Wish I had a camera...

So much to post about the last week - and pictures, too!  But there have been a few occasions the past week I wish I had a camera.  If a picture paints 1,000 words, then this should be a long blog post about what I can't show you with a picture - don't worry, though, I'll spare you!

 

Thursday, Oct 6th Thomas and I left for the airport...not exactly a 30 minute drive any more, so we left early.  We snoozed a little long, so we didn't leave when we planned, but we did leave at the perfect time for the unsnapped picture.  As we sped out of Miami towards Springer, we rounded a slight corner to startle a mountain lion.  A small herd of about eight or nine antelope was about 100 yards NE of the car.  Between us was a large mountain lion.  It turned toward us and started to run.  As it ran, its tail rippled out behind it, a good four feet in length.  It was moving very fast.  Clearly we were not the target, as it maintained its stride and kept moving in the direction of the mesa as we passed it.  With no trees or other cover and the sun approaching from the beneath the horizon, that kitty cat needed some protection.  Wow!  What a beauty!

 

Shortly after, I wished I could capture the whole sky of clouds before daybreak.  The sun was getting so close to the horizon, but hadn't sent that first needle of light up and over the lip of the edge of the plains.  The purples of the sky and oranges of the clouds were warming to my heart, but then the clouds went molten gold.  They possessed a unique embossed dimension, as if a play of texture and light had melted them onto a canvas of sky.  It wasn't breathtaking, so much as it made me hold my breath and wait and wait and wait for the fiery light I knew would soon burst into the picture and upset the colors of dawn.

 

There are way too many pictures missing from Friday night, when I left our camera at Miki & Marty's.  We spent the evening with three Ms and a B ~ Maddie, Mia, Monica, and Benjamin!  We had a lot of fun making dinner and hanging out and eating and hanging out and reading.  Pat & Amy were full of great stories, and the night shouldn't have had to end.

 

This past Wednesday I wished for my camera twice.  I arose early after arriving late the night before.  I was rushing out the door to be in Springer by 7 am to pick up a colleague and drive to Santa Fe for a training.  The sun hadn't risen yet, and the dawn sky to the west was a dusty purple over the mountains.  The sky was made more marvelous by the whole moon hanging over the mountains just so.  It was hard to push on, but I knew I had to get going.  I wrote about that image last year...probably will make me swoon every time!

 

On the way home from Santa Fe, passing through Las Vegas, I got that sinking feeling that comes when you see flashing lights in your rear-view mirror.  It seemed to be too far away to have been a cop I hadn't seen on the side of the road, but I lowered my cruise control a few miles per hour nonetheless.  As it got closer, I knew it would pass without incident because I could see a fire truck approaching the on ramp to the highway.  I said a prayer in my head and bumped my speed back up.  Soon another stater came up the highway from behind, though the firetruck was no longer within view back there, and the other cop was no longer in view up ahead.  The wind was blowing to the northeast, so we didn't see what was ahead until we rounded a curve of highway probably half way between Vegas and Wagon Mound.  A short cab semi had managed to put a dozen feet between it and its burning load.  A flatbed trailer of dirty looking hay bales smoked and smoldered along side the road, sooty in spots.  I slowed only enough to be cautious with the emergency vehicles on both sides of the road and blocking the left northbound lane of I-25.  A rubbernecker I hope not to be!  There was about half a mile of traffic already backed up in the southbound lanes, and people were craning their necks and cameras and phones to see what was happening up and around the curve of the highway.  As we continued, I thanked God not to be driving south and continued to watch the smoke billowing away from the truck in my rear-view mirror.  It looked smokier from a distance than it had up close, or possibly the fire truck had arrived and was being put to use.  A wildland truck from Wagon Mound and an NMDOT truck with a water tank approached from the north.  No telling when traffic was reopened.

 

There it is...a wordy camera of sorts...