Flamenco in the Old Church

April 26, 2020March 12, 2023 Timothy Price40 Comments

While I was looking for the video file for Bite ‘Em on the Old Shin Bone last night to make a few updates to the video before posting it, I found a video of Laurie (Laura de Corrales) and me (El Cheo) performing Alegrías with Pablo Rodarte in a show we did in the Old Church in Corrales in the mid-1990s. Pablo danced Alegrías, Laura de Corrales is the Palmera, and El Cheo accompanied on guitar. I transferred the video from VHS to m4v several years ago, so the image quality is not very good. However, the sound is not too bad, considering.

In preparing for the show, Laurie and I practiced daily, I practiced with Pablo’s other students several days each week, but when it came to Pablo’s performance our practice together consisted of 15 minutes of Pablo doing a quick run-through of each part of the Alegías a week before the show. I simply had to follow all his leads during the performance.

Laurie and I both studied flamenco dance with Pablo, and I played flamenco guitar for many of his dance classes back in the 1990s before we moved to Spain for almost four years.

a18w1281 — The Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales

lycfrm — Laura de Corrales dancing Tanguillos. El Cheo providing guitar accompaniment.

Beaver Dam Breaker

April 25, 2020March 12, 2023 Timothy Price40 Comments

0A6A0237 — The beaver dam breaker lurking around the corner.

The Conservancy has been at it again, breaking up and pulling the beaver dams out of the clearwater ditch with their evil Beaver Dam Breaker.

Below is a short video a did last night of a beaver sliding into the Rio Grande after cutting some willows to snack on along the river bank. We saw four beavers last night and six beavers the night before last.

Spider & Speed

April 24, 2020April 24, 2020 Timothy Price39 Comments

I hope you don’t mind if I get some climbing practice in on your screen? BTW I’m Mighty Mike.

While I was working on the schedule for NM Tech, a jumping spider named Mighty Mike dropped onto my MacBook Pro to check what condition his condition was in, and then he promptly climbed up my screen and then hung out on top of it for a while striking various spiderly poses.

Laurie’s been teaching her high school math classes from home for the past couple of months, and I’ve been mostly working from home for the past six weeks. Laurie is on video conference for several hours each day, and I have at least one video conference each day during the week. With all the video conferencing, our 12Mbps down and 896Kbps up Internet service was not cutting it. Unfortunately, our local ISP who has provided wonderful service over the past 20 years, does not have the infrastructure in our area to provide us with faster Internet service. Comcast offered Gigabit Internet, so I upgraded. Because of the restrictions in our MacBooks’ wireless, we can only get up to 400Mbps down over WiFi (generally around 300Mbps down), but when I connected my Macbook Pro to a gigabit switch with an ethernet cable I got 939Mbps down, which is close enough to gig speed for Rock & Roll when it comes to Internet download speeds.

The grid on your spreadsheet makes climbing easier.

I can make an “M” like the one on your screen. Is that “M” there to remind you of Mighty Mike? You’re one cool dude.

Is this a good Arnold pose for a spider?

Screen Shot 2020-04-16 at 6.47.37 PM — Speedy Internet speeds.

Hello! Is Anobody in There?

April 23, 2020 Timothy Price62 Comments

Our power went out while we were working on our computers this afternoon. Laurie stood up, looked into the sunroom, and said: “There’s the Peacock!” I got up, looked and sure enough, the Peacock was standing on the landing looking through the sunroom door as if he wanted in. After taking a few photos, I opened the door and asked him if he wanted to come inside, but he decided he didn’t want to come inside and ran off. I followed him around the property, talked to him, and got a few photos. Our traipse through the grasses, irrigation ditches, over the shed and through some bamboo, along with our rather one-sided conversation, was interrupted by a gas company tech needing access to our gas meeter that is nestled under a large rosebush.

We both said, “the Peacock” when he was at the sunroom door because the cats woke me up at dawn scrambling over me and jumping off of me to look at the peacock as he walked by the bedroom window. I went out and got a couple of early morning photos of him before he disappeared into the thick underbrush along the south side of the property.

I don’t know who he belongs to. I called a neighbor who called people she knew who had peacocks in the past, but none of them have peacocks these days. Where he came from and how long he will stay is a mystery.

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But Mama…

April 22, 2020 Timothy Price54 Comments

0A6A0179 — Surprise! There are two of us.

Outside The House In The Rising Sun

April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 Timothy Price43 Comments

0A6A0250 — Silver is catching a sunbeam as it spills over the irrigation border.

I opened the kitty door a little before sunrise. I tied up the trash and walked outside to find the sun peeking over the Sandias. All the kitties, except for Lola†, were lounging outside the house in the rising sun.

0A6A0262 — Marble sitting in the sun on top of my dirty car taking a break from grooming just long enough for me to get a photo of her.

0A6A0268 — Sasha sitting under my dirty car catching the long rays of the rising sun.

0A6A0282 — Spunk out of the sunbeams that were blocked by Resa’s Tree watching the other kitties catching the early morning rays.

†Lola was still in bed. She sleeps late and catches sunbeams streaming through the bedroom window in the mornings.

Hello World!

April 20, 2020 Timothy Price36 Comments

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We went out to check on the owls yesterday morning, and one of at least two, but I’m guessing there are three, owlets popped his head up and said “Hello World!” Thus we start another season of “Watching the Owlets Grow.”

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