Appeared to me like Jesus

Yesterday was an eventful day.

My older son, Ross, woke up and left in the wee hours of the morning to go snowboarding with two of his friends. They drove to Angelfire which is about three hours away. They had free tickets, so it only cost them for gas. Ross promised me that he and his friend would get back in time to go with me to see my younger son, Trevor, play in his band, Spring Loaded Hotdog, in the Battle of the Bands, at the downtown venue, The Launchpad.

In the morning, I slept in until 7:30 and then, after doing all my morning chores, got dressed and went to church. I want to show you the picture on the cover of the bulletin. Who knew Jesus was so buff? Of course, they did work hard in those days, no beer bellies, long walks, and all. Doesn't he resemble Ted Neeley?


Anyway, after church, I went and saw the movie, The Men Who Stare at Goats. It was very funny and they said Yalla! several times in different scenes. ;)

Then, I went letterboxing. I found two. One of the letterboxes was downtown near the Old Town Plaza at a shrine for Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as the Virgin Mary. There was a neat little chapel with candles, statues, and pictures. It was a very spiritual little place and I stayed for a while. I was very impressed with the painting of Jesus inside the little chapel. His eyes followed me everywhere!

This picture is from my cellphone.
Then, because it was getting late, I hurried home to feed my horses and wait for Ross.

Lately, when I feed the horses, Annie seems very restless. She leaves her hay to come and stand by me so I can pet her, or to stand by the gate wistfully looking at the other horses. I don't dare put her in with her daughter yet. I certainly don't want to start the weaning process all over. Every other day, I turn her out with Scout and leave Nadia and Yalla! in, which is why Yalla! and Nadia had the hayfest the other day. Annie just seems higher strung lately. Is this her hormonal reaction to the weaning? Alas, maybe her mellow self was just a phase of motherhood. Even tonight, when I opened the gate to let Scout, Nadia, and Yalla! in to go to the barn, Annie came and stood near me at her gate watching them. Then she turned and strolled away to her hay and I suddenly sensed a presence beside me. There was Yalla! standing next to me looking at her mother walk off. They must really miss each other! Then she turned around and trotted off into the barn to the stalls she shares with Nadia. Scout had gone into the wrong stall so I had three horses in the first stall. Then Scout, smart boy that he is, turned and ran past the girls and myself, into his own stall. I made sure the doors were securely latched and went inside to await my son.

I got a call from my Mom telling me that Ross and his two friends were with her. They stopped at her house because Ross had been driving from the ski area on their way home when he hit a pothole in the road that blew out his tire. Since it was a Sunday afternoon, 3:30ish, he wanted to check the phone book to see if there were any tire places open in the next town and to let me know what was happening. Cell phone service is very poor in that section of the country. She lives about 17 miles from the ski area and an hour from Las Vegas (New Mexico). There was one tire store that would still be open so they headed out, using the donut spare. so Ross wanted to let me know that they probably would not make it back in time to see Trevor's band play. An hour later, they called from Las Vegas and said that the store didn't have the correct sized tires so they would be forced to limp, roll?, home.

Hmmm, do I stay or do I go? Trevor wanted me to come and I had bought three tickets. Now it looked like the only way I was going was to go by myself. So, I punked up and went. lol. Not really, but I had to laugh because some of the lyrics in one of SLHD's songs is about a cougar in a bar, "She was twice my age, She could have been my mother, She was twice my age."
#1- I don't go to bars, much less, by myself.
#2- I very rarely go to shows, and NEVER by myself.
#3- I don't go downtown at night, and never...you get the drift.
So now, I had to go, BY MYSELF!! to a show, full of young punks, downtown, at night, alone!

I asked myself, 'what's the worst thing that could happen?' Well, I didn't answer. Instead, I got dressed in the punkest clothes a middle aged woman could find: lime green shirt, strands of beads, jeans, leather jacket... and I was off for an adventure. I texted my son that I was coming and he texted back, "good!" I googled for directions, drove the freeway to downtown, and then began looking for a place to park.

To be continued>>>


Appeared to me like Jesus - song: It's Hard to be a Saint in the City, artist: David Bowie covering Bruce Springsteen

Got to keep searching and searching

Yesterday was just one of "those" days.

I signed up for a class in taxes that meets every Saturday in January. The schedule said it started on the 5th of January. I thought maybe there was a typo and it was supposed to be the 3rd. I woke up and got ready for school. But a little birdie in my head told me that maybe the class really started next weekend so I grabbed my letterboxing bag just in case.

I drove to town to the north campus. One of the gates was open so I drove in and around to the other side of the buildings. I saw two trucks and a car but they looked like campus vehicles so I drove back around. Obviously, there were no classes today. As I drove to the exit I saw a security guard walking towards one of the buildings. He saw me and started walking towards me while at the same time I realized the gates were now locked. We talked a bit and then he opened the gate for me. I guess I didn't look too dangerous, only foolish! WOW, a few minutes more on the other side of the building and I might have been locked in for a week!

Whew, no school, so it's time to play. I pulled out my letterboxing clues and drove across town to the first one. It was another school. The gates were open so I drove in thinking I was going to get pulled over or locked in yet.

