Peace on the Go

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As this motorcycle passed me while I was doing 60 mph on the way home this afternoon, I just held the camera against the side window and pressed the shutter when I saw the front tire in my peripheral vision. I guess he noticed my camera, because he gave me a peace sign that luckily was in the frame.

Gelato Burritos

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Jesse’s Coffee Hub in Corrales is offering Gelato Burritos — if you are feeling adventurous, the triple venti, gluten free, chocolate, orange barrel crush with sausage, bacon, double cheese, eggs, spam, spam, eggs and spam is pretty tasty. I noticed while I was trying to get my dumb phone to read the DR Code on the back of a DIGBY truck, the driver was taking the idea of an orange barrel crush literally. Another sign that spring is almost here: more people are strolling around downtown enjoying the mild temperature in the late afternoon light.

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Springtime

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The sky was cloudy most of the day with occasional sunshine slipping through. The temperature got up to 80 F, and our early blooming pear tree popped its first bloom. A few of the red tulips are blooming and a lot more tulips are thinking about it — with the positive signs of spring, I got out my macro lens. I also got the rest of the iris separated and planted this afternoon, and ran drippers and soaker hoses, but I really need to irrigate. I’ll go out at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning to see if there’s water in the irrigation ditch, and if the gate’s unlocked, but I’m not counting on either.

 

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Old and Low

 

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I barely caught this old car restored as a lowrider as it drove past on Route 66 in downtown Albuquerque this afternoon. One of the nice things about living in the desert is that we see a lot of classic cars on the road.

Middle March

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Here we are nearly to the middle of March and the temperature was 15 degrees F this morning at our house. Despite the frosty mornings, the crocus are blooming and the tulips are poking through the mulch, teasing us with anticipation of their first blooms.

 

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Stormy Saturday

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We had a stormy Saturday that produced a lot of clouds, wind, and few snow flurries and but basically not precipitation at our place.  Despite the weather, I managed to get half of the iris I had to dig up for the electrical upgrade planted, watered the tulips that are starting to come up, got a door installed on the study, and made it out to get photographs of the stormy day. I am feeling quite productive today.

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666 Route 66

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Today is my 666th consecutive post since I moved to Word Press. The number 666 is dear to me because I woman once called me the Antichrist in a public meeting (I really, really made her mad). Later I used the same formula that Boris used in Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” to add up the numbers that corresponded to the letters in his name to see what they added up to, which turned out to be 666, making him think he was the Antichrist. Guess what? The numeric values of my full name also added up to 666. But it’s all for fun, as Nero was thought to be the Antichrist referred to in the Book of Revelations, and apparently, the Mark of the Beast could be 606 or 616, so all the superstition about 666 may all be for naught. The State of NM changed NM Highway 666 between Gallup and Shiprock to US Highway 491 a few years ago so they wouldn’t be mixing church and state.

So when Bruce and I were discussing what I should do for photos for this special post, he gave me the idea to google 666 Route 66. There are were actually four choices between SW, NW, SE and NE depending on which side on Central Avenue your on, east or west of the railroad tracks. East of the tracks was a hotel or the building the Baptist Convention used to be in. West of the tracks is El Rey Theater and a parking lot. If the Baptist Convention was still at 666 Route 66, that building would have been the photo of the day, but it’s a boring building and I have no history with it. So the El Rey got it. I go way back with the  El Rey. When I was a kid I went to movies there, and about 20 years ago we went to see a band friend liked — the band sucked but our friend was entertaining. Around the same time, we went to a couple of salsa dances, performed flamenco, and  we went to concert by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the El Rey. Bela Fleck was fantastic and he changed my opinion of the banjo forever. I still get mail from the Flecktones every now and then.

At lunchtime Bruce and I walked over to the El Rey Theater and he posed for me on the spot that would be 666 Route 66 SW. I used a super-wide angle lens, which made Bruce look a little like the Terminator, which was perfect. The we went around behind the building to find the back wall colorfully painted with an outline of the Virgin de Guadalupe on a back door — super!  Then we photographed our way back to the office through the well painted and graffitied alleys.

 

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