Before I’d even passed the Iowa state trooper on the shoulder, I could see his wheels begin to roll. We’d barely started out from Osceola early under a wet gray sky and I was doomed. The road was wide, smooth, and empty. Apparently I’d flown over the crest of a hill at seventy miles per [...]
Llano Quemado
Volcanoes on the horizon »Buy This Photo!«
I always say it’s the air, right? Well, it’s true. Here’s what it looks like. Monsoonal skies all afternoon long. Cloudy, cool—near 70°F—with rain falling overhead (according to the radar) that never touches the ground. Hasn’t yet today at this location, anyway. Very quiet, too. There’s a rodeo in town. Is that where everyone is? [...]
Late night visitor in Llano Quemado
I was sitting at my desk late the other night when something started bonking against the window. That would be this fellow here. With a wingspan of about five and a half inches, the polyphemus moth does make quite a commotion on the window glass. This is one big moth, ladies and gentlemen. I suggest [...]
Best day I’ve had in years, and nothing happened
Mainly, it’s so damn lush. I haven’t seen it like this in any of the sixteen years we’ve been here. Everything in the photo except the blue flax flowers is just the natural stuff. There’s tall, sturdy grass with waist-high seed heads all around the house. I love the way it looks waving in the [...]
After the rain had gone »Buy This Photo!«
All morning long I cleaned. First I backed the truck down the driveway, almost to the front door. I needed to empty the back and re-arrange the contents—boxes of family artifacts from my late Aunt Mary’s house in Maine, the “truck box” (tow chains, jumper cables, tools, rope, lug wrench), the carton the microwave came [...]
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