(Imagine you’re listening to the tune of Sonny and Cher’s “And the beat goes on…”)

If I was a resident of New Mexico trying to address a serious problem that I thought state government could help me with, I would have concluded after two days of searching online and by phone that there are no actual humans working for us.

I am college educated, reasonably smart and had a good record of tracking down information from state government when I was a journalist many years ago. For those reasons, I thought it would be relatively easy for me to find out a simple bit of information about how many Ferrari automobiles are registered in our state for a post I wrote on my blog earlier this week. Not so.

So far, I have run into an endless string of dead-end loops of recorded phone menus, useless websites and nothing resembling a place or person where I can find the information I am seeking.

After two days of searching online, I’ve only been able to talk to two live human beings. The first live person I was able to speak to was at the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue, which oversees the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Department, He quickly referred me to a phone number at the Motor Vehicle Department, which — guess what — turned into another endless loop of recorded phone menus.

I thought I’d give my state legislators a call. Neither one of them, Sen. Carrie Hamblin or Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, had phone numbers listed in the official legislative website. There are e-mail addresses listed for them, but I thought I’d continue to try to talk to a live person.

So I decided to do a moon shot and call the governor’s office. Amazingly, someone in person answered the phone. I told him what I was looking for and his first response was that “I don’t think anyone has that kind of information.” But he agreed to help me and said he would contact someone at the Motor Vehicle Department and have them call me back. I was skeptical that I’d ever hear anything more.

But I guess when the governor’s office calls, people hop into action. I received a call back within about five minutes from a woman with the Motor Vehicle Department. She also said she didn’t think that information would be available, but said I could go on to the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue Department website and fill in a request for that information.

So I submitted an online request form with the simple request for “Number of Ferrari and Rolls Royce vehicles registered in the state by county.”

I will let you know how this turns out. But in the meantime, I can’t help but feel sorry for anyone who lacks the skills to navigate websites or state government phone numbers to get information that they might desperately need. I suspect what I experienced is similar to what one might experience in another state or with the federal government.

I know I’m starting to sound more and more like Andy Rooney, the late curmudgeon from the CBS 60 Minutes TV show who routinely berated what he thought were silly departures from common sense.

But I really think our governments could make things simpler and not let computer nerds or “AI” dictate our choices.

Many years ago, when I was Bureau Chief with United Press International in Santa Fe, the news cycle would predictably slow down during the summer months when the New Mexico Legislature was out of session and bureaucrats went back into hiding to lick their wounds inflicted by the lawmakers.

On top of that, many people were on vacation and people’s focus turned away from state government.

During those times I often wrote longer, more in-depth feature stories about interesting people, places or things in the state.

One summer, as I walked to the post office from my office at the state capitol building, I spotted a bright red (what else) Ferrari zipping around the federal building office building north of the historic Santa Fe plaza.

In New Mexico, Ferrari sightings were pretty unusual then and even now (except when I see some used models on the showroom floor of a car dealership that I visit on occasion).

The sighting prompted me to wonder how many of these magnificent Italian machines were registered in the state of New Mexico, and where were most of them domiciled. At that time, it was pretty easy to call the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Department and drill down the call list to their statistical division and request a report on vehicle registration by type per county. So I wrote a feature story based on that easily obtained data.

Although I can’t recall the exact number of Ferraris in the state, I do recall being surprised when the number at that time was more than 100 (I think I remember it being more like 350, but that memory has long since faded.) And what was most surprising to me was the discovery that at least five of these 12-cylinder beasts were registered in Sierra County, home of Elephant Butte Lake and Truth or Consequences. I figured most would have been domiciled in Bernalillo or Santa Fe Counties, but I found them in such far flung places as Gallup and Clovis.

Fast forward to today. I decided to investigate the Ferrari population in our state at the current time and discovered… that’s it’s almost impossible to get that information.

I started with the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Department. After endless menu selections without a live human voice to respond, I was finally put on hold to listen to classical music. No one ever answered, although I was assured someone would call me back if I left a message. (“Good luck with that,” I thought. ) And none of the menu selections seemed to be pointing me in the direction of the information I sought.

The MVD is now under the auspices of the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, so I thought I would give that agency a call. I got another endless chain of menu selections sounding nothing like I was interested in.

It makes one wonder how you can ever get in touch with a real person in state government, except by driving to Santa Fe and boldly entering into an office and announcing you want to talk to a human. (I’ll hold off writing that blog until another time, however.)

