When I saw the people standing in the openings in the parking structure watching the building burn, the image reminded me of a scene from a Fellini film. Then there’s the three arson investigators that are reminiscent of Van der Weyden’s “Decent from the Cross.” The last two photos are time lapses of sorts. The penultimate photo is the tile mosaic façade of the burned out building at 12:08 PM and the last photo is what’s left of the tile mosaic façade of the burned out building at 5:13 PM.
Here’s what’s left after the fire.
I am posting my blog very late today, because I got home late from the fire. The flamenco studio on the end of our block caught on fire yesterday afternoon and it turned into a major fire that threatened the rest of the block. Patrician Design was the most immediately threatened business, and fortunately the firewall between PD and the flamenco studio held. Our offices above Gold Street Cafe got a lot of smoke, but late, after they had the fire out and the power was restored, I opened up the office for some firemen and women who brought a big fan in and blew out as much of the smoke as the could from those offices. While they were blowing smoke out of the offices upstairs, I went downstairs and got all the servers fired back up. After that, the fire marshal gave me permission to secure the office, set the alarms and go home. The photos show the progression of the fire and the last photos are of Patti of Patrician Design celebrating that her boutique didn’t burn down. The fire caused a lot of excitement and anxiety for what started out to be a rather lazy afternoon.
Cranes hanging out in a cornfield and tree farm.
I finally replaced my 2006 Mazda 5 the insurance company totaled with with a 2009 Mazda RX8. This little beauty only has 28,500 miles, and has a 1.3 liter Renesis/Wankel rotary engine that pumps out 238 HP. The car is solid, perky, responsive and really fun to drive. It’s not as fast as Laurie’s Speed 3, but now we have two red Mazda sports cars. Laurie took these photos of me in the RX8 with her iPhone in the Credit Union’s parking lot. The car was halfway in the shade of the building so the color is a little off.
I got a great deal on the car from the owners of Pho 79, a Vietnamese restaurant located at 2007 Candelaria NE, for those of you who live in Albuquerque. We haven’t eaten there yet, but Tom, the owner, gave me a cup of Vietnamese iced coffee after we finished the deal (the coffee was wonderful). I’m planning on going there for lunch later this week. Pho 79 got a great review by “Trip Advisor” that called it a “hidden gem.”
The cats were in winter mode most of the day. Even though it was sunny and a blistering 40º F (4.4º C) outside in the afternoon, Guildenstern, Rosencrantz and Diné chose to lay around on our bed most of the day. We went to the West Side Chior’s Christmas concert Saturday night, and Jerri had me help record the concert. I didn’t think of it, but I could have taken equipment and shot a video of the concert Saturday night. Well, they had another concert on Sunday, so I shot a video of it with my Canon 5D and a stereo mic. The video and sound are great, but it’s going to be a lot of work putting the hour long concert altogether into one video.
While photographing René on his perch with the sun behind him, he decided to try some magic tricks on me. He folded out his wing like a cape, and then made his head disappear when he pulled his wing back.
There is a stereotype of road workers standing around leaning on their shovels. While this photo reinforces the stereotype, I believe these guys are waiting for a fresh load of asphalt. I worked construction when I was young, and no matter what the stereotypes are, construction workers have hard jobs, and often have to work outside in bad weather this time of year. I remember digging footings and having to use a pickaxe to break up the frozen soil in single digit temperatures back in my days as a construction worker. I was young and stupid back then.
But today’s photo reminded me of when we were living in Spain, and we came home one summer. Tristan had a rat that died and we were having a funeral for it. I had dug the hole and was leaning on the shovel, with Laurie and my parents gathered around the hole while Tristan read from a book of prayers from the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church. While we were in the middle of the funeral for a rat, one of my guitar students drove up in his pickup truck with his windows down and music blasting, parked, got out and asked what was going on. I told him we were burying a rat, so he stood around the hole with us while we finished the last rites, then I gave Tristan the shovel, and went off to give my student his guitar lesson. After we started the lesson my student paused and said “I’m sorry I barged in on the funeral like that. When I saw everyone standing around a freshly dug hole, and you leaning on a shovel, it looked like a normal work project for New Mexicans!”
Guildenstern was pointing out photos with his tail and then admiring himself on my computer.
Those specs that look like I could have a very dirty sensor are actually birds flying over downtown Albuquerque with the sunset lighting up the Manzanos in the background.
Off Center & Not Even 