Colorful eggs.

Eggs from the farmer's market. Each color typically comes from a different type of chicken. These are just so cool!

Biking here and everywhere

Bikers and shoes at Las Cruces' Bike to Work. Oddly enough, what we all had in common was that we were not at work. My feet are in there somewhere.

From the carbon footprint calculator at the Nature Conservancy, I have saved about 6600 pounds of carbon dioxide in my nearly year of biking. I aim to give up breathing soon to try to further reduce my carbon footprint.

uh... May already?

Not keeping up well with the blogging these days.

But it is May. NMSU classes ended Friday, Quincy will take AP exams this week and next, and Jake arrives home in about 10 days. Stu is done teaching for the semester and has a busy summer planned.

This dealing with adult children thing is harder than it looks. Quincy asserts her independence, we push for standards. The car, after all, should not attract more flies than the dump in July. Jacob loves college, but still calls when he needs a sounding board for a paper, statistical methods, or politics. Perhaps our value is in our consistency of availability, values, opinions. But there is a fluctuating and faint line between too much and too little, and by the time we get it figured out, the landscape has shifted again.

This spring has seen a number of health challenges to friends, family, and colleagues. I don't think the season has been any worse than usual; rather, our community ties get tighter every year as we discover that people we know are family to others we know. Las Cruces is not a small town, but it seems that way often.

Spring has come to the Mesilla Valley: highs are in the 90s next week and the spring winds have been not too bad this year. Typically I have about a 20 mph tailwind pushing me up the big hill at the end of the day. I am now at 10 months of biking to work daily, and the hill gets easier in infinitessmially smaller increments.

A 2:30 explosion rocked the neighborhood

15 minutes after the explosion. The home is burning. Emergency vehicles are still arriving, and thru binoculars, it is clear that the walls were totally knocked down from the explosion.

The fire has gotten bigger from what it first was and the smoke keeps turning black. There have been what sounded like a couple of secondary explosions, perhaps as small propane tanks might have exploded.

Water just got turned on the flames. Nobody at home could have survived.

Moments later, (3:06 am), water from the pumper truck arced over the flames from the north.

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Update, from the Las Cruces Sun News:

UPDATED: Massive explosion levels home near "A" Mountain, home reportedly owned by former DEA agent (9:36 a.m.)

Sources: home owned by former DEA agent

Sun-News report

Article Launched: 10/23/2008 06:18:59 AM MDT

Investigators rummage through Thursday morning's house explosion... (Photo by Shari Vialpando)

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LAS CRUCES - An early morning explosion leveled a home near "A" Mountain Thursday. The home, according to sources who spoke to the Sun-News on condition of anonimity, is owned by a former Drug Enforcement Agency officer. According to the Dona Ana County Assessor's Web site, the property at 4852 Deadwood Camp Court is listed under the ownership of Paul A. Hering Jr.

No injuries are reported, but the home is a total loss and federal investigators have been called in.

The Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department and the Dona Ana County Fire and Emergency Services Department are on scene and waiting for daybreak to beging investigating the massive home explosion in the Talavera area east of Las Cruces.

No injuries are reported.

The explosion occurred at about 2:30 a.m. at a home on Deadwood Camp Court, according to Dona Ana County Spokesman Jess Williams.

The home was totally destroyed, and some nearby residences also were damaged.

Officials say it is the worst explosion they have seen in recent memory.

Police and fire investigators will conduct a full survey of the blast radius at daylight.

Some nearby residents were evacuated as a precaution while the investigation proceeds. Access to the area is closed.

As is standard in an explosion of this magnitude, the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have been notified and may send investigators. The New Mexico State Fire Marshal's Office will be involved in the investigation.

The cause of theexplosion is unknown at this time. The house was unoccupied and for sale. The house was valued at approximately $850,000. There is no fire burning on the scene.

The American Red Cross has been called in to support firefighters and law enforcement personnel on the scene as the investigation unfolds.

Las Alturas, South Valley, New Mexico State University and Talavera Volunteer Fire Departments responded.

Check back throughout the day for more information as it becomes available.

The Las Cruces Sun-News will provide updates as they become available.

And from KFOX in El Paso:

The destruction was said to be immense, with debris scattered over a wide area. A number of surrounding homes also suffered damage as a result of the blast. Despite the damage, there were no reports of injuries, although some neighbors needed to be evacuated as a precaution.

Dawgs happy to see the end of a parade.

At about 11:20 this morning, the LCHS marching band turned the corner from Solano into Apodaca Park, near where Stu, Jake, and I first lived when we came to Las Cruces (nearly 18 years ago!). Quincy is on the end, but phones really do not take exemplary photographs.

Before they took off their shakos and headed for the popsicles, Drum Major Ryan Reynolds led them in a rousing chase in the sun. And they followed. Every one. (The weather, it was hot!)

That is the thing about marching bands. Get them going in a direction, and it is nearly impossible to get them to stop.

Why is it that ...

There a special place in my heart for low riders? The maroon caddy heading away from me has a mural of Mary on the trunk.
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NM: Pimp my trike

New to me... Pimped out bicycles, all chromified and snazzy. Many are three-wheelers, all are low. Is this what the high cost of gasoline has done to the younger generation of low riders?

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Yes, that is a giant floating chile pepper!

Fall in NM means all things chile. At the game last night the wind was blowing from the red direction (earlier in the season green is the pervasive aroma). Since there has been no soccer this year, I miss smelling the chile processing plants. Saturdays at the Farmer's Market usually provides a good whiff of green roasting, but not as much as hours of fall season soccer on bleachers near the factories.

This weekend is The Whole Enchilads Fiesta, in which LC legend Roberto Estrada will again make a ginormous enchilada. New Mexico heat is the order of the weekend, whether from the sun or the chile.
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Buy one, get 5 free

Local Playwright Amy Lanasa wrote and directed Buy one, get five free, appearing now at the Black Box Theatre until July 20.

The show is fun -- Amy is a talented writer and director, and the cast is outstanding. We saw it on opening night, and the cast had high energy and a great sense of ensemble.

Is it cold in New Mexico?

Si, Senor!

Quincy took this picture of a frozen fountain yesterday morning. It is so cold that the afternoons are only getting into the high 50s.

This weekend was also the Mesilla Valley Balloon Rally. Although once ballooning seemed like a cool thing to do, I have had second thoughts about the advisability of hanging in a flammable wicker basket a couple hundred feet in the cold, cold air with a large propane burner over your head...