old Taos

Witnessing New Mexico

old Ford F-150 in the snow

Tropical compared to today

The image is only two days old. Last night it snowed twice that much, well over half a foot on the lee side of the rocky hill we call a driveway. Today was mostly sunny and cold, really cold, in the teens until almost noon. (It’s 12 °F as I write, an hour before midnight.) [...]

Last Winter on the Hill

old Taos adobe

Quiet windless days before the storm

One way or the other, that is a true statement. I’ve learned more about myself and this old place than I can stand, and when the love of my life asks me whether she’s going to die here, we are definitely out of bounds. My answer was of course, “I certainly hope not!”—and now to [...]

New Mexico Woodpile

wood pile scene in Taos, New Mexico

Cow shoulder blade voodoo thing in background

Believe it or not, there are two cords in there. The pile is twice as long as it is high, and you’re looking at it from the end. “Mixed wood,” $180 a load, mostly red fir and just a little green. That’s five dollars less than I was paying for naturally dry five hundred year [...]

Hammerhead

old Taos scene

Abandoned (?) neighbors’ house beyond

My God, it’s like I never saw this path before! How long have I lived here, a dozen years? And my wife for ten? But it’s never resonated as a symbol until now. Remembering the track my grandmother scuffed across the carpet in her thick old lady shoes, walking from the bathroom to her chair, [...]

The Taos Crack

crack in windshield

Reflection is a rubber gila monster and a cow’s vertebra on the dash (out of view)

Everything was fine, and then the unseen rock or midnight BB gun. It sneaks up on you, you know. Year upon year. The things you tolerate, get used to. First there was a little chip, regrettable but part of the experience. This one formed a tiny cross one winter, little cuts of light into the [...]

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