Silver City, New Mexico 

Rainy season is finally here. Well, rainyish. Yesterday we got our first real downpour of the season, plus thunder and lightning- lots of it. One bolt - looked more like a pop from my window - was followed so closely by a thunder explosion that for a second I was afraid that it had hit the house and was going to start a fire, but nothing else happened except a lot of rain.

I am here at the library waiting to see if anyone is going to show up for Scrabble. Since it is after 3:00 and no one else is here, I am guessing maybe not.

That is okay, I started it for other people who wanted to play and they are busy doing other things. This is the last scheduled day for this time in this little room. One of the librarians and I have set up a new time in the bigger room but I am beginning to have my doubts that this is really needed or wanted by enough people to carry it off. Oh well, time will blah blah blah blah....

Like the guy sitting at one of the computers who is carrying on a telephone conversation as if he were in his own living room. Well, maybe when we are playing Scrabble we are just as disruptive.

In spite of my whining this is really a great library to visit. There are two book shelves maintained by the Friends of the Library - one with fiction books for $1 and one with free books and magazines. In addition to the fiction shelf there is a library cartload of nonfiction for the same price. The only exceptions are the mongo art books, which cost more. I saw at least a couple for $10. The illustrations inside them are wonderful, I am sure.

Well, it is after 3:15 now and the sun is shining, even though when I came it was overcast and sprinkling. Ta-da! That is New Mexico for you. The humidity is 51% and somebody was complaining about it today. That is New Mexico for you! Another day in Paradise, is what it is.

Silver City, New Mexico 

The museum was very slow yesterday morning - because it is the end of the summer?? Kids are back in school.We got no visitors that were here to tour the museum until the last hour of my shift. We cannot blame the gem and mineral show because that is next weekend.

The gem and mineral show is wonderful, but I will have to go Friday p.m. in order to take the bus. If it is not tortuously hot, I will.

Hmmm... I wonder if it is time to get a new device when it does not respond to a touch the way it used to? Or is it my touch that is out of order? Is it slower or lighter than it used to be? Oh, yes, I think it may be drier.

Maybe my humor is, too. The light is going away, and my humor is drying up. Not the time for that, for sure. Maybe I can blame the hot dry weather. That can kill almost anything, right?

Well, my local world may be a darker place than it was  a couple of months ago, but it is also much cooler, which is delicious!

And, not to be lightly dismissed, this latitude stays lighter in the winter for longer days than Northern latitudes.

That helps.

Silver City, New Mexico 

Museum so busy Saturday I did not get a chance to write. It was the perfect day, almost. I would be finished giving one group the run-down about what is where and another couple would come in the door. It is not often that life comes at you with perfectly paced demands.

I got some apples at the co-op the other day that were actually under two dollars per pound. They were so fragrant that they almost seemed perfumed. What a treat... I think!

There is some kind of job/career fair happening around the 30th up at WNMU for anyone who is interested, and the gym is great, as usual.

Relatively cool today with the perfect breeze - Silver City is heavenly again.

Silver City, New Mexico 

Strange. The Silco Movie Club screened a multi-award-winning documentary about Edward Snowden and there were only three people there. Why is that, I wonder? Of course I heard about what was happening at the time, but I am so not plugged in to current news that I was excited to see more.

At least, I was once I thought about it. At first I was a little nonplussed. I personally do appreciate what he did, but I think it is pity and guilt toward him that might make people not want to think about him for too long.

The documentary, furthermore, is not recent. Snowden has been living in Moscow now for ten years. His story as filmed leaves so many questions unanswered that in a way it remains a mystery.

Well, what do you know. Ed Snowden and Guardian reporter Gellman have both written books about Snowden’s actions. Hellman’s is titled Dark Mirror and Snowden’s is Permanent Record. No reason for me to stay ignorant now!

Silver City, New Mexico

A whole week of highs in the eighties. Yay! It feels like a luxury.

Silver City is having a tournament of some kind that is drawing people into town. I want to say soccer, but I am not sure. Could be softball.

