• POTD: Portal

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    Since Christmas and New Year’s Day ended up falling on Wednesdays this year, I opted to take the tag-on days at the end of the Holiday week off to try and get a few extra things done in my personal life. This morning, it was “Walk to the Closest City Library and Study” Day,...

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    POTD: Green Hat

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    For our family, January 1st has always been special as not just the first day of the new year, but more importantly, as the birthday of Mom. If you know Mom at all, you know, surprisingly, she is a dedicated sports fan- and most specifically, to her chosen teams in the NBA. And Mom...

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    Day Trip: Red Rock Balloon Rally 2024

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    As the beginning of December rolled around, I was reluctant to commit to attending this year’s Red Rock Balloon Rally after several prior visits resulted in scratched weekends of flights. Those Gallup weekends were not bad adventures, but I just didn’t feel like shelling out for lodging this year. Still, I decided at the...

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    Three

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    Periodically wandering old folders, I come across a random image of import. And such is the case today. It has been a little over five months now since Po left me, and I certainly have had my moments of missing each of the cats off and on in recent weeks. I do spend time...

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    Moist

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    I’ve noted a slight change recently when I awake in the mornings. My eyes are moist. This morning, in a late dream, I had for some reason trekked across an unknown city to hide in a booth in a diner, only to discover that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were in a booth next...

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    The Hardest Surrender… Goodbye, Po

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    On June 27th, two days after putting Chayya down, I woke up with a vet appointment scheduled for Po. Little did I know I would not come home with him that day. For a period in late spring and early summer, I relished the idea that, despite Chayya and Shukriya moving on clear paths...

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    Remembering Chayya

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    On June 25th of last month, I made the hardest visit to a vet that I had had to make up to that time. On that morning, I let go of Chayya and sent her to rest and peace. Chayya was my 15 year-old feisty fuzzball of a kitty, and she was the first...

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    A Setback

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    It’s been a hard half-a-year here at the home front, which has doubled as a cat infirmary. I learned my fierce female fur ball, Chayya, had chronic kidney disease early on this year, only to learn a several weeks after that that her lifelong flat mate Shukriya had a tumor in his front foot,...

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    Goodbye, Big Boy

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    When I went to bed last night, I knew I had a vet appointment in the morning for Shukriya where this was going to be the topic. Euthanasia. After several months of trying to heal an infected area on one of his paw, tests had finally revealed why it was not healing. There was...

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    Inevitability

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    On January 4th of this year, I noticed that my oldest and tiniest cat, Chayya, was not eating, and I was already facing a vet visit for her brother-of-another-mother, who clearly had some tooth issues. I bit the bullet and took an afternoon off and went to a veterinary clinic in Rio Rancho with...

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    Weekend Wanderings: Gallup/Zuni/Canyon de Chelly

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    Two weekends ago was supposed to be about watching balloons flying among red rocks, but the weather decided to change that. The 24th Red Rock Rally in Gallup was scheduled to occur at the same time slot it has held each year since the event kicked off- during the first weekend in December. By...

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    Thoughts from the Island

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    I don’t post on here very often, and when I do, it’s travelogues mostly. Travelogues are safe. This writing reticence is largely because I came to a point in life where I felt that what I had to say either 1) had already been said, and most probably repeatedly, by better writers than myself,...

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    2023 Annular Eclipse

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    Yesterday, October 14th, was Annular Eclipse Day for astrophysicists and astrophiles alike, while the bulk of us experienced it as Neato Eclipse Day. To the informed, it was a “ring of fire” eclipse, in which the sun would briefly be obscured by the moon moving in front of it for those sitting on its...

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    Hope Beyond Grief

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    I took some time at lunch today to watch the online feed of the memorial service for Tim Keller, who passed several weeks ago from cancer. Keller, founder and lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, was a giant in evangelical circles, if nothing more for his constant Christocentric approach to church and...

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    Birthday Bolt: Westcliffe, CO

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    On Friday, August 4th, I was able to take off from work for my birthday, and I used the day to casually drive north to visit my friend Steve up in Westcliffe. The trip would be a lot of driving, but I was up for it. Turning 55 this year, it was a suitable...

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    Christmas in July

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    The long weekend of July 14th through July 18th was a happy reunion for our family. On Friday evening, we drove to and converged on an Airbnb lodge off of the fifth green of the golf course in Angel Fire, New Mexico, which would be our home until Tuesday morning. It was a happy...

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