I have so much computer work to do, I don’t’ know where to start – and even if I should. The 4th St. Computer Lab ran me off after 90 minutes or so last week, and so I got just a bare minimum uploaded and emailed. Fortunately, I think I got the most important things out. I hope I get a chance to check back and make sure those logos were okay, as they were time sensitive.

Apparently, the 4th St. Computer Lab, which I thought was funded entirely by a donation from Microsoft, is having financial problems. They’re my connection to the world at the moment, so I’m going to check on the home page there and see if there’s a button where you can donate! If there is, please do. It’s really a great facility offering free computers to work on, free wireless Internet, and free babysitting. Seriously, how many places in this planet can you just drop your kid off after school to play on the networked computers with his pals and be assured they are safe and sound and quite entertained for the next three hours or so? They also offer classes in email, basic Internet and computer use, and web design, for much lower fees than your local community college, and less hassle to sign up, too. Much as I gripe, I think it is an awesome resource and would certainly be lost without it, myself, never mind the contribution it makes to this little community. P.S. Just checked and they don't have a button to donate - but their street address is there if you wish to mail a donation. Meanwhile - they are going to consider adding a donation button - so check back :) )

Okay, public service announcement is over. LOL.

For my next subject. I’m slightly griped at the library. I have a sneaking suspicion that the librarians don’t believe that I read as many books as I do. The fact is that I read about a book a day, most days, and often have three or four books going at a time. Right now, as of today, I am reading “New Mexico; Past and Future” by Thomas E. Chavez (non-fiction history of NM), “The Garden of Eden and other Criminal Delights” by Faye Kellerman (short mystery stories), and “Coyote and Quarter Moon” by Bill Pronzini (western short stories), and “Guilty Pleasures” by Lawrence Sanders.

Yes, all four.

I read on the history during the day, as I do my chores around the ranch, and while I just sit in the sun (which I do as much as possible). The two short story anthologies I dip into while I eat dinner, and right after I get home from work. Any time that I want to just read for a few minutes before moving to another activity (like sleep - after work). The novel I read in great gulps when I have time to sit back and read for a few hours, which is mostly on my days off.

So at the moment, I have like ten library books sitting here beside me, three of which I am currently reading. The others have a week to two weeks to run before they are due and two of them are skinny little things I’ll gulp down over my coffee this weekend. The other novel I’ll probably finish over a weekend. There are three non-fictions, one a big fat fellow that looks intimidating, but because of my personal interest in it’s subject matter (the 101 ranch) I think I’ll probably go through it quickly. I’ll nibble at them while I gulp at the others.

Right now, we are only going into town to run errands on Tuesdays – or trying to anyway. It is our regular day to go to the library and the computer lab. Last Tuesday, we forgot to grab our library books that we are done with and want to return, but we did nip in for just a minute to use the computer (having been run out of the lab so early). As I left, the librarian came literally RUNNING after me, yelling – “You have past due books!”

I about dropped dead of embarrassment on the spot.

On top of which, I was confused and peeved. You see, the previous Tuesday, when I checked out a few books – another librarian asked if I wished to renew the book due on the 17th. That would be the history – apparently it has limited renewals. At that time, I had not started it, so I asked her to renew it and promised to have it back on the new due date for sure. No mention was made of any other books due.

The next week - the 17th - someone is chasing me into the parking lot shouting, “You have overdue books!”

It turns out, once I returned red-faced to the counter, that I did NOT in fact have any overdue books. I had three more books due on the 17th , all renewed in a matter of minutes, and all of which will certainly be finished by the new due date. However, the librarian didn’t feel any need to shout “My mistake, sorry, nothing overdue” for the world to hear. What she did say, in a censorious tone of voice, was “You certainly have A LOT of books out.”

Actually, right now, I have about half as many books out as I usually do – because I’ve had less reading time since I’ve been working. Not to mention, that I often have a number of references out to use working on artwork or an essay or something. Research anyway. There is no limit, at this library, on how many books you have out. If I were to take out one at a time, I would have to go by about three times a day, now wouldn’t I? But since it is a 50 mile round trip into town, I try and make sure I have enough to read for a week or two at a time.

So, what’s up with that?

I know, I overreact. She kicked off some very unpleasant PTSD flashbacks. Crashed into some of my mental blocks. I don’t like it when people think I am lying. And librarians have never been able to believe how many books I actually, truly, do read. You know those summer reading programs for kids? I turned in my list the one (and only) summer I participated and the librarian chewed my mother and I out for hours (or so it seemed) over me lying about what I had read. For once, the bitch mother and I agreed – because not only were all the books on the list ones I had read, I had left off the books I had read that were not library books.

I learned to read before I began attending school. Both my parents were readers. I had an isolated childhood with no friends. I don’t like TV. I read to fill the time. I read fast, and I read for hours and hours at a stretch.

Yes, Ms. Librarian, I read – on average - about a book a day. Often I am reading three or four at once. Deal with it.

