(Gimme Some of That) Ol' Atonal Music

Bird Prints

Hummingbird at dusk

Nancy B. came up and bought a nice owl print today. If you would like to purchase a photo you can see a nice selection here on my website.

I am so grateful for those of you that have purchased prints, people like Nancy and Shelby and RoxAnn and Debbie and Wicki and so many others!

Your patronage is much appreciated and I am honored to be hanging in your living rooms!

Buono Appetito!

It's been too hot really to cook too much and I had run out of flour and couldn't bake. I went to Trader Joe's yesterday and re-upped on organic flour and unsalted butter for baking.

Going home I was in the mood for a good steak and decided to stop at Stump's Market in Bonsall, which used to be Daniels and is now owned by the owners of Major Market.

I have not stopped there since the changeover. The clientele looked a bit seedy, like they all had been riding their jeeps out at Ocotillo or something. Oh well, I made my way to the meat department and was amazed at the dearth of choices to select. It has been really pared down.

Basically I had the choice between Harris ranch steaks and wagyu in the meat case, both expensive. I don't think Major even sells Harris Ranch so they must be trying a new strategy.

I figured what the hell, go for it and bought a 1.21 lb. beautifully marbled Harris Ranch Ribeye.

I got home and noticed that the driveway was full of water, we got hit with a little squall. Very cool.

I pulled the phyllo shells out that have been taking up room in the freezer forever. 

I made a smoked salmon, cream cheese, caper filling and baked them for five minutes at 350°. 

Added a bit of basil and a squeeze of lemon and we were good to go.

I used a course kosher salt and salted and peppered my steak and gave it a quick pat dry after it came to room temperature.

I did a quick sear and then plopped into the oven for about eight minutes, until the probe registered a 115° internal temperature.

I reverse seared with butter very quickly and with our new freeze dried garlic, which doesn't seem to burn.

The steak was amazing, we let it rest for about eight minutes for carryover time, out of the pan.

It came out perfectly rare, just how we both love it.

Served it with the canapés and with Leslie's cole slaw, which is the best in the world and comprised of secret ingredients which she will not allow me to divulge to the public.

You ask her.

Dave Blackburn - Air

My friend and old guitar teacher Dave Blackburn has put out a new album called Air. This particular cut is titled Robin in honor of his wife, Robin Adler, I am assuming, although it is possible that it could be an homage to either Robin Leach or Robin Hood as well. I will have to ask him.

I am exactly not sure how to describe these cuts?  Dave, an expert guitar player and drummer, plays most of the music himself. I guess you could say that it is ambient music, ethereal music, enchanting music. 

You can pick your own adjective.

But it is certainly beautiful and I hope that you will get it on your algorithm feed and listen to the entire work, which can also be ordered here.

Dave and I were both big fans of Steve Hillage and I will also share this cut with you. Great job, Dave!

Sign Wars

It's the political season and the demarcation lines are obviously drawn in Fallbrook. 

These two signs are situated  fairly close to each other on a nearby street.

I find it somewhat amusing. We live in a fairly even split community, perhaps the conservatives have a slight edge, I'm not really sure.

But at least we live in a country where we are free to share our political differences publicly, without risking a shooting war. At least so far anyway.

Certain streets in Fallbrook have always had intense political signage, the Macadamia and Banyon area being a principal hot spot.

I drove over there today to gauge the political temperature. 

One measly sign up this year and an outdated one at that. Does this guy know (or even care) that Trump and Pence don't even speak anymore, since the insurrectionists went to string him up on that fateful January 6th?

Great boss, but whatever.

Anyway, Macadamia ain't what it once was, politically speaking, since Larry Miller passed and the Kinsler's moved to Iberia. Used to be every other house was visibly blue or red.

The signs are definitely getting a bit meaner, they have more bite but those are the times we live in.

It will all be over relatively soon and one side or the other is going to be pissed and heartbroken. I predict that one side will take defeat honorably and the other side will blame everybody in the world and say that they were cheated. 

Of course, they are only cheating when they lose, witness the recent Kari Lake primary election in Arizona. When they win everything is copacetic.

Trump, Harris, Biden, Lake, deep down I don't think we have a serious problem with any of them. The problem we have is with each other, the people who put them in office.