So I decided to try another route. I asked Google “How many Ferrari cars are registered in New Mexico?” I found a site called “Statista,” which sounded Italian, but could not provide the information I needed. I also stumbled across a Ferrari owner’s club site, which had some interesting chats and questions from Land of Enchantment owners.

I found this breathless post:

“My f430 ships tomorrow from Ohio. Would be happy to talk cars or just visit. I am in High Desert NE Albuquerque above tramway.”

It was followed by this tragic response:

“Well you are surely luckier than me. The wind damaged our garage door, and the damaged door was nailed shut trapping my 360 inside. Thus, I am Ferrariless!

But nothing I found on the Ferrari owners website could point to how many Ferraris are in the state. I suspect that no one but me cares, but I am going to do my journalistic best to get to the bottom of this important issue, which I am sure will somehow influence the upcoming elections.

However, I did come across some other rather startling information regarding vehicle registrations in New Mexico: There were 1,783,151 vehicles registered in the state in 2020, including cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles. There were 2,117,000 residents in New Mexico, according to the 2020 Census, meaning that there was more than eight-tenths of a vehicle per person, including a whole bunch of people who weren’t even eligible to drive.

And, if you look at our roads and streets, you’ll surely guess this — there were almost twice as many trucks as there were cars on our roads. And I’m betting at least half of those trucks were Ford F-150s.

A couple of quick updates regarding fish.

Last month, the once endangered Gila trout’s cousin, the Apache trout, was removed from the federal endangered and threatened species list, which is worth another cheer from all of us who love the outdoors. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, formerly a New Mexico member of Congress, made the announcement.

Work on preserving the strain had been underway for more than five decades, about as long as efforts had been in place to remove the Gila trout from the endangered list.

The Apache trout’s habitat is in southeastern Arizona, and there are apparently no known populations in New Mexico. The Gila trout is found mostly in the Gila country of southwest New Mexico, but also has been found in populations in southeastern Arizona. The species are very closely related, but slightly different genetically.

The U.S. Department of Interior says at least 30 separate populations of the Apache trout now exist in southeastern Arizona along 175 miles of streams, almost all of those in the White Mountains of that state.

Having seen photos of the Apache trout and having recently caught several Gila trout, I have to say that the Gila trout appears more colorful, with brighter yellows on its fins and body and more colorful spots.

Here’s what I found on the internet describing the differences in appearance:

“Apache trout are similar in coloration to the Gila trout (Oncorhynchus gilae), however, the yellowish coloration is restricted to the ventral region of the Apache trout (Behnke 2002). Additionally, the Apache Trout have larger and fewer spots compared to the Gila Trout.“

So even if they’re not as pretty as the Gila trout, I’m glad the Apache trout has been taken off the endangered list and will continue to be monitored even though anglers can now catch them in their native Arizona.

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And speaking of Gila trout, things are finally underway to start raising a population of that species in a classroom at Stout Elementary School in Silver City next spring. Because the species is currently being raised in only two hatcheries in the state, getting the okay for the Trout Unlimited’s “Trout in the Classroom” project was a little more complicated than starting a similar program using rainbow trout at Ruidoso last spring. If everything goes according to plan, the fish will be hatched in a tank in a classroom in Silver City early next year and will be released as fry in Lake Roberts in late May.

Meanwhile in Ruidoso, plans are underway to start raising the rainbow trout in the classroom at White Mountain Elementary beginning in late October. It’s hoped that the fish will be a little larger than the ones we released into the Rio Ruidoso last May and will have a better chance of survival. We’re virtually certain that all of the fish we released last spring in Two Rivers Park in Ruidoso died during the intense flooding that followed two major forest fires.

I’m really proud that the teachers wanted to do the program again this year, given what a difficult time it has been for everyone in Ruidoso this summer.

I’ve already been to Ruidoso this fall to help the teachers get set up for the program. I’m scheduled to deliver trout eggs to the class on Oct. 18, driving them from Lisboa Springs hatchery near Pecos to Ruidoso on that date.

Although I’m sure this is getting boring from some of my readers, I’m still enthusiastic about the program and hope we can see more of these started in the future.

Various news agencies have recently reported the closing of the historic St. James Hotel in Cimarron, a property in northeastern New Mexico known for housing many famous Western characters during its heyday.

The hotel, as several other older New Mexico hotels have claimed, is also suspected to be haunted.