At any rate, people are coming into the museum while they are in town. Some of them are so new here they have never heard about the big flood which wiped out Main Street and left a deep ditch and San Vicente Creek for us to enjoy. And Silver city has done beautiful work making it a downtown gem.

Silver City, New Mexico

Wow, a cool day, yippee!

This may mean rain later on, and that would be a yippee also, although my sandals would not be happy about it. The sunrises have taken to being beautiful, colorful and interesting, but today I missed it because the cloud cover allowed me to sleep longer than usual.

One volunteer here speculated that it is slow today because visitors do not have to come in to an air conditioned place for refuge from the heat. That could very well be.

Silver City, New Mexico

We are getting a little break from the heat for a while, getting quite a breeze that although warm feels balmy, not drying and scorching. Good thing, because it is afternoon, which can get way too oppressive.

Stepping into the Museum feels like stepping into a refrigerator, so come on by! The air is cold but the welcome is warm.

Silver City, New Mexico

Wow, a bunch of those horsetails are better than six feet tall! What is more, other horsetails in other climates grow two or three times that. What do you know. Their ancestors were huge.

No matter how the rest of us feel about the heat, these plants obviously love it.

Silver City, New Mexico 

Today is supposed to be in the low nineties, which is good, but there is smoke in the air, which is not so good. It is not too bad for me yet, but I am sure for some people it is problematical.

Some plants are struggling. I gave up on my one tomato plant completely. Walking along San Vicente Creek, though, I noticed at least one species is having a boom year: the local horsetails.  They look four or five feet tall. I have never before seen them so thick and happy.

Maybe I will walk along the creek and see if my estimate is accurate. If I am way off I will report their height more accurately.

Today Silver City wants to be just as important as the date, I guess, because I cannot seem to take the boldface away in that location. Ha,ha!

I wish I could say the town is hopping, but one hundred degree highs are just not rewarding enough to lure people here, I think. It is probably so warm in the lower altitudes that people are not leaving their homes except early in the morning and late in the evening. I have never experienced that kind of heat and do not want to.

Got to Farmers Market at opening where they sell all kinds of wonderful things, including the best jams and breads in the world.

Just found out the prediction for today has been lowered since a couple of days ago. Well, good!

Silver City, New Mexico

I used to say that when it came to getting together with another human being, you sometimes had to make a decision about whether it was who you wanted or what you wanted. Now that I am older it seems that more and more it is what a person wants that counts in the long term.

Of course I am talking about these days. In the old old days before divorce was generally accepted, often nobody got what they wanted after a few years of marriage. After all, who really gets to know what someone is like until they have lived with them? And even after living together, the dynamic between the couple can change after marriage, after the couple gives themselves (unconscious, I am sure) permission to turn into their parents.

Tomorrow morning the Gila Native Plant Society will be hosting an event at the Silva Creek Botanical Garden on Virginia Street, introducing their plans for the future. Sounds good! Look into it.

Silver City, New Mexico

A friend told me he heard rain at 11:30 last night. He lives maybe a mile away, though, so that means nothing. One time in Santa Fe it was raining in the front yard and not the back. Come to think of it, though, I did see little puddles on the lids of our trash bins this morning.

Today the city is picking up and taking away the recycling bins. Just as well. Everything was going into the landfill anyway.

Silver City, New Mexico

The rainy season is giving us a lick and a promise. I have heard that New Mexico weathermen are calling it a nonsoon season. Ha!

If nothing else the clouds and breezes supply a little relief from the heat.

Here I am, outside the closed library getting WiFi at 6:20 in the evening. Most days this summer I would not be doing this!

Finished my book about the Ku Klux Klan in the North one hundred years ago, most specifically about a Grand Wizard who said he was the Law in Indiana. He was a very nasty piece of work, although his wife of his old age, who knew nothing of his real name or history, called him a lovely man.

Whew.

