Leap Day

The calendar has given me one extra day to do another blog in February. Now (sniff) if I (blow) can (wipe) get enough (blow) relief from (wipe) my sinus (drip) affliction ...

Seems like the danged pollens are out a little early this year, but I'm for sure working on my spring sinus infection. Going through wipes by the box and feeling like I'm running on about 75% oxygen ... not ready for a tank and tubes yet!

We've been active, in both little and big ways. Around Valentine's Day, there was Chocolate Fantasia, with song and chocolate all up and down the town ... feet on the street and sweets to eat!

One of the neat things about Silver City is the amount of learning available in digestible bites. The former director of the Silver City Museum offered a Monday brown bag lunch illustrated tour of the eclectic historical architecture of the town. The WMNU library has been hosting a number of evening forums (usually followed by a free buffet of hot food, which ensures that students will be in the audience, as well as us old folks); this one was on race and ethnicity in the area, region and nationally.

And then, around Mardi Gras time, there was a Mardi Gras-themed impromptu parade of puppets and other, playing music while strolling down one lane of Bullard Street. Nice sunny morning, good fun ... one of the real treats of living here!

We went to a stirring performance of the Up With People group, after I documented one of their work projects, repairing a walkway out at historic Fort Bayard. Those kids have so much energy ... I was exhausted at the end of the show! Very positive message, well-delivered!

Another WNMU forum was on a plan to send "wetbooks" to Tucson ... books that were banned and removed from Tucson school libraries after their ethnic studies class was shut down by the State. Books like "The Tempest," by that foreigner Wm. Shakespeare and "Civil Disobedience" by that French radical Thoreau (that is a French name, isn't it?).

Maybe the most delightful part of the month was our test run with the Casita. It has sat idle for more than a year, so we got it "tuned up" with new tires and gas adjustments, put a hitch on the V8 Mercury Mountaineer and set out on a short test run. We went about 3 1/2 hours away to Dragoon, AZ, in SE Arizona to the Triangle T guest ranch, which has full hook-up sites for overnight of longer-term RV camping. VERY pleasant place to spend two nights with the dog (seen with Sandy on a morning walk through the rock outcropping). We sleep SO well in that Casita. Funny thing was, when we pulled in there was an almost identical Casita (17-feet, but newer) parked in the space next to the one we were assigned! Still odder, we learned that the other Casita had been bought in Silver City a week earlier.

We stayed two nights and, in the Thursday between, we decided to go see Bisbee, about an hour and a half away. We've heard a lot about it ... and it was all right! My impression was that it is like Telluride on steroids ... WAY more shops and stores than Telluride and lots feet on the street. With one way streets running this way and that, I never knew which way to watch for cars, but everybody is traveling slowly, so there's lots of opportunity to criss-cross the streets from shop to shop. Sandy observed that it really doesn't feel like a border town and I agree. Lovely, sunny day with lots of interesting and friendly people ... we're booked in the historic Copper Queen Hotel for our anniversary on March 25!

And then, of course, there's the "hole" ... the open pit copper mine that is Bisbee's reason to be. Basically, there's two revenue streams in Bisbee now - mining and tourism. And I suspect the town is pretty dead at the end of July!

And we got back just in time to get our pictures in a new gallery in a local hardware store. The art world goes on ... we're active in the Grant County Art Guild and the season is upon us again! tv