Michigan....once again

I Received a call Friday morning from the home office, beckoning me too Ludington, Michigan. Of course, they wanted me there now. There were no flights out of Baton Rouge so I booked a 5:20 pm out of NOLA and enlisted the aid and truck of my brother-in-law for the trip to the airport.

It never entered my mind to check road conditions and 10 miles south, we found the interstate shut down due to flooding from Sorrento to LaPlace. I called DOTD asking about closures and the nice lady told me that I-10 and even I-55 was closed so we hooked back to Baton Rouge then took I-12 toward Covington & the Causeway. I found out too late that 55 from Hammond to LaPlace was not closed.

After rerouting back on I-12, we ran into congestion such as you could not imagine on an interstate. Realizing I would not make my flight, I called in and changed it to a 6 a.m. Saturday morning out of New Orleans.

Four hours later, we arrived at the airport

To shorten this tale, lights were still out near the airport rendering all the hotels nearby out of business, so I elected to camp out in the world's most uncomfortable seating currently available in US airports to wait for the sun to rise and an airport coffee shop to open.  The stores and shops close early at MSY so I managed to grab an overpriced shrimp poboy before everything shut down.

It seemed like every 10 minutes some maintenance guy would roll a cart through making lots of noise or one of the cops would sail through on a 3 wheeled scooter and key his little Micky-Mouse siren, so there wasn't much sleeping going on. 

I may be getting too old for this nonsense.

Au revoir, Isaac

but I can't say "come again".

Hurricane Isaac finally came and went and is busy providing to drought stricken Arkansas and southern Missouri.  Speculation was that it could come on land, slow down and dump massive amounts of water on us for a 2 or 3 day period.  For some, that was the case but for me personally,  it was relatively mild.  For some, things did not work out so well.  

Wind damage for our area was limited, although my son lost a tree in his front yard and there were a few fences and roof shingles blown around.  The worst part around us was the rising water, particularly in historic flooding places.  Now that it's gone, there are areas that will have to contend with rising waters from the run-off that will fill the bayous and rivers flowing into the diversion canals of Lake Ponchatrain.

Electrical service for many of us went out Wednesday morning and some as late as early evening.  Those of us who have generators quickly absorbed friends and families that did not have them.  Our power was restored 24 hours later but as of this writing, Friday morning, there some who are still in the dark. 

Prior to Isaac coming ashore, most families went into to hurricane mode by stocking up on food, batteries, water and essentials.   As early as Monday afternoon, any kind of bread except Sunbeam white bread had been cleared from many grocery shelves as well as certain brands of milk.  Many canned goods that required no preparation other than opening the can disappeared.  The same was for beer.

Rising water was not a primary fear for us personally but concerns about blowing rain at our front door caused us to seek out sand bags.  The parish government set up sandbagging points around the area so Darlene and I found ourselves at the Dutchtown Fire Department filling a few bags for our own purposes.  Feeling like there was little more we could or should do to prepare for the storm, we found ourselves volunteering to help others who seemed a bit more desperate.  Most of the volunteers at the fire station were members of the the volunteer fire department so two old geezers who were helping others in the hot humid sun was somewhat of a novelty to the firefighters.

Realizing this might be a good way to teach our nieces/god-daughters the value of community service and love for others, Darlene called them and told them "Pop" would be at their house in 10 minutes.  Figuring I would not be well received when I picked them up, I was pleasantly surprised when they arrived at the bagging point and went right to work without so much as a groan.  Darlene and I, as well as the community were very proud of them for doing their part.

 When Isaac finally arrived, we were fortunate enough not to be close to waters that would rise and the force of the rains and winds hit primarily on one side of the house and the front which allowed us to sit on the screened back porch and pass the time watching the rain and discuss a broad range of topics.  The girls watched movies, played video games and slept.  With eight of us holding up in the storm, we never seemed to get on each others' nerves to any large degree.

This being Friday, everyone but me is back to work while I watch over 3 girls who still are sleeping late.

Yeeeeeeee.....haaaa!!!

I've been in Alamogordo for four months now and any assignment, good or bad, has to end.  Due to news I've heard from the home office, this could very well be my last weekend here.  However, that's not a definite.