We are at war with each other, both sides are entrenched and there is no apparent middle ground. We have diametrically different blueprints for our country.

I feel like the Clampetts at the beach, all dug in, waiting for the grunion to invade.

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I know who I am voting for. I am not going to tell you, will let you guess. 

One side is talking about putting its political opponents in jail after the election, abolishing the Department of Education and letting Elon Musk take his scythe to the ranks of government employees. 

Then we will end the Ukraine Russia War in one day by forcing Ukraine to give in or else.

It is amazing that the Wall Street Journal thinks that Musk's employee cutting is a good idea.  Wonder what the head of the Teamsters thinks?

Did you see what happened when Musk denuded Twitter, before it became X?

He fired all the employees that actually kept it running, alienated many advertisers who left in droves when the people who were left placed nazi and hate ads next to their product placement.

Musk told them to Fuck off and leave if they didn't like it and they did.

And now he is suing them for doing just that.

And you want guys like this in charge? Seriously?

One of my coffee cohorts was on my ass about Kamala Harris this morning. "You used to hate her and now you like her? What's up with that? Defend yourself."

Well, first of all, I never hated her, never said anything negative about her, in my memory. Check the blog, am I wrong? I have always been somewhat ambivalent about her. I never sent pictures of her with her head in the toilet or blowing Willie Brown because it isn't my style and I find it offensive. I have my hot buttons. One side is drill baby drill, regardless of consequences and the other supports reproductive choice. Not a tough one for me.

Harris seems to be an even keeled person and I think we can use that right now. I think she believes in the constitution and is not really interested in bromances with dictators like certain other people. I told my friend that although not my first choice, which would have been Whitmer, she was certainly the lesser of two evils.

We have a big problem in this country. People don't realize that Trump ginned up the economy with a tax cut and raised debt massively. If you cut revenue it has to be paid for somehow and Congress has never been able to pare anything down.

But people pay debt in the future not the present, so they just remember the good times with the Trump economy not the fact that others have to clean up the mess. Now Trump is calling for an additional tax cut, which will put us farther in debt. He says that it will all be offset by tariff revenue. 

Most economists think that this is a ridiculous notion. Morningstar believes that the 10% across the board tariff he is advocating along with further tax cuts will result in a decline in our economy.

We project a 1.4% decrease to the level of US real GDP in the case of the uniform tax hike, and we project a 0.5% decrease in the case of the China tariffs.

We expect a lower impact from the China tariffs because of the probability that many companies will dodge these tariffs by rerouting through third countries.

The probability-weighted impact of the Trump tariffs amounts to 0.13%, which we’re rounding up to a full 0.2% hit to our long-run GDP forecast. This reflects a higher likelihood of protectionist measures regardless of the party in power (as shown by the recent Biden administration tariffs on electric vehicles and other goods).

Higher tariffs unambiguously cause a reduction in real GDP and are often thought to increase inflation.

Trump had a masterful strategy when he aimed his sights on uneducated people without college educations. The Ignorance strategy. Have to go back to what Ken Kesey said, there will always be more stupid people around than smart ones.

Not sure how you fight that but making education and the educated the target of your ire was brilliant, worthy of Himmler and Goebbels and Goring. Not sure how you go against that.

Good luck America.

Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac - Drifting

Politics and demographics

Those of you interested in doing a deep dive into both politics and the nature of identity politics and ethnicity will enjoy reading this article by longtime republican political operative Mike Madrid. 

Titled Nobody in politics is able to say it; the truth about Latino Voters, the article is eye opening. It shows that the hispanic bloc is not monolithic and illustrates how demographics change as more and more generations of immigrant children get farther and farther removed from the parent country.

And that money is always the issue.

In an interview for the Playbook Deep Dive podcast, Madrid talked about his new book, The Latino Century, and laid out a breadcrumb trail for both Republicans and Democrats to win this decisive block of voters, who he believes are very much up for grabs this year.

In fact, the biggest problem with courting Latinos might be that politicians think of them strictly as an ethnic group in the first place.

“Minority voters are voting much more along economic class lines than they are as a race and ethnic voter,” Madrid said. “The party that is able to capture the hearts and minds of a multiethnic working class will be the dominant party of the next generation.”