Well, I guess I'm not much of a detective because I gave up. I couldn't find any "welcome" sign and the silver river (sidewalk?) was everywhere. I thought the dragon" might be the lightpost hanging out over the road but I really couldn't be sure.

So I went to the next location. This one sounded easy. There were driving directions to the exact location which was an airplane viewing area down by the airport. I pulled into a parking lot and walked the path just outside of the parking area as the directions said. "Follow the trail until it gets steep and fork to the right." The letterbox was to be found beneath rocks under a bush.

Jeez, this area is all mesa. There were little paths everywhere! It was also very remote. When I pulled into the parking lot a mysterious van was sitting at the far end. I thought, 'this is the kind of place people would come to dump dead bodies.' I worried about someone coming by and clobbering me. I figured if someone attacked me I could kick them with my spiked heels! Silly me, I was wearing high heeled boots as I wandered around in the deep sand for half an hour trying to follow the vague directions. Well, I finally gave up.

I had one more place to go, The Veterans Memorial. I figured that this one should be a piece of cake! So, I drove over to it and stood at the "black wall" as the directions said. It told me to face the wall and go to the two evergreen trees, specifically, the furthest one. Stand, so I was "centered" at the tree, and the box would be by my right foot. It told me to be "discreet" so no one would know what I was doing. Well, I must be blind or just dumb because I couldn't find it. Often, letterboxes are hidden under rocks and there were yards of large rocks in a landscape border right next to the trees. I figured this would be the area but I wasn't going to tear up the whole yard looking for it. There were only a few peolple around but still... So, alas, I gave up. Three strikes and you're out, right?

I miss my letterboxing buddy so much!!! Lisa, get better soon!

Disappointed and a little depressed, I headed for home.

Along the way, I bought my son a couple of hot dogs from Sam's Club for lunch; 2 drinks and 2 hotdogs cost $3.20, even I can afford that! I don't usually care for hotdogs but these are good ones. They're Nathan's and they're huge. And they taste like Polish sausages! Actually, I kept the coke and gave him both sandwiches. Then, I made myself a cheeseburger from some leftovers out of the refrigerator.

It was beautiful in town, high 50's, and at home it was in the low 50's, although windy. I haven't ridden since Christmas Eve (the terrible day my friend, Lisa, got hurt) so I figured I'd go out and ride. I put on my Justin riding shoes and a jacket and headed out the door. I kept slipping on the muddy path just on the way to the barn so I decided that riding was out. I turned the horses out into the arena instead. I figured they would be able to keep to the drier areas and at least get a little exercise walking around. It has been over a week since it snowed and we still have patchy snow and MUD everywhere! Usually the mud dries up quickly but now it seems to form clear ice patches in the morning and mud bogs in the afternoon. The ground must be saturated which, for high desert, is very unusual.

I brought my saddle ito the house to clean and it's laying on a plastic drop cloth in the middle of the den right now. I stuck a heart charm on each of my horse's bridles yesterday and I just noticed that while carrying them to the house, one of the charms fell off en route. I had tied it on and the lace came undone. You can just see the other charm laying on top of the dark girth. It's more securely attached to the browband than the other one and is not going to fall off. The tin is where I keep my cleaning stuff. Notice the rockinhorses?

I was planning on cleaning my saddle right away but I decided to watch a movie instead, Quigly Down Under with Tom Selleck and Alan Rickman. I haven't seen it for a such long time. Then I flipped to the DVR to watch some Ryan Gingerich episodes I'd saved. By then it was too late to start cleaning leather. Okay, so I'm lazy as well as dumb (letterboxes). What a failure I feel like, right now!

I wondered whether the leather was safe overnight with my dogs because they like to sleep in the den too. I didn't want them chewing on my saddle or bridle, but I know my dogs. Haha, Gunner just laid down right next to the saddle and slept.

Everything was fine this morning.

I'll have to be on the lookout for the charm now as I walk to the barn this morning to feed. However, as I look out my window, there is snow falling. The ground is white already.

I had thoughts on riding the Railrunner to Santa Fe today but I don't know now. The Railrunner is a commuter train that goes from Belen to Albuquerque to Santa Fe. They just finished the section from Albuquerque to Santa Fe so it's free to ride on weekends in December through January 4th, today. Hmmm, always a day late and a dollar short, I am. I don't really have anyone to go with and it's not so much fun doing this alone. But, I wonder how crowded it would be with the snow...

Got to Keep Searching and Searching - song: Word on a Wing, artist: David Bowie, album: StationtoStation

Ape men with metal parts

Last week, Lisa and I went letterboxing again. Only this time, we placed a box at the Monkey Cave . Ever since I first went letterboxing, I have been telling her that it would be great to place a box here, or there, or...

So, she carved a lovely stamp for the Monkey Cave. I had the pleasure of accompanying her family to the designated spot. Here are some photos of the area.

This is looking outside from inside of the cave.

Jax and I had fun climbing the rocky cliffs although I worried about getting down again without killing or maiming her son.

Looking down from above Monkey Cave.

