Category Archives: Uncategorized

Located just east of Alma on the edge of the Gila Wilderness is this half-mile row of classic farm tractors of just about every American make, many no longer manufactured. It looks like the tractors just grew out of a big garden. I also noticed, like a weed poking up between your rows of vegetables,Continue reading “Instead of a farm tractor, it’s a tractor farm…”

The New Mexico state flag, officially adopted in 1920 from a design submitted by Santa Fe archaeologist Harry Mera, has won many accolades over the years for its elegantly simple design. In 2001, the North American Vexillological Association (no, I didn’t know there was such an organization either: https://nava.org/ ) rated its design as theContinue reading “For all you vexillophiles out there…”

Earlier this year, a female undercover police officer in Albuquerque, posing as a prostitute, was approached by a man seeking her “services.” The man explained that he wouldn’t get his paycheck until Friday and wondered if he could make a deal. Observing that the man had just purchased a hamburger, the officer suggested a tradeContinue reading “Benefits for a burger…”

But typical of surprises in New Mexico… So what I thought was an albino praying mantis showed up on my new hand-cranked chile roaster after I had completed roasting half a burlap sack of Big Jim chile and a smaller batch of Sandia chile. After searching the internet, I determined that it’s really not anContinue reading “Okay, this is creepy weird…”

Since I had my open heart heart surgery. Thanks to everyone who helped me through the process. Read more about it on my blog posted yesterday.

(Or, heart surgery, as I imagined it might have been done, New Mexico style…) A year ago tomorrow, Aug. 8, 2019, I underwent open heart surgery to replace a bad aortic valve that manifested itself as a heart murmur and nagged at me all through life. I’m fully recovered, at least from what doctors tellContinue reading “I hope they got some chicharrones out of it…”

Earlier this year, police in Las Cruces began following a car driving erratically through a residential neighborhood. As the car continued to weave and bob through the streets, police decided it was time to stop it. The driver, however, ignored the flashing lights and siren and continued to terrorize the neighborhood until it rolled intoContinue reading “And she probably didn’t even look like her…”

My wife and I and our dog walk daily, usually a two-mile loop around neighboring pecan orchards, irrigation ditch roads and through our inviting neighborhood. We do it to get exercise following my heart operation a year ago and to keep our still rambunctious golden doodle, Chester, somewhat tired so he doesn’t get into asContinue reading “Take a hike…”

Several years ago, when I was flying balloons regularly over the Mesilla Valley, I was conducting a routine flight on a beautiful late fall Sunday morning. It was a time of year when the last of the Monsoon wind currents predictably moved me slowly north over the valley, temperatures were crisp but invigorating and myContinue reading “A voice (or maybe voices) from above…”

— Mark Twain

We spotted this on our recent foray into Catron County on the western side of the Gila Country. It’s an old school bus, converted into a “condo” with the obligatory wood burning stove and… a solar panel. The bus, which appears to be solidly anchored in old flood debris and concrete barriers, is located inContinue reading “Off the grid, in a high-tech sort of way…”

On a trip to the Gila Country earlier this week, my wife and I ran across this run-down, apparently abandoned home just outside of the ghost town of Mogollon. From what we could see, it didn’t look like the place had been inhabited for a long time, judging by the overgrown weeds and trees, aContinue reading “Well, you can’t say the Census counters aren’t trying…”

If you’re not familiar with the Darwin Awards, you should take the time to look at the website https://darwinawards.com/, which gives you details about incredibly dumb things people have done that ultimately result in their elimination from the gene pool. The theory, like Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, is that the really bad genes of anyContinue reading “Darwin “Lite” awards. We have a nominee…”

Several years ago, before there was an explosion of social media in which people began posting really incriminating things on their Facebook page, a police officer somewhere in northern New Mexico accidentally captured a truly memorable moment on video. It seems the officer, hopefully just off duty but still dressed in full official police uniformContinue reading “Wow! How’d you get a shine like that on the hood of your car?”