I see your set and raise you a wildflower: I grew up in Los Alamos. I don't miss it one tiny little bit, having been allergic to chile my entire life. Soon as I moved away I could eat it sparingly. Have a Lottaburger for me.
If I grew up in Los Alamos, I wouldn't live here anymore, either. I love Lottaburger! Here's the No Scum Saloon for you!
Ed Grothus concurs. Dunno the No Scum Saloon. I'll bet it's a lot like Uncle Bill's Bar:
Ha ha! I've been to both places! My son, 17, a junior at NMTech (yes, he's a smarty pants) is studying astrophysics, and I fear that he will end up in Los Alamos, a slave to government and intellectual war. He should be a writer. He has the gift. He just loves the chase of the photon too much. Let's reject this insane technology! Here's a dino print at Clayton Lake:
Socorro would have never been the same. I can't believe you deliberately missed out on Miner Days and hiking up the "M" mountain in that nutty race! And the waffle raves!!! The black widow on my screen door will eat your cicada! http://i1103.photobucket.com/albums/g480/twinkletoesontheriv...
I don't miss black widows. Much prefer the hawk that watches me jog: Friend of mine from high school went to NMT. Majored in explosives. He had the coolest job in the world for a while: He'd drive out into the middle of the desert, hop into an M1A1 Abrams tank with a dozer blade on it, build a berm of dirt, get out of that M1A1 Abrams, into another M1A1 Abrams and then shoot at the berm. He lives in Maryland now. Oddly enough, working for my wife's Uncle.
Oh! What an awesome shot! Beautiful bird, so regal and intelligent. You have to wonder what they think. They must see us as bumbling idiots. And that neighborhood looks just like how I imagine the west coast to look - all saltillo tile and white fake adobe. It really is lovely. Socorro is as UFO notorious as Roswell, you know! They recently (last few months) put up a memorial to Lonnie Zamora, a police officer who had one of the most famous sightings of all time: http://i1103.photobucket.com/albums/g480/twinkletoesontheriv...
My mother plays in the Roswell Symphony Orchestra. Has since the '80s. "Roswell" to me is "Oil men with too much money" - the UFO thing is secondary. (partially because what I think is the true story is so much better) Hmm... mural. Mural. Mural. Shit! No murals! Instead how bout a doodle from within Titmouse, studio that produces Metalocalypse among others:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!! I love it!!!!!!! Roswell is all oil men and big haired Texas ladies slumming in New Mex. I actually went to the UFO Conference a couple of years ago, took my sons. We sat through two lectures and left, bought frozen custard at Caliches, then hit the road home. It was just too sad, and sadly earnest. All of those people held such desperation in their eyes. They've had some kind of real experiences, I don't know what, and they were unnerved by it. It didn't feel right, our being travelers from northeastern New Mex, just there for the story. This is kinda alien: solar cemetery sconces in Lemitar, about 4 miles from Socorro:
I ended up having hundreds - HUNDREDS - of the blasted huge things around my home this past year. It was terrifying. But I didn't exterminate. I let them be.
Oh my gosh, hiss , I have SO MANY southwestern camping stories! I will start a new thread on that today! I love camping in the desert. You do need to watch out for : scorpions, rattlers and other snakes, coyotes, fire ants, tarantulas... but depending on where you stake your tent, you may not become a vulture's dinner.