And further:

So all we have to do is wait until the non-white population exceeds a certain number in places like Texas and Florida, and those states are going to turn blue. And of course, that didn’t happen.

I was there in the early 2000s saying, that’s not what’s going to happen, because it assumes ethnicity is static. It assumes racial construct is static. It assumes culture is static. But as we know, everything else doesn’t stay constant. The height of immigration in this country from Latin America was the year 2007. The political difference between a first- and second-generation Latino is a pretty big leap. The step from a second- to a third-generation Latino is tectonic. And so over the last ten years, we started to see dramatic growth in third- and now a discernible fourth-generation Latino voter. And so you will hear a lot of pollsters and pundits who watch this say the problem is with US-born Hispanic males. And it is. This is this rightward shift that is happening and it’s not happening incrementally. It’s exploding. This is the number that’s growing really fast at the time when the recently naturalized share of the vote is shrinking, it’s collapsing dramatically. Spanish speakers are diminishing. So who Latino voters are in Arizona, Nevada, even in North Carolina, certainly California, Texas, Florida — those are very, very different Latino voters.

Finally:

Latinos, U.S.-born Hispanic men specifically, are not going to college at rates faster than any other race or ethnic group. Those with college degrees are increasingly Asian and white in this country. Those without are Black and brown. The white share of the blue collar workforce is shrinking dramatically, as is the voter base. And minority voters are voting much more along economic class lines than they are as a race and ethnic voter. The party that is able to capture the hearts and minds of a multiethnic working class will be the dominant party of the next generation. The Democrats have had a real problem with the working class piece as the diploma divide has consolidated college-educated voters into their ranks. And what has happened as college-educated people have become more aligned with the Democratic Party is they’ve become a less diverse party.

The exact opposite is happening with the Republican Party and again, most of this is for cultural, educational and economic reasons, not racial reasons. And the Democratic Party’s whole heterodoxy is premised on the idea that if you’re nonwhite, you are needing the party and the government’s intervention to help you to either right past wrongs or assist you with a government program to help you economically. 

This line of thought is sobering and should be a wake up call.  It is obvious that the future of our country depends on the working class. Old identity politics will not work nearly as well in the new paradigm where divergent communities and voters are most concerned with their economic well being above all else.

I can only hope that other important matters like the environment, health and reproductive freedom are not shunted aside in the quest for the almighty dollar.

Popsicle time

It's really hot around here. Yesterday when I got into my car after work the gauge registered 114 degrees. 

It cooled down quite a bit, today was only one hundred.

 I don't have air conditioning in my store, will set me back around 7k to put a new unit on the roof. 

Leslie has one, says she needs two. 

I don't think I can spare the dough for my store.

I left early today, you just can't work when it is that hot. Did what I could do and split. Two fans at my desk to blow the hot air around.

After work I made a popsicle run to Major Market. 18 fudgesicles, six magnum dark and six organic grape. Should help us cool off for a while.

Little Wheel Spin and Spin

In Passing

Brett told me that Nan Breining has recently passed away. She had been struggling for a while. I thought I had taken pictures of everybody in town but I looked and I guess I didn't. The Kiwi transplant lived in one of the coolest places in Fallbrook, a home her late husband Mike's father built in the 1930's.

Now they are both gone.

Quite the couple, she will be missed.

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Wasn't all that long ago that her neighbor Paul Garrett passed as well. He was quite a character.

Moby Grape

This is a great song by the best Bay Area group that never really made it, Moby Grape. It was written and sung by guitarist Peter Lewis, who happens to be the son of the late actress Loretta Young. Great singer, great musician, as they all were.

When I asked the late Fillmore and Woodstock impresario John Morris why the grape never received the just acclaim they should have he said that they were assholes and their management people (Matthew Katz) were doubly assholes and intractable. But I think their harmonies are CSNY, Beach Boys good, top of the heap.

The bandmates had serious psychological problems, Spence and Mosley both institutionalized at some point.

...And I'm so grateful I'm
No longer willing
To have her home
I'm so grateful I'm
No longer willing
To have her home

Anyway this is a song about betrayal. Have you ever been betrayed? I have. I have never really written about my first marriage, it was quite painful. My ex was apparently sleeping with quite a few people at the time in Fallbrook, just not me.

