Song Of The Day #362

Ranch Radio wasn't able to broadcast yesterday, so we'll have a double whammy today.

There will be no theme or particular era this week, just whatever strikes me.

Several recent happenings have got me to thinking about my youth. So here are two songs that may make you think of yours. They are both in the Texas country or alt-country style. Some of those are too rocky, some too folky, but most are more country than what you hear on top 40 radio. Many of them tell a great story, which I like in a song.

Here is James McMurtry performing See The Elephant from his Childish Things CD. And yes, novelist Larry McMurtry is his father. That's followed by Mark David Manders performing My Old Friend from his Cannonball CD.

Did you get to see the elephant? I did, and a helluva lot more than I should have.

Go To FileFactory.com

NOTE

My apologies for the short version this morning. My internet connection was so slow I couldn't even upload the Song Of The Day.

It's been like this for the last three hours, and of course, just before I started typing this it returned to DSL speed.

Thank you Qwest.

James Gammon, Character Actor, Dies at 70

James Gammon, a squint-eyed, froggy-voiced character actor who was best known as the manager in the baseball film comedy “Major League,” one of the rough-hewn American types — cowboys, rednecks and the alcoholic family patriarchs in the plays of Sam Shepard — that were his specialty, died Friday at his home in Costa Mesa, Calif. He was 70. The cause was cancer of the adrenal glands and the liver, said his wife, Nancy. With a bushy mustache, large, weathered-looking features and a voice full of gravel, Mr. Gammon was a natural for roles that called for men with the experience of dusty roads, out-of-the-way saloons, physical work and family travails written on their faces. And he became a familiar presence on television and in the movies, lending a seeming authenticity to settings where the townsfolk wore 10-gallon hats or overalls — or both — and did a lot of spitting. He began his career in the 1960s, appearing on “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” “The Wild Wild West,” “The Virginian” and other television westerns; he made his movie debut in 1967, as a member of the chain gang in “Cool Hand Luke.” He played a redneck murder victim in “Natural Born Killers” and the revered cattle rancher Charles Goodnight in the television mini-series based on Larry McMurtry’s novel “Streets of Laredo,” a follow-up to “Lonesome Dove.” He also appeared in “Cold Mountain” “Urban Cowboy” and “Appaloosa.” “Major League” (1989) was the biggest hit of his career...more

I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to visit with Gammon. He was a close friend of Max Evans, who introduced us. That kind of ornery, yet fun-loving squint was there in real life too.

Godspeed.

A Rancher's Personal Border Battle

This Arizona rancher is on the front lines of the border battle, living not far from a nearly non-existant border fence east of Douglas in the southeastern part of the state.

It's where cowboys and their families deal with illegal aliens, drug runners, and thieves -- something they never expected to live with, but now have to fight.

When Ed Ashurst hears the statistics that border crime is going down, he says, the crime in his neighborhood is tenfold what it was five years ago.

FOX 10's John Hook reports.

Here is the video report. If you want to see what it's like to ranch or live on the border surrounded by federal land, then watch this tv news report

Churches (must) pay cartels to operate

The President of the National Fraternity of Evangelical and Christian Churches, Arturo Farela, revealed that various community churches in the State of Michoacán have been threatened by criminal organizations and must pay for the right to operate. He said says that this is a delicate situation they must get through, not only in Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Michoacán but in other states as well. There have been threats from different people claiming to be members of organized crime. The churches are told they must pay weekly fees according to the number of members, or the number of seats available or else there will be kidnappings or assassinations of the member or of the member’s family. The most recent incidents occurred in Michoacán, Cuidad Juarez, Chihuahua City and some in the northern regions of Tamaulipas...more

Politicians, border residents say National Guard just a start

Word that National Guard will deploy to the border August 1st is news politicians and border residents have been waiting a long time to hear but they are looking for more. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords all basically said the National Guard deployment is good but Arizona needs much more to be safe. All the Guardsmen will be assigned to do surveillance and intelligence work for the Joint Counter Narco-Terrorism Task Force. Attorney General Terry Goddard says going after the smuggling cartels is the best way to boost border safety. He's happy to see the Guard assigned to the drug task force but KGUN9 News asked if putting Guardsmen on short term assignments will help much. Goddard says, "No, I think a three month rotation or some kind of short term assignment on the border is not gonna be effective because, bottom line, we need to have people that know the problem who are experienced in observation; these are subtle investigative signals that have to be picked up on." The idea that Guardsmen may not be right there on the border disappoints border ranchers and the association that represents them. Patrick Bray of the Arizona Cattlemen's Association says, "Our intent for the Guard to be down there was to basically be that presence with full law enforcement authority on the border." Cochise County Rancher Gary Thrasher thinks assigning the Guard is a start. "…But I think it's not nearly enough. And I also think that once people get down here they'll probably see that it's not enough and they can help influence Washington a little bit more to get the help that's really needed through the entire border."...more

An AP story says, "The 1,200 troops will be distributed among four border states, with Arizona getting 524; Texas, 250; California, 224 and New Mexico, 72. Another 130 would be assigned to a national liaison office."

Over 10% are "assigned to a national liaison office." What the heck is that?

The same story reports, "The troops will be armed but can use their weapons only to protect themselves, Gen. Craig McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told a Pentagon news conference."

That ought to strike fear into the heart of every drug runner!

Let's remember George Bush sent 6,000 troops to the border in June of 2006, which also just happened to be during a midterm election.

This looks like nothing but political showmanship to me.

