This can't be good

Wednesday, temperatures were in the single digits here. Weather stressed the power grid so much that El Paso Electric requested that major power consumers call off work. Happily, NMSU complied and the hospitals did not.

Our pipe between the wellhead and the house did not survive the first of many rolling blackouts we had that day. A local plumber came up within a couple of hours and said no fix for us until Friday.

The rat bastard plumbers came up yesterday and told us they forgot a tool they needed and the pipes were still frozen but they would be back NEXT Wednesday. Although I suspect we could have gotten them to repair the pipes if we had sweetened their fee, we declined and started calling other plumbers.

But the plumber who came through was Stu! Two trips to town and a couple of hours later, we had water running through the pipes. The sound was sweet! But this also feeds my theory that the rat bastard plumbers just wanted to see how desperate (and willing to pay) we were. If Stu could fix the plumbing in about 90 minutes, surely they could have done the same, in less time, but probably with less care.

Four of the four people we have talked with in Talavera had frozen pipes. Last night I went out to check that the light in the wellhouse was still on (we put it there as a heat source so the well would not again freeze). All the neighbors I could see also had little glowing well houses...

Below is the new plumbing. A thing of beauty. Notice how well insulated it is!

Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide

Snow in Las Cruces

We got our third snowfall of the season yesterday. The roads actually iced over and school was canceled. (It also snowed on October 30 and December 1). A local photographer documented the December 1 storm here.

Natural history notes: the grassland birds are back. White-crowned sparrows and snow buntings have been at the feeders alongside pyrruloxias and juncos, which we rarely get. A roadrunner has adopted the deck railing as his own, and the quail are plentiful and fat. In winter, there seem to be more cecotropes (this is gross...) around, which Rosie just loves snacking on.

And it has been really cold for a couple of days. I will watch the saguaros around town (and the one across the street) to see if this kills them off. Saguaros can survive most Las Cruces winters (they do not grow in the wild here), but every 20 years or se we get cold enough for long enough time that the temperature kills off all but those in the most protected areas.

Quincy and I found a great recipe for chocolat chaud. I am embarrassed to admit that we augmented with additional chocolat (3 ounces) and whipped cream. (A recipe for death by chocolat, but what a way to go!)

Semester is over except for finals week next week. Quincy is done with her NMSU Chinese class and will finish her floral class Tuesday. She has been working as Stage Manager for the LCHS production of The Wiz and has submitted her application to three colleges (NMSU, University of Evansville, and Southern Oregon). She still has time to apply to others if she wants but has her top choices taken care of!

Noche de las luminarias is tomorrow night (set up requires hot-tub therapy afterward) on campus. Dinner with the Brew Master for Shiner Bock is Wednesday. The Wiz plays this weekend. Floral Auction (for Q's class) is Tuesday... busy week.

Tournament of Bands

This was one of the bands from yesterday's Tournament of Bands at NMSU. One movement was mostly percussions, and everybody got to play on the barrels. It was a great visual!

Or maybe it was Tourniquet of Bands. LCHS has a great season in a lot of ways, but the kids did not earn the scores from the judges to place in competition.

Nonetheless, Quincy is completing her year of lasts -- last band competition (yesterday), last IEP (Friday), last time performing at the Field of Dreams (a couple weeks ago), and this Friday, the last BIG game against Mayfield. The football team has also not had a stellar season, so playoffs look unlikely. But since she is already staying busy stage managing the fall play The Wiz, she will not be at a loss for stuff to do.

Her year of lasts is also one for her parents. I have hawked for the last time at Field of Dreams and plan to never again load up hundreds of nacho boats with chips. My concessions friends plan regular get togethers next year on Fridays to celebrate our evenings without standing for hours on cold cement floors in a loud, confined little space serving lines of people what passes for food at athletic events. Yes, we have healthy choices. No, we never sell more than about 2 pieces of fruit an evening, but we sure do move those frito pies!

It got cold this week, and I even biked home in snow on Wednesday. The deck was covered with snow Thursday morning, but as typical of New Mexico, it lasted only briefly. Weather has returned to beautiful, and since it is Sunday afternoon, all the sunspots on the west side of the house are occupied with sleeping pets (and one human).


Stu returned from a trip to NSF in Washington DC Friday in time to see the LCHS boys soccer team win their first state cup game. Jake had his first swim meet of the year and was happy -- or at least not unhappy -- with his performance.

What is this place?

What we woke up to this morning...

Driving in this stuff last night was pretty interesting. The snowflakes were so big I had to slow down to 30 just to see the road striping. At that speed, it still looked like the visual effect from Star Wars when Han and Chewie made the jump to hyperspace, except the jump lasted from Las Cruces to the Patriot Freeway. Must have been a problem with our power transporters?

Later.

Update: by 8:30, the desert was glistening. Home is beautiful.