beyond my interior walls
I’d been here a while and had already taken all the photos I thought I needed. But then, I sat on the bed of the truck and had lunch, which lined me up with this arrangement. Maybe a normal person would have finished lunch first, but I don’t have any experience being normal. So I (temporarily) abandoned a nice chicken salad sandwich so I could get this shot. First things first, or whatever. The food could – and did – wait.
Santa Rosa de Lima
near Abiquiu, New Mexico
photographed 9.19.2026
four aces
As it turns out, “Four Aces” could refer to a variety of things:
- A popular American traditional pop music quartet formed in 1950 known for hits like “Love is a Many-Splendored Thing” and “Three Coins in the Fountain”, OR a different group by the same name that had hit in 1947, OR a even different group with the same name that was a popular backing band in Jamaica.
- A famous American tournament bridge team from the 1930s that popularized a dominant bidding system. (To be honest, the only part of that sentence that I understood was “1930s”.)
- A group of four American Export Lines ships known as the Four Aces that ran Mediterranean routes before serving as WWII troop transports.
- A literary allusion popularized by Mark Twain regarding “the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces.”
- Or, in this particular case, an apparently out-of-business place near Española, New Mexico.
Española, New Mexico
photographed 9.20.2026
the place I couldn’t park
If you have always assumed, based on everything that I’ve revealed about myself here, that I probably drive a lowrider…
However, this is my favorite parking-zone sign of all time.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 9.20.2026
stop (and eat)
I’ve driven right by this place before. A lot of times. So I don’t know why this was the trip where I noticed it.
It might have been those clouds over the mountains, making it feel more dramatic. Or the particular arrangement of that car, the waste bin, and traffic barrels. Or maybe it was the sign with the jumbo burger that was indeed jumbo.
The reason doesn’t matter as much as at the fact that I did notice the place and we braved the wonkiest intersection in all of Española to get to the place.
(When I was a kid and we’d drive through Española on the way to our camping vacations in Colorado, it was guaranteed that my dad would get lost. Every. Single. Time. He rarely got lost, but Española always won. Now, as an adult, I think the “It’s Española so I’ll definitely get lost” mindset is winning: as recently as last week, I continued that proud family tradition.)
Española, New Mexico
photographed 9.19.2026
asleep (in jesus)
The way rain in northern New Mexico works is that it comes in hard monsoon-y showers in the summer. Between showers this day (I could hear a lot of thunder), I found puddles and reflections. Oh, and mud.
Catholic Cemetery
Abiquiu, New Mexico
photographed 9.19.2026
