I sent thomas away

I'm safely home. Dys's "I'm wearing a bomb" sticker didn't do any harm. The only thing that happened was that three plain-clothes CIA officers approached me with job applications. Torturing us terrorists isn't as fun as it used to be anymore, so they were interested in switching sides, see some action again. I told them to me their resumes to the Al Quaeda's HR department. (We're a corporation now, after hiring McKinsey to consult us about our efficiency. Maybe you didn't know this about us.) So yes, mac 11, the trip was basically uneventful.

Thanks for the compliments, everyone. I'm flattered you chose my picture as your background image, dlowan!

Sglass -- no I didn't see any ghosts in Chaco Canyon. They probably fled from me, and now I'm haunting them in their nightmares. I'm curious to see Merry Andrew's pictures.

Thanks for the identifications, Osso! Yes, I flew from Albuquerque to Dallas to La Guardia.

Buttrflynet: Thank you for the links! Although I suspect I'll eventually end up somewhere in the North East or in Silicon Valley, New Mexico would definitely be a very nice place to live and work!

Happy to have you thomas. The anytime offer remains in effect.

Rest up for Raleigh now, Thomas. Only one month away!!

I never liked Thomas or Squinney, but if I could I would join them.

squinney
Thomas mentioned your little shindig. A fellow in my hometown used to put one on every summer at his farm. Several hundred people rain or shine, lots of professional musicians with a good covered stage and amps that went to 11. I'd love to come but likely won't be able to. Hope you have a wonderful day or days.

i have no desire to attend, I never like steve, I plan on washing me hair that week.

You're wasting your time. A simple five second spray with Raid House and Garden handles anything critical.

He booked Spinal Tap?

In Oz, we call that pink thing pig-face. I have no idea what it's real name is. Guess I could look it up - I have some of the textbooks.

The knobbly tree does look like a melaleuca, although the bark doesn't appear exactly papery. See quite a few like that in the drier areas of the country. Not sure which particular type. If you had a flower I could check.

I don't think it's a melaleuca, though I don't know every melaleuca. I still need to do a search..


Pig face!!! Ha....

Thomas agreed that I could be his "American" mother. Trouble is, my two birth sons live in New Haven and Miami, which means that all three of my "sons" are on the east coast. Sigh.

Thomas is adorable and one of the best house guests we've ever had. He has also inspired me to get in shape so that I can hike at least part way with him along the trails near Gallegos Park in the Sandia foothills, when he comes back.

Our cat, Dante, made almost immediate friends with Thomas, which is a record. Sally dog's adoration of Thomas wasn't unusual, as she is a rather indiscriminate party girl, but she can quickly pick the good guys.

It is safe to say that Butrflynet, Osso and I don't like Thomas even more than dys doesn't like him. He's good company, funny, adventurous...it's easy to understand why no one likes him.

Maybe you will wind up on one of the coasts, Thomas, but there are so many physicists and scientific facilities here in New Mexico that, with Butrflynet's research skills, you might yet find a job here. We all hope...

Silicon Valley?

That doesn't sound good.

Can't you end up in Manhattan?

People grow it by the sea.

It's too kind of fluorescent for me...though as Australia appears to be disappearing into permanent drought, I may have to get over my dislike if I ever want to see a flower again.

I'd be delighted to have Thomas here, but also think the northeast US and silicon valley area would be wonderful. Silicon valley is adjacent to some of my favorite parts of California, almost too many to list.

Margo, thanks for your tip.

Osso, thanks for the compliment.

dlowan, why does Silicon Valley sound bad to you? It's a beautiful place, about 1.5 hours from some of the best vineyards in the world. And it's "silicon" as in microchips, not "silicon" as in fake boobs. So I don't see the problem.

On the East Coast, I could end up anywhere between Boston and Atlanta, the distribution's center of gravity being somewhere near New York. Manhattan is possible, but not too likely. That's where the corporate headquarters are. Research, development, and related functions tend to be in the suburbs -- Long Island or Sopranoland. The same is true for all other population centers on the East Coast.

Okay, it's past time to make a dent into those Chaco Canyon pictures. I'll start with the road leading to Chaco Canyon, which is itself an adventure. The following picture gives an impression of what it looks like. It's not Great Photography (TM) but it illustrates three relevant features : 1) The road is unpaved, and will turn into sludge when it rains. That's why Osso was worried about me. 2) The area is very remote and lonely. 3) The road is empty: The truck on this picture is the only vehicle I met on the 30 miles after getting off US 550.



Well, maybe it's not totally lonely. Evidently there sometimes is livestock on the road.



As you look left and right, you are beginning to see one of the features that will become prominent once you reach Chaco Canyon: Rocks in bizarre, fascinating shapes.



Sometimes the rocks have strange color patterns on them. I originally took that picture because I liked the cow at the bottom-right. But looking at the background, I could swear I see a large, almost washed-away painting of people standing around. But Dys assures me this is just an artifact of the rain and the wind messing with the rocks.



After a few more rocks ...



... one reaches the entrance of the park, where the road is paved again.



I close this part with a look back from the entrance. It doesn't contain too much new information in this picture, but I like its abstractness, the arrangement of the various straight lines in it.

Oooh, good photos.

Looks a lot like some of the landscapes and odd rock formations I saw on my drive between Phoenix and ABQ. I didn't have a good enough camera with me to be able to capture much detail and have it look like anything but a few humps in the desert. There were more than a few times that I didn't see anyone else on the road in either direction between gas stops. I think that was partly due to it being the weekend when I drove. During the week, there is probably a higher volume and frequency of traffic.


That first rock formation photo looks like the profile of a pig.

And that second one looks like the beginning stages of someone carving the profile of the Sphinx into the side of the mountain.

Some amazing works of natural art resulted from thousands of years of wind, ice and water in this area.

Ya did good. I really appreciate the photographs all you travelers share. I get to see details of places I wouldn't otherwise get to experience.

No artifact; that's really a cow.

Thomas,

This might be of interest to you:

Univ. of NM: Geologic History of New Mexico