dream ranch

Cooper and I race the sun to the top of the hill, stopping more often than we used to for me to catch my wind and Coop to take it all in.

I have been to town for lunch with old friends. Over portions we can’t finish, our conversation dwells on retirement finance, heart disease, cancer and hip replacement. But it doesn’t matter. We still crack jokes about our circumstances. Back home, I savor the fact that we have remained friends for more than 4o years.

I stick an emergency aspirin in my pocket before Cooper and I head out. He waits for me to leash him up, accepting my compulsion keep him safe.

We make it to our hilltop and watch clouds lift off the mountain peaks for the first time in a week. Setting sun warms south faces on our way home.

Happy new year, everyone

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January 1, 2016

They ain’t busted me yet on coffee and Coop’s got snow. Maybe this year I’ll figure out whether my Pimpernel coasters with Navajo weavings are supposed to go face up or face down.

I really do wish all my family and friends the best of everything, although calendars are not what we’re made of and the truth is I hope for the same every day of the year.

As for Georgia O’Keeffe …

Slip slidin’ away

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December 31, 2015

Getting started

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December 30, 2015

Coming home. Headin’ to bed.

Waking up. Daily bread.

Still cold and creaking.

But “nothing but blue skies do I see.”

Tracking the storm

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December 26, 2015

House finches stocked up before the storm.

It came in fast, right about noon.

Some fellows are suited for the weather.

Then there are birds of a feather.

Some just like to stay inside together.

No sunset views tonight. We may be snowed in by first light.

Thanks to nmPBS, I made it to Royal Albert Hall before going to bed.

But neither am I sure that I belong in heaven.

We had 7.5 inches by Sunday at 11.

Cooper shamed me for dragging my feet and finally we started up the hill.

We have to stop every few minutes because one of us refuses to wear boots, but it’s also a ruse to stay on the loose.

Eventually, we make it to the saddle, but my buddy takes his time.

He always wants to know who else is about, and today we notice the neighbors beat us out.

Winter solstice

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December 21, 2015

Went for a walk to ward off winter gray.

Good old Sandias. Good old Coop. Good old Redondo. Good old mesas. Good old moon rise. Good old sunset.

The path was the same, but the light wasn’t as golden as the night before.

I should have been cheerier because I had a warm house to return to and plenty of food. But it was cold and and it didn’t help that a well pump failed. I started the day by reading about PARCC test performances of New Mexico schools and New Mexico unemployment. I couldn’t shake the old solstice sense of dark days and famine looming.

Coop had to make do with remnants of snow. The Stonehenge in my view was another new house on the ridge. The last thing I read before heading out the door was about conifers dying because of climate change.

How chilling it must have been when change came to Chaco. And damn that the Chacoan equivalent of the Apple Watch was lost to consumer hordes.