BUSY MORNING IN THE BIG HOUSE BACKYARD, TRIP REROUTING. OCT. 8, 2026

A cool, cloudless pre-dawn at the big house only because BellaDog whined for a potty visit, then patrolled the yard perimeter and meandered with her nose down through the middle. I’m wondering if we got a visit from a rat/mouse hunting critter last night. Every property in the subdivision has backyard concrete walls. Critters use the tops of the walls as highways. Getting in and out of our yard would be easy. We have a firewood rack that they can scramble up.

Margo woke at her standard time a bit before me. I went back to bed for two hours of the best sleep of my night and left Bella to play with Lolli. They can get rambunctious. Margo is always happy when I wake up. Not in that “oh darling I’m so happy you are awake.” It’s more like — “About time you got up to watch over the dogs.”

Margo cut my hair yesterday. So happy to not have the tips tickle below my eyebrows. I tell ya, a long drape with neck snaps works so much better than a towel. So much so that I bought a shorter one for when I pre-soak my hair using a special shampoo.

Yesterday, I dropped off Bella’s Bordetella vaccine update by the pet resort. Without that she doesn’t get to stay. On impulse I asked, “Would y’all have room for her for a day visit today?” Sadly, it was two days before a holiday weekend and they were fully booked. I want to get her in for two day visits before she spends two nights in December.

Ahhh, a leisurely wander out to the patio to sip on tea, watch the big city world go by, and tire the dogs out with fetch. Margo’s two cylindrical bird feeders are the center of the feathered universe. Lesser goldfinches are at every opening of the thistle seed feeder. The birds should reach their narrow beaks through thin vertical slots and pull out the thin seed. They have figured out how to raise the little domes at each stake that is used when Margo uses bigger seed. So they have access to a half inch wide opening and are gorging on the expensive seed. Sparrows are feeding at the cheap seed feeder. Pigeons come in periodically to feed on the fallen seed under the feeder. LolliDog chases them away and is teaching Bella to do the same.

Birds zip in and out of the tree canopies. The alley neighbor has a half dozen tall, columnar, evergreens. I can see a half dozen palm trees that were very popular 40 years ago. Some are tall and narrow. Others are short and wide. The most popular in the area is a chunk. Earlier this year an American kestrel raised a baby in a gap while small birds hatched out families all around them.

A front-loading trash truck that lifts the wide rectangular trash bins of a businesses to the west slowly made it’s way through the narrow alley. It’s got a deep rev and the dogs always stop to listen and smell as it passes by.

The trash truck woke the dog next door that is housed in a large covered pen over a dog house. It sounds like an ancient dog. I was nosy, took my two step stepladder and peeked over the concrete wall between our properties. Yep, it’s a very old dog. A young heeler gave me the stink eye when I peeked my nose over. The young couple spends a lot of time in their backyard. They keep a neat place and enjoy gardening. The squash they gave us was very tasty.

A small passenger jet rose from the nearby airport and headed north. I think the local airport has a single larger commercial aircraft arriving once a week. It’s mostly a smaller aircraft facility. It’s also the only airport in quite a distance with an extra long runway to accept the huge fire fighting aircraft. It’s a wonderful thing to have. Ten years ago, a wildfire started nearby and the planes took off, banked hard, dropped the load and was back in minutes. How fast the crews could get a tanker back in the air was determined by how quickly the crew could generate foam. That’s important when the pilots can only fly a certain number of hours per day.

Holloman Air Force Base was quiet this morning which was unusual. They trains pilots on F-16s, MQ-9 Reapers, and drone. The wing also delivers Air Transportable Clinics and Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources. The aircraft cross over the town on the way to the mountains where they sometimes rattle windows. When I hike the mountains, they are quite close. Pretty sure the animals have gotten used to the noise. I have not.

An ambulance siren moved through the subdivision and stopped not far away. Someone is not having a good health day. I did not hear the siren again which can be good news or very, very bad news.

Bella and Lolli tired my arm out from throwing studded squeaky balls. Lolli lives to fetch. Bella isn’t bad, but she doesn’t have the speed and agility that Lolli has. Lolli doesn’t deposit the ball in my hand. She will lay it on the ground about two feet out of my reach. Bella snatches it up and brings it to me. It’s nice not having to lean down that many times. I have yet to prove how many times I have to throw before Lolli gets tired. It’s sort of like how many licks to the inside of a tootsie pop.

Yesterday, at the little house where the backyard is two lots wide, I tired Bella out with long throws. I think she likes fetching when Lolli isn’t around. I know Lolli likes fetching solo because Bella cuts her off constantly.

