Category: Self Indulgence

Rescue Whiptail

We corralled the Whiptail yesterday and set her outside.  

Today when I opened the front door to go out to the mailbox, she was waiting. She slid between door and sill and was back inside.

She just sat there by the door looking at me with sad puppy Whiptail eyes. 

I swept her out — tenderly — with the broom. 

Trick or Treat

Our cozy chimenea last evening.
Our cozy chimenea last evening.

For the past several years I’ve spent Halloween in Virginia with five of The Sweeties. There I’ve noticed the several households that settle in the driveway with comfy chairs, blankets and warming, cheerful fires. I’ve always disliked that up-down, go to the door candy distribution hassle myself, but the outdoor campers seemed to be enjoying the evening every bit as much as the trick-or-treaters.

So this year my friend Donna and I moved the chimenea to her driveway, stoked a nice fire and welcomed the candy extortionists.

It was great — and quite the hit of the neighborhood among both the kids and their escorts. We were cozy as the evening grew chilly and had a great time with the scores of monsters, goblins, ghosts and freaks — youngest 10 weeks, oldest perhaps a mom herself.

Try it next year.

I’m So Confused

Don’t eat carbs, you’ll have a heart attack.

Don’t eat meat, you’ll have cancer.

Don’t they realize how difficult it is to survive on a diet of blueberries, walnuts and olives?

Stuffs

Reading through old NewMexiKen posts (off-line).

“A friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a body.”

Seven years ago tonight the five largest communities in New Mexico were Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Rio Rancho and the Obama rally.

I for one appreciate the McCain campaign treating us like children. McCain will bring us back to a simpler time. A time when you could identify your neighbors’ jobs by the hats they wore. Like Sam the Fireman, Bill the Cowboy and Jose the stereotype. These are the people in your neighborhood. The people that you meet when you’re walking down the street. They’re the people that you meet each day. And what the people in your neighborhood, the Joe the Plumber, the Wendy the Waitress need are tax cuts for the wealthy and off shore drilling. They don’t need universal health care or last names.

The Colbert Report, October 26, 2008

Redux Rant

First posted here ten years ago today.

What’s the deal with public libraries anyway? Everywhere I’ve ever lived they start herding people out the door with announcements, flashing lights, computers shutting off and dirty looks well before the actual closing time. It happened to me again tonight. They close at 8:00 and at 7:45 they’ve got more rounding up going on than a well-led cattle drive.

NewMexiKen managed a public research facility for ten years. I well remember that some diehards would hang in until the last minute, but I don’t remember having to be rude about it. And I don’t remember my staff or I ever getting agitated if the last stragglers were still pulling together their belongings and filing out at two minutes after quitting time.

Who do these public library staffs work for anyway?

(For the record, I left the library tonight at 7:50, ten minutes before closing. I know what time it was because as I was leaving they made an announcement saying it was ten minutes to closing and you could no longer use your library card.)

2015 Update: The online public library never closes. Ebooks are the best.

E Pluribus Unum

From five years ago today. My Virginia grandchildren attend four different schools now. I miss the lunches.

I had lunch yesterday with 1,000 children.

I decided to join The Sweeties for Thursday’s lunch. Four attend the same elementary school, so this is easier in some ways than it sounds. I drove over to the school just before 11, went through security (they take your ID and give you a badge with your photo on it), and walked across the hall to the cafeteria.

Kiley, second grade, doesn’t really have lunch at school; she has brunch. She and her class poured in at 11. Alex, her kindergarten-aged brother came next, at 11:25. Then cousins Mack, fourth grade, at 11:55, and Aidan, first grade, at 12:30. After Mack a cafeteria lady asked me how many grandchildren I had in the school. “Four,” I said, “but five next year” (if the district lines don’t change).*

This particular public school in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., has over 1,000 students, grades kindergarten through fifth. The cafeteria seats 320 and it was close to capacity on each shift, so I got to see (AND HEAR!) most of the 1,000 as they ate (more or less) their lunches from home or the lasagna, corn dog nuggets, or vegetarian chik’n nuggets sold by the school for $2.10, including two sides and a milk. (I didn’t see anyone with the chicken fajita salad.) I understand more clearly now why most restaurants stun me with their noise. The people that manage those places and work there experienced public school cafeterias as kids and think their workplaces are relatively quiet.

A thousand children, ages 5 to 11; American youth in 2010. And they were amazing and beautiful in every shade known, unquestionably with parents or grandparents from all parts of the world — and in many instances with parents from two parts of the world. And, romantic patriot that I am, I couldn’t help but think, e pluribus unum (out of many, one). It was America, as she has always been, richly diverse— our greatest strength.

And it made me quit worrying about the Tea Party.

* In school year 2011-2012 all five Virginia grandchildren did attend the same elementary school.

Wildlife at Casa NewMexiKen

Bear

This is a gif loop from 10 stills taken of the bear in my backyard June 27, 2013.

I love watching the bear problem solve — how do I get over that wall? She (he?) eventually jumped onto the berm, a leap of about 5 vertical and 5 horizontal feet. She visited again, once or twice, but I didn’t see her, only her sign. Bears have been much more scarce since the horrible winnowing of 2013, a bad drought year.

Bobcat

My cat, taken April 21, 2015. He also has been around from time-to-time, but this was my one sighting.

Bunny

One of many bunnies through the years.

These photos were taken through windows. I didn’t want to frighten the wildlife away by opening the door or screen — and I didn’t really want to let them in.

Humor Me

To you this is a nothing photo of a tiny, blurry object.

To me it is a photo of the International Space Station as it passed 249 miles above Albuquerque a few minutes ago at 4.76 miles per second.

ISS

It’s fun to see. Get yourself a good astronomy app — I favor Sky Guide, which sends me a notice when the ISS is visible at my location.

Yikes!

I can deal with bears in the backyard and bobcats on the courtyard wall — and the coyotes singing at night — but this creature scared me. The photo is poor and you can’t really see his stinger curled up — I hurried for fear he would scamper under the bed and I would have to move to Nova Scotia. 

 
According to Wikipedia, a scorpion sting does not require medical attention except for children or the elderly. I did not find that reassuring. 

I had never seen a scorpion before; this one was between my chair and my bed.