Charlie showing no signs of life, but the smells are definitely there; I just knew that buying that canned dog food would backfire on me, so to speak. Yesterday we spotted a sign on the edge of the road; a monastery? Who visits monasteries? Turns out that we do, and I'm do glad we did. I would give ten thousand dollars for a picture of the middle aged nun leaping and frolicking with two dogs,…

Dateline midnight; trespassing somewhere along the AZ/NM border, although dad prefers the term "stealth camping"... have you ever noticed that the wind whipping the fabric of the tent sounds exactly like the sound a bear would make if he/she were whuffling around just outside, looking for a happy meal? Me neither, just asking. I finally got the phone back from dad, but I'm too tired to post, so I'll just post these pics; romping with…

Dad here; Charlie gave me quite a scare last night... Where to start? The Palisades at Eagles Nest? Angel Fire? The Vietnam Veterans Memorial? Capulin Volcano, her peak so wreathed in clouds that it looked like the old girl had resurrected to once again terrorize the valley below? And that was before noon... We made a trip to Taos with the intention of camping close to the Rio Grande Gorge. There is a bridge there…

Dad here; even under the best conditions, Charlie is what you would consider a "violently passive aggressive" sleeper, but when you move the battlefield from a bed at the Casa to the back seat of a car, well, it ain't pretty. We rolled hard across Oklahoma, forsaking the interstate for the two lane at the little town of Sayre, arriving in yhe middle of a huge block party;  Main street was blocked by a parade…

Between the two occurences of dad's accident and me finding him, he had a terrifying dream in which he was wandering aimlessly through a very dark, brambly section of forest. He happened across an old, deserted mansion, the type you might see in old horror movies, the once white walls now showing a mildewed gray peeking through the kudzu. Dad somehow found himself taking refuge inside this place, only to find it in refuge at…

Dad here; bad news at the Casa; at exactly 0328, we were rudely awakened when  a train bearing toxic waste derailed in our neighborhood; haz mat teams were scrambled from all the neighboring states in an effort to contain this foul mess before it could get into the jet stream and possibly cause an international diplomatic incident by contaminating the ecosystems of nations around the globe. Or it might have been that a thousand nervous…

Pops passed a year ago this month; after 31 years together, to say that this old girl has felt a bit disconnected since then is an understatement of epic proportions. It was bad enough sitting alone under the carport,  waiting in anticipation of I don't know what, but when they put me on the auction block, well, that was just a bit too much. I could just imagine some pimple faced Lothario buying me and…