Never STOP Loving

February 12, 2013 Timothy Price2 Comments

Our new neighbors pointed out the the “Never” and “Loving” on the stop sign at the post office was the only graffiti they had seen in Corrales, and it was positive. It’s been there for months so either the Village or the PO can’t decide whose responsibility it is to remove it or since it’s not offensive there is no reason to remove it. I had ignored it all this time, but tonight I thought it was appropriate to start off the week of Valentine’s Day. I also noticed that people are putting up “Valentine’s lights” in the fashion of Christmas lights in Corrales. Out of the lights I noticed on my way home tonight, the bicycle with flowers was the most interesting.

A silver chopper was parked in front of Cafe Giuseppe this afternoon, but it was blocked by a planter and a truck, so I only got a portion of it. I would of had to stand out in the middle of the street to get the whole of it, but I was loaded down with stuff and had deadlines that precluded risking getting ran over by a bus for another view of a chopper.

Another Day, Another Rose

February 11, 2013 Timothy Price3 Comments

I know there is a bit of “déjà vu all over again” in today’s spread, but the roses were speaking to me, and another super-wide photo of the cleared property with a bare cottonwood and a stormy sky was too much to resist. The late afternoon sun shining through the bird’s coleus created interesting patterns, as well.

Dry Iceberg

January 19, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

Today I ended up with a mix of flowers, a sparrow, and a couple of experimental shots with pearls. The dried iceberg looked like a painting in the late afternoon light, and the flowers on the table were vibrant in the afternoon sun shining through the bay windows. While I was out walking around the yard before sundown, a sparrow kept flying around behind me and landing in a nearby tree. At one point I was standing in the shadow of the black bamboo, and the sparrow flew out of the tree, made a U-turn, and flew right back towards me, and almost flew into me, swerving around me at the last moment. I was dressed in black, standing in the shadow of the black bamboo, so I think it actually didn’t see me until it almost flew into me. After that, it sat in the tree across from where I was standing and gave me mad dogs.

Old and Cold

January 16, 2013 Timothy Price2 Comments

There were a lot of band tour buses parked out behind the office this afternoon, so I looked up on the Sunshine Theater’s schedule to see who was playing tonight. As usual I had never heard of or heard any of the groups listed, so I looked up samples of their music on Youtube. The first group in the list is Emmure and the music video I chose at random was what I would call hyper-grunge with caveman lyrics, although to be fair, cavemen were probably much more clear and articulate. After a few painful seconds on listening to Emmure, I looked up Whitechapel, the next group on the list, and the random song I chose sounded just like the song I listened to by Emmure. I had to do a double take to make sure I hadn’t reloaded Emmure — I hadn’t. Obey The Brave and The Plot In You also sounded the same to me. If I got it right, these bands tour together as Brothers of Brutality and from the snippets of the songs I listened to, they are brutal.

I guess I’m getting too old, because I don’t know why the groups want to subject themselves to themselves, or why anyone else, of any age, would want to subject themselves to the Brothers of Brutality, but there is an appeal that goes beyond both my understanding and sensitivities. I left the office a little after 5:00 pm tonight, a bit later than I had intended since I was supposed to pick up Laurie and Tristan at school at 5:00 pm. When I walked out the door the cold hit me like a stinging slap on my face, and I shivered as I walked to the car. While I was sitting at the light at 2nd and Gold, I got a text from Laurie that read “Hypothermia!” The light turned green and as I drove by the Sunshine theater, I noticed that many of the kids who waiting in line for The Brothers of Brutality concert were wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts, and many of the girls who were wearing jeans had slits all over them and plenty of flesh exposed to the cold air. Maybe being brutalized by the elements is a required to properly experience The Bothers of Brutality? Call me old, call me a prude, but it’s much too brutal and mysterious for me.

Flashed of Flowers

January 14, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

I had fun with flashes and flowers this afternoon.

The digital sensor recorded -2 degrees F this morning, but the analog thermometer was showing -8 degrees F at 8:00 am, but I think it got a lot colder than -8, especially since the pipes were trying to freeze. When I turned on the water in the bathroom sink this morning, the water was a trickle for about 30 seconds, then it started spurting around and blowing out rusty, sandy water for a few seconds before it started running steady and clear again, which seems typical of water running through thawing pipes. The almost frozen pipes is a sign that it go much colder than -8 degrees F, because two years ago when the temperatures got down to -15 degrees F, the pipes didn’t freeze.

