I’m finding it tough near the end of 2020 to say happy holidays with nearly 327,000 Americans dead from coronavirus, nearly 2 million dead worldwide, people separated from their families, nurses and doctors overwhelmed and exhausted in their hospitals, photos of cars lined up for food giveaways in L.A. and other American cities and U.S. …
I remembered this photograph of my grandmother, Ethel Robertson, while thinking of COVID-era hard times. She was born in 1905 and died in 1997, meaning she lived through, among other things, World War I, the flu pandemic of 1918, the Great Depression and World War II. She had her first child, Marcella Jean, in 1923 …
I’ve become pretty clever about stocking up on staples during the coronavirus crisis, finding new space to stack boxes and cans. Now I just need to figure out where I stashed that extra bag of Cowboy’s kibble. I’m sure it’s someplace cute. My last “aha” was the guest bathroom, but apparently I have been cuter …
The sky is so gray with smoke sunrise doesn’t wake me. Western wildfires in June are predictable, but with climate change they seem more frequent — and larger. The smoke this Thursday morning, June 18, 2020, obscured the Sandia Mountains to the south and Indian Country mesas to the west. I could barely make out …
Too windy for birds this morning. And for me, when it comes to the latest debates in journalism, too windy to haul rocks. Maybe I finally have a grasp of that cryptic phrase often heard from a late photojournalist friend, Richard Pipes, a real pro who hailed from the gusty plains of West Texas. I’m …
I knew I was having anxiety problems when dawn reminded me of “The Scream.” Sleep has been a battle lately, more of a jerky series of bad-ending dreams. I know it is mostly the news — Trump and coronavirus — especially too late in the day, but I haven’t been able to shake the worries …
I’m trying to be a good New Mexican during the COVID crisis. I am not hoarding ammo or TP. I do not gather with more than one neighbor and another dog. But I draw the line at long hair. I am afraid to check in with my longtime hair cutter in Bernalillo. She’s shut down …
Walking rain, or what the weather wonks call virga, brushed the Sandias last night but left only a few drops of water. I headed out on my evening stroll after watching Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announce the first easing of coronavirus rules. I felt as wary about the coronavirus developments as I am ordinarily about …
I woke with a gutful of what felt like fear, not sure whether it was triggered by too many beans, too much CNN or the onset of coronavirus. No, I don’t think I have the virus, but even those lucky enough to avoid it might be feeling the effects, too: Going to bed with a …
After making a coronavirus-related shopping note on my calendar for March 31, I looked down again at what I had entered a month earlier. “Hope arrives,” March 30. “Matt and Will arrive,” April 1. This was going to be a fun time, with a sister, brother-in-law and nephew coming from Montana for a spring break. …
dream ranch 