chaco building

it is thought that a climatic change to more-arid conditions precipitated abandonment of the great houses at chaco canyon in the thirteenth century --- walking through the buildings more or less in solitude was a great experience, except for an exceptionally noisy family group that cut short my initial tour of una vida --- pueblo bonito was stunning, and i almost never use that word without ironic intent --- 

mainstreaming the weird

nothing, at least nothing in atlanner can rival the spectacle of dragon con, especially the parade --- this year the parade route was stretched from north avenue to and around peachtree center, terminating at the marquis --- sidewalks were jammed with people the entire route

chaco culture national historical park

26 august:  i've been wanting to see chaco for a long time,  and it did not fail to meet my expectations --- part of the larger chaco culture world heritage listing --- one of the more inaccessible nps units, with routes into the park varying from "very rough to impassable," including several miles of washboard road out of a total of 21 miles of dirt road into the park from the east ---

 a whole lot of open range around chaco and all over new mexico ---

aztec ruins national monument

27 august:  aztec ruins is a 19th century misnomer, since it's a classic chacoan great house and part of the chaco culture world heritage listing --- excavated by earl morris with funding by american museum of natural history 1916-1922, declared a national monument in 1923

400 rooms, 12 kivas, parts of it originally three and four stories high, 

impressive original wooden ceilings and even remnants of woven mats used at door openings

morris directed reconstruction of the great kiva by the national park service in 1934, four years before there was an archaeological reconstruction of the earth lodge at ocmulgee --- both remain wonderful structures

petroglyph national monument

25 august:  a great place, on the volcanic basalt escarpment on the west side of albuquerque --- i did not see all of the estimated 24,000 petroglyphs strewn across several thousand acres nor the extinct volcanoes on the west side of the monument

the holiday experience begins

25 august:  a great start for my holiday was the new look for the walk to the B concourse at the airport ---- i'm not sure of the material, but it's meant to suggest "the city in the woods," atlanner --- complete with little gaps of blue sky and buzzards or something flying around --- but i still hate it that they've taken down the fire ants  at baggage claim, which have been an icon of the 21st century airport experience

ötzi

they've found descendants not far away

descendants of the cheddar man, too, stuck around, and he lived 9,000  yrs ago

rebuilding atlanner

i'm really a little surprised they're moving forward with this, given all the apts and condos already underway and coming on line this year and next, but the company has filed for a building permit --- peachtree will have one less surface parking lot and midtown will have several hundred more residents --- we're running out of vacant land, which is a very good thing after all these years

and if "the stitch" is actually completed, restoring the street grid and all, it would be one of the more wonderful things for atlanta in a long time

ewwww

travel could be tough in the nineteenth century, this account from 1886:

And, to deal with all of the horrible things at once, it was in Clarksville that we heard of a gentle Athenian, who was boarding in the north-eastern section of the State, and being called by a coloured servant early in the morning, she ventured to lie a little longer; whereupon she received a peremptory order to get up, as "the missis wants one of the sheets for a tablecloth."

and politics can be tough in the twenty-first century ---

it's the little things . . . .

a weird day: half-way through war and peace, got a call from an old client with what appears to be good work, got a check from the n'er-do-well client, had one of my best friends and her boyfriend over for happy hour --- and broke my little finger emptying goddam ice trays

i love retirement

this guy has been posting poems around the neighborhood ---

the building on the right is underway, but i can't see it from my unit --- the one on the left will be a nice addition to the viewshed, especially at sunrise

tiny houses on the site of my 3rd-grade school in east point --- yay! hope it happens ---

summer garden on the thirteenth floor