Over the hump?

The last few weeks have been busy! Maybe October will bring a slower pace? Not counting on it!

"Flat Aiden" has gone back to Asheville, NC, and the story of his travels in SW New Mexico will, I guess, be related next week in his second-grade classroom. Anyway, he covered a lot of ground while he was here, all within Grant County. He was in both the Atlantic and Pacific watersheds ... the Continental Divide is three miles west of here and seven miles north. Interesting to consider that water running off our roof here in Silver City eventually mixes with water running off Aiden's roof in Swannanoa, NC!

"Hot Dogs and More" is a weekly event run by the campus ministry at WNMU and this was the second time we've helped Kiwanis do the serving. Sandy is second-from-left in the serving line; it's a really pleasant opportunity to serve the campus community and its neighbors. They served several hundred people, mostly kids, and Sandy again commented on how polite and pleasant they were. It was a beautiful evening, too ... until the storm hit, right after everyone was done being served.

Saturday was another show, our second time to have our booth up in this area ... that's Sandy welcoming folks to FeVa Fotos. Closer, shorter and cooler than the Mimbres show and very pleasant overall. Good sales, too, maybe because Sandy had the idea of donating half the proceeds from the print sales to the Piños Altos VFD, which sponsored the October Fiesta as a fundraiser. They're also our fire department.

I love the mix of people shown by the servers outside the Opera House ... bikers, bicyclists, shoppers, servers and Apaches. Joe and Gloria have been with us at events for the last three weekends, so I asked them if they would pose with Aiden; turns out they've had three grandkids who participated in the "Flat Stanley" project and they were delighted to! They are of the Warm Springs Band of Chiricahua Apaches, living in Piños Altos. Lovely folks!

And last Sunday we caught the last hours of the Grant County Fair in Cliff, way over at the western edge of Grant County. The number and variety of preserves, vegetables and crafts reminded me of the Lincoln County, WI, fairs that I participated in in my youth. Lots of art projects by school classes, too.

Unfortunately, I didn't check the background when I photographed the calf roper waiting his turn ... it looks like he has a flagpole extending out of his head. What I was really looking at was the approaching storm, which hit a few minutes later.

And shortly after that, a couple of miles away, the Gila River was flowing its way toward the Colorado River in sunshine. tv