This man of fire, El Kookooee, (~ El Cucuy, the boogeyman) is a large puppet made of wood and is stuffed with the paper momentos of written fears that is burned in effigy every year on the last Sunday in October during the Festival de Otoño in the South Valley near 3908 Isleta Blvd SW in the Rio Bravo State Park, near Harrison Middle School in the baseball diamonds at 35.017814, -106.680967 - consider parking at the South Valley Library or at about 1450 Camino del Valle SW. This year, La Novia… Continue

Pet paws beware! Puncture vine is everywhere in with the nightshade and mallow. All day I spent pulling up goatheads; weed whacking would only make them stronger. The humidity, and heat and my mind wanders. Maybe those ones will be too small to grow seeds. . . . That one is a lookalike, isn't it? . . . I thought I had done that area already? . . .…



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Like a classic New Mexican, I too love to go up on the rooftop to watch the fourth of July fireworks. I guess that I think I'll avoid the crowds, the noise, the traffic. But it will be cooler up there, hopefully with just a bit of breeze. I go up just before sunset; it seems like the sun takes forever to set in summer. I look around and remember I'm supposed to put more tar around the skylights, that maintenance I told myself I'd do last winter. I remember to take a cold beer (near frozen with… Continue