My Dad

Just a quick thought...

I don't have a lot of personal pictures of my dad. We have some old ones on the wall here in our home, and I have a bunch of his 75th birthday party but that is about it. One day recently I found this program called "Lost Photo" which scans your hard drive and finds photos that are not in the usual places and I came across this photograph. I worked on it a bit and posted it to Facebook. I like it because it is 3 generations in one shot. Here are the color and the B&W version of it.

Tears...

In my last post, I mentioned telling you about an experience at the Lake Valley Cemetery. The graves are on the opposite side of the main road past the ghost town and a friend mentioned that it was a necessity to see it. Many old gravestones including Lake Valley residents who died in the Civil War are there. The approach road was a bit difficult to drive and as we turned onto it, we could see a rather large group of people in the cemetery. At first I thought it was some kind of tour but when we got closer we realized it was something else.

This group was a family, an extended family, and they were standing and sitting near a grave site. In the middle was an older, hispanic man, sitting in a chair and playing the guitar. As we parked, the group, which include this man and his wife, several other adults and a number of younger children, began to move toward the exit. This older man walked right next to our car and I could not resist talking to him, asking him who he was singing to. I am going to put the next part in quotes just to represent that these were his words. They are not exact. He spoke with a fairly thick accent which made him difficult to understand at times but I believe that I got the gist of what he was saying. He began…

“I was playing for my father. He lived in Lake Valley his entire life. For the last several years we, my family, have come to his grave on Memorial weekend. I play him some of his own songs that were his favorites. Then I played some of his songs that were my favorites. He was blind the last 15 years of his life but he still liked to play and write songs that he sung to us. He used to use a cassette recorder to tape his songs for us so that we will always have them. Now we are headed to Hillsboro for a family reunion.”

At this point, his wife stepped in and in true New Mexico fashion, invited us to attend the reunion with them. She was holding one of her grandchildren as she talked to us. Here was present a 3 generation family remembering their patriarch, inviting us to be a part of it.

I was moved, so moved that I needed a couple of minutes to gather myself before leaving. I couldn't go into the cemetery to take any pictures because I felt like I would be trespassing on their memorial. Besides, my eyes were watery and I never would have been able to focus the camera.

When we got to Hillsboro, we were driving around and stumbled upon the the high school on the end of one of those horrible roads. The families’ 3 cars that were at the cemetery, were there, along with several others. We did not go to the reunion, I felt that we would be trespassing on their memories. Besides they had already given me a great deal.

A Sunday Drive

I have mentioned in the past that growing up, our family had the tradition of the Sunday Drive and that we continue this even still to this day. Here (http://penguindroppings.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-sunday-drive.html and http://penguindroppings.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-sunday-drive-part-2-city-of-rocks.html I mention our drives to Deming and City of Rocks. Well, recently we packed up some water, doggie treats, doggies and headed out for a day trip to Lake Valley, NM. Our primary goal was to see the ghost town there but we ended up seeing, feeling and experiencing a lot more. Let me explain.

After a quick highway drive to Hatch, where the 10 am line for green chile cheeseburgers was already outside the door, we got off the beaten path and drove some less travelled paths to Lake Valley. We passed a large solar energy farm and then came to a wind farm. I was not aware that these were here so it was a nice feeling to see some renewable energy being created.

When we arrived at Lake Valley, it was impossible to miss the ghost town, situated on the side of some small hills, presenting itself to the road. We went inside the gate and proceeded to drive around. Before leaving, we made a stop at the Lake Valley cemetery and had an experience which I will detail in my next post.

(Photographers note: This is a nice place for picture making but it is difficult to do so with two dogs in the car who would jump out and wander if given the chance and who would bark at everything that moves - people, leaves, birds, dust, etc. Thus I only took a few pictures which I will post at the end of this piece.)

We then continued on our way up to Hillsboro, taking a nice drive on a winding, hilly (Mrsfabp’s favorite type) road, where we saw lots of nice springtime desert flowers. 