You don’t believe me? Go look at A Demented Pixie on Books. Consider that with my limited Internet time, it isn’t my priority to put up book reviews. Consider that I usually do not review non-fiction; because I think most people are not interested in it, unless I was so impressed I just have to plug the book (look for a review of New Mexico; Past and Future, for one). Not only am I reading what I have checked out – I’m reading the books my husband has checked out, as we work our way through the Sherilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series. I don’t review those as they are pretty much potboiler romance – either you like ‘em or you don’t and there are plenty of fansites for romance novels that will review them for fans. (What is there to say – the hero is incredibly sexy, the heroine is lovable, all the forces of the universe are against them, they save the world and fall in love and have lots of hot sex, the end – brain candy). The same is true for most of the “crummy little mysteries” that I read – that is, quick, mindless little potboilers that I don’t review unless I’m really impressed – when I am not working I read one of them a night at bedtime. Sometimes they’ll take me two days.

Ahem. Okay -

I’m writing this Saturday, the 21st of April. This has been a good week. A really, good week. Last Saturday I just about quit my job, I was so tired and stressed and at the breaking point physically – mainly because the 2nd shift had been leaving me vast mounds of work from their shift. I griped to the hubby, and decided that if things haven’t changed by the time we get back from the trip to Oklahoma in May, I’ll either quit and go back to really running my Internet biz (if we can ever solve the Internet on the ranch situtation), or find another little job. (Cuchillos Café is advertising for a dishwasher – quiet, small, family owned, daytime hours only…) (P.S. from later – we’ve decided to postpone that trip for at least a few more months for a number of reasons)

Apparently, the hubby passed this information along to one or more of the managers, who passed it on to all the managers. One by one they paraded through the dish pit to tell me they were going to get 2nd shift straightened out. I took this with a large crystal of rock salt, because I’ve heard it before, but it’s nice that they care.

Tuesday I returned after our days off - to find a relatively caught up dish pit. Wedsneday, the same – Thursday – even Friday – the pit was fairly clean and the dishes were reasonably caught up. At the very least, it was a dramatic improvement for them. However, since a couple of the managers responsible for this change are going to be transferred out in the next few weeks, I am not counting on this being a permanent condition yet. But maybe I’ll get lucky and some pride in their accomplishment will take hold. They’ll know they CAN do it and may even enjoy the rewards of having actually done their job properly for a change. I’m trying really hard to think positive here!

Thursday morning, we dropped by Riverbend to sit in the hot tubs for an hour. What a wonderful place that is. It is a shame that the people who run it cannot spend five minutes in the office with a customer without saying something negative or rude. It is a testament to how special the facility is, that people come back at all. After an hour in the delicious hot springs, with bracing icy dips, and now enough water in the river to actually dip your toes in the Rio Grande now and then, and all the time surrounded by nothing but beauty in the way of mountains and river, you’ve forgotten all about how shitty the proprietors just treated you. In fact, you’ve forgotten all the negativity of the past week as the hot medicinal waters soak all the tension away and the scenery fills your eyes with the simple joy of nature. We’ve concluded that we want to make a point of having a regular weekly visit to the springs.

I can’t get over how weird T or C seems to me. Here are these people surrounded by nature’s magnificence, blessed with warm (if windy) weather during the day, and nice cool nights to sleep in. There is an occasional rainy day, or snowstorm in winter – far fewer than in Tulsa (for example). Wildflowers, wildlife, a lake to swim, fish, or boat upon, funky little shops, three coffee shops, and a locally owned grocery store, not to mention the 4th St. Computer Lab.

And these are some grouchy, dope addicted, negative human beings here.

*Shaking head* The town is about half and half. People raised here who never left, and people who moved here from less inviting climates. The out of towners love it, appreciate it, and by and large have pretty positive attitudes – some of them well into the airy fairy zone I personally try to occupy as much as I can. The “townies” – whew, the more I know of them, the less I understand it.

Tuesday AM:


It’s been a great weekend. Unfortunately, I woke up with a devil in my head and I haven’t gotten her out yet. I know the library lady has no idea what a mental storm she set off. But I am not enjoying it. Since my usual way of dealing with my mental issues is avoidance, part of me wants to take all the books I currently have back (or better yet – send them back with James) and never return to the library again. And part of me wails – “the library…”. You see, when you read as much as I do, you can never buy all the books you want to read. And if you did, good grief, what would you do with them all when you finished them? Luckily, there is an informal sort of bookcrossing going on here. Unluckily, people leave their books in … the foyer of the library. I’m going to try and return what I normally would have returned today, and hope for a pleasant experience to overwrite the bad one.

BTW, two new book reviews at A Demented Pixie on Books.

The wind blew hard at the ranch yesterday, and I worked harder. Got the house cleaned (with hubbys help), cooked a simple dinner, and finished the garden. This entailed digging a nice big round hole to be a pond (and gather up some topsoil). Moving the topsoil to the garden. Spreading it. Mixing it with the compost and cow manure already in the garden. Hoeing it into rows and mounds. And, finally, planting. The wind was blowing seeds right out of my hand – so I probably planted the neighbor’s garden, too! I think a few of them made it into the ground though. What a day it was, fighting that wind all along.

