Frozen Sunset

I went out to photograph the last sunset on the Sandias of 2010 and found tiny ice formations on the twigs hanging just above the surface of the water in the river. They apparently formed when the water was about an inch higher earlier in the day and were left suspended above the water when the river dropped an inch later in the day. One ice formation resembled a mountain and displayed the sunset in the reflection of the water below it. A beautiful image to close out 2010.

The low this morning was 5º F at our house, but it never warmed up all day. The temperature was 18º F when I went out to photograph the Sandias around 11:00 am this morning and the same temperature when I went out to photograph the sunset at 4:30 this afternoon. The wind was brutal, but it blew the haze away leaving the mountains clear and crisp. Photos from this morning and this afternoon are posted below.

I went to three hardware stores in search of the upper limit cut off for our furnace this afternoon and none of them had it. I bypassed the cut off temporarily to bring the temperature up before we go to bed so the house will be warmer before I undo the bypass for the night. It was 4º F at 10:00 pm, so it is already colder tonight than it got last night, and has hit the low the weather widget on my computer is showing for Corrales tonight!

With all the remodeling and reorganizing we've been doing this past week, we are going to start the new year with a better organized kitchen. The weather kept us from venturing out of town during the break, but at least we got some household chores accomplished.

Thinking about the tiny ice formations on the river reminded me that when I was a kid the Rio Grande froze over a couple of winters and I went out and played on the ice. That was in the late '60s and early '70s — I remember getting much more snow in those days as well.

2010 has been an eventful year that produced a lot of changes for me and Laurie. We are looking forward to a healthy and productive year in 2011.

Wood Nymph

The weather widget on my computer shows a low of 12º F  for Corrales tonight. Given the fact that the lows the weather service predicts for Corrales are typically 15º F to 20º F higher than the lows we actually get at our house, the temperature may fall below zero tonight.  Of course, the motor and upper limit safety switch in our furnace had to burn out this afternoon — I suppose for no other reason than to celebrate one of the coldest nights of the year! 

While I had a spare motor, which I replaced, I didn't have a spare safety switch, so the furnace will not run unless I bypass the safety switch. We have five oil-filled electric radiators we are using to keep things warm until the safety switch I ordered comes in.

I finally got the new shelves built and installed between the two refrigerators. We changed the design a couple more times this morning, and finally came up with a plan that gives us more storage space and a place to hang our pots and pans.

When I went out to get some more materials for the shelf project, I dropped by MVD express to change the title of the Kia back to me. I gave the Kia to Tristan in 2007, and she gave it back after buying an old Honda Accord last week. The State of New Mexico is desperate for revenue, so instead of cutting useless departments and laying off staff like businesses have to do in tough times, the bureaucrats are trying to find ways to increase revenue. One revenue enhancement I discovered today is that to give a car as a gift now requires both parties to fill out forms and have them notarized, which is a major hassle. You can't simply say you sold a car for $10 either. The MVD looks up the  NADA bluebook value and bases the value of the car on the average trade-in value, so you pay taxes on the average trade-in value.

The Kia was totaled in 2006 and I bought it back from the insurance company as salvage, so it was valued at half the average trade-in value. I argued that since it's totaled, it should be valued at half the low trade-in value, but the rules require even totaled cars to be valued at the higher average trade-in.

On this penultimate day of 2010, I got ripped off by the state, and our furnace went out — at this rate, we'll have adventures up to the last minute of the year.

Cranes at Sunset

Reorganizing and remodeling projects always turn into bigger jobs than expected.  Take out the freezer and replace it with shelves — easier said than done. Our first idea for shelves was looking more like scaffolding holding up the floral refrigerator, more reminiscent of the scaffolding keeping the earthquake torn buildings in Assisi, Italy from colapsing than shelves. We scrapped that plan, I returned the unused material, and purchased material for plan B, which involved moving the floral refrigerator to where the freezer was in anticipation of building shelves between the two refrigerators. 

