The haze looped around to the north, softening the sharp lines of the Sandias.
Yesterday being Earth Day, I decided to cover a few miles of it on foot.
Walking the Candelaria Bench Loop in counterclockwise fashion I saw a couple dozen deer working it in the opposite direction. Looks like maybe they’ve been visiting the folks whose backyards abut the open space along Camino de la Sierra. Before much longer they will be paying a call on us down here in the cheap seats.
Looking southwest toward the city.
From up on the bench I noticed a haze coating the Rio. This was either courtesy of a pair of small fires down along the bosque or the ozone we seem to be having too much of lately.
We are very poor tenants indeed. No wonder the landlord is taking measures to have us evicted. Gaia being indifferent as regards race, creed, color, or religion, she dispatches plagues instead of the sheriff.
Speaking of plagues, Herself and I are due for our booster shots this weekend. If you should happen to see any posts here that look something like “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn,” with illustrations of flailing tentacles rending squealing humans into party snacks, never fear … it’s just the nanoparticles kicking in.
Elsewhere, the Elon Musk Bus Lines have resumed delivering passengers to the International Space Station. I wonder what the carbon footprint is like for that action. Probably not as bad as rush hour at the Big Eye.
No word on when the routes to Luna and Mars will be open for business. Not until the Shackleton Crater Resort & Casino is up and running, is my guess. This may take a while. The moon is remarkably short of undocumented workers to help keep the hospitality costs down.
Tags: Candelaria Bench Trail, Earth Day, Elon Musk, Mars, moon, mule deer, ozone
Mad Blog Media 
April 23, 2021 at 10:42 am |
I get a pretty clear view of Albuquerque from La Tierra Trails and it often enough looks like that picture in the Journal article. I’ve never looked into whether it is due to the topography creating an inversion, wildland fires, traffic, people burning wood, God dropping a chemical warfare bomb on you folks, or all of the above. But it sure does look like shit a lot of the time. Scary if like you or me, someone already has lung defects.
Only time I recall having to gas myself with my Albuterol inhaler in Honolulu was when the wind came around and blew a bunch of vog over Honolulu from the Big Island. So far here I have been lucky.
April 23, 2021 at 11:31 am |
Smog. It’s called smog. A catch-all word for floating crap in the air that we really don’t want to breath. I can imagine though, that if Al-B-Que is a valley as you indicate, and the weather is stagnant enough and it hasn’t been raining, that something is bound to be floating around in the air most of the time. In Fairbanks it is called ice fog – a combination of inefficiently burned hydrocarbons from cars, trucks, wood burning stoves, oil fired heaters and reindeer fart farms. Fortunately is it usually cold enough that when outdoors, people have scarves on that stop some of the garbage from getting into their lungs.
I was going to say that I didn’t believe the contribution from Mr. Musk’s roaring rocket ship was all that much because the fuels were liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, but now that I think about it, a primary component of their fuel is kerosene – A nasty CO2 contributor. So the launch of the Falcon 9 on Earth Day was not a great symbol of reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
Good on you for at least thinking about Earth Day. I’m going to think about it today too; and tomorrow; and.
April 23, 2021 at 11:54 am |
If its photochemical smog, its likely from traffic as a big part of that is oxide of nitrogen from Infernal Combustion engines. If there is one thing about Albuquerque, its devotion to the Sacred Car. I think the city’s patron saint is Henry Ford.
April 23, 2021 at 1:20 pm |
I have lived in a few Temples to the Lords of Infernal Combustion. Albuquerque is one for sure. Also, Denver, with its Mile High Brown Cloud; Bibleburg, whose boosters claimed that the haze puddled around the base of Pikes Peak was imported, from Denver and Pueblo; Pueblo, with its steel mills; and Tucson, which in 1980 looked a lot like Albuquerque does now, with its high-speed, median-divided, multilane thoroughfares. “Speedway.” Was a road ever more aptly named? I think not.
Here in the Duke City we are literally above it all, about a thousand feet up from the Rio. But at times I still wish for an albuterol inhaler.
April 23, 2021 at 12:51 pm |
Well, might as well get used to breathing that sit again. 2020 is over, the bug has been beaten, and it’s time to start driving again. That one thing about riding I don’t miss is riding in traffic and deeply breathing that shit.
April 23, 2021 at 12:59 pm |
Worst bike commute I ever endured was on Oahu when the state was rebuilding Kalanianaole Hwy. The shoulder or bike lane was fine to ride in but cars would be idling at a standstill. If the trades were not blowing briskly, it was choking smog. I bought an activated charcoal filtered mask with exhaust valves to get to work and home again through that 6 mile slog through the construction. Without the mask, I would get to work feeling like I had been chewing on lead foil.
When we moved to Santa Fe from BombTowne, first thing I noticed was the air was not as clean. Last year the air was great because no one was driving. I hope this working from home gig holds up for a lot of folks, as it definitely colud put a dent in traffic and therefore, emissions, both smog and CO2.
April 23, 2021 at 1:23 pm |
You ought to see the Mother Road right now. I went down to Two Wheel Drive for a technical confab with Zach and decided to take Central back to Tramway instead of Lomas. Oh, bad idea. A veritable clusterfuck of construction with a short sideways rainstorm thrown in for good measure.
Oh, well. At least I wasn’t the hooker hoofing it through the deluge in hotpants and tube top. I don’t know how the hell s/he kept her wig on.
April 23, 2021 at 1:55 pm |
Damn, I would drive an editor nuts. Good thing Patrick quit that side of the business. I guess sit and shit aren’t physically that far apart, That’s for sure, that is.
April 23, 2021 at 3:27 pm |
Maybe its premature senility, but I’ve noticed more and more typing gaffes on my part. I have to read things three times to make sure I haven’t spazzed with the keyboard or frontal lobe synapses.
April 23, 2021 at 3:46 pm |
I believe us geniuses here knew that your characters s, i and t were highly noxious.
April 23, 2021 at 4:21 pm |
We all commit the typoficationisms. I occasionally dash off texts or emails without my glasses. Hilarity ensues.
I am pretty good at catching them when I have the cheaters on, though. I was just looking at the flyer for a collegiate race and thinking the author needed to revisit English Comp 101.
April 23, 2021 at 5:31 pm |
I used to be able to spel reel goot. Butt whens I started watching Netflix all those times sumpin happened to me. Do you thinks the tv screen is eaten my brain?
April 23, 2021 at 6:42 pm |
Fo sho.
We’re skipping the streaming and binge-watching DVDs of “Northern Exposure.” Man, that was one smart TV show. And, unlike us, it ain’t got dumberer 30 years later.
April 24, 2021 at 5:44 am |
That’s why they call it the lobotomy box. Term comes from a movie, but I can’t remember which one.