Upon arrival there, I was in for a bit of a shock. Yes, it is a small town, I expected that. Yes there was not much going on, I expected that. Outside of Main Street, the roads there were treacherous. That I didn’t expect. Main street is paved but that is the only pavement in town. We drove some of the side streets to see some of the ruins there but the roads themselves were ruins. I doubt ancient Rome’s roads were worse. These Hillsboro roads (and I use that word loosely) were rut filled, hilly, rock strewn disasters. A 4 wheel drive would have been more appropriate that a PT Cruiser. It was amazing to say the least.

The day was winding down, we were hungry and so a stop at Sparky’s in Hatch was in order. When we arrived, the line was out the door and around the corner of the parking lot. But that did not stop us. We ordered and waited...and waited...and waited but it was all worth it when our number was called and the food delivered. We grabbed it and went to a local park where we feasted on green chile cheeseburger, pulled pork burrito and green chile cheese fries. The fries were loved by man and dogs alike.

A quick drive home and our day’s adventure was complete.

Now some photographs:

Old schoolhouse, now the Lake Valley Museum

Old building foundation

Lizard Rock up behind the schoolhouse

All Aboard!

I like trains, no doubt about it. As a kid we used to take the subway into NYC. We had a train set in our basement that provided many hours of fun. When we had our own children we took them on many train rides - Conway NH and Lancaster PA to name a couple. When we first moved to New mexico, one of our early highlights was taking the Rail Runner Express up thru Albuquerque to Santa Fe. I like trains.

Recently when taking a couple of photography classes, the professor mentioned an abandoned Southern Railyard up in Hurley, NM, near Silver City. When we planned a little getaway to Silver City, a stop in Hurley was a necessity, which we did.

First, a couple of notes about Hurley. There was/is a town in Wisconsin named Hurley, a mining town. Well it seems that many of the inhabitants decided back in beginning of the 20th Century to move to New Mexico because of the new industry there, copper mining. They settled in a small community, one square mile in size, and worked the mines. And yes, there in an abandoned railroad repair yard there.

We visited the town for a couple of hours and I took a set of pictures. They are in black and white because I felt that this lent itself to the feelings of abandonment and solitude so prevalent there. Hope you enjoy them.

Yard station

Two abandoned engines

Shock spring - the yard was strewn with them

Cooling vents

Drive wheels and engines

Old water tower

A New Start

When January rolls around, there is sometimes a sense of nostalgia for the good old days. I wonder if it is part of the mourning the passage of time, or fear of the unknown or just another Hallmark Moment that has been ingrained into society’s psyche. None the less, January 1st came and went and Las Cruces life for this northeastern transplant has become busier and busier, with a side of medical mischievousness thrown in.

At this point, I have taken on the role of Photography Club President. I have a really good board behind me and a really good club in front of me. My task however is a bit of a difficult  one. In one word, it is CHANGE. When I joined back in May of 2012 we had about 50 members. Since then we have tripled that number. We are looking to become a not for profit organization which will require a bit of work, including rewriting bylaws and procedures, drafting a budget and planning for the new year. One goal I set for myself was to increase the club’s exposure in the community and we have been hard a work about that (more on that effort later). We even have changed our name from Camera Club to Photography Club.

In actually, all this is a lot of fun for me. I earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work like 200 years ago but never really used the organizational, leadership and policy skills I learned in the jobs I had. Now however, they come in very handy. Everything from putting together a symposium to running a regular meeting falls under that umbrella.

Speaking of umbrellas, life always throws us a couple of storms to see how we handle adversity, stress and unexpected changes and January for me was filled with storms, medical ones. In late December I had some minor (haha) surgery, a vein ablation, to help with swelling in my leg. Well, it immediately got infected and the merry-go-round started with my going to the Wound Clinic here in town. It seemed to be improving size wise but there also was an inordinate amount of drainage (I will go no further in description lest the TMI police issue me a summons ((TMI = too much information))). In digging further (pun intended) the doctor found a large abscess under the wound and doing a culture found a highly resistant bacteria. A referral to an infectious disease doctor identified this as a bacteria that is resistant to every and all oral antibiotics known to man. At this point I was put on an IV antibiotic, after the expected insertion of a PICC line. This was to last 6 weeks without a resolution but soon there will be help on the way. Check in on my next post.

