The Best Trees

Around these parts, the best trees in fall are cottonwood and ash. They’ll give you a nice show of color in the fall. You can find aspens if you go up higher. In certain canyons where there’s water there are stands of maples that can really blow your mind. But if getting out of town to see the fall colors isn’t on your agenda, the cottonwoods and the ashes will do the trick. Happy leaf watching!

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Fiesta, Fiesta!

I live in a place that has a huge party every October. It’s fiesta time along the Rio Grande when the sky fills up with colorful balloons. If the weather cooperates the celebration is complete.

There are plenty of great things to say about my town, but the big balloons once a year top the list.

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7 Minutes

She gave us the structure, she told us the form, we listened to Bessie Smith as examples, we played a few 12 bar run-throughs in different keys. Then she gave us 7 minutes to write our own blues song. And we did it. Mine was kind of stupid, but it was worthy of 7 minutes of work. First song I ever wrote. Yea, me!

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I Forgot

I forgot the soothing sound of your voice. I forgot the soft curls in your hair. I forgot the smooth silk of your forearms. I forgot the little mole under your right earlobe. I forgot the exact color of your eyes when the sky is blue behind you. I forgot the bright crescent of your smile in the dark oval of your face. It’s easy to go on because I forgot everything about you.

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Favorite Places

Tent Rocks National Monument – ever hear of it? It’s an out of the way spot between Albuquerque and Santa Fe full of beautiful and unusual rock formations. I’ve been there before and I’m planning to go again. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a favorite place for me full of happy memories. Don’t you love getting out of town?

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Perky

The close captions that describe music make me laugh. They will say “perky music” or “epic music” or some other descriptive about the music. What I wonder is this: does the screenwriter put a note in the script that says merely “perky music” or some such?

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A Curated Life

Years ago someone said to me, “We all have our own cross to bear.” That made so much sense to me and has always been a guiding principle in my life. The other day I saw someone tweet that people were struggling with all the things they weren’t tweeting. Same thought, but it makes me aware of how we curate our lives these days. We present only parts of ourselves on Facebook or Twitter and hide the rest. We’re so public but at the same time, we’re so private. We’re still bearing our crosses, even in a world some consider completely without privacy.

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Stars

I remember as a younger person staring at the stars for hours. I learned to find the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, Orion, The Pleiades, Gemini and many more. To really see stars, you have to go outside the city. The mountains of New Mexico are a good star watching spot. Best night of star watching I ever had was on the way to Lincoln, NM. We pulled off the road and laid on the fenders and just looked. Ghost Ranch in NM is another good spot. The Milky Way is so close and so bright you can almost feel it.

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Kick Some Ass

When I had surgery my grandson gave me a get well card. All it said was kick some ass. It was an inspiring message and I tried to be a kick ass patient during my recovery. I think it worked. Kicking ass isn’t just about being an action star in a violent movie. It’s about being a leader, a voice, an organizer and and example. Go kick some ass.

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My Favorite Candy

Last night I ate a Mozartkugel, a Austrian/German confection I’d never heard of before. Someone brought it to book club for the discussion of “The Afterlife of Stars.” It set me to thinking about favorite candy that I’ve loved. Chocolate has always been the favorite, changing over the years from gooey sweetness like Mounds bars to the darkest of dark chocolates I love now. Now I happily down the 85% cocoa bars that I would have found bitter as a younger person.

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