Ruidoso

See! I did get out of the house at least once. Photo by: Suna Suna sees life from my perspective by standing on a wall. Photo by: Anita

Suna wanted Anita and me to pose
together to show how tall the trees are.
I’m the tall one. Photo by: Suna

It’s gettin’ kinda cold in Ruidoso [wishful thinking]

And Abilene ain’t gettin’ any closer

—Charlie Daniels

This has been a very good week for me, all things considered. Suna, Anita, and the boys have gone hiking and exploring a lot while I have stayed around the house like the hermit I am. Of course that means I worked some, too.

We were supposed to close two houses while I was away this week. That didn’t happen. Both closings have now moved into January, which will make the Hermit Haus books look really bad at year end.

The weather has been unseasonably warm. At least one day saw highs in the seventies, and even the nights have been temperate. The ski lodges are having to manufacture snow. One waitress in town huffed, “You’re from Texas. You’ve had snow this winter.” Down between Austin and San Antonio.

 

Weekend Update—Not SNL

Buddy and Rose often have head-on collisions at the doggy door.

I got to work in the garden a bit this weekend. I also had some time to myself. I tremendously enjoyed both.

Then yesterday, I played in the Dixieland-ish band at church, and the people seemed to genuinely enjoy it. We stayed late for a Music Committee meeting, which I think went really well.

Last night, I put together a cheap stand so the bird can move up to the media room and rejoin the family. I’ve missed that bird since we started using our portables in the media room so I could transform the old office into a music room. (That hasn't even really got started yet, but it will.)

As I was walking around campus today, I saw a fat pigeon go after a bug only to get picked off by a hawk. I wondered if the insect were aware of the pigeon’s fate, would it see the incident as divine intervention or a lucky coincidence.

So that is what I am grateful for this week: life in all its permutations, varieties, and plot twists.

Life is what we make it. Let’s choose to make it good.

Eight Assertions for 08/08/08 @ 08:08

In Dramaclouds, Mother Nature isn’t even mildly perturbed, and she’s scary enough. Still, some rain would be welcome.

Photo by: skooal

With Friday’s Feast still in famine mode, Suna created a meme in honor of the Summer Olympics. It simply lists eight random assertions for 8/8/08. Ideally, I guess I should post it at 08:08, which I have done so (even though I’m actually writing this a couple of days later—Ha!).

1. You can prove anything through numerology if you work hard enough.
2. Books are great friends, but uncomfortable sleeping companions.
3. “I thought that music matters, but that’s bullocks! Music doesn’t matter, not like people matter.”
4. We all learn differently. We all have different skills, goals, and aspirations. Why do schools insist on reducing everyone to the lowest common denominator?
5. All of the problems in the world today can be traced directly back to overpopulation, but the real problem is deciding who has to go.
6. If we don’t deal with overpopulation on our own through birth control, Nature will, and She doesn’t resolve problems kindly.
7. Starvation, epidemic, and ecological collapse will eventually restore balance in Nature. That doesn’t mean humans will survive the process.
8. I don’t wanna play this game any more. Waaaa! But I’ll give bonus points to the first person to cite the quote in #3.

Bats in the Belfry, Birds in the Pond

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live where you could see sites like this? Photo by: Suna

I’ve been looking into ways to continue to make a little money once my current contract with ALE ends. With the economy going south, I have been a little worried about the availability of other contracts. So, I’ve been doing some research.

The first thing I am reminded of—I actually learned this lesson a long time ago—is that the only people who make money from the advice found in entrepreneurial magazines and conferences are the publishers and speakers. I am amazed at the number of ads claiming that you can make ludicrous sums a week by doing nothing and without knowing anything. I am reminded of a Far Side cartoon where a shady character is offering a book for sale to a 40W bulb—the title Double Your IQ in Two Weeks Or No Money Back.

In the day, my parents made a bit of money fixing up and selling old houses. I have the skills for this endeavor, and I know what to look for. The mistake I’ve made in the past was trying to live in the house and do the updates on a shoestring after work. That approach is a recipe for stress and failure. Over the past few evenings, I started doing research on houses that I could afford to look at with this purpose.

Today, Suna and I made the trek through the Hill Country to look at three of the most likely prospects. One was unfindable (the GPS kept trying to route us through closed gates), we decided not to bother with the second, and the third was in a neighborhood that was way too scary. So I have determined that I can’t afford to approach this investment the way I wanted—a very disappointing result. I will just have to be patient and keep looking for an opportunity.

The best part of the day—other than spending time with Suna—was the getting out of the city. We saw some amazing sites, including the wader pictured here. The birds were worth the cost of gasoline.

Natural Beauty

False Sierra Effect of Clouds on the Horizon

What a lucky man

to see the earth

before it touched his hand

—Niel Young

This post is much like one of Suna’s “Grateful Monday” posts. I had a really nice experience taking the kids to school this morning.

We had just turned onto the toll road when Football Fan, who is our primary source of information for all things football (from high school to pro), asked, “What’s that?”

In my serious, adult-like manner, I didn’t take my eyes off the road. “A mini-van.”

“Oh,” said Football Fan, not wanting to say that the adult in the car could be a real idiot. “I’ve never seen one like that before. It looks like mountains.”

It was then that I realized he was looking at the horizon. Young people do that, but we forget as we get older. The sunrise was peaking though a bank of low-lying clouds, creating what I false sierra because I don’t know the official meteorological term for this formation. The effect was stunning. There was one thunderhead that looked like a mesa protruding from the main bank, or maybe between us and it.

I have seen similar formations on the coast and in the desert, but I have never seen one so beauteous—probably because I need external motivation to be awake and outdoors at sunrise. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera with me, so the picture for this post is a composite.

Thank you, Football Fan, for reminding me to look up and look to the horizon, for reminding me that nature surrounds us with beauty every day if we just bother to look.

Ink’s Lake Hike

The Aftermath

Because that’s the way my mind works, I’ll start at the end of the story. Here we are all (except for Lea, who took this picture) exhausted after a three-hour tour of Ink’s Lake State Park. Yes, another three-hour tour—actually closer to 3.5 hours, this time on foot. The younger folks were kind enough to slow down and wait for the old fart who took a lot of pictures as a good excuse to catch his breath. Suna did much better on the walking bit, in spite of getting a tad overheated.

Vista: It’s More Than a Buggy Operating System!

We frequently stopped to rest...er...take in the glorious panoramas of Central Texas in a rare hydrated Spring. All-in-all, we covered just over five miles in the mid-afternoon sun. Luckily, we carried plenty of water and sodas (we carried out all of our trash, thank you), and Greg fed us delicious close-out chocolate bars.

Cactus Flowers

The best thing about the hike was the flowers. Even the cacti got into the floral act.

There are more pictures than I can include here. Suna has posted and commented on more of them in her Flickr account.