When I awoke at 3:30 AM this morning, it was early to get myself ready for a 10+ hour drive to see family in Kansas this weekend. It would be a well-desired getaway from a few exceptionally heavy work weeks, I thought. The drive time out would be time to think a little, to...
Read more →All I remember is climbing a tightly enclosed wood-walled staircase at one end of the building up a few floors, and then on the third floor at near the middle of the landing was a door and behind it was a room with two beds that accommodated the pitch of the roof so that...
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It’s been a melancholy day all day, so after a morning of doing little, I went for what I thought would be a short walk this afternoon in the Bosque down by the river. It became a 3 hours shuffle amidst sunlight and silence, but at least it produced a few photos. The bike...
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I had been thinking about it for three weeks, so last Sunday, I got up early and hit the road. To ride the train. The Cumbres-Toltec Scenic Railroad is famous for its fantastic fall train rides between Chama, New Mexico and Antonito, Colorado. The narrow gauge line, established in the 1880’s to help get...
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The skies are noticeably more gray lately in the evenings, except for the moments when the sun sets and the western sky is a tapestry of burning pastels. You also notice a tinge of chill in the air in the house, where the temperature is unmoderated and floats with whatever it is outside. The...
Read more →Anyone who knows me knows I get caught up in the minutae of Cubs, largely because the Cubs are a grandly symbolic team. Despite what they accomplish this year, I imagine the Cubs have captured the imagination of many sports fans because they are a study in endurance, futility, disappointment, and hope as they...
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At dinner last night with Mom and Dad (Papa Felipe’s- our usual), we somehow got onto the topic of trains while we scarfed down our favorite New Mexican meals. It was because Mom and Dad had had some guests in town the last week, and we had been talking about the events of their...
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If you head north from Albuquerque toward Santa Fe and stay on I-25, bypassing the capitol city, and then take the Glorieta exit, you are headed towards the town of Pecos. Once you are in Pecos, make a left at the main intersection onto NM 63 and roll past the Catholic Church, up the...
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It’s been a long labor this morning, trying to find words for anything. I am back to my old familiar condition of being empty-headed, any thoughts of value corked away somewhere in the vats in the back of my head. It’s frustrating. In this morning’s coffee shop, my mind wanders, and I try to...
Read more →I ended up going to the UNM Continuing Education Building on University north of Indian School tonight after work to start a six-week class on writing. More specifically, on writing the scene- the basic building block of all novels, narratives, and dramas. The first class was informative. After a quick run through the syllabus...
Read more →It’s Wednesday evening, about 9 PM, and as with every night, the excuses have stacked up over the last hour as to why I can’t seem to get anything done in my life. There are a few that pop up over and over again in my head: my eyesight is slipping some of late,...
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It’s almost two weeks from now that that milestone weekend will be here. I think for my classmates, it may not be as big of a deal as it kind of feels to me, although when you look at it in terms of time and of numbers, it stands out. When you’ve been up...
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I studied for a Masters degree at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, California, from 1991 to 1994. While there, I collected a range of memories that bubble up in my head from time to time. Here are a few of those. The whirr of windshield wipers as beads of water streak...
Read more →As part of my week of medical wackiness, I went in to TriCore yesterday to get blood work done to see if we could get any insight into my blotchy foot. Last week, before my back decided to give up on me, I came home from work and took off my socks one night,...
Read more →Tonight, I was home after 8 and there wasn’t a Cubs ballgame on for me to watch. It was just house and clutter and two limp cats trying to ignore the heat. I went to the doctor this morning to get an opinion on a chain of blotchy red spots ringing my ankle and...
Read more →Every so often I find myself thinking about Claude Wheeler in Willa Cather’s novel, “One of Ours”. It happens mostly when my life seems to hit another prolonged lull, or plows full on into a series of roadblocks and whatever momentum I thought I had going is stamped out cold. I go back to...
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