I had to put new brushed silver wall paper on the wall I exposed by moving the freezer to match the paper we have behind the rest of the shelves. After we decided to move the floral refrigerator where the freezer was, we exposed more wall in need of brushed silver wallpaper.

Laurie discovered evidence of mice where the floral refrigerator was standing, and cleaned the floor really well so I wouldn't have to deal with mouse effects on a compromised immune system. We have six cats, and we still have mice. I shouldn't be surprised, however, and I wouldn't doubt that some of our cats are sneaking mice into the house to play with, and then letting them get away.

Stretch just "killed" a leaf, which he brought into the dance room and put it in one of my bins of screws sitting on the floor among tools and materials I'll use to build shelves tomorrow. I'll consider it a good will offering, and hope that the sacrificial leaf  will contribute to success in our reorganizing and remodeling project.

Winter Pink

The air was still and crisp in the bosque tonight. Silence prevailed, broken occasionally by calling birds. Tiny waves lapped against the river bank as I bent close to the water to photograph the Sandias as they tried on shades of pink while the sun kissed the horizon. The clear blue sky hung low, turning to gray as dusk settled in, and darkness loomed. All the troubles of the day seemed to vanish, if only for a short time, surrounded by the soothing colors and quite solitude of a cool winter evening.

The trouble is I have no immune system again.  Two months after my last chemo, the side effects are still quite strong. My port has to be flushed monthly, and my doctor added blood work with today's scheduled port maintenance. When the nurse looked at the chart, he commented that he thought it was strange she ordered the blood work, but when he came back with the results he said "…she always as a sense about these things! Look at your white counts and nuetrophils!" Both were way below normal. He gave me a fast acting growth factor shot, so now my bones are aching from going into hyperdrive to produce white blood cells. By tomorrow morning I will have an immune system again! 

As much as I want to be normal, today's lab work reminded me of how long the recovery process will be, and why I have to be so careful not to get sick. I may have to accept the fact I won't be normal for a long time to come, but at least I can go out and lose myself in the beauty of creation.

I'm figuring out how to manipulate the frames for interesting panoramic effects

Unruly Cats

What's one to do with an unruly family? Puck and Rosencrantz were both out of line today, apparently due to all the work I'm doing on the house. 

Puck decided he didn't like the reorganization of the armory I did yesterday in order to make room for the freezer. He knocked a bin of brass on the floor, knocked over my music stand, and threw a hammer across the room, knocking over several magazine holders that hadn't made it back into the shelves. I was ready to put him outside for life, but Laurie saved him — he's still lurking around plotting more damage.

Rosencrantz wasn't anywhere to be seen at 5:00 pm when we got the other cats in. I walked around calling him, walked down the road and back and still no Rosencrantz. Laurie and I walked down the road again in the dark calling, but he didn't come. When we got back to the house he was waiting for us by the deck. Once inside, Laurie noticed he was wet on his shoulder and tuffs of fur were coming out, then she found a claw embedded in his fur. After a through going over, we didn't find any puncture wounds, but he was definitely out fighting instead of coming in when he was supposed to.

I spent most of yesterday reorganizing the armory in order to make room for the freezer. The reorganization involved emptying two shelf units and taking them down, then emptying to safes, moving them over and putting everything back into them. Then I cut down one shelf and rehung both shelves. This morning I set up the electricity for the freezer, emptied it, moved it from the kitchen to its new space in the armory, leveled it, and put everything back in it by 10:30 am. Not to bad for me these days. Amazingly enough, I didn't break anything in the process of moving the freezer, but there are tracks on the floor from the dolly I used to move it — at least they mark a nice path from the kitchen to the freezer.

Now we have to see if we can find the metallic wallpaper we used behind the other shelves when we remodeled the kitchen in 2007; then I will build shelves where the freezer was. Once I'm done, I'm sure Puck won't approve, and it will probably make Rosencrantz want to go out and fight some more.