This is the Otero County Fair weekend and I'm a fan of fairs, especially in small towns where everyone tries to get involved.  Aside from the usual handicrafts, jellies and photos there's the livestock competitions.  For anyone never going to one like this, they have missed out on all the elements involving the senses.  Temperatures have cooled some but this place is dry so when there is any movement,  the dust is stirred and hangs in the air.   With that and the smoke from barbeques, there is a light haze over everything.

As for smells, it's a unique combination of the charcoal smoke and the livestock.  Every other ride has music blaring, bingo callers yelling "G 19!", pigs squealing, chickens squawking and throngs of unlovely people laughing and talking.

My particular interest was the rodeo so I climbed up into the bleachers and sat on some of the hardest wood I've had my backside on in years.  As I sat around a wide mixture of young and old, I could hear part of conversations begin in English, merge into local Spanish and back again into English. I suppose that's Spanglish.

As for the rodeo itself, it was run by a small rodeo company that provided the bucking bulls, horses and calves.  It was complete with two rodeo clowns that cracked some of the most corny politically incorrect comments and jokes I've heard in ages.  I loved it.

Enough with the ramblings.  Here's some pictures.  Clicking on the photos will enlarge them some.

The usual Ferris wheels and rides

 

The Merry-Go-Round had seen better days

 Rodeo Queens (also contestants)

 Saddled Bronc Busters

Some went the full 8 seconds

Women's Calf Roping

 

Bareback

Then there were the Bull Riders

I'm pretty certain there were no qualifications in this.

At any rate, it was a very pleasant evening and everyone

had a good time.......except maybe for some of the horses, 

calves and bulls.

Birds and Bees Weekend

There's not much story to tell, other than riding around hoping to take pictures of smaller things this weekend.

The first part was Friday afternoon south of town at a local state park, where I was continually watching for rattlesnakes.  Thinking (maybe my imagination was going wild)  I heard a light rattle, I changed directions and in doing so, a large Jackrabbit hopped across the trail and scared me.  I believe I've seen deer that size in south Texas.  Anyway, the only slinking thing I positively saw was a couple of lizards.

In a small cluster of flowers, there were quite a bit of honey bees gathering pollen.

Saturday afternoon, I rode up into the mountains east of town near Sunspot.  Way out in the boondocks, I was attracted to a small waterfall near where a group of ATV enthusiasts were camping.  This time, I figured if I fell off the side of the thing, somebody might be able to rescue me.

The best part of the whole thing was a patch of gypsum weeds and thistles growing in the delta of the falls.  Dozens hummingbirds of a couple of different varieties battled for the choice flowers.  I was totally absorbed it it and shot birds until it was really too dark to be doing so.

All of these pictures were taken with a Nikon D7000 with a Tamron 60mm prime lens.  As for the bird pictures, I was not able to get very close so most of the pictures have been cropped from a larger shot, as much as 400%.

Here's a few.

 

 

 

I am not sure what this was.  It was much larger than the Hummers 

and looked quite a bit like a parakeet.

 

 

 This is not a bird but some kind of huge insect.

 

As I mentioned before, dark came much earlier than I wanted, so I left and drove slowly, being careful not to hit any of the several deer that stood on the edge of the road.

Beautiful sundowns as usual.

 

Allons Danser

Still a little displaced because of a certain lending institution dragging it's feet in processing a loan for our home buyers, I took a little break this morning and spent a little time at the downtown Baton Rouge Redstick Market.

It's somewhat of a farmers' market where local growers sell fresh garden items as well as a few artisans presenting their work.

Aside from the jellies, cucumbers and tomatoes, there were other good eats as well.  Music filled the air with the regular zydeco musician playing for tips near the entrance.













Some of the natives seemed to be peaceful enough, even dancing at times.

 

This afternoon, we mowed and trimmed the lawn of the new one.  I would take a picture but I just don't want to jinx the progress. Complete carpet cleaning tomorrow.

Hopefully, we will be able to close on both the selling of our old house as well as the one we are buying within the next week.

Beautiful day in the neighborhood

OK, I'm gonna have to 'fess up here.  A couple of weeks ago, I may have overdone it a bit climbing around in the canyons, causing an old knee injury to reappear.  That with the added stress of moving this past weekend rendered me down to virtually incapable of getting around without the aid of a cane.  However, with the aid of some nice meds from my doctor back in Baton Rouge, the swelling has significantly dropped but there is a little pain left.

