Silver City, NM

Larkspur and ice plant and broom and flax and yucca and prickly pear and cholla and hollyhocks and orange mallow and roses (a little the worse for drought) are all blooming and making it feel like summer.

The weekend is over and normal life is picking up again. Except - what is normal these days? At the rate we as a nation are going every day will be a Memorial Day - or the meaning of Memorial Day will be tragically broadened and made fuzzy.

Personally I do not ponder the meaning of holidays so much any more. I try to remember what days stores and services will not be operating as normal for purely practical purposes and feel for those whose work remains unremitting in spite of official Federal pauses.

Silver City, NM

I just encountered the most seriously hostile person I have met since I came to Silver City. I gave him a friendly hello and he called me a bitch. He threw something on the ground and asked me if that was what I wanted. He was carrying what looked like a big knife or a big scary stick that I was afraid to look at - did not want to remind him of it!

Maybe he just got seriously ripped off by someone that looked like me - or maybe just someone of my sex. The homeless have become a serious problem here - so much so that the Visitor Center has closed its restrooms to locals. At first I disapproved of that action, but then I heard the city had to get a hazmat team in there to clean it up.

So, Paradise Silver City is not. Just the closest thing to it!

And a happy Memorial Day to you, too!

Silver City, NM

Well, I got the day of the festival wrong yesterday but I did hear some music emanating from that area last night. Today is the day so if anyone did not get over there yesterday,mthey did not miss much.

I am not too concerned because no one here reads my blahg as far as I can tell. I am mostly doing it for people who might consider coming here someday. Maybe it will help them decide what time of year to visit. Maybe I am mostly doing this for me. Some people have called it journaling, but I do not know about that. People have called my writing intimate, but it is nothing like what I would write in a diary and leave on a shelf at home. 

I have had a couple of hits from China and Macedonia lately, oddly enough. I often attribute such anomalies to people looking at Oregon State University for possible schooling.

Silver City, NM

Some people are calling the Festival that is happening at Geogh Park today the jazz festival, and others are calling it blues. Hmmm... that calls for some research for me, not knowing much. Maybe I will go.

The weather is supposed to be great here, so indulge your party nature! Last year I did not go in because of the fifteen dollar suggested donation, but several people scoffed at my scruples. I will see what the scene is this year.

Last year when I happened by, the music was also pretty random. I heard this year that a good group is playing at one p.m. I get off from my volunteer position then and have to go home to eat first, so we will see if I make it on time on time to hear them perform. If I get there at all.

Lost my phone at the Silco Theater last night - after I had turned it off while walking there. Folks: wait until you get to your destination before you turn off your phone. That way if you mislay it you will at least know where it is. I did find it nestled in the seat supports between seats. It seems like a pretty handy little phone holder - and hider, too. Thanks to those who helped in the recovery effort, including Zach and Cole at the Silco.

Interesting film which some folk hated, and I do not blame them. I cannot really judge it, because I spent the second half wondering where my phone had gone. It was directed by Elaine May proving she could do serious work, I guess, though in the beginning some of the characters were laughable.

Silver City, NM

I found out this morning at the laundromat that I am not the only one using a comforter at night, though the temperature has been getting up over eighty degrees. I saw a neighbor yesterday evening that said it was 82 degrees in the afternoon. I said flatly, “I do not believe it.” I went on to tell her what I had heard about weather measurements taken at the airport, with its lower altitude and location farther south.

She smiled gently and said, “We have an outside thermometer here.” Well, what do you know. Either the low humidity makes an even bigger difference than I thought, or my thinness does.

At any rate the days are really lovely, and the evenings, too. Getting up the will to write is difficult when you are afraid of boring people and do not have much to say. I did look from afar at the party I mentioned Saturday and saw maybe a dozen people. It was farther away from the museum than I expected, so I just went back to work. Later a friend said he got to eat a Navajo Taco that had been fried before his very eyes and that it was fantastic.

This weekend is the jazz festival, I was reminded this morning. If I remember I will go.

Silver City, NM

The weather is gorgeous these days but I am still using my comforter at night. Last night, though I awoke up and did not go back to sleep for hours. Maybe I was not consciously too warm, but too warm to sleep well. I have a parallel situation with the cold, that is for sure; it is probably time to shed the cocoon.

Next weekend, I hear, there will be a blues festival here in Silver City. The streets, which have been fairly quiet since the big Gila bike races, will probably be busy again.