Reflections on Blue

I walked in the bosque this afternoon before sunset. The Conservancy is slowly plowing out the tamarisk from the sandbars in the middle of the river. As I stood on the bank sadly surveying their handiwork, I noticed dark reflections in the dawdling current by the river's bank as the light waned into dusk. I watched the shapes twist and dance on the softly undulating water then break up as they ventured into a more active current. The show lasted only a few minutes before the shadows from the banks drew a curtain on the performance; but for that short time I got lost in the expressions, taken by the elegance and beauty simple reflections can offer.

The tamarisk wearing yellow-orange in the low afternoon sun in the photo below will soon be gone. Although, I did notice they are leaving the young cottonwoods standing on the sandbars. At least something is sacred to the conservancy.

Christmas in the Bosque

Dawn took another another break this morning, and the sunset was nothing to write home about; however, I did have the opportunity to get this photo of the sun setting behind trees that captures the feeling of Christmas in Corrales. 

Our late afternoon walk in the bosque, close to the Alameda bridge, gave me some different perspectives of the river. The air was cool and crisp, but hazy, producing some nice effects shooting directly into the sun.

We noticed the porcupines had been gnawing the bark off the young Russian Olive trees along the bank of the river. If I hadn't seen porcupines chewing on trees recently, I would have thought the beavers were somehow responsible. 

While we saw evidence of animal activity in the bosque, the only wildlife we saw were ducks, snow geese and a lone seagull. A group of coyotes were yipping and howling on the opposite bank of the river, but we couldn't see them through the salt cedar and glare of the low sun.

Frosty Morning

We had a clear frosty morning on this Christmas Eve. Since we were up really last last night finishing a cake and watching music videos with Laurie's sister, I slept in until 7:30, when I was awakened by the sun filtering through the blinds as it peaked over the mountains.

I went out with the cats to see what the frost was going on in the garden in the early morning light, and ended up carrying Rosencrantz over my shoulder while I took photos of the frost covered leaves and freeze dried roses. Every time I put Rosencrantz down to get a better position on a subject, he would get right in front of the camera, and complain about his cold feet until I picked him up again. I wondered if I was the only photographer silly enough to be out on a 20º F morning carrying a 15 pound black cat around on my shoulder while doing photographs. When I laid on the frosty ground to get close-ups of back lit leaves, Rosencrantz stood crouched on my back, between my shoulder blades, and put his head down by my cheek to see what I was doing. He was quite a pest this morning, but I enjoyed his company.

Later, Puck was standing on the laser printer and pushed the "cycle printer" button with his paw, which started the rollers in the exit tray rolling. The fur on his tail got caught in the rollers, which started to pull his tail into the printer. He jumped off the printer, pulling most of the roller mechanism out with his tail. I spent 30 minutes taking the printer apart, reassembling the roller mechanism, and putting the printer back together. Both Puck and the printer are a little more ragged after their encounter, but both are doing well.

Tonight the sunset looks promising as the sun sits low in the sky. I can't wait to see what the dawn will have to offer on Christmas morning.

A Farewell to Dawn

Dawn slept in this morning, worn out from working overtime this week painting the morning skies. Good thing too. Laurie threatened to take away my medieval literature and Homer if I wrote another sappy description of the dawn. Sigh! I was saving images of silver hair, ruby lips and sapphire eyes to describe the next spectacular sunrise. Oh well, I guess I'll have to resort to modern descriptions of dawn and dusk — the sunrise was colorful this morning — the sunset was pretty red tonight.

By the time we got out of acupuncture tonight, the sun had set, leaving a bright stripe of light between the horizon and the clouds that was slightly softened by the drizzling rain. The wet streets reflected the city lights, creating a sharp contrast between the bright horizon, the gray clouds and the slick, wet pavement. A leaf lay in the middle of the street, lit only by the headlights of the cars as they passed on either side of it. An interesting, but slightly dangerous photo opportunity for a man dressed in black on a dark, raining evening.

A Long Day

A long day has turned into another late night. I watched dawn paint the clouds before sunrise. Clouds swallowed the sun as I ran errands in the late afternoon, and dusk drew yellow curtains in the southern sky as I headed home. I pulled the car into the drive as darkness fell all around, and yet it seemed like I had only started on the things I had to do today.

