. This meant some fancy clutch work as wound up out of the Galisteo basin and through San Marcos. Just at the Lone Butte Trading post, the road makes a gentle grade up, and I once again downshifted, because the cement truck slowed down to 25. But the clutch popped into neutral and would not go into gear at all. I quickly turned on the emergency blinkers and drifted off onto the grass shoulder. Several times I started the car and it would go forward slowly (in neutral!), but would die when I tried to clutch and shift into gear. The clutch was definitely burned. (At 120,000 miles, the car still runs so well that I forget that it is now officially "old."). Damn!

Since I knew I was going nowhere anytime soon, I got out and checked my cell phone status. No service. But if I walked just 10 feet up the hill at the corner of NM 14 and Santa Fe Country Road 44, I could dial out. The first call was to AAA. I told the nice lady there that my clutch went out 10 miles south of Santa Fe at the intersection of NM 14 and SF County 44. It would be 45 minutes for the tow, she said. Double Damn. There was no way I would make my first class. Second call, to my IRD supervisor in Novato, CA. She told me that they would start calling parents, I should focus on taking car of the car. "And be safe! Stay away from the roadside!" she ordered. I had to laugh. I think she thought I was on a California Freeway at rush hour. The San Marcos, NM rush hour meant maybe 20 cars in an hour. Three state cops passed by. Not one stopped. Good thing I was just barely out of the cell phone black out area. Three of four calls were to the Engineering Geek--who was not answering his cell, office or the Solar Tower.

A call came in from A-One Towing. "I think AAA dispact in Arizona made a mistake," their dispatcher said. "We're in Tucumcari. Where are you?"
"Crazy!" I said. Tucumcari is several hours east of Edgewood on I-40, near the Texas border.
A few minutes later, AAA called. They had dispatched another tow truck, they said. ETA 9 AM.
Ten minutes, and it was getting hot, as the sun climbed towards 9 AM in the cloudless, flawlessly, impossibly blue New Mexico sky. I put on my Indiana straw hat.

Another call. This time it was Little John's Towing. "I can't seem to find you on Shenandoah Road," he said. (Santa Fe County 44 is also called Shenandoah Trail). "Where are you?" I asked. South of Moriarity on Shenandoah," Little John answered. He mentioned some road number in Torrance County. That's more than an hour south of where I was. I told him my state and county road coordinates. "Is that north of Cerillos?" asked Little John.
Sigh. "Yes."
Little John tows for AAA in the East Mountains. He doesn't go north of Cerillos.
"I'll call AAA and get you somebody out of Santa Fe," he said.
Thanks. If AAA dispatch can read a map.

Soon after I hung up the Engineering Geek called. Only my phone didn't actually ring. I just got a chirp that meant I had a missed call. This happened for five more calls from AAA, from IRD, and from the EG. When I finally connected with the EG, I told him what was going on. We agreed to have the car towed to Edgewood's Rich Ford, where Les, our mechanic, works. Les told the EG to have the towing done by Little John. But by then, apparently, AAA had finally got it right and called Extreme Towing out of Santa Fe. At just past 9:30, he arrived.
Soon, after a stop at Lone Butte Trading Post, he for jerky, me for the bathroom, and we were on our way.

On the way to Edgewood, he regaled me with stories about the crazy culture of Santa Fe, where you can't get good help, they don't speak English at Wal-Mart, and where aging hippies call the police to report mice acting funny in Hyde Park. This last one was courtesy of his wife, a Santa Fe Police dispatcher. The hippy waited with the mouse, and called back after an hour when no cop showed. He called again later to complain that the policeman was inhumane because he lifted the mouse by the tail when putting it in the cage. Apparently, aging hippies do not know that you kill the mouse to find out whether it is carrying Hanta Virus or Yersinius pestis (that's Bubonic Plague, which is endemic in the central mountains of New Mexico.)

Finally arriving at the Edgewood Ford, I spend a profitably fun afternoon test driving a Focus and a Fusion, the last of what is lent to us. We considered buying the Fusion today, but decided to wait a month.

Storm warning! Gotta go. The lightning is very close!

