Thursday, September 13, 2012
Catron County Water Coalition: Sept 19 San Augustin water hearing
Catron County Water Coalition: Sept 19 San Augustin water hearing: This is a reminder about the San Augustin water grab hearing on Wednesday, September 19 at 11 AM. The hearing will be in the Socorro County...
MAGE MUSIC: Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day movie trailer
Trailer, movie ticket sales and DVD info all in one spot
MAGE MUSIC: Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day movie trailer: Cinema opening: October 17, 2012 Tickets on sale October 13 DVD release: November 19, 2012 Sales info will be posted here soon as i...
MAGE MUSIC: Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day movie trailer: Cinema opening: October 17, 2012 Tickets on sale October 13 DVD release: November 19, 2012 Sales info will be posted here soon as i...
Saturday, September 1, 2012
MAGE MUSIC: Fetching the Magick
MAGE MUSIC: Fetching the Magick: Ritual is the glue that holds the Magickal process together... Mage Music 18 Black Dog artwork based on NASA image click on image ...
Close Encounters of the Natural Kind
One of the entertainments of hiking is the stories that can be read in the path ahead. If the light is right and soil conditions good, it's surprising h ow much information can be gleaned and how that information tells stories, some of them my own.
Conditions were great this morning as I hiked up the 2-track across BLM land to hitch a ride with a friend into town. My goal was to rescue the car I'd abandoned there more than a week ago. That's another story, but suffice it to say that everyone around appreciates the tolerance of J&Y Auto for using their facility as short- and long-term parking.
It was 9-ish, so the sun was at a nice angle for casting shadows in the silty sand of the tracks. Silty sand is fine enough to be easily blown around so, like an Etch-A-Sketch, the soil of the parallel paths ahead had been cleared by the night's gentle breezes and thus most of the marks I could see there would have been made since dawn.
Walking with my head down so my bifocals could focus on the soil in front of my feet, my baseball cap's brim pulled low to block the sun, my world was narrowed to my breathing, the rhythm of my footfalls, and the silent picture show in the dirt.
I saw the sine-wave of a snake's passage perpendicular to the road. Could be from a rattler, could be a bull snake or any number of other snakes found here in the southwest. Without really thinking on it, I knew it wouldn't be a very large snake - maybe half to three-quarters of an inch in diameter and not likely more than a couple feet long. Whatever the size, it had crossed the road in the past hour or so. It would have been too cold for any snake to be moving around in the night this time of year, and the sun had to rise up behind a mesa before falling on this stretch of road, delaying the time it would take to warm up a snake's environment enough for it to want to hunt.
Further along I began to see the tracks of many small critters, from beetles to lizards to small rodents and birds, with the occasional gigantic raven's footprint making all the rest seem tiny indeed. The tracks looked like Frankenstein's stitches in some cases, zippers in others. I wondered which was what. I stopped to watch a stink bug beetle walk across my path and studied the trail it left behind. The zipper tracks appeared to be bugs. The Frankenstein stitches all had a line down the middle - tails dragged in the silt, I concluded. Some of the tail drag marks had what looked like bird footprints flanking them - probably lizards. Some had multiple toe marks - probably rodents.
I was fascinated and my walking slowed down as I studied the tracks and mused on what might have made them - and why there were so many here in this particular spot in the road.
Suddenly that mystery didn't matter. The buzz of an angry rattlesnake got my full attention - I leaped to the side and turned to face the danger: A small - maybe two foot long - greenish snake all coiled and ready to strike, its rattles clearly visible and in use (it's amazing how much detail one can remember when adrenaline is flooding one's system). I've never been clear on what flavor of rattlesnake we have around here - I've been told that they are Mojave greens (unfortunately one of the most toxic of all rattlesnake species), maybe prairie rattlesnakes - the only two rattlesnakes that are green that might be in my area - but strangely enough, I've never taken the time to grab a photo of one so I could more readily identify the type at my leisure.
By the way - if you click on that photo, you'll go to the website I got it from and please be forewarned: You'll hear a sample of a snake rattling. I didn't know that was going to happen the first time I landed on that site and I about had a heart attack.
And yes, "my" snake looked like that - partially coiled and very, very threatening, even as it scooched back away from me. I scooched, too, slowly moving in a wide diagonal till I got on my way up the road again - all the time keeping a very close eye on the snake.
So I got a story that entertained me for almost the rest of my hike. I figured the snake track in the silt was my snake, who was attracted by all the potential breakfast critters. For all the details burned into my mind, though, I can't tell you if there was a bulge in the snake's middle indicating a successful hunt. That didn't become part of my story till just now, as I'm typing this.