A Reasonable Facsimile?

I woke up at 1:15 am this morning and went outside in hopes of getting a photo of the eclipse of the moon. The last full eclipse of the moon on solstice was almost 500 years ago, and I didn't have much hope of seeing another one in my lifetime. Much to my disappointment the sky was overcast and I couldn't see the moon. I went back to bed, laid there for a minute thinking to myself that maybe the moon had moved more to the south, and that I had missed it looking from the west side of the house. I got up and went back out to the south side of the house, looked up, slowly turned around while looking up at the sky, lost my balance, and about fell into a rose bush. The stupid clouds were still blanketing the sky, completely obscuring the eclipse.

As the French say "things are against us!' We have completely overcast skies in the Albuquerque area about 20 days out of the year. Why would we have a thick, cloudy sky on solstice during a full eclipse of the moon if the French weren't correct in their assessment of "things". When I came back inside, Stretch seemed to sense my disappointment in the weather, and crawled under the plastic of an empty water bottle box to imitate an eclipse for me. At 1:30 in the morning a gray and white Manx under wraps seemed a reasonable facsimile for an eclipse obscured by the clouds.

After the no show on the eclipse, Dawn made up for it by presenting herself most spectacularly on this solstice morn. As she stretched her crimson arms across the sky, raising herself from her peaceful slumber, yellow light reflected in the clouds as the sheets of night slipped off her golden bosom. Then purple burst into the clouds as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, bringing forth the sun as she gazed up on creation in light of a new day.

Sunrise

Sandias looking east

The sunrise was really something this morning. Vibrant color to the east and softer pastels to the west. I attempted a 360º panorama from the roof, but it ended up a 330º panorama since the last few frames were off register. With both the exposure changes from north round to west-northwest, and the size of the image, the differences in color from east to west are as stark in the 330º panorama as they were in person; however, the two panoramas from east to south and southwest to west-northwest are more representative.

330º panorama from north to west-northwest

East to south

Southwest to west-nortwest

Kitty Fail

Kitty fail! I totally forgot to get the kitties food when I was out grocery shopping and having Tristan's car worked on this afternoon. They barely have enough food for tonight and tomorrow so, I WILL REALLY have to remember to get it on the way home from work tomorrow .

On the way to Cosco from Keller's, I planned on stopping by the vet's to get Stretch's prescription food, then go by PetsMart to get regular cat food. However, the kitty food totally slipped my mind when I got into a race with a Prius and drove right by the veterinary clinic. I was driving Tristan's piece of junk (as she calls it) Kia Rio Cinco (that used to belong to me) that I had been working on today, and had taken in to Walmart to get a tire repaired and the front wheels balanced. She complains that it has no power, and said it had a shimmy in the front end. While it's no match for Laurie's Mazda Speed 3, it holds it's own against most cars, especially the way a lot of people poke around Corrales and Albuquerque as if they're going to die if they drive the speed limit. 

By chance I pulled up next to a Prius at the first light past Montaño heading north on Coors. I brandished a piece of beef jerky I bought at Keller's at the lady driving the Prius. She recoiled in disgust over the dried meat, then snarled at me. I glared at her and revved the engine. She could only snarl back since she apparently couldn't rev the Prius. The light turned green and the race was on. She got me on the jump out of the light, but once the piece of junk revved up, I shot right by her (and the vet's), ending up quite a bit over the speed limit before I had to slow down to under the speed limit to go through the light and the red light camera at Paseo. I noticed two things driving well over the speed limit 1) I got three green lights in a row on Coors (unheard of), and 2) there was no shimmy in the front end of Tristan's car. Since I forgot to get kitty food at the vet's, I didn't have it in the car to remind me to go by PetsMart after Costco, and thus failed to get kitty food today.