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US-82 between Alamogordo and High Rolls is still causing traffic woes as road crews lay a thin fog coat over the new chip layer. This will tie together the new surface more firmly and will cover the small cracks which would crack wider when moisture and freezing temps meet. So many drivers have complained on social media that I will stay away until it’s finished. I leave for Texas in a week. I may be traveling via Roswell and dropping down to Artesia. Lemme check the New Mexico Road Conditions page. Gaaah. 17 miles of highway west of Roswell are being micro-surfaced, so now I’m back to going through High Rolls. I’m hoping the crews won’t be out on a Saturday and there will be less traffic.

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I returned to my little home on Friday noon and it was a nice relaxing evening until a ninja mosquito skewered me a number of times. It is the second mosquito I’ve encountered all summer. It reminded me I need to get Bella on heartworm preventative medicine by spring.

It’s a wonderful cool evening and I have my windows and front door open. It’s so nice not to run the AC. My electric bill fell considerably. There’s another month before the first average freeze. I am through watering the grass for the year. Maybe before I leave for Texas I will wrap my one outside faucet and winterize the RV.

Hark, I hear the approach of the 30-something, gaunt, a-hole riding a bicycle and leading a dog. He tosses down bang snaps so I know where he is within a couple hundred yards. Not sure what the purpose is other than irritate people. I’m happy to say he’s apparently running out of bangers.

Police officers and emergency services have hit sirens twice since I returned home. Something big. Sounds like it’s happening out on US-54 where there is a two-lane highway with shoulders. Way too many speeders failing to pass correctly and way too many head on collisions. Even before I hear the sirens, the neighborhood dogs raise crescendos of barks and howls. Bella was inside with me. I think if she were outside and I didn’t tell her no bark she’d join in. She is, after all, a pack animal. She gave a half-bark a couple of days ago while looking out the screen door. Nothing unusual about these people walking by.

I can’t say this posting was very exciting seeing as it doesn’t mention a plague, wildfire, major earthquake or nothin’, but I’ve spent too much time writing it so ya get it.

CHOCOLATE BAD FOR ME, SAY IT AIN’T SO

From a social media page, Alkaline Vegan News: Consumer Reports, Lead and Cadmium Could Be in Your Dark Chocolate. Some people voiced why the article is misleading.

I gave up chocolate about six weeks ago to make my gut feel better. But with an encroaching hurricane upping my anxiety I stopped by the store for chocolate pinwheels. The storm didn’t hit with the intensity expected and the package of pinwheels sat in my pantry. Enticing me. Urging me to eat them. I finally had one during a later impressive storm. So I put the rest in a plastic container and stuck it back in the pantry.

Again those suckers called to me. When I got back from Margo’s my mood needed a bit of a lift so I opened the pantry. They are gone. I must have tossed them out when I emptied the trash. Yay for me.

But I really wanted a cookie.

An hour later I found the container in the freezer. I stared at it like those old comedians after seven things go wrong. I slammed the door.

The chocolate siren call screeches through the house. I have no mast to tie myself to. I grabbed the container, stared at it and put it back in the freezer. When I got my sugar monkey back under control, I again approached the freezer. I grabbed the container, popped the lid, took it over to the trash can and upended the container. Plop goes all the goodies. I breathe a sigh of relief. Wait, what’s this? One remained stuck to the bottom of the container. Three bites of nirvana. It’s a gift from the gods I’m sure. Resolve kicked in and I slammed the container on the rim of the can. The final plop and I’m free. From the depth of the can comes a whisper, “It’s a new trash bag. You can reach in and …”

YELLOWJACKET NEST LOCATION INDICATES A COLD WINTER?

Luke from the OutdoorGearReview on YouTube, lives in North Carolina and recently had a run in with yellowjacket wasps in the ground as he was mowing. It hurts when one gets ya. Getting hit by more, can cause real issues. It’s why we carry benadryl in the RV.

In this video, Storm Camping in a Wild Cabin Cot Tent – Heavy Rain w/ Lots of Lightning, Luke said his great-grandfather would say when you found yellowjackets in the ground, then a bad winter was to follow.

Anybody heard that before?

WET, ROADS, ACCIDENT, BALLOONS, AND MARGO’S 74TH BIRTHDAY. SEPT. 30, 2026

Wednesday

Remember my comments about an election campaign where one is insulting the other because the second fellow wants police departments to have mental health professionals ready to go to volatile scenes in the hopes of deescalating situations because New Mexico police kill way too many people in crisis? Well, Arizona has a crisis response canine to provide temporary comfort and distraction to accident/trauma victims. A dog would definitely increase my comfort. And a psychologist has a much better chance of calming a volatile situation than a police officer, especially a newby.

It was 61 this morning. Definitely had the smell of fall in the air. Makes me think of apple pie and cinnamon. The annual Apple Festival was two weekends ago. It rained both days, so I didn’t go. I’ve been to the place where the canopies are placed among the trees. Makes a real sticky muck.