The Very Large Array

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

The Boychick is hosting his cousin D., in from Illinois for a two-week visit.
The first week was a tour of the skate parks of the Greater Albuquerque area, but at the beginning of the second week the Engineering Geek and I decided that, not to be outdone by Camp Aunt Madge, we needed to take at least one educational field trip somewhere else in New Mexico.

The guys said a decided "No" to Fanta Se and the museums, Old Town, or the Salinas National Monument. But they said "Okay" to the Very Large Array, which is officially part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Featured in many films, it was the setting for much of the action in the movie based on Carl Sagan's novel, Contact. I don't know if it was the big machines or the movie that hooked them, but off we went on a jaunt to to the Plains of San Augustin, where the radio telescopes are.

I insisted that we take the back roads, South NM 14 to Mountain Air, and then U.S. 60 to Bernardo and Socorro, Magdalena and the VLA. Here is a view looking south to Chupadera Mesa from Torreon, NM. Chupadera blocked any outlet of Glacial Lake Estancia into the ancenstral Rio Grande, creating salt flats as blow-out dunes. But we were headed for the other big, ancient lake bed in West-Central New Mexico.

A view of the two arms of the VLA from the photo stop on US 60. What is amazing is that each of the dishes is the diameter of a major league baseball diamond, but here they are, almost lost in the immensity of the Plains of San Augustin, an old glacial lake-bed.

Three radio recievers pointing to the eastern sky. The foreground shows a blow-out dune of lake sand and silt, deposited here more than 10,000 years ago, during the Pluvial (wet, lake) period of the Wisconsin glaciation.

And the politicians think they discovered global climate change?

The guys walk and discuss whether or not the radio receivers could be made into senders, in order to make contact with whatever might be "out there."

This summer, the receivers are in the "C" position, the axis of the Y formation being pretty short. This gives them more resolution for detail, but a narrower "view" of the part of the sky they are "looking" at. Here one receiver is "looking" at a different point than the other two.


The radio signals are a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that we are accustomed to "listening" to, but computers make images of the radio sources, using color to show doppler shifts created by movement.





Each receiver has four orienting/tracking motors, and its own air-conditioning unit to keep the temperature low, which filters out earth-based "noise" in order to better received the faint radio signals from space. Standing under them, one can the faint hum of the tracking motors that keep the receiver oriented to a fixed point in the sky as the earth turns them toward the west.

They are huge, and yet gracefully beautiful in proportion to the vastness of the Plains of San Augustin.

The axes of the Y configuration in the the most outstreached "A" form, would cross the whole Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, stretching in Virginia, Mayland and Pennsylvania. But that is not the logest axis. The VLA is part of a continent wide Very Long Baseline Array, 3,000 miles long. You can "see" detail from very far away with the VLBA.

And of course, the farther out you look, the further back in time you see. One image captured at the VLA showed Quasars 10 billion light years away. The light left them 10 billion years ago. Before the sun was born, and the earth was formed. Space-time is inconceivably immense. And growing bigger every second . . .

What great vision our technology gives us . . .

Camp Aunt Madge

The weeks are flying by, and I realized yesterday that N. will be ending his visit with family in Illinois and leaving for COTE Camp in New Jersey.

Last Thursday, I sent off a box of camping gear by UPS to our favorite cantor in New Jersey.

Tomorrow, she will be picking N. up at Newark, then they will take him to Shabbat Services on the beach courtesy of Temple Miriam. I hope she takes some pictures!

Meanwhile, though, I have been getting an eyeful and an earful about N.'s adventures at "Camp Aunt Madge." My sister, a sucessful graduate of Dad's Kitchen Table University, is not one to let boys merely "hang out." She actually plans activities for them, though she does seem to include plenty of down time for their own adventures.

