Tour of the Gila 2011

One of my favorite shots from all those that I took on Saturday at the Criterium in town. Of course there were adults! But it’s just so much fun to watch the kids. This little girl rode in the 3-5 yr old girls, later taking her role as cheerleader for the bigger kids—er, the pros—quite seriously. Here is the series on flikr

I took Flat Stanley, of course. I was able to catch Smokey Bear and he graciously agreed to have his picture with Flat Stanley. What these bears have to put up with in the name of fire safety and public relations. :-0

It was windy through much of the Tour. I didn’t follow the earlier days which are all road races, but did note in the paper that the winds were brutal on the riders and volunteers alike. I know that after spending the day in town I came home with a stinging face. My cheeks are pink and I can’t tell if it’s sun- or wind-burn. I’ve been slathering on the lotion since yesterday afternoon.

The weather continues to be the main story. The winds as mentioned. In town yesterday, friends told me they’re heading to Newport Beach, CA to visit their son. They checked the weather online and saw that the areas there had a high-wind warning. On further investigation, they saw that the warning was for 13 mph winds.

The humidity, or lack thereof, is the other part of the story. Now down to single digits. At that, you don’t need a towel when you shower. What you need is to be fast-enough to get the lotion on your skin before you go from shower-moist to alligator.

Otherwise, it’s been a quiet week. There’s currently a large wilderness fire – the Miller Fire – burning up near the Gila Cliff Dwellings, but even at approaching 3,800 acres, it isn’t threatening homes or communities and so can do what fires are supposed to do – burn through to leave a life-renewing scar behind. Speaking of which…

My newest read is Fire Season, Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors

Connors was interviewed by Scott Simon on NPR Weekend edition The interview is worth a listen, although locals and employees of the US Forest Service cringed to hear Scott, usually a well-grounded and oh-so-solid researched interviewer, pronounce the Gila (Hee-la) National Forest as Gee-ya and identify Connors’ seasonal employer as the National Fire Service. Connors writes in the best tradition of Edward Abbey, Barry Lopez, Tom Horton and half a dozen other lyrical writers of the natural world whose books you can’t put down. Connors has also become almost a local, having spent so many seasons in the Gila and some of his off-seasons working in Silver City. Early on, he described the place he used to tend bar in town; as I drove to Albertson’s today for groceries, I looked and sure enough, the cactus and man on a horse were still there, up on the sign for the Drifter’s Lounge.

I picked up on some New Mexico fiction writers. Two worth the mention. Robert Gatewood has written a story set locally: The Sound of the Trees. If you like Cormac McCarthy (The Road or No Country for Old Men) you might recognize Gatewood’s style. Very spare, no frills, subtly descriptive. The other, more easily readable and digestible is Solomon’s Oak by Jo-Ann Mapson.

We were interviewed by a writer for Desert Exposure this last week about our green house. He’ll also interview our builder, perhaps our architect and others in town, not necessarily involved in our home build, but familiar with green building. For example, Habitat for Humanity Gila Region is preparing to start a new home for a local family and they are hoping to build to LEEDs certification. It would be wonderful to get some momentum going.