Category Archives: Uncategorized

You’ve probably seen the artwork somewhere before — on a wall behind a bar in a back country tavern or in someone’s tacky pool room. It’s the famous series of works by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, “Dogs Playing Poker.” He began creating the series in 1894, showing anthropomorphized dogs around a table playing poker, smoking cigars,Continue reading “Our dog, Chester, should never play poker…”

Good news!!! Lindsay, our daughter, tested negative for the COVID-19 virus, as her husband Tedd, had done the day before. Hannah has been symptom free since Saturday (except for the erroneously low blood oxygen level reading due to her application of glittery fingernail polish.) The family should be able to return to “normal” activities today.Continue reading “Almost back to “normal”…”

Earlier this year, police in Las Cruces spotted a vehicle inching along a city street as it emitted an ear-splitting scraping noise. Upon closer investigation, the police discovered that the vehicle had only three tires and the fourth corner of the car was propped up only with a steel rim, gouging the pavement as itContinue reading “Why three-wheelers aren’t good for streets…”

Things are looking up for Hannah. She has gone 48 hours without any symptoms of COVID-19 — temperature normal, blood oxygen normal, no coughs, aches, etc. Her parents and Hayes are getting tested this week for the virus. If everything is okay, they will be back to normal — whatever that is these days —Continue reading “Sept. 21 update on Hannah…”

Hannah’s mother says her temperature, which was as high as 105 at one time, continues to move up and down. The peaks have not been as high, as we understand it, so we’re hoping it points to continued improvement. This morning she wanted to eat “Cheerios with sprinkles,” which her mom said was “something thatContinue reading “An update on Hannah’s fight with COVID-19…”

We received incredibly disheartening news this morning from our tearful daughter who announced that our beautiful five-year-old granddaughter, Hannah, has been infected with the COVID-19 virus. We feel confident she will recover, but I do ask for your prayers for her. For now, I’m going to try to limit my anger at the leadership inContinue reading “Our five-year-old granddaughter has COVID-19”

I looked in my “Why I Love New Mexico” file from five years ago to find this story out of Clovis. A completely naked man was found standing in the middle of a busy Clovis street, ranting about the state of the world. A policeman with his body camera on stopped his cruiser and steppedContinue reading “I wonder what they thought when he showed up at the emergency room…”

A good friend of ours recently commented about the current sad state of affairs where just about everything we choose, do or say can be judged on some kind of constantly shifting political scale. As she pointed out in her sage observation about the turmoil, “soon the New Mexico Question ‘red or green’ will becomeContinue reading “And who knows where “I’ll have it Christmas style” lands on the political spectrum…*”

This sheep, in a pen behind the historic Wortley Hotel in Lincoln, NM, has a guest on its back, which according to the owners of the hotel, spends a lot of time there. The chicken, which is one of several that provides eggs for guest breakfasts, apparently gets along fine with the sheep, which seemsContinue reading “You’ve heard of a monkey on your back…”

My wife Margo, our dog Chester, and I completed a day trip to the Gila Wilderness last week, with my goal to finally catch an elusive Gila trout on one of the streams where they have been re-introduced. Thanks to very low water, failure to venture far enough up the stream and my dog’s needContinue reading “A wilderness on the edge…”

You’ve probably seen videos of the strange ice wheels that form in streams during colder months in northern climates. They spin slowly and mysteriously on top of the water, apparently formed by just the right combination of temperature, speed of the current and shape of the stream bank. This morning, on our daily walk throughContinue reading “New Mexico “weed wheel”…”

There is a neighborhood Mexican restaurant/carryout in our neighborhood that is much beloved for many reasons. Their carne adovada burritos are tops, rolled tacos were once voted best in the city and their folded tacos come with double crunchy shells (probably to prevent them from dissolving from the ample grease — er, I meant juiceContinue reading “They should patent this password…”

I grew up working around my father and mother’s weekly newspaper in the New Mexico resort town of Ruidoso. I’m not sure what my first gig on the newspaper was, or when it started, but by the time I left for college I had delivered papers, poured hot lead “pigs” for the Linotype machines, insertedContinue reading “The “s” was lost, but at least a “w” didn’t appear…”