Yes, We Had No Rain Today

For several days now the weather forecast has been for thundershowers, but the reality has been rather disappointing. The mornings have been beautiful, with wonderful blue skies that slowly grows a few fluffy clouds that shine with summer whiteness. They grow and late afternoon they begin to glower with the threat of rain that is all bluff.

Slowly they drift to the east with nary a drop of water falling to earth. Ah, but that doesn't mean it didn't rain. The clouds get heavy with water and finally begin to leak and you can see the dark drift of rain falling from them, but it never reaches the earth. The air is as dry as the ground, and greedily absorbs the moister evaporating it before it can reach the thirsty earth. Perhaps tonight, or maybe tomorrow morning more clouds will pass and will be more generous.


Yeah, those little wisps coming down from the clouds in the middle and right of the picture are the virga. Perhaps as they move east the rain will intensify sufficiently for a few drops to fall, what we call a 4 inch rain, one drop every four inches.

I won't complain too much, we have had several heavy showers, and things are turning green and some of the wild flowers are beginning to crop up. And we still have a couple of more days of forecast showers, so perhaps we shall be lucky and God will bless us with a good deluge or two.

Mike L

A Bit of Wimsey

Susannah decided to lighten up my life an early Father's Day gift and so now I have a group of Kokopellis climbing up my wall.


There is some mystery about just who or what Kokopelli is, and I think that while we were volunteering at an archeological park in Arizona we heard most of them. In general he is considered to be a fertility symbol, and some think that the basis may have been traveling traders that announced their arrival by playing the flute thereby hoping to avoid being greeted as an enemy with a flight of arrows. Of course, all the traveling salesmen jokes would apply to this inturpretation. In any case, he is generally thought of as kind of a tricktster playing jokes and is associated with livelyness and fun.

On the other hand Oliver, who considers himself editor in chief and prefers to hang around Susannah's desk since it is normally neater than mine, much prefers a quieter surrounding. He refused to comment vocally on my new decoration by never the less managed to express his opinion.


Oh well, I long ago learned to let sleeping dogs lie, and since Oliver has joined our family I am also learning to leave sleeping cats lie. Turns out they are much better armed then dogs and more difficult to disengage from when they grab you with their claws.

Oh yes, I am taking sleeping lessons from Oliver, but don't believe that I shall ever achieve the mastery that he has managed to acquire.

Mike L

Of Cats and Dogs

While I am posting pictures, thought I would post a few of the "family" although you will have to wait for a good picture of Susannah. The first picture is of Amber, the cat that adopted us down in Texas by crawling out from under an RV and literally wrapping herself around my ankle. I caught this picture of her "the morning after the night before" that she decided not to come in and spent the night out.


I think it is pretty obvious that she really enjoyed herself.

Our other cat is Oliver, and we saw him up for adoption at PetSmart. Amber does not like to sit on laps, and her purr is so quiet that most of the time I can't hear it even when holding her. So when they said that Oliver loved to sit in laps and purrs loud we paid the fee and took him. He does like to roll in the dirt.



They were half right, he purrs loud, but only sits on your lap when HE wants to.


The brown lump is not really eating my slipper, he is just resting his head on it. That is Chaco, and I met him when Susannah and I were shopping and they had an adoption fair outside the store. This was just after my radiation treatment so she told me to go look at the dogs while she went in and shopped. When she came out Chaco was sitting with his head in my lap, and I could read Susannah's lips as she said "OH! S**T!" He has turned out to be a wonderful dog, and after about 9 months even Susannah has found she likes him. But I probably will never get a picture of Chaco sleeping with his head on HER foot :).

Oh, the big lump sitting in the chair is me relaxing in front of the wood stove on a cold night with my admirers around me.

