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"Twisted, twisted goons on smack
They will give us what we lack;
Take one of these and call me back,
Ear-ly in the morn-ing..."
bet you can't see this -- (anonymous)

Fun with headlines
So what did you think I meant? What? Shame on you! Actually, I feel pretty good. Well, relatively good. And for no darn reason at all. There's plenty to feel awful about, but I've given that up for Lent. It is Lent, isn't it? No? Not yet? Well, shoot. Wait minute -- "WHAT?" (don't you just hate it when people try to talk to you when you're in the middle of something else?) -- oh, right. We're supposed to give up things we like for Lent. (Well?)

But seriously, I feel fine. As someone said the other day, "it's a holy war for a narrowly and literally interpreted vision of biblical prophecy. Rapture, anyone?" Which has me breaking out in smiles all over, 'cause we'll all know where to point when asked just who was driving. Too bad Microsoft's not mentioned in the scriptures, eh? Just don't be too upset. I could've called this "Holy Thugs on Av-Gas" but thought the better of it.

Meanwhile, our man Steve got the P-Macs and the flat-screens out the door without a hitch. These are just the best ones yet, cheaper too, and loaded up with iLife. They're even quieter, which I understand is quite a relief. We had a rather lengthy back-and-forth last week at Applelinks about the bus speed thing, which I won't unearth now except to say that yes, it could be better, but on the other hand, who wants Windows? Demanding utter perfection all at once is something best left to the terminally tied-in-knots, anyway.

No really, I do feel good
I dunno. It's just something in the air. Maybe it's 'cause I'm driving to Los Alamos in a couple hours. My wife's nephew is in the Gustavus-Adolphus College concert band and they're on their Winter Tour. (Hey, if I lived in Minnesota, I'd be touring too. No offense, but the sun is shining here.) So LOS ALAMOS, man! A-bombs, missing hard drives, forest fires, all that stuff. I've only been there once before and it's a kick. Near the end, you drive up this tiny windy two lane road along a cliff and all of a sudden, boom, you're on a mesa with a view to beat the devil. Oppie knew what he was up to, believe you me, getting paid to work up there.

But yup: a concert in Los Alamos. They have quite a lot of that up there, you know. Culture, that is. More PhDs per capita than anywhere in the country. On the way down from there you get the vista below: is that cool or what? This is what the folks who design the H-bomb triggers see when they drive down to Española for their green chile cheeseburgers, I kid you not. If you know where to go, the oldest city in New Mexico is also a good place to buy that goon fuel, or so I hear.

All of this is 90 minutes south of beautiful, unlivable Taos. After driving through maybe twenty miles of canyon you pop out into a barren valley of mobile homes and casinos. Heading into Española, you hang a right either just before or past the Amigo-Mart (I am not making this up) in the Wal-Mart parking lot, take the next left, then more or less follow the signs. The final leg up to Los Alamos is a steep, twisting, seven percent grade marked 40 MPH but best climbed at maximum velocity. H-bomb triggers, man (tiny A-bombs) -- you gotta love it. I mean, who has a choice?

Photo-Essay "What it is About El Rito" - includes info on 10.5 acres for sale in stunning wild & scenic area north of Taos, New Mexico! Written for a friend whose mother has property she needs to sell, this nonetheless paints a true picture of a very special place. You could do worse than enjoying my description of the area and looking at the half-dozen wonderful images, that's for dang sure. * * *

Maybe that's why
You know what I like? The new Apple PowerBooks, especially the 12-inch model. Looking at pictures of that one makes me I feel like I'm engaged to my favorite movie star. If I had one, that is. It's going to be a long time till the wedding in any case, because I don't have the money yet. But just thinking about how well that little jewel would suit me makes me happy as a clam. (Why do people say that? Clams are cold and wet and stupid and even idiots can eat them. Would that make you happy? ) Someday, though.

And I don't care that it only has FireWire 400. I want one. I want a new Mac with OS X already installed so I can do a "switcher" ad. You know, how I switched from OS 9, hahaha. I was all ready to upgrade this 8600 until Ryan Rempel admitted he'd seen his first case of totally terminal dead Mac (beat the drums slowly, play the fife lowly) after someone goosed an "unsupported" model. All it takes is one, you know, then two. The next one could be mine, and God would never forgive me. Go ahead, tell me I'm crazy. My brother's running OS X on a 1GHz DP Power Mac and says (of X) he wonders what Steve's been smoking when he mentions "speed." Anyway, if that's your argument, email Charlies Moore. He likes that stuff. :-)

[six hours later...]

BULLETIN: Los Alamos by night
There were 50 MPH southwest winds today across northern New Mexico, a springtime pattern that means DUST, and lots of it. We sucked up a ton of the stuff and murdered a couple dozen tumbleweeds on the way to Española, getting there just after sunset. The climb to Los Alamos was uneventful except for even more tumbleweeds and dust, kinda like being in a snowstorm, except the road wasn't slippery.

When you finally arrive in Los Alamos (at night, remember) it's like encountering a science fiction movie set. All of a sudden you're in a town, only it's not a typical New Mexico mountain town at all but more of an upper-middle class suburb. Up here? you ask yourself. The place looks like it just fell out of the sky in one piece or was constructed by space aliens to train their UFO crews. Off in the distance are big floodlit buildings amidst strange throbbing installations you can't go to. There's money up there, big hotels in the center of this little town actual curbs and sidewalks. The police station has more patrol cars parked outside than I've seen in three years of living in New Mexico put together.

All of this is rather spooky at night. During the daytime, you can't see everything I've mentioned because of the trees, but in the dark, the lights of faraway parking lots and who knows what else extend for miles back into the mountains and the cliffs. You would not believe the cliffs, by the way. And okay, I didn't actually hear anything throb, but I'm a sensitive boy and I sure thought about it. By the way, you turn after the Amigo-Mart, coming from the north ...

They have good fake cappucino there and the bathrooms are clean, but you have to ask the cashier for a key.

Senior Applelinks editor and columnist John H. Farr is so late posting the 2002 archive page, it isn't funny any more. But the last five editions are here.

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