No January pictures but my next post will finish the infectious story of my health and show a nice picture or two.

November turns to December

For many people (most perhaps?) December is the beginning of the Holiday Stress Olympics. The closer one gets to the finish line, the higher the stress levels, until they start to take over peoples lives. One only has to look at Black Friday with its fights, shootings, trampling of people, at the big box stores to see what I mean

Years ago, Mrs. Penguin and I gave up on the stress. The kids were older and so we scaled back on the holidays in general, in order to avoid the Himalayan stress levels. When the kids were home, we cooked together, relaxed and enjoyed each others company. Moving to New Mexico necessitated changing our approach but still held the goal of stress free holidays.We miss the kids and talk with them on the holiday but it is not quite the same as being all together. Gives us something to work on.

For the third time in New Mexico we celebrated Thanksgiving with friends. Everyone contributed food and so stress was minimal for everyone (at least I think it was). There was no Black Friday for us and Saturday was spent at the State Park enjoying the atmosphere.

Early December produces its own brand of stress and drama for me. I was taking over as president of the Camera Club and had the headaches of transitioning new people, new roles and new policies and procedures. After a few weeks, this settled down and countdown to Christmas was at hand.

There was the Choral Holiday Concert that our friend Karen participates in and as usual, it was a spirit lifting event. However, for the first time since moving to Las Cruces, missing our kids became an everyday buzzkill. Redditboy was scheduled to come just after the holidays but the thoughts of just hanging out with him and MillieJupiter, cooking, laughing and just enjoying each others company seemed harder this year than in the past couple. So despite the lack of stress, spirits were a bit low. Even with the Camera Club annual holiday get together, things remained a bit off center

To top it all off, I had some minor surgery just before Christmas and the consequences and issues persist to today. Nothing like a little medical mayhem to put a stamp on the holiday package.

Next up, January, medical backflow, camera club updates and such. But until then, a few photographs...

Early in December we went to the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Sanctuary for a little holiday get together. There were luminarias, hot cocoa, singing and just a time away from the stress of the holidays

This was the roaring fire that kept us warm all evening long!

Where have I been? Where am I now? Where am I going?

Keep this date in mind, August 25th, 2013. Before last week, that had been the last time I posted in my blog, a short 5 months ago. Totally unacceptable. A lot has gone on in my life during that time and so I thought i would take a post or several to update, commiserate and investigate, the world around me here in sunny New Mexico.

We traveled a bit this summer, a wedding in Colorado, a couple of National Parks, Taos and Santa Fe. We even slipped in a trip to Albuquerque in early November. However, the busiest time of this period began in early September. I was helping the Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park plan for two  November events, a Native American Marketplace and then the Park’s anniversary/holiday gathering. The Marketplace was a big success but had all of us at the park on edge for most of the last 6 weeks. I was working with Native American business students from NMSU and their professor which turned out to be very similar to herding cats. By the end of the month, I was helping out at the park planning for the Holiday Gathering and the Park’s 5th Anniversary.

While all this was going on, I decided to run and was elected president of the Dona Ana Camera Club for 2014. Up until now, we have been a club but we are going to seek 501 c 3 Federal Non-Profit status which requires us to move more toward being an organization. I had two thoughts about this. First is I don't want to lose the feel of the club and secondly we need to do more education in the community. Our Symposium this past September was a huge success but we also need to continue our outreach to the community at large. In my 2 + years in the club, we have grown from about 50 members to about 150 members and I expect to keep growing and reaching out to more people. We are right now, the largest camera club in southern New Mexico so we continue to have a lot to be proud about but also have the pressure to continue our growth and outreach.

And now a few pictures:

Cliff Dwelling at Mesa Verde National Park

Native American dancer at The Marketplace event at Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park

Mural painter on Rt. 66 in Albuquerque 

Ms. Penguin reading a Santa book at the Holiday Gathering