Up the Mountain

My life has actually been packed with worthwhile incident lately, though as a result I've had no time to post about it. This won't change in the next week, as I'm off to Taos for a week of manuscripts, margaritas, and high cuisine.

Here's a summary of the last week:

We participated in Mayor Marty's free Memorial Day concert series in Albuquerque, and caught the Blind Boys of Alabama, Johnny Lang, Delbert McClinton, and Joan Osborne. I intended to tell you all about it, but haven't had a spare moment.

I've spent two days trying to fix Tractor Beam, and decided that twelve years of Tractor Beam is enough. Names for the new tractor are hereby solicited.

As I mentioned in the last post, I finished the novel and started a new one.

This weekend I helped to test and graduate fifty-odd Kenpo black belts from all over the Southwest. Sweat, dedication, blood, and tears were expended, and for the most part much admired.

Instead of the usual testing site high in the Manzano Mountains, the test was held in the mid-school in Bernalillo, a town north of Albuquerque. The gym featured air conditioning, flush toilets, and showers, none of which were available at the old site. Also there were no dust storms. I appreciated the comfort, but wondered at whether enough character-building filth and misery were available for the students.

The gym also featured the most amazing mural, which grew progressively more strange the longer I stared at it. There were Indians, giant hummingbirds and cranes, conquistadors, a football player, babes who may have been cheerleaders, a ferocious-looking Aztec-looking guy in hoplite armor, ICBMs, and a UFO.

New Mexico, in short.

I'm off, and will check in if opportunity arises.