Including the alarm guy, another "friend" I rode bikes with in the afternoon and shared my innermost with and a few other fellows. At least these are the ones I know about.

She was working at Glen Ivy doing massages back then. One day she came over to the house with a girlfriend and I told her that I knew she was sleeping with a lawyer up there after seeing a few strategic moves on her part. 

She blanched and turned white, accused me of following and stalking her. Truth was, it was just a wild guess, one that apparently hit right on the mark. Her friend turned into a rage filled beast, haven't spoken to her since either. But my ex wife had been sleeping with a lawyer there I found out later.

War started, I took off for Desert Storm and Israel three days later. Hoping to die, honestly. She sent me pictures of her tooling around cruising in a bikini top in my convertible, trying to make me angry and jealous. I came home six weeks later and she left forever soon thereafter.

Thank god.

I probably didn't have the strength to do it myself. To leave. This was thirty five years ago. Loving and taking care of someone that is only capable of returning hatred and betrayal is a terrible lesson. By the way, I have always been a faithful husband, for whatever that is worth.

Life got better for me and I presume it did for her. She took me for all she could financially, quite successfully. I severed all contact. Took a long time for me to rebuild my life. Infidelity is not a big deal for some people but it was for me and it also took me a long time for me to trust people again.

Live and hopefully learn.

9/5/24

I am probably one of the most conservative liberals you could ever encounter. I own firearms and believe in the second amendment (although not the right to possess machine guns, bazookas or flamethrowers) and also believe in a strong border policy that does not reward those that come into our country illegally and break our laws or otherwise victimize us.

I don't believe in giving free mortgages to illegal immigrants nor do I think we should give reparations to any citizens short of maybe Native Americans. It is a slippery slope when you start singling out groups for reparations because every group has been victimized somewhere down the line, from the Irish to the blacks to the Chinese.

It is a nonstarter.

One thing that bothers me is those on the left who deny the existence of foreign Latin gangs and cartels working in this country.

They clearly are.

This week three Columbians were arrested in Temecula after surveillance cameras they had installed were found to be tracking the comings and goings of private residents.

Three Colombian nationals were taken in custody on Tuesday on suspicion of using a hidden camera device to commit a burglary at a residence in the City of Temecula.

The investigation began on May 9, when Southwest Sheriff’s Station deputies, with the assistance of the Sheriff’s Hazardous Device Team, responded to a suspicious device call at a residence in the 42000 block of Drennon Court in the City of Temecula.

The investigation determined that the device planted in the yard was not an explosive but contained improvised video recording components, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators collaborated with other local law enforcement and federal agents to identify those responsible for staging the device. Investigators determined four suspects conspired to covertly place the recording device with the intent to commit burglary, according to the sheriff’s officials.

On September 3, a search warrant was executed in the 500 block of Catalina Avenue in the City of Los Angeles, where three of the four suspects, 28-year-old Hames Lopez-Granados, 38-year-old Dany Alejandro Aponte-Abaunza, and 27-year-old Jonathan Sierra-Rincon, were taken into custody and booked at the Cois Byrd Detention Center for conspiracy and burglary.

This sort of "burglary tourism" has been going on for the past several years.

Glendale Colombian Burglary Tourists

Did you read about the Venezuelan gang operating in Colorado? This is an interesting read as well. 

A Denver law firm, hired to look into an alleged gang takeover of an Aurora apartment building, says they found the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang began taking over the Whispering Pines Apartments in late 2023. Since then, the gang has engaged in violent assaults, threats of murder, extortion, strongarm tactics, and child prostitution as they have exerted a "stranglehold" on the Aurora apartment complex. That's according to a letter sent to Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, Aurora City Manager Jason Batchelor, and the interim police chief that was obtained by CBS News Colorado.

While some residents say the report is overstated, there is definitely something there. The issue of Latin cartels operating in our country is not new and hits home with me. My Glendale Show was cancelled after one of the dealers was followed home and robbed after a show at gunpoint by the cartel in a week in which there were approximately 162 similar incidents in Los Angeles. It is rampant there. And not helped by soft on crime District attorneys like Gascon.

The government has long known about the presence of Latin cartels operating in our country and the problem is only getting worse.

Encinitas has also experienced a rash of "Burglary tourism."

