Weather for the next few days in the Tries: Sunny to mostly sunny, highs in the 60s with one foray into the 70s. Lows all above freezing! Plants will be happy campers!
April is National Poetry Month. Support your local poets. Buy their books. (I have some (hint. hint.) available from your favorite bookseller or me.)
Also, I am the featured poet on Quill & Parchment this month with at least 4 poems posted, and they also reviewed REFLECTIONS: Life, the River, and Beyond. Available through Amazon only (though your favorite bookseller can order it for you). Marking the Hours is available wherever fine books are sold 😉 If you like shorter books, and longer history, check out Blood on the Ground. (See My Books above for descriptions).
Update to an Old Blog:
Do you remember my blog about my car trip when I moved to ABQ? It was posted on my now defunct Odds n Bods site on 29 Apr 2018. Well, I found it in my files and here it is. Most of it, the important part about the actual trip through Ouray, CO. Enjoy, again, for the first time?
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Gooooood Morning Gentle Readers!
Yes, it is, once again, Monday. Funny how that rolls around on a periodic basis, isn’t it?
I am in my home in Albuquerque, or ABQ for short, because hardly anyone I know can spell it 😉
And what an adventure I had in getting here. Get out a map of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico and follow along.
Normally, when coming this direction, I would take I-84 until it meets up with I-15, at which time I bid I-84 a fond farewell, and head south through Salt Lake City, Provo, and just south of Provo is Spanish Fork. There, I turn left (East, if you’re a purist) and take Hwy 6 thru Price and spend the night in Green River, UT. From there, I’d take I-70 about 20 miles, hang a right and go through Moab, UT, and Cortez, Shiprock, Farmington, and pick up US 550 in Bloomfield. US 550 is four lanes, well maintained, and has a speed limit of 70mph. Drive that speed at your own peril, as most everyone else is faster.
So, as I was getting ready to leave on Saturday morning from the motel in Green River, I looked at the map, and holy moly, 550 meets up with I-70 just a way over into Colorado. Well, Hwy 50 meets I-70, then 50 becomes 550. I could drive a few miles farther on the freeway, then take that marvelous 550, 4 lanes, 70mph road all the way into ABQ!!! Hot Damn!!!
Uh. Yeah. Got off I-70 at Grand Junction, 4 lanes, fair speed (city, congested, 45 or so) and about the time we got out of the congested area a sign said something to the effect of Welcome to US Highway 550 and immediately dropped to two lanes. Well, there wasn’t much traffic, so it was ok but no 70mph limit. More like 55mph.
Until it began to climb and to wind. By the time I got to the town (village?) of Ouray CO, there was snow on the roofs, 4-6 inches on cars, and sides of the road. and the speed was down to about 30mph. The road itself was bare and wet, if not dry. I don’t know what the elevation was, but someone said over 7,000 ft. After Ouray, it really climbed, and every 20 feet or so was a hair-pin curve. To the left was mountain wall straight up, to the right was a whole lot of nothing, straight down! Believe me, when the sign said 20mph limit, I did a sedate 15mph—or less!! It was that whole lotta nothin’ that got my attention real quick. Unknown to me, and probably a good thing, I was on the Million Dollar Highway, http://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/635-million-dollar-highway-usa.html one of the listed dangerous roads. If I was younger, and a biker, I think I’d love to do it on a bike. In summer. No snow. No ice.
Eventually I came to a car going some slower than I, but he was following the snowplow. I settled in and followed, too. There didn’t seem to be snow on the road ahead of the plow, it was more like he was clearing off the foot or so of the right side of the road of a couple inches of white stuff. At the second pass, he pulled over and we went on our way. Crossed 4 passes. One was over 11,000 feet high, 3 over 10,000 feet high. I’m really glad I went that way. Yes, it slowed me down, considerably, but OMG the scenery! It was marvelous!!! Well worth the trip!!!
Once I made it off the mountain, and into Durango, 550 became the expected 4 lanes, and once through Aztec, Farmington and Bloomfield, the speed picked up.
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And why that re-run of an old blog now that I’m back down at nearly sea-level and have been for a tad over 18 months? Because there is an interesting article, The Ice Farmers of Ouray, in one of the latest issues of Atlas Obscura. Not to mention some great photos that I couldn’t stop and take. I believe they are off some of the side roads. I still remember that trip. And with the right person, would love to make it again. In the summer. And go from the south to the north, so I could pull off onto the side roads and come back onto the main highway without having to make left turns across it. And there would be an extra lane between me and the whole lotta nuthin’ 😉
Entertainment:
Netflix: Still watching 100 Days My Prince
Books: For full reviews, please go to: http://lenoragood.blogspot.com
I finished The Reluctant Queen (Book 2, The Queens of Renthia) —Sarah Beth Durst. A great read. Even if I did threaten my friend I wouldn’t finish it unless she told me if one of the characters lived or died. I would have finished either way, but if death happened I wanted to be prepared.
Deja Dead: An American in Paris, Book 1 —Susan Kiernan-Lewis. This is a cozy with the female protagonist in her 60s, and she doesn’t run a book store, bakery, tea shoppe, or knittery. She has real problems, and a real life, and she finds herself moving to Paris, France a recent widow and orphan. Loved this book!
Breaking Bat: A Cozy Witch Mystery (Book 6) —Erin Johnson. I think this is the 4th one I’ve read, and they are great fun! Pure calorie-free enjoyment, though there is an underlying “message” in this one on prejudice that makes it worth the read.
In the Bear’s House —N. Scott Momaday. Oh, know that I have been in literary lust with this man ever since I read House Made of Dawn. With each book of his I read, that affair grows stronger. There is a definite, to my way of thinking, Zen quality to his writing. Very simple. Very accessible. Very deep when contemplated.
Education: I think I mentioned last week I’m taking the iPhone Photo Academy classes? Yes? Well, I’m now into module 4 and am finding it very worthwhile. There are a couple classes on editing in the phone, I watched, learned things, but did not download the app, nor will I do much in the phone, I prefer to export to my desktop where I have a 23” monitor all the better to see with. If you have an iPhone, especially one of the newer ones, I highly recommend the classes.
Have been buying little things for my new camera—a blue tooth shutter release, an adapter so I can use my tripod and it came with another blue tooth shutter release, a set of add-on lenses (that also came with another blue tooth shutter release!). I wanted the macro, and I’m so glad I got it. It’s 25x and seems to work well. There are also wide angle lenses (2 I think), a kaleidoscope lens that will be fun to play with, a polarizing filter and I think something else. These lenses screw into a clip that goes over the filter.
Now a question for you? Do any of you have, or have used, Luminar photo editing software? What do you think of it? Is it easy enough I can use it? I know PhotoShop is the gold standard but it has two things I don’t care for: 1. it’s a subscription and, 2. it’s too confusing for me. PaintShop is also highly rated, and easy, but they don’t work on Macs. sigh.
Here are two samples of new lenses. There is no depth of field in macro photography, well, there is, but it’s pretty shallow. These are photos of my African violet. The petal was pretty flat, and parallel to the lens, so not too bad. The other photo was with the kaleidoscope lens. Fun, eh?
And there you have all the news that’s fit to publish from my corner of the world. Hope it brought you a smile. Auntie Lenora and Sammy Brave Dog wish you a fantastically good week 😉