Mini-Vacations

I often complain that one of the bad things about being retired is that Susannah and I seldom manage to get a vacation. Some people might think that everyday is a vacation once retired, but believe me, it just isn't so. This spring we decided that we would break the habit and take a four day vacation and go north of the border, New Mexico/Colorado, that is and spend some time at Pogosa Springs and spend some time soaking in the hot springs there, enjoying some excellent food, and giving me a chance to try out my new camera. I could complain that we picked the wrong days to go given the rainy weather, but last time we went we had sleet, freezing rain, and snow. So this trip might be considered an improvement, although the snow was rather beautiful and it fun to sit in a hot spring and have the snow falling around you.

When we left Tuesday morning it was a beautiful day with blue skies and just a few clouds drifting across the heavens. It was also warm enough to cut the air conditioner on from time to time. The first part of the trip was through the high planes and then into more desert like surroundings, and at one point we cross a massive volcanic dike where magma surged up through a crack in the surface of the earth many centuries ago. As the ground has weathered away it has left what looks like, to me at least, a dragon laying across the desert, or perhaps an "earth" serpent swimming through the sands and rocks of the area.



So I stopped the car and produced the above picture. Not shown is the fact that on the right side of the rode the dike continues off to the horizon. You can click on any of these images to get a much higher resolution image.

After a restful stop for lunch in Espanola we continued north climbing in elevation and moved into the red rock area near Ghost Ranch. Someday I am going to have to take a day to go up there and just take pictures. As it was the sky was starting to spit rain drops, and while not really a rain it was apparently enough water flow to prompt the request for a pit stop, and being the good husband that I am we turned off for a short trip to the visitor center at Lake Abiquiu. Not one to pass up a chance we did manage to get this picture.



Ah, the black marks give away the secret that these are really composite pictures made up of several individual prints and then stitched together to make one big picture.

At any rate we arrived about 4:00 pm, settled in, soaked, then had dinner and soaked and then collapsed into bed. The next morning we walked across the foot bridge over the San Juan river and I decided to see how well I could manage to picture the area where they have the hot tubs. This was the result, and I can see that I need to be more careful to fill in the gaps.


The resolution in the original is just about good enough to tell which of the women are wearing bikinis, so I am a bit disappointed in how they are coming out in this posting.

For one final picture, we drove up to the top of Wolf Creek Pass where it crosses the Continental Divide. And here I made a big photographic mistake. I decided to wait until we came back before taking some pictures of the mountains, and by the time we returned the clouds had set in and rain obscured them from view. Oh well, I did take this one on the way down, and it gives you some idea of the park like effect in that area. And here it is!


Friday morning again dawned with lots of clouds and rain, so I did not even try to get back up there for more pictures. Maybe sometime in the future.

We took it slow this trip, and it paid in terms of being more relaxed and an incredible 33 mpg average over the trip. Anyone who tells you that their mileage is as good at 65 as it is at 55 is either lying or hasn't tried it. Our dog was glad to see us again, he hasn't hardly left my side since we have gotten home. The cats, however, are still somewhat pissed, but at least amber is not swatting at us every time we go by.

Ok, the field is open for criticism and advice on how to take, process, and post pictures here in blogdom. Feel free

Mike L

Talking Trees

The oak trees on the south side of our house are having a discussion. I can watch them out the side window as I write this, and I am pretty sure they are discussing whether the weather man is wrong about rain this afternoon. As the breeze blows through their tops, they lean over and whisper to one another about the clouds that are drifting over us from the Manzano Mountains to the West. Our tree-rex lives in that particular patch of oaks. He is a branch that sticks up above the others and looks like a T-Rex with its mouth open. This will be the third year that he has been with us and today he seems quite vocal. Right now he is a bit spotty, but I think he will take on more substance as the leaves continue to come out. Guess he likes it here, and I enjoy watching him.

This morning dawned with a blanket of clouds covering us and going right up to the mountains. There a bit of sunlight managed to sneak through to light a strip of green just below the tops that were hidden in the soft white. The day tossed the blanket off and the sky has been mostly clear, just a few white flecks punctuating the blue to give it character. But now as the sun sets the clouds are forming again, and I can see rain falling from them in places. But alas, it will not reach the ground. The air here is dry, and I can watch the rain vanish into the air as it drops toward the thirsty earth. Our here they call it virga or Katchina hair. We often watch it sweep over us, with maybe a drop or two reaching us. We often get six inch rains, that is one drop every six inches.