Shooting Pumpkins

We started the day by going to the Men's breakfast and listening to Lee Domann, song writer and story teller, sing, play the guitar and tell stories. We picked up a student and his luggage from the dorms at UNM in the early afternoon. He was in one of Laurie's math classes, and had to be out of the dorms today. Since his flight back to England is tomorrow morning, we spent the afternoon on the range shooting pumpkins filled with paint. They explode wonderfully when hit with hollow point ammo. So not only did Jack get to do what few Brits get to do — shoot a gun — he got to shoot pumpkins, get showered with the resulting pieces of pumpkin that fell all around us, and take videos and photos home of how he spent his last afternoon in the USA.

Snow

After more than 30 minutes and four wheelbarrow loads of mulch, we finally drove out of our parking area this morning, and headed into town. It didn't take long to hit mostly dry roads, and by the time we got to UNM, just before noon, there was little evidence that it had snowed the night before. We drove home on dry roads, but as we pulled into our parking area this evening, the only change seemed to be that the four inches of snow that covered the ground was now crunchy from the onset of sub-freezing temperatures under the clearing night sky.

Last night's snow was very wet and heavy, so I spent much of the night pushing snow off the canopy that covers our deck, trying to avoid a rip in the cover from the weight of the wet snow. If we had neighbors close enough to see onto our deck in the soft, white light of a snowing night, they might have found it a little strange to see me on the deck at 3:30 in the morning in my underwear, with bare feet pushing snow off the canopy. It was 32º F, quite warm compared to the 10º F temperatures we've been experiencing every night for the past several weeks.

I let the kitties out first thing this morning, but only Rosencrantz romped and played in the snow. Guildenstern and Diné took a few steps into the snow, but Stretch and Puck wanted nothing to do with the cold, white stuff and went back inside. Mama Manx ventured out on the deck all excited, meowing and chirping, but when she looked like she was going to crawl under the deck, I snatched her up and put her back inside. Puck eventually got desperate enough to venture out into the snow, but spent most of his time under the house then up on the roof under an overhang. Laurie had to brush snow off the roof to make a dry path for Puck to come down off the roof on before he would come back inside.

Black Bamboo

Japanese Maple

Rain and Snow

Rain is rare in the Albuquerque area, so when it rains all day like today, wet streets tangle traffic, causing terrific slow downs for commuters. The rain pattered on the roof through the night, came down increasingly harder all day, and turned into a mixture of rain and snow in the late afternoon. Now, a very wet snow is now falling.

The rain changed into snow, then back to rain numerous times on the way home tonight. Visibility would be very low, then all of a sudden the pouring rain would turn to a drizzle, like some one turned off a faucet, allowing for a clear view of the road and traffic until I drove into the next deluge a few hundred yards later. 

Besides the general annoyance of slow traffic, the wet streets and saturated air produced colorful reflections on the various surfaces and interesting halos around the lights that made the drive home, and the resulting photographs, quite interesting.

UNM After Dark

Turns out we have a smart alec microwave oven. I put a measuring cup of coffee in it this morning and pushed the minute button 4 times really fast. It got confused, locked up, and left a message on the display that looked something like "US:UK". I fiddled with the keys, unplugging it and plugging it back in, but it still read "US:UK". After unplugging it for the third time, and letting it set for a minute, it decided to go back to normal when I plugged it back in. I'll bet the specs are for it to read something like "ER:OR" when it gets confused, but it was probably built on a Friday and the programmer was bored.

We attended the Friends of Medieval Studies holiday reception at UNM tonight. We had a great time, and the talk on the Bestiaries was delightful. Bestiaries were illustrated compendiums of beasts written in the 12th and 13th centuries; however, the descriptions, stories and legends of the beasts illustrated in each volume came from a long tradition of oral and written traditions. Only 100 bestiaries have survived. Shakespeare drew on the bestiaries in many of his plays, and sayings like, "licking something into shape" came from bestiary legends about bears. Bears were said to have 30 day gestation periods, the cubs were born without form, and the momma bear would licked them into shape to form bear shaped cubs. An excellent facsimile of the MS Bodley 764 bestiary is available, but it's not cheap.

Walking across campus on my way back to the car afforded many photo ops that I couldn't pass up. Tonight's photos where all taken between the SUB in the middle of campus and T parking on the corner of Lomas and University.