Pink Petal Pricks and Yellow Faeries

Pink Prick - Bosque del Apache, New Mexico


Desert Faeries - Fabens, Texas


Dagger over Pass - Franklin Mountains State Park, El Paso, Texas


Red Ants - Gila Wilderness, New Mexico


Black Hole - Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Digital photography is wonderfully frustrating
in that we end up with an overabundance of images,
and not enough time to sort through them all.

I shutter shudder to think of the actual number
of unedited images I've got waiting on assorted hard drives
jump drives, storage drives, rewritable discs, and dvds.
Thousands upon thousands?
Probably.

Little by little, I will edit and compile them all,
as they continue to endlessly multiply
like the rat bastards they are.

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

Freddy Fender sang it best.
But his lyrics have nothing to do
with blame for making me blue.

I guess the title reminds me
of all the partying intermingled with
all the kicking back of my youth
after high school here in El Paso.

"Kicking Back" it's what a lot of us do.


Kickin' Back by Tamara Thomas

Little did I know that I'd be wasting away time
well into my adulthood.
I thought I'd be different by now--
responsible,
respectable.
Or did I?
Nope, just some grand delusion
convenient to say, but I'm well aware....
wasting comes from inaction.

Yesterday I asked a friend's 10 year old son
what he had been doing this summer
and he answered "Kicking back."
It's a term I've emulated for years,
but hadn't heard from a young kid's mouth
probably since I myself was a kid.
I guess it struck a chord
I felt like some alter-piñata self
filled with sweet dread and regret,
being clubbed by the innocent.
Admittedly, that could have been the beer
and sun combo and not just some cliché
wreaking havoc with my psyche.



Oh, I really do manage
to get plenty done, but
I pick and choose my goals
though at first blush
they appear to have little meaning....
most falling into routine and drudgery.
All too often
the task of listing books for sale
falls into that description
and I have to step away from it.

I redeem myself by taking time for others
baking something special for them;
a short quick call to say I care,
but don't want or need to talk further.
Thinking about you, Love ya, gotta go!
Short, sweet and simple....
Who knew that a batch of fresh made beef-jerky
could create such joyous smiles
on the faces of 12 and 46 year old boys?
Inviting a friend for dinner or
a trinket I've made or photos I've printed
just to make them blush
does the trick to keep me sound.
It leaves a lasting impression, believe me.



These are my small motivations
such minutiae to keep my mind and heart fresh.
Somehow it works for me
even as I rue my seemingly endless inertia.

I am my own contradiction
happy to wend my way through this life
or idle away the time in reading
or writing, or art and the art of cooking.
These I often consider as "doing nothing"
although they accomplish much.
They get me through the wasted days
and my Brett, yes my Brett
gets me through the wasted nights.

I've been Kicking back
for too many years...
or have I?
Sometimes all one needs
is their own little pep talk
to make the world right again.

Hip, hip, hooray!

Displays of Patriotism?

Where's my Stars n Stripes?




I created that city fireworks scene a few years ago
using ms paint (the most basic version).
I used to enjoy "painting" with paint
(it's so freaking difficult).
I need to get back to it.

Here's some fireworks from last year's Chamizal 4th Extravaganza




oooooooooooh!



yaaaaaaay!



wow!



aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!



huh?



Whoooweeee!



applause!


See you at the KLAQ street fest tonight.
I'll be the one trying to take pictures of Foghat
and watching Brett get silly about Cheap Trick.

Oh, and there will be fireworks.

Yay!