A brief historical example of entropy

2003: Do no evil

2008: Don't do too much evil

2013:. Claim you don't do evil

2018: Deny evil exists

And a few more pictures

A very unedited selection of photos

Wheelwright Museum

The Southwest Jewelry Museum

These are for my wife and mother-in-law

Site Santa Fe

Santa Fe Plaza at Dusk

Caja del Rio

That last piece of shit is the largest mountain lion scat I've seen.

A few pictures from 7,000 feet

For no reason other than I have them, I present you with a few photos from north central New Mexico

Here we are in Santa Fe, looking from Fort Marcy towards Museum Hill. It's been pretty dry here, so the snow was welcome by all except for me.

Again from Fort Marcy, looking northward towards the Sangre de Cristos and Mount Baldy and the Santa Fe ski area.

Now jumping up to Taos, a view of the Sangres, the Taos ski basin sort of visible and Taos itself sitting at the bottom of the mountains. Oh, and a vulture

The Rio Grande Gorge is a lot of fun, so I walked out to the rim where the Rio de Pueblos de Taos joins the Rio Grande just above the "low bridge".  Bits of snow from a storm a few days earlier remain on the north facing slopes.

The Gorge runs thru an otherwise fairly flat plain, slicing a fairly mysterious and intriguing gash in the ground, especially when seen from a distance. Here the small Taos River has cut the fore-gorge with the Rio Grande Gorge in the back.

Just a close-up, just cause I have it. You can see basalt covers the upper layers of the plain. In the distance you can see the sometimes passable road that leads down to the low bridge.

One last one of some foothills to the Rockies. I hiked from over there to over here to take this picture of over there. Hey, I need the exercise.

Let me apologize, especially to those of you on cell phones. I forgot to downsize these photos, so you used up way more of your data plan than is warranted. Next time you see me, chide me and I'll buy you a drink.

One final thing, cause I like to make things informational. While looking for stats about the ongoing drought in the area (and thus the local pleasure with the snow), I came across this map showing unusually dry or wet conditions across the US. Its hard for me to estimate, but it looks like 80% of the land mass is either unusually wet or unusually dry.

And a fun link for you where you can animate this chart and look at historical trends. I compared the most recent 8 years to the period of 1950-1960. There are differences.

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/drought/historical-palmers/psi/195011-196010

My Reincarnation Schedule

I have a lot to do.

I'm going to schedule some of it for my next life.
But I just realized my next lifetime is already getting pretty booked.
Aidee will be the prime focus of my next life. And I will find her and make her mine.
Mona, Colleen, Misti, Leigh ... I guess I'll have to schedule them in Next Life +n.
The other things, cleaning the attic, climbing mountains, writing novels, kayaking the Atlantic, those sorts of things, those I'll schedule between loves.
I was planning on reaching enlightenment pretty soon, say Next Life +3, but it looks like I'll have to put that off a bit more. I mean, I could just become a bodhisattva but I suspect those loves of mine would prefer to join me on a tantric path to enlightenment and I don't want to disappoint them. So I'll put off perfection for say seven or twelve lifetimes.
But my schedule might have to be flexible. I suspect Karma may have some input into my next lives. And Karma might think I have not yet earned that chance with Theresa or Aidee. Hmmmm … I might be better off with more of a progress-oriented incremental reincarnation plan.
I'm going to need a good project manager.

The Gods and the Damned

It got hot in May. And was still hot in mid-October. Over 90 degrees and 90% humidity everyday. We were sick of it. So we decided to head for the desert.

We knew the desert would still be hot, but at least it would be dry.

We were wrong.

Just as we arrived, the desert got cold. And it snowed. And rained. And was cloudy and foggy for most of two weeks.

But we were where we belonged. And we were happy.

So I'll share a bit with you. And I'll start in the middle and work my way to the edges.

Great Sand Dunes

Just east of the Rio Grande headwaters and west of the Rockies lie the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

You can walk into the dunes

Some walk further than others

Waiting for Cyndi to pee, I found this nice skull display

Note the tiny hummingbird skull at the very bottom.

I know some of you are skeptics (I know I am)

and you are wondering if we were really at the Great sand dunes.

Maybe we visited some Lesser sand dunes.

I anticipated your doubts

I'll toss in a couple more views before we move on

On our way out, we'll stop at a shrine to reflect. And get stoned.