Classes begin tomorrow at UNM and it’s going to be more of a family affair this semester. Laurie is starting a graduate program in Linguistics, but she has to take a couple of 300 level classes to make up deficiences. Tristan is starting back to school this semester and taking Linguistics classes with Laurie, and Laurie is thinking about auditing the philosophy class Tristan is taking. Here’s the kicker — I’m taking French 385 with Laurie. That’s right silly moi is taking 300 level French. And to answer your question: No! I have never taken French before. Not officially anyway. Last Spring, the teacher for French 101 allowed me to signup for the on-line French Lab so I could do home work for the class, and I wrote papers that were assigned in class, Laurie turned them in for me, the teacher corrected them and sent them back. Other than being a virtual student last Spring, reading Tintin and watching French movies had been my French studies up until Christmas.

Laure got me a Drive-by French course and a couple of other self study guides for Christmas that I’ve been using to do a bit of cramming. The Drive-by French, which is designed to do while driving, is pretty good, but they hit you with hard stuff pretty quickly, and expect you to be able to 1) hear, and 2) remember things — two things I pretty deficient in. Now the first CD, which they call the “On Ramp to French” is pretty easy, the people speak slowly and clearly, and they have you repeat words and phrases many times over. So I was thinking this will be great! Then lesson one began, and everything changed — the instructors only say a word once, the dialogs are spoken at normal speed, and then they drop the question bomb on you — they ask a question and give you a few short seconds to answer it. Right! I’m still trying to digest the question when the answer is given, which turns out not to be anything I would have answered, so I obviously didn’t have a clue about what the question was in the first place. I felt like I should pull off onto the side of the road and put on a dunce cap. But I go back, start from the beginning, and listen again, and again, and again — each time words, phrases and questions become a little clearer and I understand a little better, but I have to really struggle to with it. I may drive fast, but I’m pretty slow when it comes to learning languages.

Loads of Dirt

January 13, 2013 Timothy Price6 Comments

The morning light was quite nice on the flowers in the bedroom. The temperature sensor for the weather said it got to 3 degrees F this morning, but the analog thermometer hanging next to it showed -2 right before sunrise. The weather widget is forecasting a low of 4 degrees for Corrales tonight, so the temperature is sure to fall below zero, even on the digital sensor.

Puck brought in 4 loads of dirt throughout the day. One reason is that Laurie cleaned the house yesterday. Another reason is that we have lots of fine dirt exposed from the trenches for the electrical upgrade. Once we are all done with the upgrade the power pole, wires and light in the photo of the Sandias will be removed.

On the “affordable health care” front, my annual blood work that was $98 last year is $350 this year — the same tests by the same lab.

Flowers & Phantasms

January 10, 2013 Timothy Price1 Comment

Laurie distributed the flowers and roses from Reyes around the house adding extra color, beauty and cheerfulness to each room. I got up in the wee hours of the morning to find one of the ghosts lying on the floor under Laurie’s robe. I thought Laurie was laying on the floor in the darkness, but I could see she was still in bed with cats on her as they were light the moonlight streaming through the window. I grabbed my camera and set it to high ISO, ghost mode and snapped some photos. The phantasm filled out the body of the robe, but it had no head, arms or feet. When I pushed on the robe, there was nothing solid under it to fill it out, but it was filled out, and the robe would pop back into shape when I took my hand off — I thought I heard a faint giggle each time I poked it, but I would not swear by it. When I got up in the morning the robe was laying flat on the floor — I guess the spirit, warm and comforted by the robe, had gone off to wherever it hangs out during the day.

Epiphany

January 7, 2013January 7, 2013 Timothy Price7 Comments

On the 12th day of Christmas we made Spanish Chocolate, almond biscotti, and Spanish tortillas, put out queso Manchego, got lots of flowers, and then we partied like it was 1699. People brought wine, guacamole, chips, pastries, cheese balls and bread and we had a great celebration of Reyes / Epiphany. We made about 2 gallons of Spanish Chocolate and we ate almost all of it. Now that’s what I call the good life!