Our phoebes, the birds nesting in the corner of the porch, have stopped their frantic activity. I think that they have finished upgrading the nest for the spring, and are probably now sitting on eggs, or laying them. Susannah has been moving the yard around and has moved the garden cart which was a favorite spot for them to stop at before entering the nest. It was funny to watch one of them land on a tire when the cart was overturned and have the wheel ever so slowly turn until they had to hop a bit to stay on top. I wonder how many families they will raise this year. Last year we think they raised two, three the year before. We pretty much leave them alone since we wouldn't want to be disturber all the time either.

The moon has been full, and that means both of our cats would love to spend the night outdoors. We try not to let them, owls and coyotes take their toll and we would kind of like to keep the cats around for a while. But night before last Amber refused to come in, running across the yard at full speed, then hiding in a bush only to dash back to pounce on a grasshopper, or maybe just a stick. She always comes around when we call her, I think to let us know her intention, then vanishes if she has decided to stay out for the night. I was up early yesterday and here she came, walking across the yard, tail high in greeting, ready for me to open the door and let her in. Breakfast first, then she retired to our bed for the day, one paw across her eyes to keep the light out. Don't know what she did over night, but she sure looked like "the morning after the night before." Been kind of quiet since then.

The sun is behind the mountains now, and peacefulness seems to be sweeping over the high plains. There are still patches of blue sky to the east, but mostly slate colored. Over head the virga looks white and twisty, and when I stuck my head out the door there is a warm breeze blowing from the mountains, but the trees remain still. Our tom cat, Oliver, is sleeping in his bed on the desk next to me and all is well. It has been a good day. I did some work in the wood shop, then did my exercise, and now having had dinner I am ready to rest for the evening. Perhaps a soak in the hot tub on the porch, looking at the starts are the lights of airplanes, and then to bed, preparing for another day tomorrow.

Hugs to all,

Mike L

Byzantine Mass

Susannah and I did something a bit different this Sunday. Instead of attending mass at our normal parish we drove into Albuquerque and attended a Byzantine mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Byzantine Catholic Church. Many of us in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church are unaware of the rich diversity in the Catholic Church that exists in the Eastern Rite churches. For those that are not aware of these Churches, be assured that Latin rite members are welcome there as they are welcome in our churches. We are free to go to receive communion, go to confession, and attending mass fulfills our Sunday obligation. So no, we did not miss mass this Sunday :)

Since neither Susannah or I have attended a Byzantine rite mass in decades, we pretty much watched what others were doing and followed. You know, when in Rome do as ..., or in this case when in Constantinople do as the ...

The first thing we noticed on entering the church was the alter. Set up on a platform with a screen separating it from the rest of the Church it faced in the ad orientum direction, that is the priest would have his back to us. The screen had three doors, one in the middle about wide enough for two people to stand in, and one on either side. The screen was hung with beautiful icons, as were the walls of the church.

The second thing noticed was no kneelers. In the Byzantine rite you are either standing or sitting, you do not kneel. Kneeling has a different meaning in the east. On that note, you do not genuflect when entering the pew, but rather perform a deep bow toward the alter and cross yourself.

I am really not going to describe the mass, the liturgy is far more elaborate than that of the Latin rite. I think we had about the bare minimum number of people on the alter, 4 pre-teen alter boys, two young adult alter boys, two deacons, and the priest. There was also a candle bearer that showed up while the Gospel was read and at other important parts of the mass. There was also a cantor that chanted the Epistle and an excellent choir. All this in a church that probably would not have held 150 people!

I believe there were four processions, and I lost count of how many times the deacons incensed the alter, the church, and the congregation. Do not go to one of these masses if you are allergic to incense. The Gospel was not read, it was chanted, and chanted clearly enough that I didn't need my hearing aids.

