Category Archives: Uncategorized

(With apologies to Snoopy) It was a dark and stormy night. Chester, the Golden Doodle sensed that something was awry in the dark corners of his back yard. He ran to the back door, tail on high alert mode. His dimwitted co-owner, not picking up on the intelligent clues that Chester was offering, opened theContinue reading “Skunks 2, Chester 0… Then more drama…”

There’s a website used mostly by car nerds looking for classic or collector cars called Bring A Trailer, or BaT, as it’s referred to in gearhead jargon. Here’s the website: bringatrailer.com After spotting the vehicle below in my neighborhood today, I’m wondering if someone has started a new website called “Bring Your Own Tires andContinue reading “B.Y.O.T.&W.”

My wife and our dog Chester traveled to Sunspot in the Sacramento Mountains this weekend, hoping to catch some turning aspen leaves. The drive was spectacular but the leaves were not quite ready to show their fall brilliance. It was a good trip, but a bit sad as well. Sunspot, which I mentioned in anContinue reading “The sun may be setting on Sunspot…”

Earlier this year, I wrote about an Albuquerque city bus driver who was distracted while munching on a burrito during his route along Central and rear-ended another car. Earlier this week, we had another incident of a driver under the influence of burrito (DUIB — I think it could be pronounced “dweeb”).  In this case,Continue reading “Burritos acting badly…”

Last week, the New Mexico Supreme Court handed down a decision that probably encompasses a lot of attitudes in our state. The ruling said in essence that if most of your car’s taillights were working, it was “good enough.” The decision grew out of a case involving a traffic stop by an Albuquerque policeman whoContinue reading “It only needs to be “good enough” in New Mexico…”

A New Mexico man’s plan to buy an airplane in Wisconsin in 2018 proved there should have been a little more flight planning than just checking the weather. The would-be purchaser had asked another man, from Portales, to fly with him to Wisconsin to pick up the aircraft after it was purchased, then fly itContinue reading “A flight plan that hatched, then fell out of the nest…”

A story in last week’s Albuquerque Journal about Tesla opening a factory outlet in New Mexico led me to reflect on a somewhat similar set of circumstances in the state several years ago. Both involved efforts by trade groups to protect their turf in the Land of Enchantment. The Tesla outlet, the Journal reported, willContinue reading “They got more than they wished for…”

Last Saturday, our excessively affable and energetic Golden Doodle, Chester, encountered a skunk in our back yard.  Although Chester was apparently interested in making a friend, the skunk would have none of it.  Luckily ,Chester didn’t get a full frontal blast on his face — just a glancing blow on his side.  I had justContinue reading “No, Chester hasn’t been smoking pot, he’s just high on life in general…”

During the 1999 New Mexico Legislature, a resolution was proposed to give New Mexico an “official state question.” I remember hearing an interview on National Public Radio with the late Sen. Ben Lujan, father of our current U.S. Senator Ben Ray Lujan, explaining why the question “Red or Green” was important to the state. TheContinue reading “It was a pretty good question…”

Every spring/early summer, the New Mexico State University experimental garden just down the street from our house sells various plants that they have perfected/raised from seed and put in planting containers for sale to the public. This year, I bought three medium heat chile plants and two Big Jim chile plants to put in ourContinue reading “Chile confidential…”

Yeah, I know almost every one of you readers has cute grandkid stories. But bear with me on this one — it’s about what a class of pre-kindergarten kids had to say after one full week in school. Last week, students in my youngest grandson’s class were learning about each other and the families ofContinue reading “Pre-K perspectives…”

An adult black bear, apparently thinking it needed to cool off during the summer of 2005, wandered into the lobby of a Holiday Inn in Raton. It walked past a terrified front desk clerk, then ambled down the hallway to the swimming pool area. While taking a dip in the pool, the New Mexico GameContinue reading “Raton is a great place… especially if you’re a bear.”

Three stories I dug up in the 2013 Albuquerque Journal had explosive topics. In the first, officers were called to Conchas Lake State Park in northeastern New Mexico to investigate a loud explosion, followed by a plume of black smoke. The culprit? It was a portable outdoor toilet whose contents — likely a mass ofContinue reading “2013 was an explosive year…”

It was late spring 1963. School would be out for the summer in a couple of weeks and many students had probably mentally checked out for the rest of the school term. A group of young kids,  friends who were probably feeling their independence growing, were wandering through the Mesilla Park neighborhood on this warmContinue reading “History in concrete…”