Left to right: Laurie, Ann, Jim, Liz, Leah, Lane circa 1985.

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Thirty years ago when I was photographing weddings for a local studio, I was very conscious of "worms" (fingers sticking out over shoulders and from around waistlines) especially when doing group photos. So the Mogfords wanted to to do a family photo with as many "worms" showing as possible. All of the family are in town this weekend, so Ann wanted to recreate the "worms" photo.

Left to right: Laurie, Ann, Jim, Liz, Leah, Lane 2017.

Civic Plaza. Downtown Albuquerque, NM.

Convention Center. Downtown Albuquerque, NM.

On cold gray walk
Hot tamales spilled
 
Cold winter sun
Rays slowly soften
A ride to hitch
Poor unsuspecting sole

Sunset for Π day

The sun has set on Π Day. Some people brought in pie, because many people pronounce Π as "pie"; but then the Greeks pronounce Π as "pee", so those who pronounce Π as "pee" should have drank a lot of water for Π day. Or to be bi with Π they could have eaten pie and drank (have drunk for purists) a lot of water. Whatever! It all seems circular to me.

But then there is Bill Momo. Never heard of Billy Momo? Neither had I until they decided to follow my blog on WordPress. I always check out followers to see if their blogs are interesting, and Billy Momo turned out to be a Swedish music group made up of Tomas Juto, Oskar Hovell and a few other musicians. Tomas Juto and Oskar Hovell ran off into the woods, made some music together and emerged from the woods as Billy Momo. You can check out their blog at https://billymomo.wordpress.com. 

I checked out several of their videos on YouTube and was quite taken with their music. It has a really nice folk/rock sound to it with a good bit of sarcasm. They did a song called "Wishing Ain't No Sin" that was on "Better Call Saul", which is a very good song. If you have a few minutes check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni3riw4Gz7k. One of my favorite videos so far is called "It's Mine". You can see it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwSVidgcPe8.

Sunrise for Billy Momo

I saw a muskrat at warp speed today
Disturbed the light
Made it fray
Split water streaked by light
Illuminating sparks
On the edge of night

At the corner of 4th Street and Central (Old Route 66) in Downtown Albuquerque

The black kitty formerly known as Midnight†

We enter the age of Aquarius
Clawing at the cuffs of Heaven
Fluorine feline in the household
A clowder of kitties
Infested

Novem gatti
Fruits of the Spirit
Nine worthies, three of each 
But who can say which
Pagans, Christians, Jews?

All piled together
Napping nonagon de gnari
Like the symphonies of Beethoven
Each plays their way
Into our hearts

Marble

Silver

Vanessa, who gave us Spunk, is a real cat magnet. She's been living in Northern New Mexico for the past year, and in January, she found these three kittens. They were abandoned in fifteen degree weather and eight foot snow drifts piled up on each side of the road. She rescued all three, but she will probably be moving, so we have taken them in.  We now have nine kitties in the house.

*I'm mixing three languages in the title: German, English and Fula. Gnari is said to mean Cat in the Fula language, New Guinea. I'm assuming the "G" is silent.

†While Midnight is a good name for a black cat, we decided that since we have four black cats, he needs a less obvious name. Since he is more mysterious than Marble and Silver, we are waiting to see what name will best suit his personality.

The poem is all about Nine:
Nine is said to be lucky in Aquarius, and nine is believed to symbolize divine completeness. Fluorine is the atomic number nine, a clowder is a group of cats, and there are nine fruits of the Spirit. Jacques de Longuyon wrote “Voeux du Paon”, a popular 14th century romance, where he introduced the “Nine Worthies”— three Pagans, three Christians and three Jews: Hector, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar; King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon; Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabeus — who were historical, legendary and scriptural figures that characterized the ideals of chivalry in the Middle Ages. A nonagon is a nine sided polygon, and Beethoven wrote nine symphonies.

Seal the deal

Scene behind the screen or painted?

Looks like Jake has a new truck sitting "Off Road" in the space reserved for Jake.