Take, for example, the Lodge in Cloudcroft, where the ghost of Rebecca reportedly wanders through the halls at night. Rebecca, whose name is currently used for the hotel’s restaurant, was a chambermaid working at the hotel when she was caught by her lumberjack lover in the arms of another man. Rebecca, who was described as having “shocking” red hair and brilliant blue eyes, disappeared after her tryst was exposed, never to be seen again. The hotel says her ghostly actions include unexplained opening and closing of doors, moving of furniture and objects on tables and lights that go off and on without explanation.

Another interesting hotel in New Mexico is the Hotel Parq Central in downtown Albuquerque, originally a hospital for railroad employees and later an institution for the mentally ill. People have said they occasionally see a woman looking out a window on the top floor of the facility and guests complain that their sheets have been ripped off their bed during the night without any explanation.

The St. James in Cimarron has hosted such guests at Buffalo Bill Cody, Wyatt Earp, outlaws Jesse James and Black Jack Ketchum, famous western author Zane Grey and artist Frederick Remington. About 20 bullet holes in the ceiling of the hotel’s main dining room are attributed to various gunfights staged there over the years.

Reports say at least two of the hotel’s bedrooms are haunted. One was open to guests, but one article said the other was permanently closed because it was occupied by a ghost “so malevolent that occupation was considered hazardous.”

I’m sure the closing of the hotel will come as a great disappointment to paranormal sleuths. But although I never visited the hotel, its closing also is a great disappointment to me and others who relish unique things in our New Mexico history.

The hotel owners say the facility was closed yesterday, Sept. 16, apparently because of problems in finding enough staff to keep it open.

For information on other hotels in New Mexico that are reportedly haunted, you can go to this website:

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/stays/new-mexico/haunted-hotels-nm

There have been two articles in the Albuquerque Journal recently about an apparent bat infestation at Presbyterian Hospital in that city.

My most memorable bat experiences was the time I was coaching my son’s soccer team in an evening game under the lights and the players — 10 to 12 years old at the time — were more interested in watching bats flying around the field lights to catch bugs than concentrating on their game. Luckily, the kids on the other team were just as distracted and I think we played to a 0-0 draw. The bats, however, scored big on catching bugs flying around the stadium lights.

Presbyterian has hired a company called “Get Bats Out,” a national company specializing in removing the flying mammals that have infested homes and businesses.

However, one California man visiting his uncle at the hospital managed to take care of the bat problem on his own. Nicolas Mascarenas said he first thought a bird had fluttered by him in a hall inside the wing where his uncle was hospitalized, but then realized it was a bat. He noticed hospital employees scurrying around with sheets, hoping to trap the critter,s so he decided to join in the hunt.

But instead of using a sheet, he clapped his hands loudly to scare an animal as it fluttered around a corner and flew — “splat” — right into a glass window.

“It was laying on a white ledge,” Mascarenas said. “I returned to the staff and told them the bat would be easy to catch.”

When I last wrote about the mystery of Henry and Linda Twaddle, whose detail-free obituaries had been running for weeks in our local newspaper, my wife suggested that it was time to “just leave them alone.”

Finally I can do that, now that I have discovered a bit more about them and that they did indeed exist and had some connection to Las Cruces.

Our good friend Cheryl, who is a determined researcher likely due to her long career as a librarian, found some information about the Twaddles that I had not been able to discover. She went on Ancestry.com and found that a son of the Twaddles had once lived and worked in Las Cruces. I assume Linda Twaddle was brought here to be near her son after her husband Henry had died almost two years ago in North Carolina. She died in June of this year, apparently here in Las Cruces.

Cheryl also found information that the Twaddle’s funeral/end of life services were being handled by a company called Willowise, which apparently does on-line celebrations for the departed. I looked up the company and found that it has no physical address, only a phone number and website. The phone number has an Idaho area code and the website offers testimonials from previous customers and information about how to set up a service. The company was apparently founded by a couple who wanted to celebrate the life of the husband’s father, who died of Covid unexpectedly in 2021. The website notes that the as the family “was processing through this sudden loss, we decided a virtual memorial service was going to be the most effective way to honor” the man who had died. I never knew such companies existed, but I guess more and more people are choosing non-traditional church funerals to remember their loved ones who have passed away.