I've circled the monkey cave and marked the climbing route Jax and I climbed. It was scary because the shale was loose and slippy. In the crevice, the rocks tumbled down. I've also circled the small square cave that we decided not to go to. (right, center)

Here's a close up of the small square cave.


Ape men with metal parts - song: I am with Name, artist: David Bowie, album: Outside

Lost in the fallen leaves

I recently went letterboxing with my neighbor, Lisa, in Santa Fe. You can read her narration here. I liked these photos.

And these portraits of Lisa and myself.

Then, just a few days ago, we went letterboxing again. We went to the 4th of July picnic grounds which is famous for it's fall colors. Howcver, surprisingly, it's actually named for a spring there and not the brilliant colors of the leaves.

Before we saw the pretty leaves, we saw acres of burned forests from the recent Trigo fire.

Here's Jenna with a backseat view.

We began our walk on the nature trail. In this picture, if you look closely, you can see a bushy tailed squirrel.

Apparently, this tree was hit by lightning. See the burnt out bottom?

Fallen leaves were everywhere! I know we don't have the magnificent range of colors that they have in New England, but it's still quite beautiful.

Time out for some Mother-Daughter play! See the pretty red leaf Lisa is holding up?

Some of the trees are characters! Look at these two!

We found the letterbox and had some fun making rubbings of leaves with crayons. In the letterbox was a "hitchhiker" box. This meant that we needed to take it with us and rehide it at the next letterbox we visited.

Everywhere in New Mexico are little villages, each with their central church. This is one we drove past. Notice the pretty tin cuppola. I found the turquoise accent color both pretty and different.


Quarai indian ruins weren't too far away from here so we decided to go and get some sunset photos (and another letterbox that I didn't have, although Lisa did .)

The sky looked ominous. I thought the alien spaceships were coming in for a landing.

Since Quarai is an historic momument, it closes at 5PM. We got there about 4:55. However, the ranger was kind enough to allow us a few minutes for a sunset photo shoot.

Isn't this gorgeous?

I was surprised to see the strange yellow flowers this cactus had.

And one final parting shot of an old barn in the village of Manzano on the way home.

Lost in the fallen leaves - song: No control, artist: David Bowie, album: Outside

I hope I make it on my own

I recently went letterboxing with my neighbor, Lisa, and her son, Jackson. It was so much fun that I decided I wanted to go again. But I needed a stamp. A personal, handmade stamp.

So, my neighbor came over tonight and with her help, and my mom's, we made one.

I chose a celtic winged horse for my design. The Celts worshipped the horse goddess Epona. She represented nobility, fertility, and power. In Greek folklore there was a horse with wings called Pegasus that had the power of flight. I decided to combine the two.

We used some Mastercarve and sculpting tools and, little by little, whittled away until we got the look I wanted. It took a few hours and was messy but I think it came out splendidly!

Voila! The Fantastyk Voyager is born! The hooves are actually better than in the photo. I got a little too much ink on the bottom of the stamp and it made the two lower hooves extra thick.

Thanks to Lisa and my mom for all their creative skills and advice.

I hope I make it on my own - artist: David Bowie, song: Can't help thinking about me, album: David Bowie

They hide behind trees

My neighbor, Lisa, at LaughingOrcaRanch invited me to go letterboxing with her and her son, Jackson. Letterboxing is an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming "treasure hunt" style outdoor quest. A wide variety of adventures can be found to suit all ages and experience levels. (from letterboxing.org)

We were going to Cerrillos, an old mining town. It's not far from home, about an hour's drive, but it is a beautiful road winding through the foothills of the backside of the Sandia mountains. We drove through Golden and Madrid, on the way. We arrived in Cerillos shortly and looked around. (You will have to excuse all the poor photos.)

The letterbox was not in town, however, so we drove on to the historical park (I never even knew there was one!) The historical park is a group of foot trails winding through the hills with numerous old mines to view. There are information signs near each mine. Regretably, we could not go down into the mines as they are considered unsafe.

This mineshaft was VERY deep. We couldn't see the bottom and it probably had passageways branching out underground. The bridge was very cool because you could walk over the mine opening, not for the fainthearted.
Alas, we couldn't find the first letterbox we had come for. We looked all over the hill. It was supposed to be under this tree in a crevice. Do you know how many rocky crevices there were??
Lisa and Jackson resting from the search.
I really liked this lone yellow tree. Isn't it a pretty view?We finally gave up and went looking for the other letterbox. It was a couple of miles down the trails.We went past a mineral spring and some more mines.
Success! We found this one easily! For our reward, we got to stamp our books with their handmade stamp. In return, we made an entry in their journal with our own stamps.

On the way back we stopped and wandered through Madrid. There are lots of shops and art galleries to browse through and artistic sculptures everywhere. I liked this horse and coach.

I also liked this "natural" cactus garden
For some reason I love old buildings




Jackson showed us what a swinger he is.
He can be such a handful, sometimes.

Everywhere in New Mexico, there are beautiful little churches. Here is San Christobal in Golden.


And here is a photo of Lisa and I, neighbors, and horsebackriding, blogging, and now, letterboxing buddies. :)

They hide behind trees - artist: David Bowie, song: Diamond Dogs, album: Diamond Dogs