I woke to the news that US60 between Socorro and Magdalena was shut down due to flood damage. I thought my 50 mile detour around the mountains when an accident happens on US82 was bad. Drivers have an astounding 287 mile detour until repairs are complete. Update: Looks like the state worked on a smaller road and now the drivers from Socorro to Magdalena can make it faster but definitely not convenient.

The ground outside my doors is extraordinarily soggy. Even the grass has dew. I can count on two hands the number of times the grass had dew on it since I moved down ten years ago. A sudden gust of wind shook the trees so I looked at the forecast. We weren’t supposed to have any rain today, but suddenly there’s an 80% chance. It doesn’t take much sun to pop those chances higher.

Margo said on a recent trip up the mountains — which means driving towards the morning sun – she had to pull over and scrub the glass because it was so blurry. I had already begun apologizing for not buffing the interior adequately after I recently cleaned the interior only, but she stopped me. No, it’s on the outside of the glass. It’s usually in the garage. What has she driven through to do that? I know of no businesses in town that let off a lot of particulates. It’s not wintertime so no wood stoves. I wonder if it has anything to do with the nearby White Sands Missile Range. I know they test some pretty gnarly stuff out there.

I’ve kept Bella inside as much as possible for a soggy week. I let her out when it’s not raining. She’s burning her energy by digging. How does one stop a dog from digging? She’s like a danged ghost. I don’t see or hear her doing it, and I’m sitting at the closest window.

I caught Bella chasing a vehicle along the fence and put a very fast stop to it. Don’t want a dog that chases. I know — I need to get her to the mountains.

NeighborMan backed out of his enclosed yard. His truck bed cascaded rainwater. When Margo called this morning she crowed. 5.3″ of rain this month. That’s a massive amount in at least 6-7 rain events. The record is 6.94″ in 1941. Photos and videos are being posted on social media showing the damage from the rains. The state and counties will be repairing some roads that’s for sure and some folks will be digging out.

It seems like it’s been months since Bella and I were in the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico. I checked this blog. It’s been less than 3 weeks. It’s been raining a goodly amount of that time. I asked Margo if she would pet sit since I wouldn’t want to take Bella in all that muck. I’d like to hang out someplace and listen for elk. If I was lazy, and I might be, I could drive over to Ruidoso and find one of the herds that pretty much lives inside the city limits.

I still have hummingbirds coming to the feeders. I think I’ll keep them up for a couple more weeks.

I ordered teal washcloths for the newly renovated master bathroom. Of course, I checked with Margo first. I told her I get all her old washcloths to use as Bella drool cloths.

Margo is sliding into the Big-74. “Let’s celebrate,” says I. She doesn’t want to go far. “I’ve got cash for the casino.”

“Casino? No, I want to go to Carino’s.” Why did I think she wanted to go to the casino? I brought up the calendar event she sent me and start laughing. Carino’s had been auto corrected to casino. Hey, it saves us a long drive. Will probably get their bowtie festival and potato soup.

Bella will be crated. The last time this happened, LolliDog brought over her chew toy and showed it to Bella. A doggy na-na-na-na-na, of I’m out here and you are locked up.

Thursday

Thursdays intention of going to the mountain didn’t materialize when I had an extra sleepless Wednesday night. I think of it as similar to what comes first the chicken or the egg. Instead this is — am I having to wake up and potty or is my body saying since you are already awake why not empty the bladder. If only it would ask this question no more than two times. Seven. In betwixt these, I went to the living room twice to watch something boring so I could fall asleep on the sofa with a dog tucked in behind my knees. No napping occurred. What’s really irritating is I didn’t know what caused the sleepless night. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary that I’d done.

I spent the day catching up on sleep.

Friday

Slept like a log. I wish I could duplicate this 3-4 times a week.

The yard at my little house has spent the last month catching up with what it didn’t accomplish last spring and summer. It’s a thin unkempt jungle. So I rose early, prepped as much as possible and at 9 am set to work making noise with the mower and trimmer. I did some raking because the cottonwoods, elm and apricot trees along the southern fence line tend to drop a lot of branches. Gave a quick raking over the area where I usually park the RV. I moved it out into the middle of the yard before Storm Polo — days before a mighty hurricane and now a rain producing tropical storm — made it’s entrance. It’s been too muddy to pull back under the trees and when I determined it was okay this morning a strong breeze made me change my mind. I recently had a half dozen large dying branches removed but still don’t trust the trees to not suddenly drop something the diameter of my thigh.

From there I loaded a happy Bella who has figured out when I fill the blue bag that means we are going to see LolliDog and Margo. We exited the thick mass of trees that line the acequia and found the top half of the Sacramento Mountains buried under a thick layer of gray clouds suspiciously near the color of snow clouds. A norther backed into New Mexico from Texas. Half the winter storms come from this direction.