I found this little bit of additional information about Henry Twaddle on the Willowise website:

“Henry J. Twaddle had a variety of interests that reflected his vibrant personality. He was passionate about gardening, often spending hours tending to his plants and flowers. He also enjoyed fishing, which allowed him to relax and connect with nature. Additionally, Henry was an avid reader and loved exploring different genres of literature.“

The website says there will be an online memorial service for the Twaddles at 1 p.m. Mountain Time on Oct. 4. If you’re interested, you can go on the website and register to attend.

I think at this point, I will, as my wife suggested, “just leave them alone.”

The on again, partially on again and completely missing mystery of the Twaddles’ obituary continues.

In an earlier post, I wrote about the twin Twaddle obituaries that appeared for weeks (maybe even months) in the local Las Cruces Sun-News. Separate obituaries for Henry J. Twaddle and Linda M. Twaddle were always published adjacent to each other, with identical wording that seemed to have been generated by an AI copywriter and which breathlessly proclaimed that the Twaddles “will be fondly remembered and sorely missed by all who knew him (or her).”

Mysteriously, the obituary for Henry J. Twaddle, stopped running in the paper for two weeks. Only Linda’s was still running as of Sunday, Sept. 1. However, Henry’s started running again on Tuesday, Sept. 3, but Linda’s was now missing. Then on Wednesday, Sept. 4, both obituaries reappeared. But today, Sept. 5, neither of the Twaddle obituaries are in the Sun-News.

It might be that whoever was paying for the obituaries finally realized that both of the Twaddles died some time ago and that only nerds like me cared about reading the obituaries. Since there was no information about an upcoming funerals or life celebrations, maybe whoever wrote the obituaries concluded it was no longer worth the money to continue publishing both of them.

Of course there could be all sorts of other sinister things going on. What if the obituary was being published to convince a life insurance company that Henry and Linda were dead and the company would have to pay off a policy that’s now letting them live a luxurious life on a remote island in the South Pacific? Maybe they had a big tax lien that they’ve been able to dodge now that the federal government, state or county thinks they’re dead. Or maybe they are in a witness protection program living under the radar as Mr. and Mrs. Twiddle in Moose Breath, Minnesota.

But here’s my theory. I think it’s some kind of secret code, just like the red flag in Bob Woodward’s flower pot that he left to contact Deep Throat while reporting the Watergate scandal. If both Twaddle obituaries are published, everything is on hold. If only Linda’s is published, there is something about to happen. And if Henry’s suddenly reappears, the plan is in action. But what does it mean that both have now disappeared? Is the end of the world upon us?

Every morning for the last couple of weeks, I dashed outside in my sleep togs — hoping none of the neighbors would see me — to find if the newspaper has arrived and whether the Twaddle obituaries were published. I am sure most people’s interest in this story is waning — if there was actually any interest in the first place — but I will stay true to my journalistic instincts and let my dedicated readers know about any new developments.

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On another subject that I had discussed previously in the Albuquerque Journal’s Business Outlook section, I found this new patent application in the official records section:

“Rylans Enterprises LLC, Las Cruces, New Mexico, has been assigned a patent developed by Robert Baca, Las Cruces, New Mexico, for “Chile roaster.”

We need more inventions like that I think, rather an adjacent patent granted for a “transdermal sampling strip and method for analyzing transdermally emitted gasses.” It sounds like something a wife might carry with her to gauge the noxious level of a flatulent “transdermal” emissions from her husband. Actually, that might be worthwhile.

Every summer, we see a few mushrooms pop up in our back yard. As far as we know, they are not a poisonous variety and our dog Chester seems to ignore them. He likes to chase tennis balls, and I was afraid he might confuse one of the rounder fungi for a toy, but he seems to have made a distinction and leaves them alone.

On Thursday of this week when I mowed the back lawn, there were about three mushrooms that the mower quickly dispatched when I passed over them, leaving fluffy white chunks scattered around. By Saturday, there seemed to be a few more, but nothing unusual.

Yesterday, morning my wife noticed them and commented that there must be at least a dozen growing. In the afternoon, I went out to count and the number had grown to about 26.

Today (Monday), the population had — well to use an appropriate term — mushroomed to at least 65.

I did check online and found several sources saying that this variety of mushroom is not toxic and that it actually is a sign of a healthy lawn. The fungi apparently stimulate the soil and form nutrients from decomposing grass clippings and other things.

By the time you read this today our back yard may be completely white. Or, if these are the body snatching pod variety, this might be my last post. Hopefully, our dog Chester will alert us of the danger by barking wildly in the middle of the night. Oh wait, he does that anyway when he concludes that moving air in the back yard is a threat to us, so we’ll never know.

