65, 52 and 36

…the first two numbers being the current weight of each of our tiny puppies at eight months,

vastly overshadowing the Little White Dog, Aggie, at 36 pounds.

Monday Linda went to Denver to watch paint dry and we walked to the library

and back

home for

a Terry Allen revival in the studio

as dogs faithfully awaited her return, all day…

So on went the week, cloudy and uneventful save for fruitless attempts to figure out [in the absence of any information whatever] why the valves in the pumphouse were so mysteriously set and why even after being properly adjusted and the pump restarted we still had nothing

coming down the line, all of which wasted much of Wednesday.  A full day Thursday precluded

further investigations as we made that last trip to Walsenburg with bottles and trash, cruised by the Habib and the laundromat’s poignantly appropriate mural before

making our way to La Veta where one lunched

with old friends at a place so new it had virtually no signage*.  “Legends” promises, however, to be the best midday option in town; authentically New Mex Mexican, all homemade, all good.

While there our neighbor Leon, further down the line, called to say he’d sorted out the water – a valve absentmindedly left closed during an abandoned attempt to fill an upstream tank, no excuses, no explanations but…water was making it through to him as it would [now] to us.

Once home I walked around turning valves which resulted in ten

inches an hour all the sunny afternoon and into the night, the evening spent enjoyably feasting on potatoes and beeves with Joan and Robert at Mountain Water, talking of art and books and coming home at ten to a full tank.  25 degrees, stars not shown, I drove around turning valves,

draining the lines…

Weather that made it difficult

to leave nonetheless led inevitably to packing, loading, closing,..

Saturday, ice receding, a last walk up fossil hill, one last lunch huatching the Huajas,

one last late walk around the block and as soon as

the road out thickens up in the morning we’ll be

out of here.

*[the people originally ran the San Marcos Feed Store south of Santa Fe, we were told]

8 thoughts on “65, 52 and 36

  1. Fred Kolo

    The first photo after the dogs with the golden glow over the hills and scattered snow in the darkish foreground struck me as what our world might look like at some future time when perhaps our own species might be extinct: calm and cold again and beautiful as always.

    Reply
    1. mikesmoore Post author

      …”after the invasive species is gone” as my brother put it so well. hopefully before they/we mine/destroy the undersea enzymes and crash the whole system in the name of “green energy”…

      Reply
  2. Ann

    Enjoyed the ramble with W. G.! We watched an episode of Shoreline Detectives last night covering the rapid disappearance of landmarks at the edge, especially on the North Sea.

    Reply
  3. kirk moore

    Right behind Beth on the 25th @ 70. Seems to increase in geometric progression, time-wise.
    Those dogs are evolving rapidly; no pause button on that; just big paws. Har, har.
    They appear to be quite fast across the open spaces; no doubt preferring Libre and Wall over Bene.
    Love the photos and totally agree with Fred. Nice to know how beautiful it will eventually be once the invasive species is eradicated. Also…interesting to know the Spanish Peaks are such famous dikes.
    Glad the water got sorted out, hope it’s a good drive west.

    Reply
  4. Janet Whitchurch

    I think it is great that the two puppies have each other, they always look like they are having so much fun. So the 25th of January is also Virginia Woolf’s birthday and also Robert Burns and my youngest grandchild the always surprising Daphne who turned 3! She joins superb company in celebrating; Happy B-days Beth and Kirk.

    Reply

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