The recent break-ins aren’t the first time Encinitas and surrounding areas have had trouble with South American theft rings. In 2022, the sheriff’s department reported that a South American crime ring was behind a string of North County burglaries targeting affluent neighborhoods in Rancho Sante Fe, Del Mar, Encinitas, northern Poway and 4S Ranch.

According to the FBI, many thieves are believed to have entered the U.S. from South America, namely Chile, on a tourist visa as part of a visa waiver program. Under the program, citizens from 41 countries can visit the states for up to 90 days for tourism and business purposes.

Bleeding heart liberals who deny that any problem exists are not helping anything. You have to have your head in the sand to not see that these cartels are indeed operating and victimizing Americans. I am sickened by their presence here.

Fogerty

My friends Mary and Steve asked me if Leslie and I would be interested in seeing a concert down at the Rady Shell down by the convention center. John Fogerty was playing. Leslie couldn't make it so I asked Chip if he wanted to join me. I owed him because he gave me the great ticket a while back to the Eagles and Steely Dan.

I had never seen Fogerty before but have always been a huge fan of his music. I did see Creedence Clearwater Revisited once at the Del Mar Racetrack but that was the iteration with Elliot Easton on guitar. Not the same.

We drove to Steve and Mary's house and a driver picked us up and took us to the show. 

What a beautiful venue! 

The shell is bordered by water and boats on both sides, situated at the back of the Convention Center.

Very pleasing architecturally, excellent sound.

The show started with Fogerty's kids band playing Hearty Har. They were okay.

The crowd was sparse at that time but it filled out. Average age was definitely post medicare.

What I didn't realize was that George Thorogood was the second act and he was quite the pleasure, worked his ass off, a true professional.

He asked the crowd if they liked country and western music and when he received a vigorous applause, said that he didn't play that, he only played city and eastern.

He was a crack up and really delivered.

I was happy to spot my Fallbrook pals Linda and Peter in the crowd, had no idea they were coming!

Sun went down and things got prettier and prettier with a thin hangnail moon hanging out with Venus just over the horizon line and an errant sailboat occasionally sailing past.

I loved watching the colors change on the skyscrapers to our east.

Hands down my favorite venue in the area, although beer, wine or cocktails will set you back a minimum of twenty two bucks and t-shirts were fifty. 

I have no idea what the tickets cost but the place was pretty well heeled.

I made a new friend, asked the guy behind me if his mom knew he went out in his plaid pants and he got pissed and said they were Madras, whatever that is. 

His wife was beside him and sniffed that she had bought them for him. It was the end of our brief conversation and relationship.

I looked them up. Set you back about $150 and outré ugly but what do I know? He had a preppie polo shirt on too so he was definitely going for a  look.

What can I say, not like I am Mr. Blackwell or something... You could always join the circus?

Fogerty came on and killed it. I had forgot what a great guitar player he was but he hasn't lost a step. His voice was higher than I expected, age usually rounding out a voice and putting it into a lower octave.

Played everything you would want to hear:

The songs were all good and iconic and part of the American song fabric.

If I had to pick a favorite I would say, Have you ever seen the rain hit the spot pretty good.

It has always amazed me that a kid from El Cerrito or the East Bay could suddenly become the voice of the Louisiana delta and bayou but such is one of the miracles of our age.

He showed some nice Woodstock footage which hits home with me so soon after John Morris's memorial.

Talked about the joy he had in getting his songs back, which he says he was not allowed to perform while he was in the never ending litigation with his old label.

He owns them now.

I won't bore you with the exit details but getting home was a bear. There was a bridge jumper on the 163 and the 15 was a one way road through Escondido.

Finally made it. Thank you so much to my hosts Steve and Mary for giving us the tickets and to Chip for accompanying me.

Wednesday Potchke

Wagman gave me some crap at coffee this morning for the dearth of blog writing of late. "What's with all this music?"  Gee Steve, I guess I'm just not feeling it. Pardon me for my lack of inspiration. It is hot out and I have been trying to fix irrigation. Forgot that it was my job to provide.

But let me try to put something together...

This is Beth's horse Diamond who decided to visit me at the mailboxes.

RoxAnn and Mick met my favorite basketball coach, Brian Dutcher, at the Aztec football game and ratted me out for hating football.

