YES, I AM STILL HERE peeking out my window on Main Street, and as both of you have noticed, maybe, some of my recent columns have been inspired by columns of the past.
Like last week when I wrote about that hobo, Goldie.
I’ve continued looking at — and being inspired by — the old columns.
Hope you don’t mind. I like to tear myself away from all the lies, vitriol and hate in today’s news and on the Internet.
Here’s a story inspired by one of my old columns. It is NOT the old column merely repeated because I was lazy or suffering from Writer’s Block.
And so:
The first time I saw Meteor Crater was when I was flying to the West Coast after spending a couple of weeks at home on ‘leave’ from the Navy.
The pilot announced that if passengers looked out the windows on the righthand side of the aircraft they could spot Meteor Crater. I was vaguely familiar with it, having read about it in newspaper and magazine articles. I was not on the right side for a good look.
So I did something several decades later after watching the Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman film “Bucket List.” The film was about some things two terminally-ill men wanted to do or see before they died. Great movie.
I announced to daughter Julie that Meteor Crater was on my own Bucket List. She said ”You’re not getting any younger and I want to see it, too.”
We planned a trip, and included some side attractions. And we set off. Two Arkies in a pickup truck with a handful of AAA maps.
Neither of us had ever seen New Mexico or Arizona up close, and we were just flabbergasted.
Closest town to the Crater was Winslow, Ariz. We found a restaurant in a restored hotel before striking out for the attraction.
Looking back, finding The Turquoise Room Restaurant at the La Posada Hotel might have been one of the highlights of the trip.
The Crater was fabulous and most interesting. We even hiked part way around the two-mile rim. There was a very dense peachbasket-sized chunk of the fireball that survived the impact. It was found miles away and it weighed two tons.
We decided to see the UFO attractions of Roswell, NM, on our way home.
It was a great idea. I’m a skeptic about UFOs and alien abductions and Ancient Aliens, but after seeing the exhibits in Roswell I now believe there was a government cover-up.
Oh, yeah, for any readers at Mineral Springs — we stopped for lunch at Muleshoe, Texas.
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MORE THINGS I LEARNED from opening an email: Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don’t have film. (And some people have no idea what film is and how it relates to photos).
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ANIMAL CRACKERS IN ABUNDANCE.
Sipping coffee on my patio last week I saw a flight of birds the like of which I had never seen before.
Before you ask what was in my coffee let me tell you I have already talked to one person who also saw these birds.
In was a V-flight of about 20 blackbird-sized birds. They appeared to be totally black except for a brilliant white stripe on the wing next to the bird’s body. Any ideas?
ALSO, cicadas are cranking up shortly after 6 a.m. and again in the evening. They’ll be gone for another year soon. Maybe.
AND ANOTHER THING. There was an article in LiveScience.com about brainy animals.
What is the smartest?
The site ranked them according to the number of brain neutrons, whatever those things are.
In descending order:
Human, chimpanzee, dolphin, gorilla, elephant, horse, dog, cat, rat, possum and mouse.
There are some people who would argue with whether Fido is smarter than Fluffy, but as you know I don’t like to stir things up.
I’ve had dogs AND cats.
A dog never left a hairball on the hood of my spotless buggy.
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COMING. There are only 4 Friday the 13ths before the one in 2029. And that’s the day that Asteroid Apophis will whiz past Earth so close that some people will be able to see it with the naked eye.
The cops will be watching my driveway to see if I make another nude appearance.
I have no idea how to pronounce the asteroid’s name.
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HE SAID: “The law isn’t justice. It’s a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.” Raymond Chandler, crime novelist
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SHE SAID: ““Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” Mother Teresa, saint
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SWEET DREAMS, Baby