We’ve all been aware of the hard times that Ruidoso residents have been facing since the huge South Fork and Salt fires and subsequent flooding this summer.

Last Sunday, the Albuquerque Journal wrote a great story about how the Ruidoso High School football team was going ahead with its fall season, even though they were shortchanged on their fall practice sessions and many of the players homes were lost in the fire or flooding.

Their first outing was not very successful, with the Warriors losing 50-7 to the always difficult Eunice Cardinals. (When I was a football player at Ruidoso High School centuries ago, the teams in southeast New Mexico that were in our district — Jal and Eunice — would always flog us mercifully.) But I have hope for better things from Ruidoso.

As an example, my pet project at White Mountain Elementary to have students in the 3rd grade raise and release trout is moving ahead, despite the setbacks.

As you may recall, the students at White Mountain Elementary were able to release 13 tiny fish they had raised in their classrooms into the Rio Ruidoso last May, only to have them washed away in subsequent flooding a few weeks later after the devastating South Fork forest fire.

I was very doubtful that the program would be able to continue in the coming school year. Several teachers lost their homes in the fire and/or the flooding, many of the students’ parents lost homes or jobs and had to move away.

Yet the teachers who initiated the Trout Unlimited “Trout in the Classroom” project wanted to give it another try.

We’re hoping to deliver fish eggs from the New Mexico Game and Fish Department earlier this year — hopefully late October or early November — so the fish will be a bit larger when we release them. We’ve also been able to convince the NM Game and Fish Department to let us release the fish in Grindstone Reservoir, which was not affected by the two fires or flooding.

(The only downside is that the fish will probably eventually be caught and eaten by people from out of state — well, mostly one state to the south and east of us — I won’t name names.)

I’m very heartened by the dedication of these teachers and their desire to keep things normal in their community after all the suffering it has endured this summer. As I said before, the two individuals who initiated this program, Michelle Thurston and Rachel Lutterman, are the kinds of teachers we all wanted our kids to have when they were growing up. They expressed no hesitation about getting the program going again.

I’m hoping for a great outcome this year and am looking forward to several trips to Ruidoso this fall and winter to help the program succeed and help show how the community has recovered.

I’ll keep you posted.

Our Webster’s New World Dictionary and Thesaurus (2002 edition) offer this as the definition of the word “twaddle:”

“n. {prob. var. of TATTLE} foolish empty talk or writing. nonsense”

For the last several weeks, our local newspaper has been publishing daily separate obituaries for a Henry J. Twaddle and Linda M. Twaddle. The obituaries are always published adjacent to each other.

Here is the most recent example:

As you can see, Henry died almost two years ago and Linda died in June.

Although the two obituaries list Las Cruces, there is no confirmation that their deaths actually occurred here. We don’t know if Linda was Henry’s wife, a sister, or even related. We don’t know where they were born, if they had any surviving relatives and there is no information about any kind of funeral service or memorial services. Both separate obituaries have the same language that the two “will be fondly remembered and sorely missed by all who knew him (or her).” There are no pictures of either person.

I looked up Henry J. Twaddle on Google and only found his obituary in the local paper. There was a Henry (no middle initial) Twaddle who died in 1985 in New Jersey and there was famous Army Major General named Harry L. Twaddle, but that’s as close as I could get. The comment board in our newspaper about on local deaths had no postings for Henry J. Twaddle.

A Goggle search of Linda M. Twaddle reveals nothing but the terse local obituary as well. There was a Linda M. Twaddle of England who died in March of this year, but she was 50 years old.

So the short recurring obituaries are a complete mystery and I’ve twaddled about the subject as much as I can. I will keep watching for their obituaries on a daily basis, and if something new shows up, I’ll share it.

Years ago, a journalist colleague of mine while I was working for United Press International in Santa Fe once described a particularly bland news release issued by some state agency as being “as exciting as the third tallest building in Zurich, Switzerland.”

That was my reaction a couple of weeks ago when I picked up our local Las Cruces Sun News to find the following as its major story for the day.

I defend local journalism, but this is clearly not local news. It’s a story picked up from the El Paso Times, owned by the same company that owns the Las Cruces Sun-News that is part of the USA Today network. Why the local editor (if there is one) thought this would be a story of interest to local readers is far beyond me. I mean, it wasn’t even THE FIRST CarMax store in El Paso. I could imagine that our local car dealers would be upset by this, but as of my latest count, only one of the major automobile franchises is still locally owned and the rest are mostly owned by dealerships in El Paso.