Getting complacent even in quiet times is dangerous, as I have seen this last week. Heads up for the busy weeks - there will be lots of folks from elsewhere around!

Tomorrow there will be a Big Ditch Party with food and music from 11:00 to 1:00. Alas, I cannot go for long because I am working, but maybe someone will watch the lobby for a few minutes while I take in the sights and sounds of the festivities.

Silver City, NM

Hmmm... I decided to sit outside to write today at the Visitors Center to enjoy the fabulous Spring weather. Maybe not the best of ideas, since Hudson is one noisy thoroughfare! I may be going deaf, but not deaf enough to provide immunity from the blaring egos driving down the street.

Another outdoor obstacle for some might be the drifts of cottonwood fluff that are gathering around corners and doorways. Some people suffer mightily from cottonwood hay fever, but at least this year I am not one of them. You never want to tempt fate about things like pollen, because the situation for both you and the plants can change drastically from year to year.

To me the fluff is lovely, like snow - and you do not have to suffer the cold along with it.

In the future I plan to hang around Silver City for the beautiful month of May; come to think of it, though, the month of May is splendid along wide swathes of the country. Hmmm... travel temptations do abound!

Silver City, NM

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there, whether you are a mom or not. If you are not one, you had one - or at least she had you, which is something to celebrate, thinking positively.

Here is my gift to you: some cars are a lot quieter these days than any car used to be. If you go a lot by your hearing, which I do when I am on the street, you can not necessarily trust yourself to hear an engine on the street - even one coming uphill towards you.

Luckily the person I just almost walked in front of slowed down. It is ironic that in these times of mongo ear splitting truck engines we have cars as quiet as bicycles. But hey - my bad. I should be looking out for bicycles, too!

May the drivers you encounter on your travels today be like the driver that watched out for me. Heh - she was probably a mom!

Silver City, NM

Back home again in Silver City! Coming home from the Museum I found a huge Mother’s Day bouquet in front of my door. It had at least sixteen different kinds of flowers, some of which were in multiple colors. The woman who runs the 11th street flower shop is a floral genius. What a wonderful surprise it was.

Silver City is beginning to get very comfortable. Today for the first time this year I wore sandals from the time I got up. For more than a month the sun will continue its northward dawning before it changes towards the South. (I know it is the earth that changes its motion, but it sure is a great illusion - the sun’s different path.)

Albuquerque, NM

Turns out part of the reason my son chose his neighborhood is because there were so many good coffee shops within walking distance. Today the coffee shop was Slow Burn and I liked it. The atmosphere was light and open in more ways than one!

All the coffee I have had here in Albuquerque has been good. The kid (now 43) reports that he has drunk coffee in quite a few coffee shops in Phoenix and San Diego and he likes the coffee here better.

That is saying quite a bit. The mystery factor... hmmm... could it be the water? After filtering, could waters from different places still have different taste quality?

That would be a job for sommeliers retired from tasting wine - if they have the tastebuds for it after swishing all that alcohol.

I have heard that Brooklyn water is some of the softest water in the country. I would love hearing the take of some professionals on the taste factor of various regions and/or cities.

Oops, I mentioned this idea to my son and he says there is already quite a worldwide business developed from just that idea. Awesome!

Denver, CO

I did not write yesterday because we were offline and moving. Yesterday, as a matter of fact was the Big Day when the movers transported most of the heavy furniture. Today we dismantled some other homemade furniture and left it out for special pickup by Denver department in charge of such disposal.

It seems that it is not hurting me a bit to miss a week and a half of workout at the gym. In fact, I am kind of curious as to whether I have gained some muscle mass. I will not know until next week, though. It seems movers need to know a lot more than they used to. Dismantling a refrigerator involves a good deal more than pulling a plug these days if they have water and ice dispensers in them.

The neighborhood my sister previously lived in had a plethora of bunnies. This one has more squirrels. She has more room inside, but the outside area is definitely a down-size, which pleases her.

My experience of Denver this time around is like micro gardening: intensive rather than wide.

Denver, CO

Helping family with moving would not seem to be appropriate activity for reporting on a blog (or in my case, a blahg.)

It is a good opportunity, though, to pick up information you might not have run across before.

Did you know, for instance, that when you move a refrigerator he tilting and jerking around causes the coolant to not necessarily be in the correct place to keep the refrigerator working properly? If you move a refrigerator you should wait for about a day before turning it on to allow the coolant to settle back into the proper place for doing its job.

