happy birthday, Dad!

28 February 1947

A Little Atalaya

Sunday, headed for a little hike back up to Atalaya. Got it in my head when I was at St. John's on Saturday for their annual book sale. There were photos of previous years' in the paper — and, even though more books is the last thing we need now, I was thinking about the old days of the Goodwill Book Sale. And I knew this couldn't compare, but thought it'd be fun to check out. It started up at 10 on Saturday; I got there around noon and just followed the stream of people carrying bags and boxes of books to the location. The sale is held on the second floor of their library. And the pickings were pretty slim. It wasn't huge to begin with, but the crowd carrying armloads of books indicated that I was already too late. So all I came away with was a dollar copy of A Humument and the photos below. The library seems to still maintain a card catalog (along with the modern computer system), and an interesting policy on putting your feet up there.

 

I hit the trail a little before noon on Sunday, intending to just go for a while and then head back, aiming for a couple-three hours out, and not worrying about making it to the peak.

At the beginning of the route, the arroyo was running some with the snowmelt. I was a bit hung up on photographing the ice there.


 

Further up, there was still snow on the trail. It was pretty well packed along the "steep" route which made for slow going. I went for about 1:45 then headed back.

It seems I'm never up on Atalaya during nice weather.

 


This guy followed me for a bit on the way down.

Seen Downtown

 
 

A Phone Call Today Made Me Laugh

On the phone today with a representative from Amica, looking for some insurance.

"And how did you hear about Amica?"

"I grew up in Connecticut."

(Laughs) "So did I!"

No further explanation was needed.

My Commute Made Me Laugh

OK, first, a few things about my morning commute:

1. It starts off at the very beginning of Guadalupe, right at the end of the highway, so cars tend to be moving pretty fast there;
   
2. At Paseo de Peralta, I get into the left turn lane. I think the timing's been off; 8+ cars used to make it through the left turn arrow but for a few weeks there, only 4 or so did. I can go straight and take a different route, but it seems like it's been corrected;
   
3. The Santa Fe New Mexican has guys selling papers at the major intersections around downtown, including by that left turn lane at Paseo de Peralta;
   
4. It snowed last night, about 3" and there was hardly any plowing. It had melted by noon today, but it was still slippery and slidey this morning.

So, I make the turn onto Guadalupe then, traveling around the speed limit because of the conditions. Not fast enough for the pickup that comes up on me. He passes me and then cuts back in front, just in time to get in front of me at the left turn lane (this is in the space of about a quarter-mile).

There's maybe a half-dozen cars waiting to turn, and just as I pull up the light turns green. But nobody's moving. Then I see a bunny dart out from the line of cars, and the paper guy running along. The first few cars go, then the paper guy jumps in front of the pickup, motioning it to stop. He then chases the bunny out of the road, across the median, across the other lane, and back to Rosario Cemetery.

The light turned red before either of us made it.

happy birthday, Aunt Carol!

14 February

Publishing Empire

A Little More Epee

NMFF hosted its first tournament, an epee event this past Saturday. I did better there than I did at my last foil tournament, at least partially because three competitors were beginners. Some pictures are at this Shutterfly slideshow, along with a whole bunch in the middle that seem to be from practice the week before.

All the snow on the ground's pretty much gone and there was some spotty rain over the weekend, but according to Ski Santa Fe they got about a foot out of it up on the mountain. We're under some sort of winter weather watch for the next day.

Dustoff

Last night, headed up to Española to see our friend Ryk in Dustoff.



That's him in the glasses. Ryk's really a natural performer, whether fronting any of several bands, in a play, or in person. Tough to call call that play "fun," but it was a good time.

Phoenix

'Round about this time last week, we were off in Phoenix, staffing the 7000 BC table at the Phoenix Cactus Comicon. Their last show was September, but they wanted to make it an annual January show; so rather than wait another 16 months, they got it together in four. Last time was only moderately successful for us, but we had fun, and it's easy to get to. We arrived Friday afternoon with Pete and Paul and set up our newly painted banner.



The show kicked off Friday night with a preview and a few presentations. We attended a demo by the folks at Hi-Fi Colour Design, got some insight into the production process, and, even jaded Photoshop pros that we are, learned a few new tricks.

Saturday was the big day. Started off slow but it picked up, and we had a great time. Since had Paul mentioned it the day before, we had it in our heads to go to Alice Cooper's Town for dinner. Thinking it might be busy, called ahead to see about reservations; they don't take them, but it seemed like it wouldn't be a problem since "the monster truck crowd has pretty much cleared out."

Turns out the restaurant is right in the US Airways Center neighborhood, where we could hear the monster trucks. Lucked into a parking space and went to the restaurant.



Yep, it's a mix of rock and sports. Dark and industrial, servers in makeup, what I'm guessing was a local hardcore band out on the patio. And, as Monica spotted, the United Federation of Planets logo on the wall.

We had been trying to catch up with Amanda all day, and after a series of cell phone follies, we were going to try to meet at Lux Coffee Bar downtown. By the time we arrived, she and Tom had gone, but we stuck around for a few minutes (they were closing down). It's a cool little place. And they had this on their refrigerator:



Monica finally managed to catch up with Amanda for lunch on Sunday.



Flew back home Sunday evening.