Some things that stick in my mind. At several points the deacons would leave the priest's side, come out the side doors, move to the center and facing the congregation one would chant "WISDOM" and the other would then chant "BE ATTENTIVE". Their voices were deep, and I certainly took notice. From time to time they would change and the first would chant "BE ATTENTIVE" and the other would follow with "WISDOM".

Prayers were chanted, the responses were chanted by the congregation. Most of the prayers were recognizable, and the order of the mass was not a lot different than in the Latin rite, but different enough and longer so that I knew I was someplace different than normal. I found it very soul satisfying.

Receiving the Communion was quite different. The hosts are cubes of bread that are added to the chalice. Each person goes forward with hands crossed over their breasts, opens their mouth and the host soaked in wine is placed in their mouth with a golden spoon. I should also mention that in the Eastern rites children receive first communion with baptism, and while I knew this, it was still a surprise to see infants carried by their mother receive communion just like the adults.

I also want to mention that the sermon, while long did not seem so, and was one of the best I have heard in years and was given by the deacon. As mass ended I was shocked to realize that it had lasted for a few minutes short of 2 hours.

As an after note, I was talking to the priest after mass and he asked how I liked the sermon. I told him that I thought it was excellent, and asked if it was always of that quality. His replay was "well, I normal preach, so you will have to ask someone else." Oh well, we shall be going back from time to time when our need for solemnity gets the better of us, so I guess I will find out :).

I was going to say that if you get the chance to attend an Eastern rite mass, don't pass it up. I won't say that, I will say instead make the effort to find one and attend it. There are many Eastern Rite churches in union with Rome, each a bit different, but all having rich liturgies that are beautiful. I should mention that the Orthodox Churches have the same liturgies, but are not in union with Rome, so are not appropriate for Catholics to attend.

Come, explore the richness and diversity of the Catholic Church.

Who Speaks for the Catholic Church

Many thoughts are floating around in my head this morning as I think about the reports in the news and on the internet of the flap over Notre Dame's invitation to Pres. Obama. I find a wide gap between Bishop Wuerl's opinion that in the long run education will win out and bishop Burke's bombastic condemnation of the Obama Administration along with Notre Dame. Since both are bishops, and speaking as bishops, I have to wonder which one I should follow, and I find no hard and fast guidelines.

In my own mind bishop Wuerl seems to be acting more like Jesus in his teaching and compassion for his flock, while Burke seems more like the crowd yelling "crucify him." I also have a large problem with Bishop Burke's claim that Notre Dame's invitation is the "greatest scandal." Is asking our president to speak really a greater scandal than the sexual abuse scandal? Never have the bishops ever raised their voices in such protest of that behavior. I can not help but wonder if perhaps they are trying to create a scandal that would overshadow their own behavior in moving abusive priests around to abuse again.

Perhaps the most shocking information to come out of this flap was the Pew report that half of the Catholics had never heard of the controversy over Obama's invitation. I am not sure whether I am more shocked that half of the Catholics don't care enough to follow what is going on in their church, or that the Bishops have so completely failed to communicate with their flock. But then again, I wonder what percentage of the priests are aware of the debate. I have seen some evidence that some priests are so busy in their own parish that they don't have the time or inclination to look outside of it. In either case, I think that the Church has a real disaster on its hands.

There is no doubt in my mind that the US is facing a problem of moral indifference or that respect for life is declining. But I do not believe that the non-Catholic world or the press is anti-Catholic. I believe that for the most part they are pretty indifferent to what we as Catholics believe and practice until we start putting pressure on them to conform to our beliefs. Then we get a defensive response that we claim is an attack on our faith. I have seen this in many political situations. In my view the American bishops have failed to lead us, to set examples for us, to be role models. Now they are trying to find someone to blame rather than take responsibility and move to correct the situations. We certainly saw the same behavior with the sexual abuse scandal. It was the fault of the anti-Catholic news, it was caused by the money hungry lawyers trying to rob the Catholic people, etc. The bishops have yet to take responsibility for that, and I doubt that they will do any different in this case. I do not believe that they will gain any credibility until they change this behavior and publically acknowlege their faults.

