The trip to Silver City

Marty, Holly and I drove to Silver City (from where this report comes). First, we listened to Little Shop of Horrors, and were happy to discover that the intro says "on the 23d day of September..." and it's September 23! We stopped in Socorro for breakfast. On the way out of the restaurant, Holly greatly amused an older lady by stopping and saying "OOH! I love this song!" and hanging back to hear it. It was "Carousel," by The Hollies. So when I got back in the car I quietly slipped in the "Best of the Hollies" I had brought.
Click on any photos to enlarge.

   
InTruth or Consequences there's a McDonald's with tile, and a neon sign stating that that they use Bueno brand green chile.
 


Then we went to Hatch. Some of the conference folk had asked about "Hatch" a couple of weeks ago, and it's a farm valley. Here's a photo of the Elementary school.

Holly fell asleep. I took a video of the sky, but the sound that should've been Weird Al singing "Yoda" glitched up or was overwhelmed by the wind. It started raining right afterward.


Good clouds, lots of hawks.

We've been to the wedding, but those photos haven't been uploaded yet. There was a mariachi group, all female, from El Paso called Mariachi Flores Mexicanas. They rarely used the trumpets and had no big bass guitar. Lots of violin, two guitars, three-part harmonies. They did at least eight songs during the mass, including Ave Maria. The most surprising part was one prayer with mariachi responsorial parts. The priest chanted his lines and that musicians sang and played theirs. Pretty cool. This was at the Santa Clara Catholic church in a teensy town called Santa Clara and also Central. As "Central New Mexico" is a common geographical term, and Santa Clara Pueblo, in Northern New Mexico is much larger, neither of its names is going to catch on big. It's only five miles from Silver City, so nobody but locals need to know anyway.

sneaky giant cloud

In the back yard it was still and cold and dark like before a snow. I went to the front and saw this:


There's a small local dark grey cloud over the mountains, and perfectly blue sky to the east, but the WHOLE rest of the sky, in every direction and way, way behind me is a high, thick solid snow cloud, slowly moving from the west. Kinda creepy, like when a giant spaceship obliterates the sky. To understand the effect, note that the transmission towers on the mountain, a mile up, are still clearly visible. The cloud isn't right on us, it's way up there, higher than that local cloud which is also really high.

Albuquerque Today

Holly and I went on errands in a leisurely fashion. There were beautiful flowers by the freeway, thanks to freakishly abundant rain. It was an unremarkable day, but it occurred to me that some of my friends who miss Albuquerque might want some familiar glimpses, on an unremarkable day. Those from elsewhere might find it exotic, or boring, but sometimes 'boring' is a big comfort!

These are thumbnails of bigger (but not better) photos:


 

 

  

  

  

The last one has the antenna-guy Holly made next to the Blake's guy! Unplanned, and very cool.

Neighbors evicted

I don't know if it's "eviction." Their house was condemned yesterday and they were ordered to vacate by 5:30. These are the neighbors straight behind us, who have been loud and troublesome almost as long as we've lived here. Seven years, the police said (and we've been here nine). A social worker's car and two cop cars were out there, they were all standing on the sidewalk out and talked to me.

I feel sorry for the kids, the teens. The target person was the tenant, who was the owner of the house. An older woman (60's?) who wasn't able to get up and about, and they weren't taking sufficiently good care of her. And the house was "deemed substandard" for habitation. The social worker in charge gave me her card, and she was there for the older woman.

The guy I've called "the dad" (the dad of four kids or so) is "the son" to the social workers and police, because (I guess) his mom owned the house. They didn't even know there was a little boy there (little meaning four years old, give or take). I think, but am not sure, that the teenaged girl is his mom.... all confusing. Cast of too-many.

What I do know is they let a nice big swimming pool go to hell, and that one of the teens was dealing small-quantity drugs out the back corner of the yard, looking over his shoulder to see if anyone in the house was watching. It must have involved cell phones. Cars would park right outside our back gate, the driver would get out and trade cash for something, and get in and drive. Keith saw it once. I saw it three times. Our friend Monica told Holly she had to park and wait once for the transaction to be completed before she could keep driving through the alley.

So that will stop now, or move elsewhere.
Their poor yappy pit bull who only ever got yelled at won't be barking at us.