That being said, sitting around in the hotel room is pretty boring.   Looking out the window and seeing the mountains to the east, I thought maybe I could ride up to Sunspot and perhaps see some wildlife along the way.

I did just that but larger animals were elusive today and saw only flowers, birds, bees and the occasional squirrel along some of the small roads.

Today, I decided to be amazed at God's creations in macro mode.

Bigger is not always better, especially looking up close at some of the flora.

Moving

For whatever reasons, good, bad or just for the desire to change neighborhood, we are on the move again.

It's pretty much a lateral move, being in the same area of Ascension Parish.  Even though it's probably a higher quality home and just a few square feet larger, I still consider it a lateral move.

We put a lot of work in the one we're moving from and it may be a while before the new digs measure up in appearance to the old one.

Nevertheless, I can't help but have the feeling of being detached.  We have not completely closed on the home we are selling and do not have an exact date for the closing for the new one.  The person who we plan on buying from (as soon as we can close on the deal) has generously offered to let us store our belongings in the carport of the new home, so we have mountains of boxes stacked on furniture at the new address waiting on the call from the title company to tell us when we can close.  Since I am working away all the time, the burden of packing up has been on the shoulders of my wife.

So, with a slight feeling of detachment, we are temporarily housed at our daughter and son-in-law in Baton Rouge and hope we can get everything settled very soon.

My Secret Is Out....

...I'm not 21 anymore. 

It looks like my tenure in New Mexico may be coming to an end and this could be my last weekend here for a while.  No promises but there are elements out there that are pointing in that direction.

So, to take in the a few more sights, I drove up toward Ruidoso Saturday just to see anything that might spark my interests.

About half way up, passing through the Indian Village of Mescalero, I happened up on a local parade celebrating something of what I know not.  I stopped for a while to look but unfortunately, wasn't able to get close enough before the parade was over.

Sunday afternoon found me out scouting for sights again when I remembered someone telling me about some waterfalls in the canyon going up to Cloudcroft.

With a backpack full of extra water, some emergency supplies and my camera, I gingerly made my way down the edge of the canyon.  The canyon was about 250 feet deep and 300 feet wide with sharp cliffs  along the way.  On the side next to the road, there was more of an opportunity to crawl down and many people had done so.

I emailed (GPS enabled) a cell phone photo of the back of my rental car to my brother, telling him to send the calvary if I didn't call or text him back in 2 or 3 hours, then started descending.  I won't say this was mountain climbing but the grade was loose small rocks that slipped from under my feet, making me grab larger boulders and small trees on the way down and use my tripod as a walking staff.

Getting to the bottom a small stream flowed over the rocks causing several little waterfalls.  It was cool there and gave quite a relief from the 100° temperatures down in the basin.  I snapped a few photos and talked to a few young people who came down as well.

Within 30 minutes, I felt a few drops of rain and noticed the clouds darkening and thought being in a narrow canyon might not be the best place to be. 

The trip up was entirely different than coming down.   Now, the backpack seemed twice as heavy and the rock that I had slid on coming down, now required crawling up on all fours.  It had taken me 20 minutes to get down but now, I was stopping every 5 minutes to catch a breath in the 6,000 ft altitude.

Others had started coming up too and teenage boys scrambled past me trying to get to their cars before the rain and lightening became worse.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped to let my pounding heart catch up, catch a breath and ponder what in the world made me think going down there was a good idea.  At one point, I sat and pondered what I would do if I could not continue and no one else came along.  The cell phone showed no signal available and the ground was not flat enough to sleep on.

Finally, I mustered up enough energy to get to the top where I sat in the car for a good 10 minutes with the air conditioner blowing hard while I recovered.

I confess, the reason it was hard on me was,

•  I'm not in shape, 
• the altitude was 6,000+ and........
•  I'm just not 21 years old anymore.

Beer!

There probably is no difference in the taste but I found that the names of some of the beer found in the grocery store, reflected the local lore in the names.

Something for everyone.

A wink and nod at Alamogordo (Spanish for Fat or Big Cottonwood).

Here's one for Roswell and it's alien reference.

One for the guys at the state penitentiary

and we can't forget the Mormon influence.  Why just have one?