Medieval & Motorcycle

April 17, 2013 Timothy Price1 Comment

Leslie Webster’s talk on “The Staffordshire Treasure: Art and Power in the Seventh-Century Anglo-Saxon England” was wonderful. The Staffordshire Treasure was buried in a remote spot near the old Roman road o Walting Street near the end of the 7th century. It was discovered in July 2009 by a local with a metal detector. The stash consists of over 10 pounds of gold and 3 pounds of silver military accouterments, such as parts from swords, studs and trim for horses and saddles, buckles, crosses, helmets and so on. It’s the largest and richest assemblage of treasure from the early Anglo-Saxon Period.

Bite Me!

April 16, 2013 Timothy Price2 Comments

The tulips were chomping on a branch from a trumpet vine yesterday morning. We went to the first lecture of the Institute of Medieval Studies spring lectures series, “Medieval Myths & Monsters” last night. The speaker was Leslie Webster from the British Museum and her topic was “Myth and Mission: The Riddle of the Franks Casket”. It was a wonderful lecture. Tonight there will be two lectures. The first lecture is by Tomás Ó Cathasaigh from Harvard University speaking on “Early Irish Origin Legends”. The second lecture is by Leslie Webster on The Staffordshire Treasure. The lectures begin at 5:15 in Woodward Hall at UNM. Woodward Hall is just west of the Student Union Building, across from the Fine Arts Building. As you can see from the photo below the first lecture was well attended, but there were still lots of open seats.

Moon Shadow

March 29, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

I was out at midnight under the full moon — the silence was peaceful and the shadows cast by the moonlight were beautiful, yet somewhat sinister like a dragon or Scylla ready to rise up out of the serpentine shadows when your back is turned.

The ways of the world, and even more so, the ways of the Internet can be so very puzzling. I participate in market surveys that earn money for charities. The surveys are mostly about technology, automotive products and architecturally related merchandise like doors, windows, flooring, etc. I don’t know what the surveys will be about until I start them. Yesterday, after Stretch died, I received an alert that I had a new survey. The first question was “Do you own a pet?” I answered yes, and the rest of the survey was about if I would be interested in receiving text messages from my pet during the day, how much I’d pay for such a service and if I’d like to get continue to get messages from pet heaven after the pet died. Not only was it one of the weirdest things I’d ever heard of, it really creeped me out coming the day after Stretch died. I answered no to all questions and commented how weird it was when comments were allowed. I guess someone is thinking that people who don’t have time to spend with their pets would like the feeling of having a personal connection by getting text messages throughout the day from their neglected or even their dead pets. Trying to imagine why anyone would consider paying for such a silly service was like the kernel panic in the last photo.

Night Ice

March 24, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

We had a cold wind all day, and when I went out at 10:30 tonight to shut off the water, I found everything had ice on it. When I checked the temperature it was 20 degrees F. Now it’s midnight and the temperature is 15 degrees F.

La Noche sin Agua

March 18, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

I went out at 3:00 am to check for water. The sliver moon had gone to bed, but there was a ghostly glow from the clouds reflecting the city lights. Not a creature was stirring in the dead silence that was occasionally punctured by the distant sound of a car or truck on I-25. There was water in the irrigation ditch, but the gate was still locked, so the only thing I got out of stumbling out into the pre-dawn hours was a cottonwood silhouetted against the light reflecting off the clouds.

We’ve been reading “Lucky Luke: Les Dalton dans le Blizzard” while we give Stretch his fluids. When we got to page 36, I noticed the kids at the desks had what look like iPads. They are supposed to be slates, but the kids don’t have chalk in their hands, which make them seem even more iPad-like — but since this edition of “Lucky Luke” was first published in 1965, Steve Jobs was himself a mere schoolboy and the iPad only a twinkle in his eyes.

Santa Fe Abajo

March 2, 2013 Timothy Price3 Comments

The dance was really fun. We’ll have another dance the first Friday in April!

Full Moon on Fatter Tuesday

February 27, 2013 Timothy Price1 Comment

The UNM Brazil Club had their first annual “Fatter Tuesday” A Carnival Extravaganza tonight. I was expecting more costumes, but, there were few. Two organizers were the best dressed for the event, and also the young woman in the last photo who painted her face. They had a band and percussion ensemble so the party was loud, festive, and the dance floor was crowded. The moon was stunning this evening. We had the pleasure of watching it rise on the way home.

Seventy-Six Twenty-Three

February 26, 2013 Timothy Price4 Comments

This was really a Garfield Monday — between dealing with dead computers, staff panics, kernel panics, intermittent mice and funky variables, I think Bruce and I managed to get a little bit of work done. I drive by the window in the last photo almost daily, and never really paid much attention to it, until tonight when I noticed it looked like an aquarium.

City Lights

February 23, 2013 Timothy Price1 Comment

On our way out the river on Saturday, Nicole mentioned that the beautifully warm weather we were experiencing would not last. Being an astute Burqueña, she knows our weather well — sure enough, we had snow yesterday, and today we had mostly cloudy skies with cold winds. I stopped on the way home and took photos of the city lights under a stormy sky for the panorama . The moon is 93% full tonight and the clouds were beautiful swirling around under it.