Year ago, when the Sun-News was locally owned, Las Cruces retailers became angered when the Sun-New published a story saying that shoppers should consider going to Juarez for a unique shopping experience during the Christmas holidays. I saw it as a story focusing on something interesting for our residents to do because of our proximity to Mexico. Since many things sold in Juarez stores are not available locally. I did not see it as taking away dollars from our local retailers. Still, some local retailers were incensed and for a while stopped all advertising in the Sun-News.

I doubt enough people read the recent “Car Max second store opening” story to have made a blip in local vehicle sales.

Perhaps the Sun News could have featured a story on our new city manager, updates on the water allocations in the Mesilla Valley, exciting research happening at New Mexico State University or maybe an update on the homeless situation in our community. Nope. we got the “Car Max second store opening” as our daily newspaper’s penetrating journalistic endeavor.

By contrast, the true local paper, the Las Cruces Bulletin, had as its front page story that same week as “Beer Fest returns to plaza.” I suspect that got a lot more locals excited than the used car news release puffery.

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Speaking of newspapers, I make it a point to glance at the patent applications in the Albuquerque Journal’s weekly Business Outlook section. I continue to find interest things for which patents have been applied, but most of them I can’t understand.

An example from last week: “Ammonium based ionic liquids useful for lignocellulosic processing.” Your guess is as good as mine.

However, I did understand this one from an inventor in Truth or Consequences: “Cargo hook.”

Newspapers.com is a source I refer to regularly for interesting items about New Mexico’s history. I especially like to read how newspaper editors and reporters of the time write about events, specifically about wording they use to describe them.

As I was poking through the site today, I stumbled across an article in the March 6, 1898, edition of the Rio Grande Republican about a plea from then Territorial New Mexico Gov. W.T. Thornton pleading for information leading to the bodies of Col. Albert J. Fountain and his son, Henry, and the capture of the three individuals who were believed to have captured and killed them ion Feb. 1 of 1898.

Fountain was quite an interesting character in the history of New Mexico and Texas. He served in the Civil War, was an acting Lieutenant Governor of Texas, a staunch Republican and a highly regarded citizen of Las Cruces and Dona Ana County. As an attorney, he also defended William H. Bonney, aka “Billy the Kid,” for some of his roles in the Lincoln County War. Check out his extensive history at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Jennings_Fountain

The three individuals who are believed to have ambushed and killed Fountain and his son somewhere on the east side of the Organ Mountains near what is now White Sands Missile Range headquarters were never caught or convicted for the crime. It is suspected the ambush was staged by two rival landowners, Oliver Lee of the Alamogordo area and the notorious Albert B. Fall, of the Teapot Dome scandal fame. My good friend, author and historian, Jack Wilson, probably has lots more information about this incident and Fountain’s history. I’ll ask him about it next time I see him.

I personally know one of Fountain’s descendants, Art Fountain, who is a fine craftsman and was a long-time member of our local Episcopal church, which Col. Fountain was involved in founding. The historic Fountain Theater still operates in Mesilla and the old Fountain house is still standing in that historic community.

I’m glad I stumbled across this bit of history in the old Las Cruces newspaper. It makes living here even more interesting.

I first learned about Gila trout almost 50 years ago when I was Santa Fe Bureau Chief and state capitol reporter for United Press International.

The New Mexico Game and Fish Department, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies, had recognized that the colorful native trout of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona had almost become extinct. The Gila trout population was declining because of loss of original habitat, overfishing, overgrazing, climate change and interbreeding with non-native rainbow trout years ago.

Through the efforts of these government agencies and with the help of such non-profit groups as Trout Unlimited, pure strains of the dwindling Gila trout population were finally identified and captured in the headwaters of the Gila river and in watersheds in southeastern Arizona. The species was identified as “endangered” in 1967. Efforts began to preserve the remaining pure strains with the ultimate goal of reintroducing them in certain protected waters of the Gila so they would not continue to interbreed with rainbow trout in those areas.

New Mexico and Arizona game and fish agencies began a program of raising Gila Trout in isolated hatcheries and in the 1970s began reintroducing them in certain streams where they would not be impacted by other fish populations. It’s about that time that I began writing about the Gila trout recovery efforts and when the species was eventually downlisted to “threatened,” I wrote an article about that for UPI that was published nationally.

