Cosma

Thunder Storm

We had a heck of a thunder and lightning storm last night. My border collie, Tuffee was glued to me, or so it felt like. She is terrified of thunder, and fireworks as are so many dogs. We can't stop the thunder but the firecrackers, and other loud fireworks noises need to be outlawed. Here it is the middle of September and nearly every day we here one or two firecrackers. Just enough to cause the dogs and us to have freedom from this noise. It is against the law, but the overworked police has more than they can do now. What enjoyment do people get out of making loud noises? I will never be able to figure it out.
The storm last night did bring us a little bit of moisture, just a little bit.
Today we are getting clouds, thunder, and lightning again but again no rain.

Food Prices

We were glad to have a WalMart come to our neighborhood. The local grocery stores are so high in price compared to WalMart. But 2 years later we see Walmart prices as high or higher than Albertsons and Smiths. Guess I'll go back to buying at the other stores. And how do all the stores expect us to buy even the basic food stuff and household supplies when the prices keep going up and up and up and paychecks don't match them. Especially for those of us on fixed incomes.

Santa Fe, NM 400th Birthday

Last year Albuquerque, NM celebrated it's 300th birthday and this year, in fact this weekend, Santa Fe is celebrating it's 400th birthday. From 1610 to 2010, although there were Native Americans living in the area long before the Spanish arrived. Maybe up to 10,000 years ago. Santa Fe is the capital city of New Mexico. go to http://www.santafe400th.com/ for more information. Santa Fe is known for it's fantastic museums, art galleries, Spanish and Native American arts and crafts, and as the home of lots of famous actors, actress, and other well known people now and previously.
Santa Fe is known as the oldest state capital city in the US and also, at 7000 feet above sea level is the highest.
The Palace of the Governors is the oldest continuous government building in the US.
The Loretto Chapel was built in 1878 where a staircase was built by a carpenter with no means of visible support and no nails.
San Miguel is the oldest church structure in the US.San Miguel Church. The original adobe walls were built by Indians in 1610. http://www.milebymile.com/main/United_States/New_Mexico/photo_20034.html

Baby Elephant

Rozie the elephant that I saw as a baby 16 years ago now has had a baby on last Wed. 09-02-09. I hope to be able to go see this baby girl when she can be seen by the public.

This photo came out really small when I posted it. It is someone elses photo and can be seen at this site

http://www.cabq.gov/biopark/elephantcalf.htmlt It is always wonderful to hear about the birth of animals and especially those near extention. The Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque is known for the gariffe births that occur frequently. I think there may have been a baby gariffe born earlier this spring and there were snow leopard cubs born in May this spring. Snow leopards are extreamly endangered. The Rio Grande zoo is doing really well at raising endangered animals.

White Cats

A friend sent me a long email with a bunch of the old favorite photos that are on the email circuit. this one caught my eye. Congratulations to the photographer for getting all the cats in one photo. It makes me appreciate the fact I am only trying to get a photo with 3 solid black cats that don't want to cooperate together.

A Rainbow Beam

Friday afternoon it clouded up and I thought for sure we would get a good shower but we didn't. We did get to see a part of a rainbow in a really dark cloud.

In the Woods

We took our first trip to the Jemez Mountains last Thursday to start woodcutting for the winter. When we got there we had to sit in the truck and wait for a rain shower to pass before we could start cutting. After the rain I noticed this nice pine tree with lots of green moss on the left side and the log and rock at it's base to make a nice photo.

On the Road

I took this through the windsheld of the truck as we were driving back from our woodcutting day in the Jemez Mts. Those are the Sandia Mts you can see in the distance. We were driving east toward Albuquerque here.

Big Cloud

We saw this really big nice looking thunderhead cloud on our way home from the Jemez

Rock Ridge

Cool Cloud

I saw this cool cloud over a rock ridge at a rest area we stopped at.

Wiley in the Trash

Our kitten Wiley decided to play in a little trash can the other day. He looked so cute I had to take his picture.

Problems With Delivery Companies

I had problems getting an order for a new cell phone through FedEx. Now I have talked to someone else that has had even worse problems getting their phone through FedEx. There is no excuse for these problems. It sounds as if the main problem is lazy people not doing their job properly and getting a big paycheck from a big company that doesn't care about their customers anymore.
Talking to a couple of other people I hear about the same problems and they weren't shipping or receiving cell phones. It was all kinds of products some of which were perishable and were not usable do to the long delays in getting the products.
FedEx and UPS were started as alternatives to using the US Post Office. Now they are just as bad and no one seems to care about customer service any more.

