pailaway - (an utterly gratuitous link in the evolutionary chain)

New Mexico is home to odd signs - notably "Gusty Winds May Exist" - but this one surprised even me:


"Experience pure elation. Take a Santa Fe-cation."


I'm not making this up - here's the tourist board's website:
http://santafe.org/Promotions/santafe-cation/index.html


On the one hand, it's true that the "Fe" in Santa Fe (capitol of New Mexico) is pronounced "Fay", but did the author of this slogan not step back and look at their handiwork with an eye to how it would appear to someone else?

It is with a great deal of perverse pride that I call this state my home

On December 24 my mum passed away. I was with her as she drew her last terrestrial breath. And she was with me as I drew my first, come to think of it.

She couldn't speak when I arrived, and I was told by her nurse that she'd had a stroke that morning. She'd been having frequent small strokes for the last year. I talked with her awhile and then asked if she'd like it if I sang and played some guitar for her. She nodded yes.

I played for awhile and sang songs that we'd both sung together on the screened porch of my childhood home. In fact, these were some that she'd learned from her mum and taught to me. It brought tears to my eyes.

Somewhere during this time I became aware that she was making her transition, and then she passed.

She survived my father by two years. My sister and I have survived her, and I hope her songs will survive us all.

Just at the moment there's some difficulty here on account of too much water all at once. Flooding actually began 3:30am (9:30am GMT).

Here are some photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/benchmark.eng.surv/100YearFloodRuidosoDownsNM

Our river is still at flood stage, but it's begun to subside. The bridge I use, which is the only means of ingress and egress by road from my house, has survived so far, but there are reports of other bridges upstream that have washed out.

Myself, Ms P and all our neighbors are safe and dry - and we are all well above the flood - so if the bridge washes out it will be a severe inconvenience, but not life threatening.

( so far, but somewhat )

My dad is gone now, but I wrote this for him: A37293087

(It may not be factual, but it's accurate nonetheless )

Here's what happened. On our once-per-month trip up to Albuquerque, the missus and I stopped for lunch. We were seated and then left for dead. I was already pretty stressed out about the trip as I always am because it always involves a very trying visit with my mum - and I sensed that I was about ripe for taking out my frustrations on a hapless waitperson who only had the bad luck to ignore us at just that moment.

So, I took a deep breath to calm down and then an idea occurred to me. I stood up on my chair and then turned slowly around looking in all directions. Soon that got the attention of the hostess who looked at me with a quizzical expression. I then announced that I couldn't see any waitpersons at all anywhere. Within seconds we were attended to.

The beauty of it all was that my minor act of civil disobedience relieved all of my stress - Ms P's too as she found it all quite funny. So I was able to be completely amiable with the apologetic waiter, enjoy lunch and leave a nice tip.

The rest of the day was quite tolerable as a result.

This is something that I can unreservedly recommend for anyone to try