Comics Connoisseur

ComicsConniseur

 

Apparently Stretch is becoming a comics connoisseur from Laurie reading Tintin while we waterboard him (subcutaneous fluids for renal failure) every night, because when I went back out to the kitchen last night after he thought we had gone to bed, I found him reading the funnies that Laurie had left on her book holder. He was so engrossed that I was able to sneak a photo before he noticed me and slinked off, looking a little embarrassed.

When the Sandias turned pink at sunset, I decided to try a panorama through the bare cottonwoods. While I was photographing the mountains, a great blue heron landed on a cottonwood between the irrigation and clearwater ditches, affording me the opportunity to get a pretty clear photo of it. When I was going back inside, Puck had all his attention fixed on something. I couldn’t see what it was, but he was so concentrated that I snapped the photo of him. The shutter clicking interrupted his concentration, he glanced at me, then started looking around as if he was trying to find the object of his attention, scolded me with a few choice meows when he seemed not to see it again (I assume he was saying “nice going stupid ¡#%&^@$*! photographer”), then he jumped down off the railing and came inside with me. When I went out a little later, I was able to get a detailed shot of the moon in the clear, cold, winter sky.

 

PinkSandiasCottonwoods

 

TheHeronInCottonwood

 

PuckOnRail

 

Moon

 

Snow

DSCF5767

 

We got a little snow before I went to class at UNM this afternoon, then the clouds broke up for a couple of hours, regrouped and it started snowing again. We got over an inch in Corrales, and I drove most of the way home in a blizzard. The storm let up as I got on the west side of Albuquerque, where I was able to get a panorama of it snowing on the east side. The snow had hardly settled on a wall at UNM before a student walked in it.

 

ViewFromUNM

 

DSCF5786

 

Snowing

 

DSCF5790

 

Loads of Dirt

DSCF5729

 

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.

 

PuckDirt

 

DSCF5742

 

IMG_5980

 

IMG_5976

 

Bob’s MAD

Politics! Need I say more? I had to go to Costco before they closed tonight, so I missed the moonrise over the pink Sandias. The moon had risen and only the tail end of the pink was still splashed on the granite along the top of the mountains by the time I could get a shot of it. We have had two nights with lows of 20 degrees F, so most of the flowers we didn’t bring inside got frozen. The flowers in the third photo have been defiant so far, and are still blooming despite the cold nights. I got an old crow flying overhead and then notice a Cooper’s Hawk watching me photograph the crow.