*

I hear that the Hearth coffee shop is being sold again, for the umpteenth time. 

Home they don't throw my old group of reprobates out.

*

I made a killer omelette the other day.

I don't have a good picture but I will describe it to you.

It is modeled after the best omelette I have ever tasted, a tuna omelette at the Grand Hyatt in Poipu.

Our friends Linda and Peter gifted us some bluefin tuna, super fresh from a neighbor.

I quick seared the giant chunk the other night and we ate most of it but I left a sizable piece.

I heated up olive oil in my omelette pan and then added garlic, herbs and sun dried tomatoes and heated it up for a few minutes, sautéing it with the remaining bluefin. 

I have pretty crappy omelette technique but I added the concoction to the middle of the omelette with a healthy dash of a Mexican cheese blend. I thought that it was incredible. Leslie said it was fair, believing that I had not whisked the eggs properly. I can't wait to try it again.

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Ricardo in Thailand sent this:

New one on me. I remember the indigenous people well from my month in Bolivia. Again, skateboarding culture impresses. And these women certainly so so! Wonder how they handle the cobblestones I remember…….

Whatever happened to ... the Bolivian women who skateboard in Indigenous garb?

Skateboarding women of Bolivia wear Indigenous garb to pay homage to the strength of their mothers and grandmothers. Their motto: When you fall, you have the power to get back up.

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The whale that knew too much.

*

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It is amazing to me that Elon Musk is fighting for the right to spread lies, hatred and disinformation on his platform in the guise of "free speech." Bravo to Brazil for cutting him off, hope it is the first of many. Musk, the guy that accused the Thai cave rescuers of being pedophiles...

*

It also blows my mind that Mexico is mad because we captured their cartel leaders and never told them what we were doing. We didn't tell them because their leaders are obviously in the cartels' pocket. They would have blown the whistle faster than hell. Screw these people bringing meth and fentanyl into our country.

*

A friend told me that he really enjoyed the Deadpool, Wolverine movie, in fact he saw it twice. I took Leslie the other day. Uh, bad move, not just sophomoric and juvenile, try two hours of your life you will never get back. Ouch.

*

I didn't know Steve Silberman, the writer who passed away recently. 

Odd because we are the same age and both hung around the Dead at the same time. 

Don't think I ever ran into him.

But I always respected his intelligence and scholarship and would have loved to know him.

He was a longtime writer for Wired and did pioneering work on the neo divergent community. 

He was also a teaching assistant to Allen Ginsburg at Naropa Institute. 

I think that we have lost one of the best ones.

Poor Boys Long Way From Home

Lesley Duncan

Read the news today, oh boy!

 

30 seconds of dumb airplanes at ƒ2.8

 

Stranger Pays for Everything in China’s Most Futuristic City

Six Blade Knife

Fear and loathing in Anza Borrego

The plan was to go out to the desert with Kip and Dave and Henry and look at the stars with his big old telescope. 

I would take some milky way shots and brush up on my astrophotography technique. 

But everybody had other plans and Kip bailed.

I probably should have bailed as well but I am stubborn and once I say I am going to do something it is hard to get me off the track. 

I would go by myself.

The location was in Little Blair Valley, way out there past the Great American Overland Stage Route. 

Astronomers like to to visit the place because it is the darkest spot in our area and perfect for viewing the stars.

I had never been there before, although I have been visiting Anza Borrego since my earliest teenage years.

I like the desert but I have had some very hair raising and near death experiences out there, not to mention some very psychedelic and heavy ones.

I am a person famous for my lack of preparation but had the sense to at least get a few things assembled in case things went bad. I went to Ace and bought a new flashlight. I threw a blanket and folding chair in the back of my Mazda. I bought food and a spare gallon and a half of water. Put new batteries in my intervalometer. Filled the car with gas.

Thought about a shovel in case I got stuck but never followed through.

I told a few people, including my wife, where I was going and to come look for me if I wasn't back by Monday morning. "Little Blair Valley, repeat that."

Kip had given me directions and that was a good thing because cell service was mostly dead out there. Hour and a half trip out there but things didn't seem right. I finally got through to Kip and he said I seemed to be in the right place.

