Downtown Walk

Today I took a walk in downtown Albuquerque. Here are some pictures I took. Maybe people will see these 75 years from now and be amazed at how much the city changed.

Rain in the Southwest

It's been raining all morning. I love it! We don't get much rain in Albuquerque. It really is a treat when it rains here. Sometimes, as I lay in bed, I imagine what Albuquerque would be like if the climate were different. I imagine what the Sandia Mountains would look like if it received 100 inches of rain every year. I imagine the mountain completely covered in snow from November to April. Then having the mountain covered in clouds all year getting rain or snow. It would be a rare for me to see the mountain, every so often when the clouds go away. The mountain would be completely green, even though there are lots of rocks. I imagine towering Douglas fur trees. I imagine moisture soaked, cool air. The run off from all of our mountains would make the Rio Grande big enough to rival the Mississippi. We would have giant bridges to let ocean ships cross underneath them. The city I dream Albuquerque to be like might look a lot like Portland, OR.

It's funny, because I've imagined Albuquerque being like this city a few times over the years. Being in the desert isn't so bad. I love being able to see the mountains almost every day. But sometimes I want more variation. I want storms. Snow storms, rain storms. I can do without the wind storms. That's about all we get here in Albuquerque...wind. We get an occasional thunder storm in July and August, and we might get a dusting of snow in January. The cool thing about New Mexico is that the weather isn't uniform for the entire state. The temperature in Santa Fe seems to be 5 - 15 degrees cooler than Albuquerque all the time. Santa Fe seems to get much more snow than we do. I suppose it's our geographical location. We're in a river valley in ABQ against a 10,000 ft mountain. Santa Fe is sitting at 7,000 ft above sea level against a 12,000 mountain chain. Rain here means snow in Santa Fe most of the time.

So, to see some snow, or some thunder storms, I just need to drive one hour north on I-25. Santa Fe isn't Portland, OR. There aren't towering fur trees in every neighborhood. There are mostly shrubby junipers and piñon. But then you drive up to Hyde Park and the Santa Fe ski basin and you'll see some towering pine trees. They aren't as tall as the trees you'll see on the Oregon coast, but they're a respectable size.

Maybe I need to live in Portland. I love that the city has tall buildings. I love that they care about their city there. They want to preserve what they have. It really sucks to say, but Albuquerque citizens don't give a crap about our city. So often, especially on the West Side, I see people just throwing their garbage out of their car window. That pisses me off so much! Care about your city! We all have to live here. Albuquerque has so much potential. It really makes me sad that we aren't living up to that potential.

El Morro National Monument

Today, Lindsey and I went on a mini adventure. We were thinking about going to Magdelena, or El Malpais National Monument. While I was researching El Malpais, I stumbled upon El Morro. El Morro was a great decision. We had such a good time. The weather was perfect (51°f) and the hike wasn't bad at all.
On the cliffs, you could see inscriptions dating all the way back to the late 1600's. I would encourage anyone who is interested to read up on the history.
Here's the link.

NM Drivers

Some times New Mexico gets boring. I don't blame New Mexico though. I blame me. There are a lot of things that tic me off about our State. One is the way people drive. I am always on high alert for someone running a red light. I see it all the time. I was highly pissed off when we voted the red light cameras out. I also hate that there are so many drivers in the city that buy very large vehicles. My least favorite ones are; Hummer H1, H2, H3, Ford Excursion, Chevrolet Avalanche, Ford F-250, F-350, any duelly not pulling a trailer. I realize it's a free country. You can buy any car you want and throw away all the money you want in gas. It just feels like I'm less safe with so many reckless drivers in tanks on the road. We live in the city. We need to get from point a to point b. You don't need a bullet proof truck. You don't need a race car. You don't need 42" mud terrain tires. You live in a city! The roads are paved!

Today, Lindsey and I saw a truck with some shiny testicles hanging from the bumper. WTF?! Lindsey had a funny comment. She said, "Oh, it looks like that truck is a boy truck."

Anyway, I had to vent. I wish we were more responsible when we drive. Obey the laws. They're there so that you don't murder someone with your car.

FM Transmitter, Sacrifice

What the heck?! I've been waiting to my fm transmitter that I ordered from New Egg for over a week now. I enter the USPS tracking number into the tracking tool on the website and it comes back as an unknown order. I really just want to jam out to some mp3s.

It's probably best that it hasn't come in yet. Last night I rediscovered CDs. The sound quality from a CD is so much better than what I would get from a FM transmitter.

Life has been so busy, it seems, since I've married Lindsey. I've forgotten about things I enjoy. I haven't really listened to a whole lot of music. I haven't gone to the mountains to snowboard. I'm starting to think about those things more now though.

It's not bad that life has been busy. It's not bad that I haven't listened to a lot of music. Marriage is an investment though. I have to work at it.

It's good when you feel like you're getting a better idea of how things are supposed to work. There's a lot of sacrifice in marriage, too. I'm learning that there is a larger reward when you sacrifice your desires in place of your wife's.

I'm still learning though. I'll probably never stop learning.