Notes From The Road

My new titanium spork has a bottle opener attached. I don't know when I would use it as such but it made a good tent stake puller

• Roswell cop cars are ugly.
• There weren't as many Mexican radio stations out that way as I thought there would be.
• A lot of the towns had a concert venue and/or performing arts center of some type. We just missed Clint Black and Don Edwards was coming some time after we left.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Inside Artesia's visitors center. I couldn't get an answer why a safe needed a press attached to it.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Academically I knew NM was a big state for agriculture but I had to see it to believe it- cotton and grain fields that went on for mile after mile and stretched to the horizon in every direction.
• There weren't as many people there as I thought there would be from Texas.
• We didn't see any javelinas except in a zoo. There were plenty of animals though. I saw one rattlesnake and more lizards than I have seen in my entire life.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The little zoo in Roswell is free and well worth it. Prairie dogs burrow right along the walking paths.
• We didn't make it to Lincoln National Park or the attractions in Lincoln County- there was just too much to see and do. We flat ran out of time.

Just A Tuesday

• I know I've played this song eleventy billion times, but man- it's greatness, is great. Chevelle Send The Pain Below. They're one of the only real rock bands in the world.
• I watched the U2 performance where the blind guy came up out of the audience and played guitar on All I Want Is You. There must have been something in the air when it played- sniff sniff. 
• I'd put a link up to the song, but U2 is too terrible for that.
• One morning we were to do a raid a village and jack some bad guys out of their homes who were recent parolees from Abu Graib. We intended to use a gate we'd used a hundred times before at all hours of the night and this one time it was locked. I wanted to shoot the lock off, but one of the Marines with us had bolt cutters- drats. I mean really, I had literally wanted to do that all my life. When I just knew I was going to finally get to do it, it was hard to keep from wetting my pants. It made me want to pee.
• My daughter is nine and can sing like an angel and make up songs like you would not believe.
• It's rained at most of the funerals I've been to in my life. One time I just knew it wasn't going to until a freak cloud stalled over us and it poured for a few minutes then stopped and the sun just beat down on us. I looked around at the miserable mourners- long divorced people holding each other sobbing, one woman, she was just not that emotional of a girl- ever, falling to the ground, her body convulsing in tears, an ex wife of the decedent fainting in her seat and the 2 toughest guys I know bawling their eyes out.
• I would just as soon never go back to that tiny Texas cemetery.
  

  

  That weird looking old Toyota in much better focus.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  The Sharkarosa tram was purpose built to look like an old steam engine. Here is the fake coal.

  
  

  

  Hey buddy, my eyes are up here.

  
  

  

  Pekin duck getting picked on by about a 100 coots and various other type of ducks.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  See no evil. Hear no evil.

  
  

  

  For days I would feel something sticking the bottom of my foot causing me take my  boot off, insole out and socks off trying to find the sticker I was sure was inside my boot.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  This card was found on the sidewalk near my office.

Wednesday's Digressions

• The 2014 Z28 sounds awesome but my American dream car right now would be a CTS-V Stage 4 D3 modded Caddy. 750 hp and it would ride like well, a Cadillac.
• The cat has been licking himself for most of the past hour. It reminds me of those old signs, "Clean up after yourself. The only self cleaning thing around here is the cat!"
• A lot of Pink Floyd's music is really awful, most of it actually I guess but holy smokes their good stuff is like magic.
• The people who scream the loudest daring us to compare ourselves to the UK on issues related to guns and the death penalty etc. sure can shrink up it seems when others want to use Britain as example of what happens when you create a welfare state.
• No, I am not pro death penalty mostly because it is counterproductive, unfair and basically really dumb.
• It wouldn't bother me a bit if I never had another headache.
• I think often about a refugee patient from Sudan who came into the US years ago. He had about 5 kids and worked like a dog at 2 different jobs trying to make it here. He was a teacher I think in Sudan. He was nice, funny and smart and carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. I don't know if I ever did anything for him other than hiring him as an interpreter but I hope he made it. He was a sweet guy whom I saw being just crushed and there was little I could do for him.
• Another associated flashback: There was a girl who came in from Bosnia who was fluent in Serbo Croation, German and English. I loved talking to her in German and she thought it was cool I could speak it a little. I told her to come back the next day and I would have her sign a contract to be an interpreter and interview her. The interview was mostly to educate what I expected, general privacy policies and give her the medical terms I would use the most often in encounters so she could look them up if she needed. It was not intended to be anything official. I would have taken care of it right then while her hair was up and she was in her sweats but I needed to get the contract from another office and I was pressed for time. She came in the next day in the shortest dress I have ever seen- literally. There must have been some laws against it somewhere. It was white and the hem terminated just below her bottom.  She pulled her chair away from the desk and did her best Basic Instinct impersonation. She was absolutely beautiful and was totally aware of the power she possessed in that little dress.
• And I was an oak.
• Sugarcult Pretty Girl.

  

  One of the Sharkarosa exhibits is named after a boy from the area.

  
  

  

  I think this would be called a tug but I'm not sure. Vehicles like this used in tight shipping and receiving areas to move trailers around are called yard dogs. It could also be correctly called a tractor I suppose since it pulls other objects.

  
  

  

  Pattern on a cross between a horse and a zebra- A zorse is a zorse of course...

  
  

  

  Pere David deer. These are extinct in the wild in China, although there are some in preserves. The last wild ones  were shot out and ate by soldiers during some troubles I believe in the early 1900s.

  
  

  

  Mooooo

  
  

  

  These things with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk are like crack. I don't even kid myself when I reach for these in the store- I automatically buy 2-3 boxes.