Lots of emergency vehicles amassed in the center lanes at the intersection of a county road and across the street a very popular pistachio farm and retail place. I knew what happened before I saw the vehicles because it’s a place where bad things happen quickly. Someone pulled across fast traffic and got T-boned. A mountain shuttle van was crumpled to the front wheels. Ambulances hid the other vehicle. The extra sad part it’s a medical shuttle. Not only is the passenger already unhealthy, but they experienced the g-forces of an accident.

I entered an area of businesses closer to the big town and saw a toddler near the road with a little basketball. I was past before my brain said my eyes didn’t see an adult and Oh sh&t, I took a Uey at the next divided highway turn and came back hoping I’d get there before traffic. Yep, a little fellow. I didn’t have much time. There was a highway gap and I began honking my horn as I pulled into the business. The little fellow took off running in the direction I hoped for and a young mother came running out of an open garage. This is my second small child safety incident in the last month. I would prefer to not have any more. Takes a long time for my adrenaline to come down.

We are celebrating Margo’s birthday a bit early. I pulled out a nicely wrapped gift, the contents which can be ascertained by shaking. (I can tell you now. It was a puzzle.) She in turn pointed to a package on the table. I’ve been sending my delivered packages to the big house since she is more likely to be at home than I am. Inside was my color contribution to the master bath. Teal washcloths that perfectly match the teal towels. They looked thin. Then I washed them and they puffed up like an angry cat. Awesome.

After I arrived, Margo said she wanted Chinese instead. We mapped out our chore run to end at our favorite Chinese buffet in the mall. We gotta go pay off the second half of the new shower renovation, pick up a bit o’ cash, and Margo wanted a slice of red velvet cake. The library was right there so I dropped off two books. How to Write Like Tolstoy by Richard Cohen and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Tolstoy book went over my head a lot as they mentioned other books that I’d not read and ideas and concepts I’d never considered before. The McCarthy book should only be read when one’s spirit is up or one wishes for the spirit to go down. It’s an acclaimed read, but seeing it’s an end of the world book it’s a downer. I put it aside for a while but picked it up again. The secret was to read it during the day when I could look out the window and see a green world. I admit it’s good. Again, just don’t read when the world is falling in around your ears.

The bakery at Lowe’s sucked us in. I particularly like their bacon cheese bagel and Margo likes their plain bagels. How did that raspberry cream danish end up in the cart?

The stop at the Chinese food place was not without controversy. We ordered to-go and was given even smaller Styrofoam containers than last time. Then after we filled them, we are charged more because we got more than three items. I don’t get the three item rule. Instead of getting three big servings I get five littler servings. Today, three meats hadn’t made it to the buffet line and it was 30 minutes after the place opened. I give in because they have mushrooms I’d walk on glass for.

We finally got home, and were safe and sound from the clog that would soon be developing from an early release of the schools and the annual homecoming parade. NeighborNurse was outside working in her yard. We had to visit and see photos of her first grandchild. Of course she is a cutie. Margo got more seeds from an old hollyhock bush that was extremely successful this year. About two thousand babies which will have to be killed off in some manner so they don’t take over her yard. Our attempts to get them started along our concrete fence hasn’t birthed much. Margo took the seeds out to plant and came back with a smile. We do have hollyhocks coming up from her first planting about two months ago. I guess they needed real rain falling on them.

I’m starving as I hadn’t had breakfast. Margo was so delicate about munching her egg roll. I stuffed two in me. A little bit of this n that and the remainder went in the fridge for supper and maybe lunch.

I settled into the love seat with various pillows supporting this n that. Fell asleep and only woke when Margo walked into the living room complaining that she had taken too long of a nap. Not only am I ditzy from the nap, but I am stiff from mowing and trimming.

The Albuquerque Balloon Festival is beginning this weekend. The rain stopped a couple of days ago. So viewing will be good, but people are already talking about how bad the mud will be.

Sunday

It was a very pleasant 56° and a happy 75 midday. Fluffy little clouds. A grand day to sit on the back porch.

The Albuquerque Balloon Festival had a busy first day with seven incidents. The most obvious was a balloon getting draped over a handful of power lines. Those baskets are heavy. Can weigh between 500 – 1000 pounds. I don’t want one of them falling into my backyard or on my house. Not sure what the steps are if they do and cause damage. The balloons have chase vehicles to follow the balloons. When they go down, the crew collects everything.

I’m still at Margo’s but the urge to go home is sneaking in. Thought about going to the mountains then said eh. Bella still needs a long day running somewhere. Maybe tomorrow. If so, I will need to wear my insulated leggings to put off a mid 40s temp.