Regional Haze

An administrator once told me the BLM had, years ago, created a committee to study "Regional Haze."

Outside the museum at the South Rim of Grand Canyon (on the walkway to the left of the entrance) there's an info board that puts some of the blame for visual occlusion on particulates from China. Getting ever worse since the early 1970s, it's now so bad it's hardly worth going to the place though sometimes in January, after a storm, the air clears and the views, though nothing like in the '60s, are better.

Though the museum's placard attributes the haze to smog, it covers the entire Southwest; it's common in Ajo, Arizona which is 337 miles (542 km) south and in the middle of the Sonoran desert. But Ajo is also just down the street from Gila Bend. On most days the air in Gila Bend is so saturated with the reek of nitrogen fertilizer it's unbreathable. Drawing from the Gila River, the area is, for nearly twenty miles east and west and for nearly half that distance north and south, subjected to intense agricultural use.

San Simon, on Interstate 10 about 12 miles west of the New Mexico border, has thousands of acres covered by pecan trees. Served mostly by subsurface irrigation, you can sometimes see HUGE amounts of water pouring from outlets into canals. The trees send it into the atmosphere at a rate that surely has inspired a few Ph.D.s (citation needed).

I'll not bother to mention the California Valley or the pecan and chili orchards in southern New Mexico. Let ALONE all the hay production throughout the southwest that revolves around livestock.

And the skiiiiiiiiies are CLOUDY all daayyyyyyyyy. (Remember the song: Home On the Range?)

Beth Williams - Calligrapher

I stopped in at the Mancos, Colorado co-op gallery and was struck by Beth Wheeler's calligraphy.

I've had my eye (I only have the right one left) out for someone to do a Thank You for Dr. Lin, the surgeon who refused to do a cornea transplant on my left and explained why, but accepted the job of fixing the cataract in my right.

I called Beth and we discussed the project. She became enthused and we made a deal.

Spring & Summer...reprised (The short version)

Our online chats led to lust. We agreed (in May) to meet halfway at Lake McConaughy, Nebraska (14.5 km N of Ogalla). The romance was wonderful for a few weeks. We wandered through central Colorado enjoying Spring. As she said before we met, she makes up in enthusiasm for what she lacks in duration. 

Well, Yesiree Ma’m & Boy Howdee!! Hit shore wuz good while hit lasted!! And since a gentleman never discusses his relationship(s), I’ll leave it at that.

In July my friend in Albuquerque who’d been undergoing chemo was back on her feet. I ‘queezed intuh muh flyin’ helmet, hollered, “Clear the prop!” and headed North (again) seeking cooler climes. Ten days later I found myself enjoying (superb!) coffee at The Lift (no longer extant) in Pagosa Springs, Colorado (346 km). I brag I averaged 34.6 km a day. Since then I’ve managed to cut that in half. I admit it, I enjoy chiding folks, generally males, on their paces. In those moments when I've had absolutely NOTHING to do (Let’s see....I vaguely recall one about ten years ago), I speculate on when the speed demons find time to tell someone they love them, let alone MAKE love. (It CAN be done while driving (as I'm sure you know), but Safety Clown frowns on that kind of behavior.)

After Pagosa I began a westward drift. Allow me to commend Mancos to you. A splendid town of about 1119 folks, Mancos sports three (count ‘em!) art galleries and the finest vanilla ice cream yet at Hamburger Haven! (since closed.

In Dolores to resupply, there's a magnificent library with excellent wi-fi and a pair of "magpies" in the meat department of the local grocery; one makes mewing sounds while the other cracks his gum. They reminded me of a high school I used for eighth and ninth grades (before dropping out) in the rurals of Tennessee. The only thing I could surmise is that they, like the poor kids in that high school, just didn’t get enough attention. I returned to the Forest, my socio-cultural needs sated. 

P.S. There's a great thrift store in the church at the West end of town. You'll know you're in the right place if the church is sitchiated in a triangle 'tween two roads.