Let me put a caveat in here. I believe that there are bishops out there that are trying to lead in a Christ like way, there are some that are good men, and some that are at least good CEOs. The later is not something to be sneered at in this day and age, I am NOT damning with faint praise! But they seem to be silent. Approximately 1/4 of the active bishops have condemned Notre Dame, 2 retired bishops have supported the university, one claiming that he knew of active bishops that agreed with him. But why haven't they spoken? Are they trying to avoid more scandal by not throwing gas on the fire? Are they not speaking because there is an unspoken agreement that a bishops does not disagree with another. If so, then all we will ever hear is the support of the first to speak, right or wrong.

In my mind the Church is a wonderful collection of people, having diverse customs, different languages, varied tastes, and conflicting beliefs. My wife believes priests should be celibate, I don't. The western Church leadership seems to agree with her, the Eastern rite leadership seems to agree with me. Could it be that neither of us is right or wrong? Can we as Catholics tolerate these differences? Some things, like abortion are undeniably wrong, but there are differences of opinion in what is to be proscribed by law. Can we tolerate these differences of opinion? I believe that in a pluralistic and free society such as we have in the United States, that it is far better to convince people then it is to force them.

Mike L

I guess I have to post :)

Spring is coming to the high plains here in New Mexico. As I did my morning exercises and watched out the window a small rail lizard scurried out from under our overturned garden cart and practiced its mating dance. Either that it was also doing morning exercises in the form of push-ups. Makes me envious, I never have been able to do them, and certainly not that fast.

Meanwhile a pair of humming birds were fighting over the sugar water left in the feeder at the end of the porch where a pair of birds are building their nest. In another week or so we will be having to fill the feeders several times a week to keep the hummers happy, but we really enjoy watching them. I have counted as many as 20 of the little guys around one feeder, and they have no manners at all. Talk about having to protect your tail :).

Sad to say it is also a bad season for the bull snakes that we have around. The days are warm but the nights still cool, and they tend to crawl onto the blacktop roads to get warm at nights. The desire for heat is often fatal. We like having them around, they keep the smaller varmints down, and also seem to chase more dangerous snakes away. There are rattle snakes in the area, but seem to be around our place. I have a friend that has lived with a 6 foot diamond back on his property for quite a number years. They have a live and let live policy that seems to work pretty well, although he tells me it cost him a fortune when his dog violated the rules. The snake won that fight, and the dog now respects its right to hunt mice whenever it wants to. And the vet is considerably richer.

I need to go out and check the apple trees and see how they are doing. The Spanish are said to have planted the first apple trees around here back in the 1600's. History goes back a long way way here on the Land Grants. We have two trees hiding back in the woods that we are told come from that original stock, one yellow, one red. The apples are small, but I think that they are the sweetest that I have ever eaten. Last year the frost got them, and we do have to share them with the bear that wonders through from time to time. He also seems to like the choke cherries that grow on one tree back in the woods.

Not sure what wandered through last night, but whatever it or they were, the dog was sure upset. Nothing showed up in the flashlight, and when we called the dog in he was ever so proud of himself for having defended us so well. My best guess is either the bear checking the apples, or a couple of coyotes hoping we had left the cats out for the night.

I hated to do it, but did have to shoot a coyote a couple of months ago. He was part of a pack of four that were right beside our house trying to take down our dog. He put up a pretty good fight, but the second time they came around was a bit too much. This group did not look like the standard scraggly coyote that you usually see. Their fur was long and almost golden in color, beautiful animals and obviously well fed. Probably explains why so many local cats and small dogs have disappeared over the winter. The wife and I haven't seen them around since, but we know they are somewhere around.

Patches of green are showing among the gold of last years tall grass, and if you look close there are small purple flowers hugging the ground, the dog is looking for shade to lie in rather then the sunny spot. It all says that spring is here again.