Next time we head to My Favorite Place to see the People I Love the Most

I think we will stop by Kelso and do a comparative dune study

Stay tuned

A Bit More Colorado

I know many of you are reading along on your phones

so this next photo will be nearly impossible to see

Sorry about that

This is a view westward across the Rio Grande headwaters

For you foggies using desktops or laptops,

you can click on the photo to see it better

This is a typical view as we try to keep the cat calm in the RV

Speaking of which, here is where the cat lived for the two weeks

The cat has mixed feelings about the RV

He likes the "R" part

but doesn't much care for the "V" part

This is at the Florissant Fossil Beds

There are a bunch of petrified redwoods here, but I already showed you those in a blog post a couple years ago, so you don't have to look at those photos again.

That previous post also had a bunch of dinosaur tracks.

I like dinosaur tracks.

And we saw more this time.

So you get to see more of them

Clayton Lake

Like this sort of whimsical one with a jackrabbit track in a vegansaurus footprint

I wonder what a dinosaur sounds like when walking across a mud flat

Here are some worm burrows

And this is cool, but I can't remember what it is

(I didn't take notes)

I wonder if Cyndi will remember

Even I might have guessed this one was a footprint

But I might have guessed wrong with these

Here are some fossil shadows in the rocks

I need to be honest here and make a full disclosure

We saw only dinosaur footprints

We didn't see any actual dinosaurs walking about

This was in the Clayton Lake State Park in New Mexico

It is a nice state park. Claim to have record setting bass in the lake

And it's inexpensive, too

Clayton Lake is in the northeast corner of New Mexico

The next photo was taken near Clayton Lake

The camera is facing northwest

Quiz: Can you tell which way the wind is blowing?

150 years ago the Santa Fe Trail ran near here

Many people came this way, 

including the hermit I described previously.

At this spot the trail crossed the Carrizozo Creek

You can still see the ruts the wagons made

You might be able to see them

I wasn't sure about what I was seeing

I'm just glad I get to drive on Interstates

and don't have to drag the cat across the prairies on the back of an ox

Taos and Santa Fe

When we awoke our first day in Taos, this is what we say from our RV window

Two days later, this was our view

Surprise! there was a mountain hiding over there

Part of the trip was spent looking at property

We (at least I) want to return to the desert for at least part of the year

A little ranch might be nice.

A couple of realtors gave us tours in both Taos and Santa Fe

and we saw many very nice places

And we saw this affordable one

Light and airy. Views forever. Established, mature landscaping

Utilities to property line

Just needs a roof and a front door and it's ready for that perfect getaway

And we saw this there. Since we are both Scorpios, we took this as a sign

Stretched out, he would have been an inch and a half long

but I didn't feel like stretching him out to prove it

And now a picture of Cyndi in Santa Fe.

On to the Gods and the Damned

Garden of the Gods

The early snows blocked our passage for a couple days through the ranges I wished to see

so we settled for the Garden of the Gods

I had managed to bypass this for 40 years of traveling through the area

I wonder how many other good things I've passed up in my life

There were plenty of tourists to keep us company, but not so many as to scare us away

They are all so purposeful in their striding forth

The Plains of the Damned

As we left the Clayton area, Cyndi studied the map and found 

The Highest Point in Oklahoma

We had to see that

That in the middle is the Highest Point in Oklahoma

No, no ... not the mesa on the left ... that is New Mexico

And the far distance is Colorado

For comparison, here is the rest of Oklahoma

This picture is taken from the same place as the one above, just facing the other direction

I don't know if Oklahoma is my least favorite state, 

but they try the hardest to be disliked

Cyndi said "Don't post anything snarky until we leave the state"

So I waited until now

And I hope the cops forget before we return to the area

About the Author

Mr Osterhus is the author of many blogs and tweets. He has advanced degrees in Misleading Statements and Partial Truths. Fluent in several languages, including English, Cobol and Perl, Mr Osterhus has published in four different languages. Mr Osterhus was raised with Howdy Doody as a role model (as you can see from his photo) but strives to be more like Alfred E Neuman. He lives Someplace with his wife and cat, with Someplace changing frequently. He spends his time gossiping about the neighbors and complaining about the weather. You can learn more about Mr Osterhus at www.osterhus.com