Another aspect of moving that modern day folks relocating have to consider is neighborhood rules. There are a lot more neighborhoods with rules than there used to be. I do not know if realtors warn their clients if they are moving into an area with special limitations upon the residents, but it is a good idea to ask questions about what is permitted by the neighborhood association or rule book of the area.

Denver, Colorado

Time for Spring garden cleanup in Thornton. It seems they might have had a nighttime low over the winter of twenty below! It happens every three or so years, my sister tells me. Well, maybe I am glad to live in Silver City. The lowest I remember it being overnight last winter was eighteen degrees. Folks lose plants when it gets that cold in Denver.

No, thanks!

Denver, Colorado

Yesterday I did not write because I was hard at work on the bus for 9+ hours, making $10 an hour for not taking the airplane. Hell, I would have done it for less to avoid the Denver Airport, especially!

The scenery was spectacular of course, and largely varied. I managed to see two presumably wild antelope on the same ranch as some cattle, but other than that no wildlife, not even birds. My main coping mechanism when I get bored these days seems to be sleep. I did doze off now and then. Oh - and true confessions - phone solitaire. (As soon as I laugh at or criticize someone for doing something, I find myself doing the same thing not much later - be warned!)

Anyway, it was a good trip except for some tension between the bus driver and a passenger toward the back of the bus who insisted on playing electronic music without headphones. When the driver asked him to stop, he might - for maybe half a minute. In Denver the driver finally threatened to put him off if he did not quit, and the passenger finally complied.

Big deal - we were minutes from the bus station.

P.S. I forgot to mention the main annoyance of the trip - brief stops. A necessity for a nine-hour trip.

I learned something about myself from the incident. The buzz of the music was mildly annoying to me on occasion, but as the driver got increasingly irritated it bothered me more and more. I felt with the bus driver that he was being inconsiderate to the other passengers, most of whom were much closer to him than I. It was the conflict that compelled me to think about the matter.

You noticed that I assume that the offender was make. Why on earth would that be, I wonder?

I must be sexist.

Albuquerque, New Mexico 

Today my son and I celebrated a third day of May with a trip to the botanical gardens here in Albuquerque. The first blooming thing I saw there was an English Hawthorne. Clusters of dark red blossoms with white centers - no wonder the Hawthorne tree is mentioned so often in the literature! They are awesome, dramatic trees.

We went into a couple of glassed-in rooms for euphorbia and bromeliads, which had huge orange blossoms which would trump Trump. (Sorry, could not resist.) There were also big blossoms and exotic leaves of other colors in the protected environment.

The gardens were definitely worth seeing, but Albuquerque has another attraction that I had no idea was even in the making. There is a brand new Netflix studio for making videos (or whatever they are called these days for streaming. There were at least four stages. In the immediate area there is the construction of many big buildings going on all at once, including one by a famous architect I have never heard about before. (Just researched a teeny bit and Netflix originally had eight studios, and now there are at least eight more production studios operating from the site (!!)

At least some of the buildings are supposed to be affordable housing, which seems strange for a site south of the airport!

There is no doubt that Albuquerque is flowering in more ways than one.

As I end my visit here tomorrow and head toward Denver tomorrow I will try to find more ways to celebrate May.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

I wonder how I can make May Day last for a week?

Mmmm... on the way home from Humble Coffee today I saw pretty poppies with a big black spot on each petal. Getting a picture of that flower would be a good way of continuing the celebrations.

As for celebrating May Day by giving neighbors flowers, not being at home I would have to steal to do that. I was surprised to see how many flowers Albuquerque has blooming in May.

Within one block I saw a photinia tree and an extensive photinia hedge. The new outer leaves are bright red, the older leaves green, and the clusters of kind of stinky white flowers are Christmas in May, with the large numbers of bees providing a little gold ornamentation and a very audible constant buzz.

It was a May Day Christmas.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Say, it is May! May Day in Albuquerquay!

City Nature Challenge ABQ invited people to share their nature observations between April 28 and May 1. Since for me May Day has barely begun, I will tell of my experience yesterday in front of my daughter’s apartment in the Northeast part of town.

I decided to do some food shopping yesterday evening, and there was a roadrunner maybe three feet away on the gravel yard. I wonder if I would have literally tripped over him had I not stopped. He was just standing there, feathers fluffed. Someone had told my daughter that they are drying their feathers when they do that. I thought maybe they were cooling themselves off. Of course they could be doing both at once.

Killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Hmmm... maybe not a good image for a bonny nature May Day!