New Mexico

The other day after dinner, my wife suggested we drive to Pilar, down in the canyon, so we could visit the Rio Grande. It’s a great way to get a “green” fix and soak up some rare humidity. Here then is a street sign you won’t see anywhere else. Scroll farther down for a view [...]

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The first thing was, I dropped my MacBook Air. Ouch! I was sitting on the sofa in my red fleece bathrobe, barely awake, with the closed laptop on my knees. For some reason, I didn’t hold on while I leaned forward to reach my coffee cup, and it slipped right off onto the carpeted mud [...]

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Guess what? The state of New Mexico turns 100 years old on January 6! In honor of the New Mexico Centennial, I hereby present the official state song, “O, Fair New Mexico.” It isn’t anything like I thought it would be. A freaking tango, forgodssake. Scroll down to the words below and sing along for [...]

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Here you go, another tall one. After writing about the Rio Grande, I think I owe everyone a look at the setting. This is the Orilla Verde area run by the Bureau of Land Management a few miles upriver from Pilar. By “run” I’d mean build a few picnic tables and stay out of the [...]

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I did the best I could at first, insulating tender mouth parts with bread and butter, and then I got my footing and accelerated toward the end, charging through the last few gulps. There wasn’t any other way, or I’d have failed. The clink of spoon against the stoneware bowl when I was done was like the last bell in a championship match. Beta carotene and ascorbic acid thundered through my veins. Nearby germs ran whimpering down the road. The God of Pork was nothing to the Mighty Chile. Its blessed radiation blasted out from every pore.

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Better watch the hell out, is all I’ve got to say. But the common black widow spider is nothing to be afraid of, especially if you smash it with a hoe the way I did after taking that photo. (I know, I know, but this one was on the door frame.) I think I recognize [...]

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Never argue with Zuni inlay, I always say. My wife told me to come back from Arizona via the “most direct route,” which I did in terms of miles, leaving unsaid that the shortest route took two more hours! I really didn’t have a choice, though: my Zuni ring wanted to revisit its homeland and [...]

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The water is back. Now everything changes. The acequias are basically irrigation ditches. In this northern New Mexico setting, however, they take up much more psychic space than that. Since many of the ditches are so old, with huge cottonwoods and other trees along the banks, they resemble natural streams. To fill them, water is [...]

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This really happened a few days ago. At least I think it did. I was walking up the mesa on the usual trail. All of a sudden, at a spot in a straight section where I could see maybe 50 yards ahead, a rider on horseback came galloping out of the piñons! Not being a [...]

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