Conditions were great this morning as I hiked up the 2-track across BLM land to hitch a ride with a friend into town. My goal was to rescue the car I'd abandoned there more than a week ago. That's another story, but suffice it to say that everyone around appreciates the tolerance of J&Y Auto for using their facility as short- and long-term parking.
It was 9-ish, so the sun was at a nice angle for casting shadows in the silty sand of the tracks. Silty sand is fine enough to be easily blown around so, like an Etch-A-Sketch, the soil of the parallel paths ahead had been cleared by the night's gentle breezes and thus most of the marks I could see there would have been made since dawn.
Walking with my head down so my bifocals could focus on the soil in front of my feet, my baseball cap's brim pulled low to block the sun, my world was narrowed to my breathing, the rhythm of my footfalls, and the silent picture show in the dirt.
I saw the sine-wave of a snake's passage perpendicular to the road. Could be from a rattler, could be a bull snake or any number of other snakes found here in the southwest. Without really thinking on it, I knew it wouldn't be a very large snake - maybe half to three-quarters of an inch in diameter and not likely more than a couple feet long. Whatever the size, it had crossed the road in the past hour or so. It would have been too cold for any snake to be moving around in the night this time of year, and the sun had to rise up behind a mesa before falling on this stretch of road, delaying the time it would take to warm up a snake's environment enough for it to want to hunt.
Further along I began to see the tracks of many small critters, from beetles to lizards to small rodents and birds, with the occasional gigantic raven's footprint making all the rest seem tiny indeed. The tracks looked like Frankenstein's stitches in some cases, zippers in others. I wondered which was what. I stopped to watch a stink bug beetle walk across my path and studied the trail it left behind. The zipper tracks appeared to be bugs. The Frankenstein stitches all had a line down the middle - tails dragged in the silt, I concluded. Some of the tail drag marks had what looked like bird footprints flanking them - probably lizards. Some had multiple toe marks - probably rodents.
I was fascinated and my walking slowed down as I studied the tracks and mused on what might have made them - and why there were so many here in this particular spot in the road.
Suddenly that mystery didn't matter. The buzz of an angry rattlesnake got my full attention - I leaped to the side and turned to face the danger: A small - maybe two foot long - greenish snake all coiled and ready to strike, its rattles clearly visible and in use (it's amazing how much detail one can remember when adrenaline is flooding one's system). I've never been clear on what flavor of rattlesnake we have around here - I've been told that they are Mojave greens (unfortunately one of the most toxic of all rattlesnake species), maybe prairie rattlesnakes - the only two rattlesnakes that are green that might be in my area - but strangely enough, I've never taken the time to grab a photo of one so I could more readily identify the type at my leisure.
 |
| Mojave green rattler |
And yes, "my" snake looked like that - partially coiled and very, very threatening, even as it scooched back away from me. I scooched, too, slowly moving in a wide diagonal till I got on my way up the road again - all the time keeping a very close eye on the snake.
So I got a story that entertained me for almost the rest of my hike. I figured the snake track in the silt was my snake, who was attracted by all the potential breakfast critters. For all the details burned into my mind, though, I can't tell you if there was a bulge in the snake's middle indicating a successful hunt. That didn't become part of my story till just now, as I'm typing this.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
MAGE MUSIC: MAGE MUSIC 18 teaser
MAGE MUSIC: MAGE MUSIC 18 teaser for the Sunday Sept 02 post (goes live at 12:30 a.m. Mountain Time)
One Still Free: Shunning
From One Still Free: Shunning: Try it, it works.
"Bic "Lady" pens unleash Amazon snarkfest" says Washington Post headlines today. "Bic is being trolled hard by fake Amazon reviews, and it’s brought them that unique combination of shame and free publicity that only an Internet prank can achieve."
Prank? I think not. I have long understood that advertisers on purpose create ad campaigns that seem on the surface to be gigantic errors but in fact are well crafted calculations of risk. Read more...
"Bic "Lady" pens unleash Amazon snarkfest" says Washington Post headlines today. "Bic is being trolled hard by fake Amazon reviews, and it’s brought them that unique combination of shame and free publicity that only an Internet prank can achieve."
Prank? I think not. I have long understood that advertisers on purpose create ad campaigns that seem on the surface to be gigantic errors but in fact are well crafted calculations of risk. Read more...
Sunday, August 26, 2012
MAGE MUSIC: Dazed But Not Confused
MAGE MUSIC: Dazed But Not Confused: It takes determination, stubbornness and powerful Will to pursue a vision decade after decade - there's no confusion about it. Mage Music 17...
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