Now, Dad's Kitchen Table University had a REQUIRED summer travel curriculum. You have not lived until you have fought over a window seat while driving ten hours daily for a week through hot and humid southern Illinois in a car sans air conditioning in order to see the exact spot where George Rogers Clark and his men crossed the Wabash river on a forced march from Kaskaskia to come to the aid of Fort Defiance during the French and Indian War. (Dad found this place by reading the very detailed footnotes in Wilderness Empire by Allen W. Eckhart. It's an excellent book, and Eckhart is responsible for my extensive knowledge of the settling of Kentucky, and the former "northwest territories" which in the 1700's meant Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana). "There were no freeways then!" Dad would enthuse, while driving at 15 miles an hour down a winding country road behind a farmer hauling a fully loaded hayrack. "Great," we would think while sneezing and squirming to find comfort on the vinyl seats to which our bare legs seemed permanently attached by sweat. "I like modernity," Madge would sniff, as she poked Bear in the thigh so she could put kleenex between them to soak up the offending sweat.

Aunt Madge has a similar educational philosophy, although she does not feel the need to duplicate the exact conditions of the settlers by sleeping in tents through fierce thunderstorms and boiling coffee in the coffee can on the fire the next morning while waiting for the sleeping bags to dry out. And her car is air conditioned.

N. and his cousin D. have been to Rockome Gardens, near Arcola, Illinois, to see how the Amish Folk lived and still live. There, they learned also about our more primitive ancestors, by purchasing and using an atlatl. They also have been canoeing on Clinton lake, where N. bedazzled his cousins with his canoeing prowess gained in June at BSA camp. The indefagitable Aunt Madge wrote:

"I could tell that D. was really proud of N. today. I suspect he has done some bragging about his cousin N. to his cousin J. and he was absolutely thrilled to get to show N. off on the lake today. N. says that he had a really good time, but he is not the least bit impressed by his own performance. D. went on and on about N.'s wondrous deeds and N. just shrugged and said, "Well, you would have done the same thing if you weren't stuck in the aft position." (Oh, yeah, right, whatever THAT means!)
The boys had a wonderful time today. I'm just sorry that they forgot my request for photos!"

The photos in this post are from the World Wide Web! Top, maps of Illinois from the Illinois Tourist Bureau. Middle, Reindeer Age technology from Wiki (includes atlatls), and bottom, a 'one horse power saw' from Rockome Gardens.

And of course they had the Glorious Fourth mid-western style with a cookout, followed by the town fireworks display complete with simulcast patriotic music played on hundreds of portable radios, proudly sponsored by State Farm World Headquarters.

N. has learned something about quality music, too, versus trash, all because a CD with a parental warning some irresponsible adult sold him at the Denver airport went straight into it (the trash, I mean), after Aunt Madge listened to the one half of one track. But that's another story...

I really want to bring N.'s cousin D. out here for some summertime fun, but you know, the forest was closed because of the fire danger, and, you know, Grandma and Papa don't live just down the street. (Papa is the founder and professor emeritus of Dad's Kitchen Table University).

So...maybe this fall sometime. The Chem Geek Princess will be moved out and I will have a guest suite available.

Wednesday Afternoon Drive

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

When I finish my day's teaching on Wednesday in Santa Fe, I then take the drive home, south along the Turquoise Trail. It is amazing how the differences in the light and perspective make the entire drive different in the afternoon.

Leaving Santa Fe Community College,
I wind northwest on Rancho Viejo road before coming to the intersection with NM 14.

Here, I see Jemez Mountains in the far distance, with the smaller hills that the Rio Grande cuts through nearer.

The Jemez is the rim of giant caldera, the crater of a collapsed volcano that blew about 2 million years ago. The explosive eruption created cliffs of welded tuff near Los Alamos that are hundreds of feet thick, and the pyroclastics are found in outwash as far away as Kansas.

Just before I turn onto NM 14, I see my destination. The Ortiz near Madrid are the smaller hills in the forground, with the Sandia Mountain Front towering to 11,000 feet above

in the distance. On NM 14, I will cross the Ortiz, and then head towards the Sandias.

The Sandias are fault-block mountains, brought up like a hinged basement door by the faulting and widening of the Rio Grande Rift.

Still on the Santa Fe side of the Ortiz, I drive through the town of Madrid, and then past the old mining slag heaps from the anthracite coal mines that used to operate in the area. Just past this old mine tailings dump, the road begins to climb towards the Ortiz Mountains.

Here I am looking back at the heart of the Ortiz from the downhill run to Golden.

