Sign of the times.
Tezcatlipoca, God of the Night Wind, was in something of a mood as we hit the sack last eventide.
The sonofabitch spent the night roaring and rumbling, tipping things over, and generally acting the fool. The power blipped on and off a half-dozen times before I finally toppled into a restless sleep marred by inexplicable dreams.
In one I was outside somewhere with the rest of the bums as Tom Waits sat at a nearby café, trying to compose an opera based on his song “Misery is the River of the World.”
When I moseyed on over to his table and suggested that “Ruby’s Arms” might make a better foundation, Waits snickered and replied to the effect that I must’ve fallen in love with the first girl to kiss me somewhere other than the cheek.
When I wandered back to the bums one of them was gnawing on a sandwich I had scrounged. Let your attention drift for a second and someone will be eating your lunch, swear to God.
Elsewhere other deities were on the job. Coyote took a snowy shit on Colorado, because he thought it would be funny to lay 10 inches of snow on the place right after a 90-degree day. And Xiuhtecuhtli is still torching everything flammable in New Mexico because … well, it’s anybody’s guess. Perhaps he’s croaking the tourist season to punish the pochteca merchant class for sniveling about a dearth of eager employees while refusing to pay a living wage.
Mad Blog Media 
May 22, 2022 at 10:15 am |
Reminds me of the April Fool’s Day storm in Rochester in 1974. March 31st saw us in shirtsleeves playing frisbee on the Eastman Quad. Next morning we woke up to high wind and a foot of blowing and drifting snow. One never was quite sure what Ma Nature would do in Rochester in the spring.
May 22, 2022 at 10:25 am |
Good times. Maybe not. I lost all faith in Memorial Day Weekend after a couple snowy Iron Horses.
Meanwhile, here’s a shot Hal provided of the conditions yesterday at the ol’ burro ranch. He reports that mud season commenced almost immediately afterward.
May 22, 2022 at 10:50 am |
Well, I recall those passes were up close to 11k, aren’t they? All bets are off in the high elevations. It was 03 or 04 when I topped Bobcat Pass during the Red River Century, circa Labor Day, in driving sleet. Then, I was told, it turned to snow. I guess the folks farther back behind me were rescued with school buses. I shot past the finish line half frozen and went straight to my hotel, where I turned on the hot shower and dove in, bike clothes and all.
I took a pass on the Fanta Se Century this year as my knees are just starting to feel normal again. Well, normal for an old fart. Just as well. The forecast said it was to be nice, but its still trying to inch up to fifty up here and a stiff wind out of the south. Yuck.
May 22, 2022 at 11:19 am |
Yeah, but this time around even the flatlanders got some. Oof. I never liked shoveling snow, and I really didn’t like shoveling snow in May.
May 22, 2022 at 10:47 am |
Snow on the East side of the Rockies. Maybe the Rio Grande will flow until July after all.
May 22, 2022 at 11:12 am |
The sopilotes will drink it up anyway and by the time the river gets to El Paso it will be as wet as a popcorn fart. When that happenss LaMigra will be as extended as the proverbial gnat parts on the now dry rain barrel
May 22, 2022 at 11:19 am |
I am a thirsty Dog, and I heartily approve this message.
May 22, 2022 at 11:59 am |
Well, unless Joe Mondragon digs a hole in the dike to water his bean field.
One word young investor: desalination
May 22, 2022 at 2:13 pm |
Nah, too polluted. And, the intake filters would clog up with plastic.
May 22, 2022 at 10:02 pm |
Oh. I was talking about our toilet water. Why flush all that good stuff down the loo pipe when we can just fire up the old REI puree-fire and enjoy to our hearts content. Heck, Aaron Ralston certainly wasn’t complaining and his REI device was probably at home out of arms reach….
With respectful seriousness, I wish the best for all those in NM and other areas that have been affected by the fires there. I just hope that the scale of the fires reduces and we all undergo a nice lightly wet, cool summer.
May 23, 2022 at 9:28 am |
And while we are at it, we spent so much time trying to raise minimum wage to $15, the money needed to support one person went to $24… I mean there are places here in DFW that you could get a 1 bedroom apartment with utilities and buy dry beans and rice at $15, but that would mean no phone, no internet, and walking to work everyday and walking home after.
May 23, 2022 at 3:13 pm |
Nuts, innit? There’s no escape from a shit wage. The smug bastards say, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” But what if you can’t afford boots?
I’ve only been broke due to my own sloth and/or stupidity. And I was always able to get out of the hole because I had the best possible start as a middle-class white boy from the ’burbs. Worked a few shit jobs, but I knew they’d be short-term.
What happens when you start at the bottom? Some folks will tell you there’s nowhere to go but up, but I notice a lot of them are up top hollering down at you, and someone has stolen the goddamn ladder.
May 24, 2022 at 12:48 pm |
When you have nowhere to go and hope, bad shit starts to happen. We see it every day. Every god damn day.
May 24, 2022 at 5:38 pm |
“… Some folks will tell you there’s nowhere to go but up, but I notice a lot of them are up top hollering down at you, and someone has stolen the goddamn ladder.”
Can’t say I can add anything to that.
May 24, 2022 at 8:13 pm |
Well, more bad shit today. And, it will continue. Welcome to the good old US of A that is on any civilized countries do not travel list.