In the last few years, the fish was finally delisted and you can fish for them in both New Mexico and Arizona. You can only keep two, but I suspect most fishermen like me who have gained a great respect for tiny creature’s tenacious character, practice catch and release.

I continued to write periodic updates about recovery of the species, including the time when several populations had to be rescued in dramatic fashion from small streams in the Black Range of the Gila because of the growth of a devastating forest fire.

I also helped as a volunteer to reintroduce the fish to Whitewater creek in Gila after another devastating forest fire destroyed the watershed in the early 2000s.

But despite my long-time interest in this fish, I had never actually caught one until last week. On one of the most spectacular canyons on the west side of the Gila, I managed to catch and release at least a dozen and lost at least that many more when the fiesty tiny trout managed to flip off my hook. My wife, Margo, managed to catch a few herself.

My impression after catching several of these trout is that they are very feisty, more so than the rainbow trout I used to catch on Whitewater Creek. They seemed to be smarter in some ways — spitting out or refusing my fly on numerous occasions — but not as bright in other ways — not spooking as easily as the rainbows did when you’d catch one in a pool. Maybe that’s just because they haven’t seen many fisherman as did the rainbows in Whitewater creek.

I’ve always told my kids that when I fished for tiny trout in the Gila, I was protecting them from the “tiny trout menace” to the human population. But the truth is, we’re much more of a menace to them.

I was pleased to see that the fish had moved further downstream than the last couple of times I fished for them on Mineral creek. I was also pleased that they are so plentiful and that most of them are very small, indicating that they are young and the population is rapidly reproducing naturally.

What draws me to fish for this tiny species is the spectacular natural scenery of the Gila country, especially the rugged canyons in which they have thrived for thousands and thousands of years. I’ve added some photos below of our trip last week up Mineral creek and hope you enjoy them.

Today is the fifth anniversary of my open heart surgery to replace a bad heart valve that I was born with but had not given me any trouble until about a year before I had the procedure done.

I’m glad to stay it’s still working well and I feel very healthy for a guy my age. Yes, I have a few more aches and pains that have cropped up, and manual chores like mowing lawns in the hot summer are a bit more difficult. But overall, I think I’m doing pretty well and am thankful for that.

One thing that I discovered during my most recent routine semi-annual checkup is that the valve that replaced my failing one was from a cow, not a pig as I had been led to believe. I think I mentioned this in a previous blog, saying I was more prone to mooing than oinking when things get difficult.

It’s easy to remember the date of my surgery because it was just five days after the mass shooting in a Wal-Mart in El Paso, TX, which left 23 people dead. My ordeal was over quickly. The Wal-Mart shooter’s legal case dragged on for several years before he was finally sentenced to 90 years in prison for each death.

I also remember the phrase “takes a licking and keeps on ticking” from the old Timex watch commercials years ago and think of my heart as an example of that durability. I specifically remember a TV cop show in which a man’s arm was severed in some kind of criminal act. When two investigators showed up, they found a wristwatch attached to the arm still working. One of the investigators glibly used the “keeps on ticking” phrase to amuse his partner but was immediately placed on probation for his insensitivity.

I also recall an incident with my father and a man he employed at our newspaper who was both mentally and physically challenged. His name was Cecil and he was a dedicated and hard worker that I’m proud that my father had given an opportunity for employment.

My father was driving down our main street one day with Cecil in the passenger seat and me in the back when my dad noticed that his cheap Timex watch had stopped working. He took it off his wrist and casually threw it into the street as he continued to drive. Cecil was stunned and didn’t quite understand why my father had tossed what he thought must have been a perfectly good timepiece. My father quickly realized he might have made a mistake in playing on Cecil’s inability to understand the situation. We stopped and my father explained what happened. Cecil seemed to get the joke and laughed. But I’ll bet he never bought a Timex watch after that.

And in another milestone of sorts, my records on WordPress show that I have now written 450 blogs over the past several years.

I do it because writing is a kind of therapy for me. I hope people read and enjoy what I write, but I also find it to be a mind-stimulating kind of exercise to relay what I think are interesting stories and put the proper words together to make them appeal to my readers.

I’ll always remember a comment by a former journalist college. He compared writing to a craft:

“You just nail words together to tell the story,” he said.

Yes, it’s that, but a lot more for me.