Still, I feel sad. When the grandma was able to get out, she used to do a lot of yelling and shaming. The mom, I hadn't heard for a long time. The most recent fighting was between a teenaged or 20ish girl and one of the teens of the family. He was being hateful to her.

The contrast to our yard and our family is stark. Their yard is dark and quiet now.

I'm glad for Keith, and I'm glad our kids are as happy as they are, and that we have smiles and kind words here.

Moonflower Explosion

There are thirty or so tonight. Stunning. Marty said he'll see them in the morning. I forget he goes to work before they close.


It's hard to describe the color. They're white, yeah. But there's a satiny, silvery pearliness to them. And they're big--five or six inches across. And each lasts one night.

The loop makes it seem they're everywhere, but they're on the south and west sides of our bedroom, in the back. There's noplace I can stand to get a photo of them all, and no way to show what they look like without the flash.

They're making my life better, these moonflowers.



The original loop of photos had disappeared. The host seems to have folded. I made a new one in April 2009.

Processing, processing...

Still recovering from the conference. Deanne took this photo of Holly during the banquet. Today I'm well enough to do laundry and dishes, which is good! I'm glad I wasn't at all sick before or during the conference. I slept in a bed from which two other people had reportedly arisen sick. Ooooh... like a cursed bed. Because I was taking Joyce to the airport really early, I just stayed in the once-overflowing Sorooshian room with Joyce. I did bring a pillow from my own hotel room (which was full and overflowing with my kids and some extras) and I turned the sheet around so I would have germs on my feet (if there were germs) and not by my face. I slept wonderfully well. Woke up with a sore throat. CURSES!! But it was a simple thing to get up when I heard Joyce getting ready, drive to the airport, and then to my house. My van and I know the trail home. It was fun to hang out with so many of the people who help other people get unschooling. I love these people online, and I'm thrilled at the magic they do with writing, and it was great to be in person with them. The older generation, people who were around "in the AOL days" Deb/DACunefare (whose name we practiced saying behind her back, after she told us, COONifer) Pam Sorooshian Joyce Fetteroll Sue Patterson Unschooling.com additions to the evolving team: Mary Gold (Zenmomma) Kelly Lovejoy Kathryn Baptista The current batch of sparkly writers, who have MANY more tools to use than the older generation had Ren Allen Danielle Conger Rue Kream Kelli Traaseth Robyn Coburn Gail Higgins Diana Jenner (hahamommy) Barbara Chase Miranda Demarest. . . When the older voices wander off, it won't matter. There are many more! It was good for me to get to know some of them better, with voices and faces and sparkly eyes. I was happy and a little surprised, seeing them all in one place, to think of how many have been in my home, or my family in theirs. There are lists and message boards I'm not on, so some of you might be thinking there should've been other names on that list, so I hope you got to hang out with people whose words have been helpful to you too!

Aftermath of Conference...

Tired (everyone), sick (just me), telling stories LOTS...

The hotel emptied of Live and Learn Unschoolers this afternoon when Holly and I delivered the last remaining family to the airport. Many families aren't home yet, having taken scenic routes or gone to visit. Photos are finding their way to public places.

http://homepage.mac.com/geriwc/Albuquerque_06/PhotoAlbum41.html
Geri's photos. We have photos, but for the moment I want to show a couple that Geri Weis-Corbley took at the Live and Learn Unschooling Conference last week.



I'll bring some of Holly too, that I took, but for now... I'm too tired to think.


I'm collecting other photo links here: http://sandradodd.com/abq

Extraordinary Wetness

Where the yard is usually dust or hard ground, things grew this year.

Birdseed the birds knocked out of the feeder sprouted and is now producing flowers and grain without our ever having watered it once.

The fact that I'm remarking on this... well... I suppose people in most of the world would think "yeah, that's what seed does, if it falls," but honestly, that's not what seed usually does where *I* live!

out the window this morning

I love overcast days like this, partly because even when it's overcast we can still see a long, long way! You can see a bright blue spot up in the clouds on the left, so you can see it was quite after sunrise and the blue sky was back there!

People tell me "You would love Seattle," but I love New Mexico! I just love the dark wet days the best.