Shingles suck

My health care provider confirmed on Saturday that I have shingles. Nothing good about this.

But tonight I decided:

1. I am getting on my bike tomorrow even if I just go to the end of the driveway.
2. It's gonna hurt regardless of what I do, so I might as well ignore that part and do what I want.
   

To look forward to, though, Jake arrives home Friday and we have had Quincy for nearly a week now. Jay will also be down Saturday. We will have a full house of people to enjoy!

Cat Jail, and bird comments

When cats go bad...

Had an interesting encounter with wildlife yesterday. About 8 am, we passed a deer carcass by the roadside. Some crows were standing around it, and a red-shouldered hawk was on top of it, chowing down. Passed by again an hour later, and a turkey vulture was on top. I am considering going out for a run (it is Sunday morning) to see what else might be there.

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Weekend in Delaware

Enjoying time in Delaware with Dad and Kent.

American Airlines had problems getting us here and I arrived at the peak of rush hour traffic. Maybe I will go back to the very early morning flight. Fewer screaming kids, grumpy passengers, flight delays, and other things that make travel fun.

Yesterday was busy: we ran errands in the morning then spent some time in Newark. Caught up with my niece Sarah at the cupcake shop where she works, visited Newark's huge bike shop, got caught in student traffic when classes were changing, stopped in at Iron Hill Brewery (they make a pretty good porter, but I was not a fan of the India black ale), climbed to the top of the Newark Reservoir (will try to take the walk-around some other time)...

Also workshopped a paper with Jacob, made dinner (mushroom quiche), and saw family friends.

Today is again gray and rainy, but the change from New Mexico sunny is welcome. Today we will visit Lawn and George in Dover. Hoping for some time on a walking path today. Jacob is going cross-country skiing on Mount Hood, and I am hoping he will send some pictures that I will post.

Sun Power!

This post accidentally ended up on the book club blog...

The photovoltaic system hit 2,000 kWh today. New Mexico sun has been pretty reliable this fall and winter.

Not sure what is going on the rest of the week, though. High Wednesday is supposed to be 31, low is 11. Yikes! Cold biking this week.

Good day in the Dona Ana Mountains. Good dinner afterward with friends.

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!

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Snow day in the Mesilla Valley (and most of the rest of the US)

We don't have a lot of snow, but we do have a lot of cold.  The wind is whipping it up, and it is a good day to stay inside.  

NMSU canceled school today, so Stu and I have an unexpected day off.  El Paso Electric has announced rolling blackouts to deal with the power demand, so we have the fireplace all ready to go if we lose power.  The water is running really slowly, but we put a light in the wellhouse to warm it up and hopefully get things moving faster. This is the best reason I have come up with yet for not giving up totally on incandescent bulbs.



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Great weekend!

Great weather has returned to southern New Mexico just in time for a visit from my cousin Jay last weekend. We hit Soledad Canyon Sunday (on mountain bikes, not a good idea) and the Dona Ana Mountains Monday (an excellent idea). Between cycling excursions, we had great conversations that ranged pretty much everywhere. A great visit!

Jacob started his semester at Willamette Monday. After his very busy fall semester, he needed the long break and was almost ready to go back. Quincy is well into her second quarter, since she started back on January 3.

Oh, and Stu and I are now in the mountain bike business, too. Thanks to my friend Jimi, who helped us pick out bikes and the trails to ride them on!