Blog Archives

cotton lint

There’s an excellent BBQ place in Slaton; it’s called Pitforks and Smokerings. You need to go, but get there early because they sell out pretty fast.

It’s housed in an old gas station and there’s an outdoor dining area, marked by black net, where the fuel pumps used to be. This is a shot of the netting that slows down the wind*, provides a bit of shade, and snags up cotton lint from the gin across the road.

Slaton, Texas
photographed 11.22.2024

*I almost said “breaks the wind” but realized that wasn’t AT ALL what I was trying to say.

the fish and the photographers

Those silly fish thought we were there to feed them, but of course that wasn’t at all what we were there for. If you look closely, you can see the reflections of my friend and I and we were definitely taking photos and ignoring the fist.

Later that morning we had a lovely picnic in a park, so we did feed ourselves. But still didn’t feed those fish.

Los Alamos, New Mexico
photographed 6.30.2024

many messages

Maybe you feel like you need to spend more time reading? But it feels like a whole book is too much?

I am here with a solution.

Go over to Taiban, and step inside the old church and read the walls. The plot can be a little hard to follow, but it won’t take you long to read the stuff that’s there. And the next time you’re there, you can read a whole new assortment of things.

That’s a literary win. Kind of.

Taiban, New Mexico
photographed 6.28.2024

pedernal: a non-traditional angle

If you are the littlest bit familiar with Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of the New Mexico landscape, then I bet you’ve seen various versions of the mesa known as the Pedernal.

However, for some reason, none of hers included a picnic shelter and/or a belly dump trailer.  That seems like sort of an oversight on her part, but who am I to say?

near Abiquiu, New Mexico
photographed 7.3.2024

the way is clear

I was a weird, anxious little kid. Almost everything gave me reasons to worry.

For example, Young Me would have been terrified of these cliff-side signs; I figured our station wagon and our entire family would probably somehow not make the curve and would wind up in a busted-up heap way down below.

Now, all these decades later, I was so brave and stood right there and made a few photos. And then, I got in my car and continued the drive up the mountain without the tiniest bit of anxiety.

near Los Alamos, New Mexico
photographed 6.30.2024