The kittens have made it out of their box, and James even got some photos of them! I’ll add them if I get time at home to crop them and make them pretty and time at the lab to upload them. Baby kittens dashing around and stumbling and getting into things. How I love them. Puff’s preferred method of investigation is to stick his front paw into it and see if he can turn it over! They sampled Hani’s water and said “ugh”. After Puff spilled it over, Char got a paw into it and was very unhappy about it! They all came over and helped Hani lap up her “Early Born” I’ve been supplementing her with and decided that was YUMMY. We took the top off the trough feeder the chickens have outgrown and filled it with kitten food. They’ve sampled it, but don’t seem impressed. We’re out of the “Early Born” now – but I’ll pick some up today and we’ll mix it with some of the IAMS kitten food for them.

Yes, I know IAMS is embroiled in some controversy with PETA. But..dammit…here is what I know. In the fifteen years or so that I have been feeding exclusively IAMS, outside of rescue cats who were ill when taken in, I have had no sick cats. Zero. None. The kittens raised on it are healthy, happy, and in good weight right through adulthood. Pearl would rather starve than eat another cat food – even another premium cat food. I find that pretty much astounding. It has been literally years since I took a cat to the vet for anything other than routine care. So, until and unless it is taken off the market – I am sticking with the IAMS cat food.

We tried for photos of the chickens, but couldn’t get enough light there for the camera to work.

Sunday evening, we had a surprise visit from the Cottontops. Scaled Quail, that is. They came up to the feeder! More about that over at Bird atchers Notebook (and photos too – maybe) If I get the photos up, there are some fun ones that James got of a Black-Tailed Jack, too. While James was facing one way, taking photos of the cottontops running away from him, the Jack was casually strolling up behind him! He got very close. This morning, we had a big Jack right outside the back window. Apparently, word is slowly passing among the wildlife that we are essentially harmless. (Watch out for that red car though – her count is six Jacks so far…sigh)

Fighting that wind really wore me out. I could make a case for living out here – enjoying the wildlife – and spending a good bit of my time sitting at the computer by the window (of course, with Internet) – rather than working so hard at making some other simple things work – chickens, garden, goats, a pond, and maybe a horse or two later. Then I compare it to what I’d be dealing with if I were on a ranch in say – Oklahoma. If I were in Oklahoma…especially central around OKC – I’d have just as much wind, and in addition, rain for days on end. Red clay to dig through and try to make into soil plants would grow in. (How well I do with “Jornada Lake Orange”, as I laughingly label it, remains to be seen) Wow – how I hated that red clay. Nasty stuff. I’d be doing it all on days a few degrees cooler. All in all – yeah, I really like it here.

We stopped by the Rio Grande for a few minutes Sunday morning – early – between work and the hot springs. In minutes, I had seen a number of different birds, including first hearing and then spotting one of my favorites, Red Winged Blackbirds. They only live near water – so I won’t have them outside my window like I did in Tulsa. I do miss a river. But I’m finding the desert surprisingly charming.

After I staggered in from the garden last night I just reminded myself again. Life is harsh here, sometimes. But rewarding. This isn’t a soft place. But I kind of like it hard. (Oh shut UP)

Speaking of Sunday morning, we tried a different spring – Indian Springs. Half the price, and far more private, but without the view and the various temperature pools. It’s a neat place though. You step into a private building that reminds me of an old springhouse, or old well house. Go down a few wooden steps to a deck and in front of you is the hot spring. Wrapped in stone walls with a gravel bottom, there are no benches to sit on and it is too deep for me to sit on the bottom without drowning – but there are stairs down into it – you can sit on one of them. It’s private – we paid for the two of us, and had it all to ourselves for an hour. The proprietor managed not to be rude, even though the poor man was still in his bathrobe when he stepped out into the cold to get our payment. We liked it. We still love Riverbend, but considering that we’ve chosen Sunday morning – the beginning of our “weekend” – to be our regular hot springs time the privacy and the lack of rudeness from the staff might well make Indian Springs our first choice, after a week full of people. Face it – we don’t like human company that much. LOL.

Well, I guess that’s the update – I’m sitting here watching White Crowned Sparrows and House Sparrows pig out on the bird block. James has been in to see the kittens and chickens. It’s too early, at 9 am, for the goats – they are late risers – LOL. Today is town day, so they’ll just get a big flake of hay to munch on. I’ve watered the garden – first thing. It didn’t blow away yet. In fact, there is no wind now. Figures, eh? Think good thoughts that the lab won’t be too busy, and I plan to drop a donation while I’m there. I need to get going and write those book reviews and the bird blog entry, get some photos edited, and maybe even do some clipart and pages for color your own (check the updates above to see if I got those things done and uploaded…)

Blessedbe