Crystalline Days of Fall
I'm taking trips down the back highway every week now to check out the photographic conditions and whether the sage is in bloom. I was working Saturday last but couldn't resist a trip down the backside because of the beautiful cloudscape. The sage is still about a week from blooming. Everything is behind; the aspen right to the top of the mountains has not begun to show fall colors as yet, but I suspect they will toward the end of the month. Usually, Conference weekend is the best opportunity to see fall colors in the Santa Fe mountains, but this year things may peak a week or two after Conference.

A few miles further down the road is this old Spanish church in Golden, New Mexico; probably the most photgraphed old Spanish church in the state. Years ago I bought a framed photo of that church, not recognizing where it was located. Then I took my own picture and put it in a frame to hang with the 'other' church, noticing then that it was the same building painted another color. They seem to paint it every year with slightly a differenc color. I was there only for about 10 minutes, but two or three others drove up and stepped out of their cars to take pictures.

Registered Independent
A package with this T-shirt arrived in the mail; from Carrie, I think. I wore it the next day to work. Prolly as good a choice as any of the real candidates.
Here's my heartbeat platform - I'd vote for one of them in a heartbeat if they would only speak up on these issues:
(1) Energy Independence: A crash-U.S. effort to become energy independent in the next 8 years. I think solar is our best opportunity. Imagine the sunny state of New Mexico. Hardly any homes have solar as a part of their roofs. Just a complete waste. Tie all this in to available power for electric vehicles.
(2) Energy Development: Solar, Nuclear, Wind, Oil (yes, drill drill drill). We're sitting on our heinies discussing all of this but doing nothing. I'm tired of all the SUVs in Santa Fe with their "Don't Drill in Santa Fe County" bumper stickers.
(3) Fix the broken systems:
(3a) While we're on energy, severely penalize big oil for gouging at the gas pump, and seriously look into price fixing. We all know theres a chart with states and districts marked off, and the oligopoly is calling out the prices in each.
(3b) Non-elective Health Care for All: The government gives the doctors a monopoly and then the doctors complain when Santa Fe County sends out a free health care van to take care of the needs of the poor. Jon says that prisoners in the jail get better (and free) health care than his roommate who has a menial job and no health insurance. Isn't it about time that we stopped 'grinding on the face of the poor' as the Book of Mormon puts it. Make it manditory to provide health insurance even to those with McJobs, or tax the heck out of the companies who wont, to fund a government plan.
(3c) Fix the banking, insurance and mortgage industries. We got this way because the Fed set the rate at 1% and the temptation was too much for the greedy investment bankers, not to borrow short term and turn around and lend long term to subprime borrowers. That's basically why AIG is down $85 billion.
So what am I? I don't know. I haven't heard clearly on these issues from either of the candidates, and economic and hurricane events of the last few days have almost silenced them. I'll bet there's 50 million people just like me, trying to decide how to vote.

Monsoon's Last Gasp
The thundery weather of summer is giving way to longer dry spells between the billowy cumulus clouds and showers. It was a fairly dry summer at the house in Albuquerque; Santa Fe and the mountains behind fared a little better. With a bit of luck we may get more rain this month, but this is a dying "El Nino" pattern where Pacific tropical ocean temperatures have been below normal, and that means little moisture support from that area for the Southwest U.S. One benefit of the approaching Fall season is cooler temperatures and an inclination to throw on an additional cover at night.

Raging Candles
Birthdays never get celebrated on the exact day - someone usually has a meeting or other commitment. We did our saturday shopping a week ago and found a humungous one-layer chocolate cake in the goodie bin (marked down). A few evenings later Marolynn hauled it out and put all the candles she could find on it - there wern't near enough, but the cake was still good and we're finishing it up about now.

Grape Expectations
We're putting up grape juice tonight from the harvest of our grape hedges. We have Concord grapes (those in the bin Marolynn is holding), and sweet white grapes. We tried to put up white grapes with only fair results, but when they turn just a shade of purple, they are as sweet as sugar just to eat from the bowl.

We picked 4 bins of grapes about the size that is shown in the picture. They will yield a dozen quarts of concentrated juice which we mix with Seven-Up to drink. When we were in Richland, grapes grew fabulously and we put up ten times as much each year, but we're thankful for what we have.

Festival de Santa Fe
The Spanish flags are hanging from the Palace of the Governors and the hundred or so family crests of Santa Fe are displayed below them - a sure sign of that last festival of the Summer that Santa Feans give themselves for the "reconquest" (read, booting out the Indians after their revolt in 1660). Tonight they'll burn the effegy of the old man of gloom and doom, Zozobra - tickets are sold out for that event. Today already they were putting up the tent booths around the plaza for the weekend's celebration. We have a half day of work tomorrow as the festival is in full swing by afternoon.


Another birthday lunch today, this time for *me*, being the only member of finance with a birthday in September. We had this at Guadalupes, an old Santa Fe house turned into a restaurant. Great Nachos. I'm obviously in the blue shirt, looking as old as dirt.

An unrelated subject; the Behlings in our ward received their 18-month mission call to Boston to head the family history center there. They're supposed to be in Boston in two weeks. The Ritchies just finished their mission in Portland. These are the only senior missionaries sent from the whole Albuquerque East stake.