Give Me A White

They went to the Jemez Springs book-barn and found a bunch. In the 1986 volume on how to write were several poems from this book. It's the kind of thing we share...spotting interesting bits, sometimes even large chunks, of literature, places on the map to go check out, rocks. 

We've recognized our inability to live together. Three to six weeks at a time was perfect. One day, the other day,  reminded me of how much we share. That was Friday and I'm still not fully recovered. It was the trip to the library while she napped that did me in.

A Visit

I awoke at 3:30 a.m. The ambien had given 4.5 hours. She arrived around 10 a.m. 

We had tea.

She had some yogurt & banana. (The peaches were bad.)

Aimee's video

She took a nap while I went to the library and the shoe store. (One of the guys at the nearby grocery had some incredible shoes with flames on them. He said he'd gotten 'em from just up the way; they were sold out.)

We looked at photos of her show then lay down together. It was nearly time for her to go.

I was so exhausted when I awoke this morning, turning from my side onto my back induced nausea.

Printed on metal

Crescent City Barmaid

It was nearing our time of parting...in July of '23.

Earlier in the day, I'd met a fisherman unloadiing the offal from his catch. He said the fillets, rock fish, went to the restaurant across the sward (Seaquake Brewing).

The wait time was 40 minutes...maybe longer. Invited to sit at the bar, we settled in.

It's true, I'm easily distracted. I avoid busy places, bars, restaurants, public toilets. (There's nothing quite as embarrassing as standing at a urinal and being tapped on the shoulder and someone saying "Hey, buddy" and turning and spraying pee all over....esp when it gets on the guy next door or the tapper.)

She was an auburn redhead, und sehr zaftig.

I watched, fascinated, as she moved, twice as fast as her co-workers, weaving among them like a dancer, mixing drinks, pulling beers, taking our order. (She said we could eat at the bar and wouldn't have to wait.)

Finally, I had to ask, "Who are you?!?!" She was a master one-wheeler 

working on a degree in psychology and had come from bar-tending in Lake Tahoe...a much loftier tier. I entreated for an interview but she demurred.

A few days later I was sitting outside a masseuse's shop, waiting. It wasn't until she went "floating" by -- down the middle of the street -- that I realized it was she!

I'm still puzzling over why this came back this morning.

What I'd RATHER

Next month it'll be two years since I returned to Albuquerque. Though my increasing deafness helps, I'm not adapting to the cheek-by-jowl urban lifestyle

I spent the first year in the Smirket Room. At the time, the east-side tenants (it's a rental) came and went at 1:30 & 5:30 a.m. Often, particularly on Friday & Saturdays, they'd linger over a song on the truck stereo before going inside. They liked it loud; the rest of the neighborhood could enjoy it too.

The guys spent a lot of time carrying small packages to and from cars that came and went, while two young women met a different vehicle out front every hour or so. There were always a lot of people coming & going with their belongings in plastic bags (Just in from the desert, are yuh?). But, you know, for the most part they were quiet and didn't ask to borrow money.

One of the main projects was installing the security cameras. 

West Side

East Side

For awhile Phoebe was picking up an unusual number of nails in her tires. It was a lesson in what happens when you complain about peoples' dogs barking all day & night. Consideration never crossed their mind; it was revenge.

Eventually we renovated "the office." With sound-deadening foam in the windows, my increasing deafness and the oxygen concentrator as a source of white noise, we've almost drowned out the sound of the crotch-rockets and hot rods.

The Office

 When we first arrived in '76, Albuquerque's population was 250,000; the 2023 estimate is 955,000. Albuquerque has more Walmarts per-capita than any other U.S. city. I suggest there's a corollary between the loud vehicles; it's an aesthetic, donchyuhknow?

The bucket-list phase is a thing of the past. The Seychelles, etc., are no longer on the table. Now, a trip to the library (on a good day) requires a day of recovery. 

