One of these is true

Some of you who've known me for a while may have noticed a slight asymmetry in my ears. My ears were normal as I grew up and in fact, I received the "sexiest ears" award in my senior yearbook. But then ....

Left Ear

Right Ear

So how did I get distorted ears? Well, here is how:

• It was during the war. I saw the sniper and he saw me. His shot was fast, mine was accurate.
  
  Accuracy is important.
  
  
• Mona. A single night of passion. I found that magic spot just as Mona bit my ear. It wasn’t until later, much later, that we noticed the blood. We could have rushed to ER to have that bit of ear re-attached but instead we returned to passion.
  
  And I have no regrets.
  
  Well, I have one regret. It was only a single night.
  
  
• Earlier this year I was walking along the rim of La Caja del Rio when I saw a family gazing at the view of the Rio Grande. As I watched them snap pictures, their 3 year old started wandering away. Also watching was a mountain lion and as he leapt at the child, I charged. With the screaming child in mouth the lion turned to face me. I hit him on the nose and he swiped at me. I am quite familiar with cats and easily anticipated and dodged the blur of a paw, but I under-estimated the length of his claws. He nicked me on the ear. He dropped the child as we tussled, then the lion ran in one direction while the parents ran in the other direction with their screaming kid.
  
  I never saw the family again but I did see the cougar a couple of times. I’m not sure but I think each time he gave me a grudging nod of respect before trotting off.
  
  
• In an effort to appear young and cool and frankly just bowing to peer pressure, I got some piercings a few years ago. You can probably guess most of the rest. While riding my bike thru the forest down a steep rocky hill, I bounced to the left snagging my earring in a juniper branch. The ring was flung one way, the bit of ear another way. I found neither.
  
  After that, I removed all the piercings … some were in body bits I certainly didn’t want ripped off.
  

• Looking for some excitement, I decided to join a rafting trip down the headwaters of the Amazon from the mountains into the jungles below. It was probably about the fourth day when I decided to go for a swim in the evening. I guess I had a small insect bite on my ear which something like flesh eating bacteria invaded. It wasn’t until the morning of the sixth day that it was decided I needed medical attention, then it was a full day to the nearest hospital, then another day to a hospital that could actually do something. Actually, they couldn’t do much besides remove a chunk of ear and pump me with antibiotics.
  
  I was disappointed. The raft trip was a bit boring. The only memorable thing was the bacteria.
  
  
• I belong to the generation that thought sunscreen was to enhance a tan. In my mid-life warnings about sunlight become common and I started using SPF 15. A decade later SPF 30, then another decade before I moved on to SPF 50. A bit too late. And ears are hard to protect with sun block. So a basal melanoma developed and was removed with Mohs surgery by a jittery, neurotic doctor.
  
  At least I hope she remove it all.
  
  
• I lived in New Jersey in my early twenties and one night I met a rather loud, sassy, stacked woman in a dive bar. We hooked up. Trouble was, she was a girlfriend of a crazed mafia enforcer type. In some sort of Silence of the Lambs scene, he tied me down and put my head in a metal cage with several hungry rats. They started with my ear but I lured them to my mouth by waving my juicy tongue about. I bit the heads off all 5. When the mafia guy returned, he freaked out seeing the dead rats and me with blood all over my mouth, a demonic grin and snarling at him. He hurriedly let me go muttering and crossing himself. I decided not to see the woman again.
  
  Hint: Besides New Jersey and woman part, not much of this this one is true.

Fate Until Eternity

The gods found me.

And the gods were pissed.

I had spent 20 blissful years in coastal California when the end came too soon. Banished to Hades, which the locals called Paradise, I spent a year running from foam-mouthed dogs, avoiding shrapnel from bombs accidentally detonated by their tea-party revolutionary makers, chasing away 7 Day Bible Bangers, wheezing thru the hell-wild-fire smoke, seeing the bodies of neighbors hauled away almost daily, avoiding pedestrians suddenly whirling themselves into traffic to fall dead mid-street and every morning being greeted by 19 vultures.

We had only one chance and we took it. One morning before the cats were awake we fled this hell of Paradise and 20 hours later found ourselves in the land of the Sacred Faith. Nestled between the desert and mountains, we spent 5 serene … indulgent … years enjoying art, skies, storms, food and amiable neighbors.

Then the gods found us. And, as gods and men are wont, they returned to what worked in the past: the time-proven punishment of Sisyphus. I will now spent eternity mowing a lawn in Indiana. Back and forth, side to side I push the mower and when I reach the end, the grass at the beginning has grown and I start over with no rest.

Well, I do get brief breaks when the mower runs out of gas. Like Sisyphus enjoying the view of the Aegean during his walk down the hill to retrieve his rock, I stroll over to the gas can while watching cars in the distance head westward on I-64. Westward to beauty and happiness.

The gods have their revenge. They laugh at my westward yearning as I push my mower north and south and north again. For eternity.

Or at least until eternity.

Meow Wolf

When you enter you don't know how happy you will become before you leave.

And you will be happy when you exit and wish you could take it with you.

An immersive art experience. Sounds, music, rhythm, chants, voices, narrative, children laughing, adults wondering. Lights, bright, colorful, dark, shadowy ... lasers, holograms, leds, phosphorescent. Strange things, things you can explore, play, sit in, crawl thru, see from all sorts of angles and heights. Pods to sit in, reflect, watch. The spectators become part of the exhibit.

There is a mystery to solve inside but we only figured out what the mystery was as we left ... we certainly didn't "solve" it or even formulate hypotheses.

Next time.

Do visit Meow Wolf when you are in Santa Fe. It's been open for about two years and is already one of the top destinations in the state. I understand they are opening exhibits in Austin and Denver, in case you only get kind of, sort of close to New Mexico. And for those who care about these things, one of the backers is George RR Martin.

And in no particular order other than the order we wandered thru the house, some pics.

BTW, they encourage photography.

Well, this one is out of order 'cause I need a cover photo for the set.

And as long as we are still outside, here I am looking all sexy and cool

Finally inside ... inside a mastodon.
You can play the ribs like a zylophone

I don't know, but it seemed hologram-ish

Cyndi in a pod
Chose your seat carefully

Everywhere you go in the exhibit, you are being watched
You are part of the exhibit

Me, dimly perceived

A fairy castle, Cyndi says

This is the house we are exploring

Cyndi gets swallowed up by the laundry
Actually it kind of really looks like this at home

Inside the tumble dryer

Cyndi in a comfortable pod

Me in a selfie cause Cyndi won't 

Yeah, that is a bus in the attic

The mechanical room reminds me a bit of the ones in Google data centers

As you wander around you are being observed by scientists like this inattentive scientist

Entering the White Rabbit, which explains some things

One of Cyndi's favorite rooms

Kind of blurry
but as they say, it works in my favor

A laser harp

Cyndi loved playing the laser harp
A 3 year old kid tried to join her and she kicked and stomped him away
Then insincerely said "oh poor baby, I am so sorry"
Kid will probably develop a clown phobia from this experience

And now, as I often do, I'll end at the begining
back in the lobby, people ready to enter

oops, a bit out of order here

Back in the parking lot

We reluctantly say good-bye

To boost readership:

An unrelated .. possibly unrelated ... note of hope to my loyal Russian readers

скоро 

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