Silver City, New Mexico

After leaving the WNMU gym I noticed what looked like roses in the horticulturalist’s garden, and thought, I bet she planted roses that smell really good even in this climate. They were yellow - no special exotic tones or patterns.

Yep, I bet they smelled good. They did! They were wonderful! That was the first really good nose full of rose I have had since I moved here.

Swoon.

Silver City, New Mexico

Last night I started to read a whole book about a phenomenon that I first heard about a story I heard from a journalist years ago with very little detail. I wrote about it in this blog, but learned later I had done some misreporting. I apologize for that. The skeletal story as I heard it has now been filled in, fleshed out, and reported by Timothy Egan in his new book Fever in the Heartland the heartland, of course being the Midwest of the United States. I am 76 years old, I have lived all my life in the U.S., and on page 5 of Egan’s book I read about a horrifying event in Civil War history I had never heard about before. It is sickening, the little we in Public schools learned about the history of our nation. I am sure not even the teachers knew much.

I am going to read this book all through no matter how horrifying and revolting it is, and appreciate that we in the U.S.can still read, write, and publish the truth and cherish the ability to do so. Whether we will have that ability for long is debatable, I guess.

If I had been better educated about the expurgation of history taught in the schools I could have better educated my children at home. As it was, they have had to learn what they know on their own. Parents these days will still have to worry about supplying the deficiencies of American history as taught in the schools. Alas.

Silver City, New Mexico 

I am standing in front of the library where there is a bus idling. It is a temporary exhibit in this city of the woodcuts and marionettes of Gustav Baumann. At least it is temporary in Silver City. Tomorrow I think it will be in Gila.

Beautiful stuff! If you find yourself near the public library, take a few minutes to enjoy the exhibit, which is sponsored by the New Mexico Museum of art. It will not be here in town tomorrow.

Silver City, NM

The heat continues but we have had a little relief from clouds and breezes but not much if any rain. My tomato plant is worse than struggling; I am assured by a local landscaper that it is not likely that I am overwatering it.

The local library has a very active Friends group that has book sale shelves for one dollar books and another for free books. Some of these are very good books, so check out these shelves. Today I saw The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt! Great book! I was tempted to take it myself.

I hear there are more fires in the Gila and other places in the region. Not good, but the East has experienced much worse smoke from far northwest forest fires than anything I have experienced here.

Silver City, NM

Well, the vinegaroon eventually came out from under my refrigerator and onto my little kitchen throw rug. Perfect! I gave him a magic carpet ride onto the front porch. When he crawled off the rug I took it back into my kitchen, somewhat relieved.

Then he was on the front porch for a while, doing nothing. A while later he was gone. Maybe a neighbor disposed of him in some way. Maybe he managed to crawl off to some safe place. If so, I hope he can get hold of some non poisonous prey.

Silver City, NM

When outdoors, creeping around seems like the appropriate thing in this weather, but I try to keep up the pace no matter the temperature. (I do not succeed.)

Speaking of creeping, though, this morning I saw a vinegaroon in my kitchen! That is a first, and a first which, honestly? I could do without. For all I know, he is still there. He managed to turn himself around in order to creep under the refrigerator, I hope, but where he went from there I do not know.

My landlords sprayed for cockroaches a couple of months back, and the ones I see inside are usually on their backs, incapacitated. I feel sorry for them and try to shorten their suffering, but I kill them. If Mr. Vinegaroon is eating poisoned cockroaches he is probably poisoned himself and does not have long for this world. But who knows?

All I know is that I will be very cautious when I go to move the refrigerator to clean under and behind it... someday... not too soon.

Silver City, New Mexico 

Another almost-rain today, but oh what a difference those clouds and a swift breeze make! Even if you get caught in a rain, a warm breeze dries you out quickly enough.

The Taos County Sheriff, in the far northern part of the State, has publicized an advisory about Bigfoot. Is it a joke, or is he serious? I bet even Taos County residents are divided on that issue.   What fun for everyone!

Our Flowers on 11th proprietor gave her talk, including how she unexpectedly began her life-long career as a teenager. What a wonderful story hers is!