  
  
  

Monday's Missives

Somewhere in Sanger.

• We pay people in places where we have no business being a lot of money to do or not do things they should already do or not do, while moaning about the money we waste at home on our own citizens. Then if all else fails or often simultaneously we go to war, fronting most of the money and sacrificing most of the lives to make people do or not do the things they should already be doing or not doing in the first place.
• The preceding in a nutshell is my view of our foreign policy.
• Recently I've read a couple of articles about the killing of a dog or dogs which was referred to as murder- good grief.
• I want to try that Rocket Fuel brand coffee. Also, I always forget to look for it but I love coffee with chicory. It is still very popular in Louisiana where they started using it as a result of Union blockades.
• I have had the Imagine Dragons song Radioactive playing in a loop in my brain for about 30 hours now. It literally served as background music for my dreams last night.
• I have been using ice packs on my back recently and it helps the pain a lot. An odd consequence though is I'll be stiffer than normal later secondary to not re positioning as frequently.
• There has been a lot of discussion about disability fraud recently with writers correctly in my view asking," is this the new retirement plan?" There are so many fakers that it is very difficult to be treated anywhere near fair if you don't ham it up and throw down an Oscar worthy performance when you go through the disability process for the military- sad but true. Guys literally coach each other and share tips on looking pitiful. I don't want to be too specific but people outside the system who have an interest in the welfare of guys being evaluated will say things like, When you go in don't be in too big of a hurry to get around anywhere.  You have a cane- use it. You aren't going for a promotion board, don't wear that pressed uniform and there is no reason to shave that morning...
• As bad as this issue is today when a guy came back from OIF 1/Afghanistan and even the Gulf War if he they so much as squeaked he could get a 50% rating. Honestly, I know 2 different guys, one a soldier and one a Marine who had back injuries. The Marine actually fought to stay, in the soldiers injury happened just as his enlistment was winding down and he wanted out. Both were forced to stay longer for their board, both felt they were 100% after their therapy and a little time etc. and both received honorable medical discharges with 50% ratings. One is a truck driver and the other an oilfield worker.
  
  
  
  
  
  



Sharkarosa residents.

Monday's Missives

That is a long way down, isn't it dad? Yes, it is. Please be careful I said with my heart in my throat when I turned to see him looking into that yawning chasm of death instead of walking right behind me like I thought he was.

Life In The Balance

Hey, want a nice bottle of urine some arrogant rock climber left behind?

Amtrac drive sprocket

Guy being towed was having a bad day but was good humored about it

Gama Goat. I have driven untold miles in various examples of this weird old utility vehicle.  It was a 6 wheel drive and would float with a swim kit mounted. You can mount an infinite number trailers to each other making it look like a giant centipede. It had a 3 cylinder Cummins? diesel mounted right behind the driver that was loud as thunder. It would literally make you want to vomit to drive one for a couple of hours at highway speed- with  hearing protectors on. It will be on my short list for my dream shopping spree when my ship comes in.

When I put something made of meat and tube shaped in my mouth called Lil Chub... well, lets just assume that will never happen.

The rare and elusive Canada goose

Wall of legends of Mineral Wells State Park

Shadows

I imagined this elder gentleman helping the Hispanic man rig his fishing gear up as being somebody who without any malice whatsoever would pronounce Mexican as Messican.

I asked the concession operator what his number one seller was in this after hours bait machine. Butterfinger bars was his surprise answer. I correctly guessed number 2 as being Mtn Dew. He said the machine cost 8 thousand dollars. 

Her name was Dixie according to the calls of the people she abandoned with glee to come explore near us. Another light colored Lab was named Cracker. They were comical and smart - kinda in the job description of Labs I suppose.

This says I'm right here

Ancient Indian pottery shard

• The madness that is Afghanistan
• I like Walmart, good prices,quality merchandise and local assability." From a comments section on Walmart. "Assability"? Huh?!
• A couple of days ago I saw woman driving erratically and 5 mph under the speed limit in the passing lane. As I and the other 10 people she had stacked up behind her for miles passed her she looked up, took a look around and with a grin on her face looked back down to her phone and resumed texting. That same afternoon I saw a guy sharpening his pocket knife while driving and talking on a Bluetooth headset.
• Tomorrows planned trip to Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch may be postponed due to thunderstorms.
• I had that very rare headache yesterday. It caused me to be nauseated and light sensitive. Even more rare for me- it forced me to leave work early.
• Barry mentioned once being known for having quick reflexes. On the same day I had the same observation scheduled to post on myself. When I saw his I took mine down so I wouldn't look like a copycat. That is a weird coincidence though for such a random thought isn't it? Anyway, yes I'm known for the same thing by people I'm around. I'll catch papers in mid air that somebody drops or a coffee cup a waitress drops etc. A few days ago a nurse missed the counter with her coffee cup as she tried to place it on the counter I was standing near. Reflexively, my foot went out catching the cup in midair, then in almost the same motion my foot went down to ease it to the floor. My nursing buddy said,"How did you do that? That isn't right- nobody should know how to do that." It's just another one of my superpowers.
• All my dreams were just a jumble of randomocity last night.
• Relationship pro tip: If your significant other wants some space be the second person in the history of the world to give it to them. Don't try to take control of the situation and find out whats going on or try to get physical to let them know what they're missing or whatever- let them go.
• It seems ignorant at least and maybe slightly racist for TV shows to subtitle a persons dialogue when they speak perfect English but with an accent that may be strong to Western ears.