Winter in April...

Heading north from Sante Fe I stopped to car camp. The intention was to get up and ride my bike in the mountains. It's April 11. 

It was after dark when I put up my tent. The weather was mild and the ground was sand and rock. Sand and rock don't hold tent stakes too well. The wind kicked up during the night. 4 times it ripped tent stakes out of the car, twice they were gone for good and I had to find new ones. Once the stake is out of the ground, the tent will flog itself to pieces, and you have to get up and deal with it. Then came the rain. Horizontal. The rain comes inside the tent when the stakes come out of the ground. An amazing amount of rain can find you inside your tent. It turned to snow at dawn.

Sunrise, well daylight at least, found me cold, maybe a little crabby and certainly wet. I drove out looking for breakfast. No way I was going to sit there and get the stove out etc, when civilization might be found nearby.

I stopped at a diner, I think in a town called Rio Chama. Coffee, eggs, chorizo, beans, potatoes, and a giant tortilla. The waitress was impressed with how fast I could eat. I mentioned I slept in a tent at Abiqu Lake. 

"Abiqu Lake?"she says. "That's a shit-center for bad weather. Why would you camp out there in April?" 

Like a moth to flame, that is a good question.  

There's a new Milo in town!!...

There's a new Milo in town, and he looks like a keeper!! 

!!New Milo Pics!!

Congratulations Eugene and Ginny!!!!

"Spring" Break

I'm back from 4 seasons in 1 week:

At noon we were slathering on sunscreen in Moab, hiding under hats and behind sunglasses, and baking under the western sun. Hours later, sustained winds brought along a sandstorm, and then after you get used to being sandblasted you get a little fog and snow blend. Later in the week we drove over 5 hours SOUTH, and arrived to 18 degree temps and snow coming down. In fact the whole state had some snow action. Once the snow was through, we returned to the high winds of spring, with some nice sunshine to remind you that you are indeed in New Mexico again.

The snow in Ruidoso was enough to postpone the first morning ride, (icy and fast roads in the mountains, I'll wait to see if it will dry out a bit) so we found a spot for a hike. There were several stream crossings along the way, and no one fell in, but it is possible I had the camera ready to go in case anyone took a dive.  I'm spoiled to have such a great week off - Teresa and Ted visiting from back east, and I got an invite from George and Therese to head off to Ruidoso with a group. Now back to school and job search. Where are all those "green jobs" they keep talking about in the news???!!!! 

This semester in the yard, we are putting up panels on roofs, and other groups are working on setting up isolated systems on trainer carts. We seem to do a lot of standing there scratching our heads and looking at schematics. Then we get it done. Power from the sun. No coal exhaust.

My team on the roof rules. Lot's of good balance to everyone's different strengths. 

Photos courtesy of Tom, one of our renewable gurus. He teaches the hands on stuff, as well as the electric code specific to renewable energy. He does not properly pronounce "wire" as "waaaaarrrrr", but we get what we can from him. 

!!Spring Break Baby!!

It's been a slog getting through the semester this far. Not that I'm not enjoying it - my renewable energy classes are outstanding and I am learning some great stuff. But 5 classes is a workload, and I even had to work on school stuff the last two Sundays. (Sunday school work occurs after a bike ride - my priorities are well in order.)

Spring break after this week! The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. The job search is in process. I think finding a decent first job in the solar world during W's Second Recession  is going to be tough. 

For break I am heading to Durango, CO, 40 miles away (let's go with a rough 72K for that distance) to meet with Teresa and Thed from back east. Yay visitors! Yay Teresa and Thed!! I hope the weather holds out for them, it has been 25 overnight (-3C) and getting on up to 65 in the afternoon (21C). 

George and Therese from Aztec (not aliens as far as I know) have organized some road riding down in southern half of NM in Ruidoso just west of Roswell. Can't wait!

Social Security

Aren't you very very very glad that W & Co. did not hand out Social Security to a crew like AIG? 

They're back....

Back in the 1950's, when the aliens were cruising around Roswell, NM, they were actually really  busy in other parts of the US. The Roswell stuff was just for diversion. It allowed them to work on the underground railroads that run from Roswell to Aztec, NM and throughout the continental US. 

Luckily, for those of you who are too busy with your petty earth-based human lives, you can attend a symposium and catch up on the latest happenings with alien culture. 

Aztec UFO Symposium

For those in the military, police or fire department - admission is free. We want our security teams up to date and on top of this stuff.

Enjoy!