Did I mention...

...that I finally got the newspaper started – the Silver City Sun-News.

This is a Silver City version of a Las Cruces paper published by an El Paso publishing company that is actually owned by a national conglomerate (not Hearst). That means it has two stories on the front page on Silver City news. For two days last week, those stories were about the kids’ skate park where none of the kids are wearing helmets. If there’s not enough news for two stories, there is a picture. This week one day the picture was of a large roof-top sculpture of a dragonfly just installed on one of the galleries in the heart of town.

The second and third pages are national news and the most of the rest of the paper is regional or Las Cruces-focused. I have fun seeing what makes it onto the front page, and what is relegated to pages 2 and 3.

Our paper is not obscure or uninformative, though; the editorial pages have a nationally-syndicated political cartoon, and two cartoon strips: Doonesbury and for balance, a Republican-leaning duck who has been complaining of late about the halo around Obama’s head.

The editorials themselves are not locally-authored. They are entitled, "Their view…"
and the bylines are often familiar ones from the Washington Post. Not always a byline I enjoy reading. Who would have thought that Charles Krauthammer would have followed me to New Mexico with his knee-jerk offenses and defenses. Nick wonders why I subscribe to a newspaper that is mostly Las Cruces news. I think it’s interesting to see, given the limited coverage for Silver City, what makes it above the fold. That alone is worth a dollar and a half a week.

...that Nick and Dave, on Dave’s first day here, made it to the top of Gomez peak. You’ll remember that Maria was pointing at Gomez peak from the heights of the next range of mountains when we visited the Monastery. Maria, I just want you to know that we were within 15 minutes of the top! Apparently, we were almost to marker 6 and from there it would have been a 15 minute climb. Of course, that would have been straight up. Also, apparently, the view was 360 degree gorgeous.

Nick called me from the top, while I was still working, to describe the experience. Not fair.

...that we located a second piece of property that we like. This is one I mentioned in an earlier story -- it is in the community here and is 5 acres. It has a ready-to-build house pad, a nice elevation with good south-south-east exposure and short views. It is much more expensive per acre than the property 4 miles out of town we looked at first.

Now we are totally confused. We like them both; they both have strong attractive elements. We took Maria to see both and she liked the property here in Indian Hills – it’s closer to things and part of a community. We took Dave to see both and he flipped over the lot out of town because of the long views and the evidence of water in the valley below the house site. Each one swayed us in their own way. We may end up just sitting down with the realtor and see in the last second which address we give to write into the contract.

Well, maybe not that arbitrary. We may use Dave’s flip-a-coin-and-do-the-opposite technique.

...that Nick has been nominated and voted in to join the Board of Directors for Habitat for Humanity here. Maria and I attended the Board meeting the day that the vote was held. He was nominated by one of the fellows who works at ReStore, although it was the chairman of the Board who proposed his name. Now, he’ll cut back his hours at the ReStore and focus more on the activities for which he’s committed himself as part of the Board. Oh. I also volunteered. They needed some volunteers to work on publicity for Habitat to try and create more donors, more business and more visibility in the community. They were discussing the idea of a newsletter and other written stuff. Since I kind of have my keyboard warmed up now, what with these stories of mine, and I have Publisher which has built-in newsletter templates, I thought – oh, what the heck – why let Nicky make all the friends. I could use a new friend or two myself. So I stuck my hand in the air, and they didn’t hesitate a heartbeat.

...that I am re-reading a book I read some years ago. I read it then because we were thinking of moving to Tucson. I am re-reading it because we’re here; maybe not Tucson, but in arid country where water is life.

The book is The Secret Knowledge of Water by Craig Childs. I loved it the first time because his writing is so elegant and image-filled. Now that I’m here with a growing personal perspective, I love it because he creates an intimate, integrated landscape of water, desert and self with which I can begin to identify. I need to learn to be on the land in an entirely different way, now. There is no tameness to the places we hike. It’s not walking the C&O Canal towpath in the footsteps of George Washington. It is a place where in 1150 AD someone drew a picture on a stone wall using ink made of water, crushed stone, blood and urine. We are less likely to meet a couple with a stroller on a Sunday walk. We are more likely to meet a rattlesnake, at least in summer, sunning itself on a path we expected to pass along. He writes of surviving the desert by finding the water that is always there. It’s a useful lesson, I think.