Walking the Continental Divide

Last night I accidentally found a wonderful program on our local PBS station which is KNME here in Albuquerque. It was a two hour show on walking the CTD or the Continental Divide. You ask what is the Continental Divide. The Divide is the geological area where the rivers and streams decide which direction they are going to flow. East of the Divide rivers flow east. West of the Divide rivers flow to the west. On the North American Continent it starts down in Mexico (that I know about) and runs north into Canada. Or I always thing of it going from south to north because I have been on more of it in New Mexico than any other state. This program was about a man who walked it from Animus, NM at the US/Mexican border to Glacier National Park where it enters Canada; a distance of about 3,100 miles. Thats a lot of miles and a lot of walking and he did it from early spring through summer and into fall. It must have been a heck of a trip. Of course it was of so much interest to us because we have seen so much of the Continental Divide considering we have lived so near it so much and took road trips that went near it at other times.
My sister lived near Animus, NM for a long time. From there he went up through Lordsburg, NM to Silver City, NM to Grants, NM to Chama, NM and the NM/Colorado border. We lived in Silver City for a number of years and have visited the other places. We have been near the Divide in CO, as well as where it wanders up through Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana on our road trips. This show has some of the most beautiful scenery you could ask for.
If You are interested in seeing this show contact your local PBS station or go to /www.flaglerfilms.com/

Stop Paper Waste

We keep hearing about how everyone should go paperless and YET everyday I get more and more and more junk/garbage mail. Business' could save lots of trees by not sending out so much garbage to people that really do not want all that junk mail. We probably throw out tons and tons of junk mail each year. If we didn't get the postperson wouldn't have to deliver it and maybe they could get important mail to us. If we didn't get it we wouldn't have to throw it in our landfills. If we didn't get it we wouldn't have to take the time to send it to the landfill or to the recycle place where someone else has to take the time to send it to the right box and through the recycle program. We and they could use the time to do something more constructive and to recycle something else.
And really - how many people actually read their junk mail.
Please - Big Bussiness - could you please try to stop sending so much junk/garbarge mail.

New Phones

My new cell phones did come in today. Fedex finally got it together and delivered them. Now to figure out how to use the new ones.

Not My Day

Does everyone have trouble with big business' or is it just me. I decided to order new cell phones from Verizon as it had been several years since we had new ones. So I did and the guy at Verizon was really nice, much nicer than reps at Verizon call centers usually are. He said my phones would be overnighted to my by FedEx. That was fine, as I had plans to be home all day and could be here when they arrived. We saw the truck go by one way very fast and went out to the gate to see if he would come back to our place. He went down the street turned around and came flying back, and right on by us, through the stop sign at the corner of the street which is also the corner of our property and off down to the next street over when he stopped when to the door and then took off for parts unknown. Oh well we thought, our phones didn't get shiped out the day before in time and we would have to wait until Monday. Remembering I received an email from Verizon so I could track the phones I pulled it up, got the website and tracking number and looked it up. Oh!!!!! It said that our package had the wrong address listed and was back at the FedEX office. So I called them. They said it was wrong, and would be delivered Monday since I had called and corrected the address. I called Verizon, they said it was right. Verizon called Fed EX who said it was wrong but they would deliver it Monday and call me before they came. Everyone said the driver was wrong for not calling to find out correct address. It was pass the buck time. Will I get my new phones on Monday. Who knows. Not only am I upset about this I now have to spend another day, all day expecting a delivery.
To top it off I notice on the tracking that my phones went from California to Memphis, TN and then back to Albuquerque last night before the driver came to our little out of the way comunity. Why did they go back and forth across the US? Only some pencil pusher in an office could answer that and they won't.

Flycatcher

I got this shot of a flycatcher sitting on the same plant stand to catch the cool air as the mockingbirds I told about in the previous post.

Mockingbird

This isn't the best photo because I took it through the window screen. This mockingbird, his mate, and three chicks have taken up residence in our back yard and like to come onto the patio to eat the bugs that the bug zapper light attaches each night. I like the fact that they come eat the bugs but the male mockingbird had apparently lived somewhere where there was a very tinny, cheep sounding windchime before he came here. And he had learned to make the noise of that windchime and used that noise to call his chicks to come eat bugs. It sounds sort of like a small, tinny, cheep bell and can be quite irritating after several hours of hearing it. Mockingbirds are known for imitating the songs of other birds, and learning to make odd noises like sqeeky gates, kids toys, barking dogs, meowing cats, and now windchimes.

Also you would have thought that the mockingbirds would have got used to me watching them out the window. Oh, no. But they would let my old cat lay outside on the patio and watch them. The cat is closer to them than I am. That was fine. But me at the door or window with a camera. Never. I was finally able to get this shot through the screen and it is the best I have managed so far.

And smart birds that they are, this family of mockingbirds has also learned that if they sit on that plant stand that the bird is on that they get a little of the cool air that comes through the window from the air conditioner. We have a swamp cooler and they do better if a window is cracked open. I didn't realize that I was putting the plant stand in a direct line with the window when I put it there. I haven't been able to use it for a plant as our bad winds have knocked off the ones I have tried there and I gave up and let the birds sit on it.