It looks so completely different in the afternoon than the morning view. Here, purple shales are accented by cloud shadows and outlined with the green of Pinyon-Juniper woodland.

Near San Pedro Overlook, the road swings southeast towards the Sandias, here outlined in shades of blue against the lighter western horizon.

The humidity in the air is a portent of the Monsoons to come.

Close to home, I must still swing west on Frost Road and then South of Vallecitos towards Sedillo hill.

Here I am looking at the hills amongst which our home is nestled on the far horizon,

as seen from the top of Sedillo Hill.

Almost home.

Supper and a shower and a

good dark beer await!

What a blessing it is to live in such a beautiful place and have such an unhurried, restful drive home from work.

I am hard-pressed to call it a commute. It feels like a leisurely afternoon drive.

Driving North on the Turquois Trail

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

This morning, I took a charged camera with the data chip for CCD images on my drive up to Santa Fe. As promised, here are pictures!

Weather Note: Mornings are becoming humid and there is much moisture in the air. The North American Monsoon is beginning to set up, and though it is too early to expect afternoon thunderstorms, the air is moist enough so that we have not had a red-flag fire warning this week. In the pictures, you see the haze of moisture, not dust.

This was taken driving parallel to the Ortiz Mountains near Cedar Crest NM, where I turn from Frost Road onto the Turquoise Trail a.k.a. New Mexico North 14.

The morning sun draws moisture from the trees to join the relatively (for NM) humid air, turning the sunrise into a golden mist that joins the clouds above.

Every rural community in the west has a "Merc," the General Store that sells feed, food and dry goods for the ranchers. This one, in Golden, NM, is attached to the fire station.

It is still early, and the Merc is closed.

North of Golden, the Turquoise Trail swings east and climbs through the heart of the Ortiz Mountains.

This picture was taken near El Corazon del Ortiz Ranch. The summer morning is still very new, and the shadows are long, as clouds spill over the mountain top to the east.

After descending from the heart of the Ortiz, the road enters the Canyon of the Galisteo "river" south of the coal town of Madrid,NM.

The Sange de Cristo Mountains can be faintly seen, on the cloudy horizon.

Madrid has switched from coal mining to the tourism business. Here is the Madrid "Merc," located in the old boading house, and considerable gussied up compared to the Tijeras Mercantile or the Golden "Merc."

Northeast of Madrid is the Cerillos Land Grant.

There are many land grants in New Mexico, all deeded to the original settler families by the King of Spain. Many Land Grants were recognized by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which ceded New Mexico Territory to The US.

Here, the mountains pushed straight up, tilting the adjacent rock on end, making the "knife-edged" rock for which the grant is named.

Just outside the Santa Fe city limits, where NM 14 becomes Cerillos Road, I turn into the Rancho Viejo subdivision and drive across to Santa Fe Community College. It stands on the bajadas (coalesced alluvial fans) of outwash from the Sange de Cristos. This beautiful territorial church stands just across Richards Road from SFCC, and when I see it, I know I have arrived at my teaching assignment for Wednesday.

They pay me to make this drive.

Look on and weep, o ye city drivers!

Illinois Pastorale

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

I had forgotten how green and verdant and abundant the wildlife in Illinois is.

New ponds in the developments of east Bloomington have attracted ducks, like this mallard and his mate to backyard birdfeeders and

birdbaths.

In the countryside, spreading oaks

and maples, boxwood, chestnut,

linden...

Hardwoods all, grow

and spread wide branches

that shade the land.

The Mackinaw river cuts across the Bloomington Moraine,
flowing abundance widely across the land.

As we drove home from Minier after dinner on Saturday night, I opened the window to appreciate the soft, water-laden breeze, and smell the delicate odors from the woods, and the

strong, fertile scent of the dark, rich soils.

In my head, a few remembered lines of the state song drifted past:

"By thy rivers gently flowing, Illinois,

Illinois...

...By thy prairies verdent growing,
Illinois, Illinois..."

That's all I remember. But it fit the mood and the

moment.

It's just so incredibly fertile...

And the green is not delicate or retiring...