She is immensely talented - but of course we already knew that.

Silver City, New Mexico

Silver City seems to be hopping, thanks to the Clay Festival. The museum yesterday was insane, what with people looking for the Mata Ortiz exhibit in the Annex and a clay workshop for children in the museum proper. Even the people who just came to see the museum itself seemed distracted, although many expressed appreciation when they left.

I was glad to take it easy for the rest of the day after I got home from that.

Oh, except I did go back downtown for a reception and announcement of winners in the display competition at the Light Art Space on Broadway. It was a pretty bizarre collection, but I will have to go back when I can actually see it. There were too many people around to see as much as I would have liked. The exhibit is supposed to remain up for the month.

Silver City, New Mexico 

It is a good time of year to visit the Silver City Museum (which is really a regional museum) because it has been very hot - in the nineties - and the Museum is air-conditioned. We got a good rain yesterday so it cooled off some, but who know how often that will happen? Decades ago after the Fourth of July it would rain daily, constituting a real rainy season, but those days seem to be gone. I watered my tomato this morning just in case but the rain was widespread. In Tyrone, a nearby community, it rained hard for two hours.

Why am I writing about this, you who live far away might be wondering. I mean, come on, the weather? But in the whole state of New Mexico rain is big news.

Silver City, New Mexico

It is a challenge going out in 90+ degree weather, even here where it is dry. I work out two days a week, in the mornings. I volunteer another two mornings a week, and so laundry another. That leaves only two days a week unscheduled. By the time I get home from these activities, it is often very very hot.

Not that my apartment is that much cooler!

Most of the country is undergoing the same or worse heat, but I just happen to know a few who are enjoying much cooler weather. So glad for them! Meanwhile there are things to do if you are willing to venture outside. Quite a few things, with the clay festival happening this week!

Hope you all have a few good happenings where you live to lure you out of the house!

Silver City, New Mexico

The Museum and probably the whole town is abuzz with the excitement of the clay festival coming next weekend. There are, I have heard, already some great exhibits open in town for anyone who is around early.

The museum is sponsoring a sale at the annex which will feature tho pottery of several local artists, and there will be a pinch pot workshop for children. Another exciting weekend coming up!

There is also going to be a talk at The Toad Wednesday evening by the immensely talented owner of Flowers on 11th, whose family has lived here in Silver City for generations.

Silver City, New Mexico

Yesterday was the hottest yet for me; I think the sun is heating up the world and bricks all around me. Going to the movie theater last night was a cool relief. I might have to go to more movies!

Suffering from the heat? The Silver City Museum and the Visitor Center are air-conditioned and educational both.

Silver City, New Mexico

Yesterday the Museum had an ice cream social with a cakewalk and it was a lot of fun. Whether I will make a cake next year, as I did this year, I am not sure. They had a ton of desserts, including commercial cupcakes. I love it when kids win  - and a lot of kids win.

I was so tired afterward that I scrapped plans to go to a favorite hill to watch the fireworks and decided to see what I could see from my porch. The view was great! When I am in town, I will definitely go to my porch to see them.

It has been hot here, but not as hot as it has been for many other cities and towns. I read today that one-third of the population of the states was under a hot weather advisory recently. Incredible.

Silver City, New Mexico

Ha, ha, I have a wonderful relationship with the truth. I love the truth, and the truth loves me.

Unfortunately, though, unlike my relationships with men, the truth loves me more than I love it.

So happy July! I will be telling you about some of the events happening here, mostly positive - but some highly negative stuff happens, also. Like the shooting of a mountain biker who got shot and killed on the dragonfly trail Monday. I can understand that happening in town, but on the Dragonfly Trail? That valley is one with an intensely pleasant and wonderful feel to it; one of my favorite places. How could anyone desecrate it like that?

Just a warning to people about Silver City: Paradise it is not.

The only consolation is the truth. No place on earth is Paradise eternally.

Now there is an example of a truth that loves me more than I love it.