Gregory Blackstock

Cat & Accordion! (in the animation)

https://www.gregkucera.com/blackstock.htm

Psilocybin In Oregon

Much of the information in the top article is related to "The Business." But there're (there's for the rest of you) also many leads to other sources of information. 

https://www.wweek.com/news/2022/02/16/these-four-companies-want-to-take-you-on-a-psychedelic-voyage-in-oregon/

The link below is to the Oregon Health Authority, the State's policy formulation and decision-making group.

https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/PREVENTIONWELLNESS/Pages/Oregon-Psilocybin-Services.aspx

Eagle Springs

The incontinence pads do double duty as sun blocks.

Morning Light

 

Threatening To Rain

 I was able to count all seven of the drops.

Once out by the actual wtilderness, there aren't many places to camp. I commandeered the far corner of this trailhead parking lot.

Out the other way

Everyone loves a rainbow

The spritz

BLM's Artist In Residence: Delbert Anderson

From BLM's website....

For the first time in Bureau history, the BLM Artist-in-Residence program will feature a multi-site tour, as Native American jazz trumpeter Delbert Anderson and his ensemble D’DAT visit six National Conservation Lands sites in June and July 2022.

 

Website for Painted Mountains Tour including tour dates, times and locations:

https://www.blm.gov/get-involved/artist-in-residence/2022-painted-mountains-tour

His website:

https://delbertanderson.com/music

With *TheHeartbeat Project*

Ojito Anticline

The White Ridge Bike Trails run atop the sides and and into the surrounding desert. There're hoodoos, the "hogbacks" (see: https://newmexnomad.blogspot.com/2022/05/ojito-hogbacks.html?m=1 and other interesting formations.

Ojito Hogbacks

 

They're just west of the anticline and the White Ridge Bike Trails trailhead.

Making Shade

Not near as exciting as making hay but...

In the morning, a pee-pad or two will do.

But in the afternoon something more substantial is needed.

Michelle decorated my walking stick. It has one stocknagel: Germany.

It's an 8 foot by 10 foot tarp.

Cake!

May 17th, 2022.....with Ms. Cook. 

The white in the left eye

 is scar tissue;

it's blind.

The Differences

3:55am - I get up to empty the Simply Orange bottle.

Ojito....the wind has stopped. The moon is shining through a thin veil of clouds. The stars are not numerous. It's cold. This is like Coca-cola.

I lie with The Bottle pressed into my groin with the light pressure I might've felt when spooning with a lover. It's hard surface has none of the soft resilency of intimacy, simply a utilitarian presence.

What do you notice in Nature? Phoebe has a lot of glass and watching the moon go over is/has been an ongoing enjoyment. During the day I'm immediately outside and notice the terrain. 

It's alot different from crafting the "Five Year Marketing Plans" so popular in my day; now it's all practical application.

But watching that moon go over...even the chill night air....sublime.

Simply Orange

After the night of hell, I recalled reading about catheters for men who were allergic to the adhesive; they were held on with a belt.

The incontinence has been coming on for some time (there's a suspicion of prostate cancer) and as the "urge" grew increasingly unanticipatable I added Simply Orange bottles to each of the vehicles in the fleet.

Now that it's a known entity at night, I made some modifications at the top and with the addition of velcro straps and a borrowed shoulder strap from a gym bag....voila! New meaning to the phrase: Strap-On! 

The geometries are such it obviated the washcloths and MAYBE even the puppy pads. 

One night of hell was all I could stand.

The Skinny

When we last left our hero, he'd done another stint at The Nativo where he mastered the application of condom catheters and the associated drain bag (straps to the leg when upright).

This being a second round in The Motel, he left with a hell-bent-for-leather mindset that had him driving north with a vague plan to circle through Colorado, thence to eastern Utah and back to Albuquerque for a urology appointment near the end of June.

A few miles north of Cuba, New Mexico, highway 112 goes due north from highway 96. It's a narrow, little-used road that one can amble on without raising too many ires.  

Tired from the day's drive, I took 112 only a short distance before turning off onto a National Forest access road. 

At camp I discovered I was at 7,000 feet elevation. Not only that, but in the process of changing into evening wear, I discovered the condom catheter(s) had pulled sections of the top skin off my penis. The only solution was to switch back to puppy-pads augmented with washcloths stuffed down my tightey-whities.  

The washcloths need changing every couple of hours and as the night wore on, the angina was right there each time. And the continued drop in temperature was noted as well. 

The night, a small vision of hell, finally ended. For reasons unknown, the incontinence is only from sundown to sunup.

Roadside Cut Near The Tunnels

For the record....

May 5th I camped below The Tunnels on a short cut above the road overlooking the old mill site. I spent the day exploring 290 out beyond Ponderosa Winery with no luck finding a campsite.

Kristen suggested the Tunnels road which I KNEW had to be traveled WAY beyond The Tunnels to be able to camp, but this short cut appeared across from the Giant Red Wall.

That woman's amazing!

Let's NOT Give It Back

There're rumors these days of returning public lands to Native Americans. Some of the rumors are fueled by romanticism about how "naturally sustainable" they are. 

The road to Ojito crosses Zia Pueblo. Below are pictures of that land. 

There's NO vegetation that'll feed a cow. Here's one they let die....for lack of water or feed.

A closeup for you forensic folks who might be able to attribute it to something besides starvation or dehydration.

Yup, they've learned a thing or two about "extractive" practices. The ground's so pulverized from trampling that when the wind blows the area looks like 1930s Oklahoma.

Return to Ojito

There's just no comparison to being "out" somewhere where there aren't early-starters going by either dragging some huge "house" behind them or warming up their engines before embarking in a modest rig like mine. 

Linda Vista Campground

I can also enjoy missing the happy yammering of the walkers as they take their dawg(s)-- or themselves -- out for its/their morning constitutional.

Quieter Than Their Keepers

And I HAVE to appreciate the additional lack of the hum, however discreet, of the generator across the way (from that 30' Bounder) that you KNOW is keeping them feeling "just like home" with their  microwave, toaster and/or tv..... likely all at the same time.

Yes, I felt the need of a ready source of water to swab myself down after a night of lying, well, one SIDE of me lying, in my own pee and the Campground provided that.

But over the course of three days, we got the systems worked out and can now self-satisfiedly return to the peace and quiet of DRY (non pee-soaked) dispersed living.

As the lady said, "Old age ain't for sissies." "I'm in trouble," I rejoined.

I may be a sissy, but by god I'm an effing *resourceful* sissy!

And thank you David for helping defray the cost of the incontinence pads, diapers and Paw Pads (puppy training pads) that made up the major portion of my efforts at coping.

Sounds of Spring

Wrangling the incontinence, I went to the Linda Vista Campground on New Mexico highway 4 where I knew I'd have a water supply for cleaning up and washing soiled clothes.

The cottonwoods had just leafed out. That's the Jemez River.