A softer, gentler beauty than what I have come to love here in New Mexico.

It's so green...

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

On Sunday we celebrated Memorial Day with a cook-out at my sister's house in Bloomington.

At the cookout we honored two graduations, a new job, and a pregnancy.

The Chemistry Geek Princess (pictured with tiara on the right), and my sister's daughter-in-law (middle), both received degrees in the past few weeks. My nephew (left) got a job as a Livingston County (IL) deputy sheriff. They are also expecting a new baby in December.

The funniest part of this was that my sister and her husband, who sponsored the party, completely forgot that Monday was their anniversary!

The night before the party,
my sister worked for several hours
to frame a picture of the CGP in cap and gown.
She had to use Photoshop and pictures from the internet to get the best picture for the special frame she had gotten as a gift to the CGP.

I think she did a pretty good job!

Yesterday, my sister dropped me at ISU's Bone Student center, where I caught the Peoria Charter Shuttle to O'Hare International.

I got there at 2PM for a 5:45 PM flight. Security was quick though--and the TSA employees in Chicago were amazingly polite and even kind! So I had plenty of time to eat and walk around the airport before catching my plane.

Bruce picked me up at the Albuquerque Sunport at around 8 PM. It is so good to be home.

Even though my office is still chaos!

Actually, the office is not. It is empty except for the stuff on the walls and the newly laid floor.

What is chaos is everything that is supposed to be in my office. But Bruce has promised that we can move the furniture back in tonight so that I will be back in business for tomorrow's last day of IRD Distance Training.

It's so cool! I went away leaving a messy office, and I returned to a newly laid floor!

Nice! Or it will be when we get the tape up and the stuff moved back in.

And it is so nice to be home. I slept well for the first time in ten days.
Those Select Comfort Sleep Number beds are addictive.
As is the husband that belongs in it with me.

In Normal

On Thursday, I took the train down to Bloomington. Actually, it's Normal. The station was relocated from Bloomington to Normal, IL. But Amtrack still stubbornly calls it "Bloomington."

The conductor came through the cars, calling out: "Next station, Bloomington. All passengers for Bloomington, please check the area for personal items and then step to the front. This train is on time!"

Apparently, the train was on time for the first time in several months.

Normal is called "Normal" because Illinois State University is here.

It used to be called Illinois State Normal School, being the downstate teacher's college.

This picture is Watterson Towers, built on the lowest point of the glacial moraine. The townspeople

waited for years for it to be finished, before realizing that the unfinished look was planned. The town still calls it the ugliest building in central Illinois. It's hard to know what the "gown" contingent thinks. But all the other new building since built look more like they belong on the brick-and-ivy quad.

Although I am here to visit family, I am also going to be meeting Susan from the Corn and Oil Blog.

She lives, homeschools and writes from her home here in central Illinois, and we both attended ISU in years past, although we do not know each other in person.

I will be returning to Albuquerque Monday, and I will begin teaching the following the week for IRD. This weekend is for visiting. And the sun has finally come out.

It may act like Memorial Day Weekend after all.

In Training: Chicago, My Kind of Town

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Travel Edition

It was a beautiful day today in Chicago.

So after training, some of us did the town.

The pictures here are from the internet.

Yes, I brought the camera.

Yes, I forgot the memory stick needed to transfer pictures from the chip in the camera to the computer.

Chicago is truly a beautiful city.
And Navy Pier contributes to it's
beauty.

Navy Pier is Chicago's amusement park.

When we were at Fermilab in the 80's

we'd head to Navy Pier for

'A Taste of Chicago" in the summer.

This is the Sears Tower, now the third tallest building in the world. I remember going up on the skydeck.

I have no idea if it is open to tourists.

It was not when we were here in 2004.

Training is over tomorrow, and immediately after, I will be heading down to to Union Station from the North River IRD office to catch a train to Normal-Bloomington to visit family.

I am looking forward to a weekend of reading and visiting.

I also have arranged to meet Susan from Corn and Oil.

It ought to be a good weekend.

On Monday, I will take Peoria Charter back up to O'Hare for the flight home.

Don't worry, I'll write.

Next week.