In the summer of 2011, I was getting spam mail from Kevin, the secretary and Kevin's boss at RKL about a big architectural LED lighting show they were sponsoring. I called Kevin and asked what all the spam mail was about, and he said I had to go to the show because it would be the coolest show ever.  The day of the show, I dropped Laurie off at the University and then dropped by the LED light show on my way to the office. Kevin introduced me to all the vendors who showed me a lot of really cool LED lighting that had just come on the market. As I was leaving, Kevin asked if I had put my name in for the drawing. I had not, so I walked back to the table, filled out the form, and dropped in the the box. I paid no attention to what the prize was, because I never win drawings like that.

A little after 5:00 that afternoon, I got a call. Kevin was on the line — "Dude" he said "You won!" I asked him what he was talking about. I had forgotten all about the drawing. "The drawing!" Kevin said "You won the drawing!"   "Oh! The thing I filled out at the show?" I replied. "Yeah man! You Won!" Kevin said excitedly. "What did I win?" I asked sounding confused. "Oh dude. Don't you even know what you put in for on the drawing?" He asked. "All I remember is you asking me to enter the drawing. I didn't pay attention to what the drawing was for." I told him. "It's a 55 inch Samsung LED Screen and a blue ray player." He said. "Wow!" I replied "I had no idea. That's amazing." "Congratulations!" Kevin said as we discussed when and how I was going to get my prize.

Fast forwarding to the present, as part of the painting we had done at the office over Christmas break in December, I had a glass sign made with ARC’s logo etched in it. I got the signed mounted on the wall at the entrance to the office at the end of January. We had been looking at how to light the sign, so I called Kevin the day after I mounted the sign to see if he had any lighting solutions. We had purchased all of the lighting fixtures in the office from RKL over the years based on Kevin's recommendations. He was a great salesman — he could converse intelligently on most any subject, he remembered everybody’s names, and he had a great sense of humor. We had also developed a good friendship over the many years I knew him as we had many interests in common. 

I dialed Kevin on January 31, 2017 — “Hi Kevin. Tim. I just installed an etched glass sign that I need to light.” 
“How thick is the glass?” he asked “1/4 inch? perfect, I have just what you need. Are you available this afternoon? I have to go by the storage unit and get the kit, and then I’ll swing by in about an hour or so.”

About an hour later Kevin showed up with a bag of various LED light strips made to be mounted on the edge of 1/4 glass, The strips direct light through the glass illuminating the area etched in the glass.

Kevin held the light strip on the bottom, and then on the top of the sign while I photographed it. We figured out the length of the LED strip, and the temperature of the light we needed to order based on the manufacturer’s specs. Kevin sent me a quote for the light a few days later, and I dropped a check off with the order on February 8, 2017. It would take about six weeks for the light strip to be delivered. 

I learned that Kevin died on Saturday, March 4th last Monday. I was shocked and sad. During the last conversation we had, only a month ago, we talked about lighting, music, bicycles and cameras, and we were planning to go out to lunch when the lights came in. Sadly, his funeral was today and I will never share another lunch with Kevin.

When I got up this morning at 06:20, the temperature in the bedroom  was 52º F (11.1º C), and the outside temperature was 21º F (-6.1º C). I tucked Rosencrantz in before going off to do my morning routine of giving Spunk, Sasha and Najar their soft food, making coffee, and getting the birds up; but since Lola had lost her warm body (me), she moved over to Laurie who was still in bed with Diné. Laurie got up not long after I did, and since Lola still wanted a warm body to lay on, Rosencrantz, who was sleeping soundly, tucked in under those cosy covers, was Lola's best bet for a warm body. So Lola moved herself over and laid on top of Rosencrantz. Even though I had turned up to heat to 60º F (16.6º C) on the thermostat in the dance room, it was barely up to 55º F (12.8º C) in the bedroom when Laurie got up; therefore, Rosencrantz was not about to get out from under those warm, cosy covers, and simply looked up to see what the pesky paparazzo was taking pictures of when I was photographing the kitties in all their cuteness.