I'm reading Horizon by Barry Lopez. Barry visited 82 countries and wrote a bunch of books about his travels. Horizon was his last; a combination memoir-autobiography in which he -- more than usual -- shares  his opinions and wee-hours-of-the-night ruminations. He died of cancer in 2020 at age 72; the same age as me.

Besides enjoying his writing and the armchair travel, I read his and other peoples' books like Horizon for clues about what I might be doing instead of reading. 

Here's a bit of supportive evidence. You'll note it doesn't mention sleeping.

Earth Observation (EO)

Copernicus Satellites & Cloudferro

Agan River & Wetlands (central Russia)

Once a year Mom's brother would visit. An attorney, he'd nag me about going to college. He allowed as how it wouldn't make me any smarter, but it'd open doors.

When, at the tender age of 33, I got bored with my thoughts, I decided to go see.

I didn't have a job in mind so took courses of interest: geology, economics, statistics, anthropology, journalism. When it came time to declare a major, they fit under the umbrella of Geography.

I specialized in Remote Sensing. In those days there were only a few satellites and what few jobs there were went to better students.

I ended up where I needed to be but now, decades on, when I chanced upon mention of the Copernicus programme, a European-funded satellite-based effort at monitoring changes on the planet whose images are open to the public, I went to see what I might've done instead.

My interest in art over-rode my technical curiosity so when I saw the contest for best image (Agan River & Wetlands - at top), I pivoted.

About the contest...

https://cloudferro.com/contest2024/

From Cloudferro website link above

This year we were looking for the most outstanding imagery showing places worth preserving and saving from the effects of environmental changes. The images were generated on such EO platforms as Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, CREODIAS, WEkEO, CODE-DE or EO-Lab. The winners were selected by internet users, who voted for the best 13 images, and then a Jury, who chose the top three entries that took the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

The Jury was composed of Simonetta Cheli, ESA, Stefano La Terra Bella, European Commission - DG DEFIS, Katrin Molch, German Aerospace Agency DLR, Danaele Puechmaille, EUMETSAT, prof. Grzegorz Wrochna, Polish Space Agency POLSA, Betty Charalampopoulou, EARSC, prof. Katarzyna Dąbrowska-Zielińska, Polish Institute of Geodesy and Cartography IGiK.

Here's the Copernicus article about the winning image...

https://dataspace.copernicus.eu/gallery/2024-5-21-agan-river-wetlands-wins-seize-beauty-our-planet

Praying Mantis

I was lying in bed reading when I felt something on my arm. They're such personable bugs.

Michelle plucked it from the top of the lamp and took it outside. She said she and her brother, when they were children, used to try and extend their lives by bringing them inside in the fall.

Cantaloupe

There's a section of bare ground between the sidewalk and the plants where, for years, Michelle has tried to get California poppies to grow. Every now and then some do. They usually bloom early and are done by April.

I put in cantaloupes. They've done better than expected and are delicious! Sweet and juicy with not a hint of bitterness. 

We shelter behind the foliage. It's home to a family of thrashers and several roadrunners.

Kitchen Tableau

 

By way of comparison: Georg Flegel (German)

(1566 – 23 March 1638, Frankfurt-am-Main)

In Bluff & Durango

Butler Wash

They bought a new Volvo and are on their way to Durango to pick up a new trailer. They swung through Butler Wash yesterday 

to see how the Volvo handled on the road; it did fine.

View from Desert Rose Resort & Cabins

They stayed at the motel but after today they'll have the coolest trailer. We used to meet in Bluff. It was, depending on the circumstance, our jumping-off and/or parting place.

.

Safaricondo Alto with retractable roof - Durango

Death With Dignity

One of the major rationales of the Medical Aid In Dying (MAID) movement was the concept of a dignified death. The idea was that having to have someone wipe your bottom for you or the loss of other faculties compromised a person's dignity to such an extent that they would rather be dead.

While my guess is each person's definition varies, I'm finding it somewhat challenging to wear these diapers. 

Though I appreciate their usefulness, I could hold my head up much better in camo.