big weather sunday

nearly 3 miles before breakfast wears guinness out --- but an excellent morning on the balcony before watching a big-ass thunderstorm develop over southwest atlanta around noon and really blow up over downtown --- dumped a whole lotta rain and then it was gone

damn eye

my damn eye crashed again today --- but it seems to be clearing up more quickly this time

walking the alley

walked downtown to meet a friend for lunch today --- quite the scenery going and coming, beginning with the middle-aged, african american woman, morbidly obese, in halter top and short shorts, carrying a white 5-gallon bucket full of what looked like magazines, walking slowly down the center line of peachtree street --- i could not bring myself to take a photograph ---- there are a lot of sad people in this world

dog and i like the alleys in midtown, this one especially which is almost like a little country lane --- 

an american hero

i'm on a plains indian history reading binge of late --- the apache chief geronimo's autobiography; utley's bio of sitting bull, powers' the killing of crazy horse, drury and clavin's bio of red cloud, all about the northern souix; and gwynne's bio of quana parker and the comanche

it's a different story than the eradication of some of the eastern tribes and forced removal of most of the rest --- but the result was the same: the destruction of a culture

the photos are quana parker (1845-1911) and his house in cache, oklahoma

keeping it clean

the inside of the new washer is different: no agitator --- "high efficiency," and all ---

update: it has passed some critical cleaning tests --- it also seems to expel more water from the clothes, thus a shorter drying time

it makes an entirely different set of noises that have dex's undivided attention

ice in the desert

in addition to the many caves at el malpais, collapsing lava tubes have created some weird stuff, not the least of which is ice cave or, as the zuni call it, winter cave --- a good size pool of water frozen solid year round --- walking down the stairs to the cave is like descending into a freezer --- it never rises above 31 degrees 

el malpais

thirty miles east of el morro is el malpais national monument --- i had not had the opportunity before of walking through a volcanic landscape --- 29 extinct volcanoes in and around el malpais national monument, the last having erupted 1000 years ago, leaving a lava flow that stretches for 23 miles --- a bunch of old lava tubes are popular with cavers and bats

el morro

walking to california or wherever in the high desert is a dangerous business, not least because of the lack of water --- and so el morro in west-central new mexico was a great landmark since a natural pool of water collecting from run-off from the top of the headland was available more-or-less year round ---

and people being people have been scratching their names and what not in the rock for thousands of years --- the first european inscription was by juan de oñate in 1605, who did what any god-fearing explorer would do: he scratched his name on top of a native american petroglyph --- the archaeologists have helpfully highlighted his work there at upper left

the hike up and around the top of the rock was spectacular, following a trail marked by occasional stone cairns and parallel grooves incised in the rock --- 

it must be wild during a thunderstorm, but i just missed that experience, which is probably good, considering how every other pine tree had been struck at least once ---

at the top of the headland are some excellent anasazi ruins, called atsinna and home to 1500 people between about 1275 and 1350 ---- only some of the 875 or so rooms in the pueblo have been excavated

the best!

the petroglyph point trail at mesa verde rocked! ha! tight squeezes, sheer cliffs, steps and toe holds gouged into the rock, and a climb out i wasn't sure i was gonna be able to do ---

but i did it in less than the two hours they said it would take, at over 7,000 ft up in the air, and didn't blow out my stent

the anasazi sharpened their tools here a thousand years ago