I was worried because the sand looked extra deep. My memories of being stuck in the riverbed at Jemez Peak were fresh in my mind. Was out there for hours before being discovered and the cost of payment to the Navajo man who got me out with a chain was rather high. 

Kip said he had no trouble with his suv. Hmmm... I found a young couple in the area and asked them if I was in the right place and they had no idea where Little Blair Valley was? I was in Blair Valley, big difference.

I finally got through to my friend and sent him a location marker. He confirmed that I had missed the small stake in the road and overshot my quarry.

I backtracked back to the highway and retraced my steps until I found the right turnoff.

I drove about a mile on the dirt road and noticed a surfeit of cactus and cholla surrounding my car.

I was certainly not wearing the right shoes. 

Idiot. 

Had a cholla go through my sole once, never want to do that again. 

Something to remember.

I drove past my intended destination, there being little there there, in Blair, but eventually found a place overlooking the dry lake to setup and wait for darkness.

The rock wrens serenaded me, the odd bipedal interloper and the black throated sparrows also came in for a closer look.

It was pretty and I was alone. I saw one lone car disappear into the horizon the entire day. Nothing to do but wait for three hours until the sun went down. Never got cooler than 95° all night.

Unfortunately my camera gear was not optimal for the situation. 

My favorite Rokinon 14mm had committed suicide in the car under elevation change a few years ago and the 12mm replacement was a fisheye that didn't really do the job as I visualized it.

Oh well, as I always say, never let the perfect be the enemy of the good, do the best job you can with what you have.

It was certainly pretty out there.

Dusk came and I settled back in my chair and waited for the star show to start.

I switched around from the fisheye to my 24-70mm 2.8. It was hard to find infinite focus in the total blackness, there being no moon in the sky. I forgot the mirror up mode and disabling the electronic curtain so that I would lessen shutter slap. This would be a learning expedition and next time I will hopefully have it all dialed in again.

I could nitpick them to death, as usual. Thirty seconds exposure time was too long, some of the stars are blotchy. I dialed it down. The fish eye is soft on the edges. I was forced to just point it up blindly in the sky and see what I could capture.

But I will take them. It was fun, the air was clean, silence was total. Milky Way seemed creamier than usual. Better luck next time.

Could have been a lot worse...

And then it was.

I got lost leaving. It was pitch black and there were no visual references. I took every wrong trail I could find trying to get out. The petroglyph trail, the pictograph trail, the road that said no through trail. Could not locate the damn exit door.

I drove each possible route out and ended up in some really dicey situations, bridged, bottomed out, sliding. I could find a spot to hang out for morning light and retrace my steps but I was getting really frustrated.

And I realized that I had forgotten my blood pressure pills and I never miss the Losarten. Should keep some in the car for this kind of situation but I am evidently not smart enough to. Would hate to miss a night of my heart medication.

I wouldn't say panic set in but I was bumming. Never know when you are due for that "long night of the soul" but you surely know when it has arrived.

It was at this moment that my pandora offline station decided to come back on and I heard Jerry Garcia's dulcet ode, Comes a time. "Comes a time when the blind man takes your hand and says don't you see..."

I was having the bad trip I had come for and I wasn't even tripping, not even a joint in the car.

The desert has always been the place where I have confronted my innermost demons and stared my soul in the face. The Pinyon flats near death experience. Meeting St. Luke in Aguanga and he writing me a message in the sky in fiery letters, a message that I apparently promptly forgot. This is after I had the long commune with the coiled rattlesnake. It is a wonder what those purple dragons allowed to come out of the box?

What can I tell you? I eventually found a way out of my sandy morass. Thank the lord although I was never in any real danger. But I was tired and still had a couple hours drive back. Accidentally slid across San Felipe road once. If a cop had seen it I would have been drunk tested for sure but it was pure exhaustion. 

Finally made it home near midnight.

Will I do it again? Alone? You bet I will. You have to hit me over the head a couple times before I smarten up and get the message.

Hopefully next time I won't get lost.

Enjoy the pictures. I had to work for them.

I went to Ace this morning and returned the flashlight. A cheap four buck LED model that I found in the checkout line. From China. It only worked occasionally, if you shook it.

A few birds...

 

Common Yellowthroat

Reddish egret

Peregrine falcon

Yellow headed blackbird

Peregrine

Barn owl with nictitating eye shades