Border security must be viewed with an eye on terrorists

Border security is national security. The latest confirmation of what should be an obvious statement came last week from Uganda. What does the East African nation have to do with America's porous borders? Terrorists struck in the capital Kampala as fans watched the World Cup championship. Suicide bombers set off lethal charges at a mass viewing party and a crowded restaurant. Seventy-six people were killed. The group claiming responsibility for the deadly attacks is al-Shabab, an Islamist group not well-known in the United States, but one that is waging an insurgency against the Somali government. “Whatever makes them cry, makes us happy,” Sheik Yusuf Sheik Issa, an al-Shabab commander in Mogadishu, told the Associated Press. “May Allah's anger be upon those who are against us.” As I discussed recently, the Department of Homeland Security in May warned Texas law enforcement officials of the potential illegal entry from Mexico of Mohamed Ali, a suspected member of al-Shabab. A Homeland Security intelligence assessment produced before the Uganda bombings and obtained by the Associated Press warned, “We cannot exclude the possibility that U.S. persons aligned with al-Shabab in the Horn of Africa may return to the U.S., possibly to carry out acts of violence.” Let's acknowledge that the overwhelming number of unauthorized immigrants entering the United States are simply seeking better lives and economic opportunity. Let's also acknowledge that in most cases, they are compelled to break the law because of irrationally restrictive U.S. immigration policies. Those are arguments in favor of reforming immigration. They are not reasons to ignore the federal government's responsibility to secure the border. And they are certainly not reasons to legally challenge states that act to remedy the federal government's delinquency. In most cases, unauthorized immigrants come here to cut American lawns, make American beds and pick American crops. But some of them want to come here to cut American throats. And there's no way to turn a blind eye to the former without also enabling the latter...more

Slain officer call lured police to site, mayor says

Terrorism, similar to that found in the Middle East, has taken root in North America's most violent city. Drug cartels orchestrated a Thursday car bombing that lured police to a fabricated homicide call at a busy downtown intersection. A car exploded, killing three people and injuring seven others. Rigged in the car was Composition 4, or C-4, a plastic explosive often used by the military, Juárez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz said. He said federal officials found a detonation device with batteries inside another car. Initial reports said a city police officer was killed, too, but Reyes Ferriz said the man was not an agent and was there to serve as a trap for law enforcement. They did not release his name. Officers were lured into the deadly trap Thursday night when they thought they were responding to a homicide, Ferriz said. Officers were dispatched thinking a city police officer was slain on the busy 16 de Septiembre Avenue. Reporters also traveled to the scene thinking it was an attack on an officer. Police and paramedics arrived at the scene and noticed that the man posing as a police officer was still alive. Other officers became suspicious when they noticed that the man was not wearing a badge and that his belt was different than the official police uniform. They proceeded to treat the area as a crime scene. Three rescue workers began to treat the decoy. "They were working on him ... about four meters from the car. Then, additional federal police officers came and the car then exploded," Reyes Ferriz said...more

A Food Czar? Really?

You may laugh about the White House assistant chef being appointed "Senior Policy Adviser." You'll stop laughing when you realize that those in power really do want to tell you what to eat. You just can't cook these things up. The 29-year-old Chicago chef that the Obama family for years paid to be their private cook, Sam Kass, was quietly promoted last month from his job as assistant chef at the White House residence and "food initiative coordinator" to the position of "senior policy adviser for healthy food initiatives." The long-suffering American people don't get to know if an increase in salary is involved, because Kass is on the residence staff rather than the West Wing's. But we should know how much the taxpayers are paying this "bald, intense young man" who, according to the New York Times, is "part chef and part policy wonk" and is "reinventing the role of official gastronome in the Executive Mansion." He plays golf with the president at Martha's Vineyard, attends the administration's child-health briefings, and quizzes senior White House staff about policy. Of course, it all begs the question: Why on earth do the American people need a government-paid "food initiative coordinator"? This administration has been attempting to elevate nutrition to the level of a civil rights issue...more

Well, I have my own Culinary Queen, otherwise known as my Burrito Babe, right here and she never tells me what to eat. I either eat what she fixes, or I don't eat.

However, I do agree food should be a "civil rights issue".

Starting today, I'm forming the National Association for the Advancement of Fatty Foods (NAAFF).

First, we need an anthem.

The highly-successful civil rights movement had We Shall Overcome, which went:

We shall overcome, we shall overcome,
We shall overcome someday;
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall overcome someday.

The anthem for NAAFF will be We Shall Overeat, which goes:

We shall overeat, we shall overeat,
We shall overeat each day;
O, deep in my gut, I do believe,
We shall overeat each day.

Of course we'll need to raise money, so I'm establishing the Fatty Foods Foundation.

Our first event will be a National March Against D.C. Salad Bars. Finally, a green movement I can support.

This is in it's infancy, so if you have comments or suggestions on the name of the org., the anthem, the foundation or future events, use the comments section or email me (flankcinch@hotmail.com).

Eat Free or Die.

The Feds' $95 million Breastfeeding Boondoggle

The USDA's Food and Nutrition Service has set up a network of "lactation consultants" and "breastfeeding peer counselors," which is a strange use of the word "peer," since the counselors are paid $50-60,000 a year, plus benefits, to be your peer. A job notice for a lactation consultant in Washington State notes: This position is covered by an "Agency Shop" provision. Therefore as a condition of employment, the incumbent of this position must either join the union and pay union dues, or pay the union a representational or other fee within 30 days of the date you are placed into pay status. Hmm... funny how the union label seems to pop up on every idea endorsed by the Obamas. President Obama's 2010 budget allocates $14.85 million for unionized peer support, which funds the Loving Support© Peer Counseling Program, the latest in a line of initiatives which all have the words "Loving Support©" in their titles: Loving Support Makes Breastfeeding Work; Using Loving Support to Build a Breastfeeding-Friendly Community; Using Loving Support to Implement Best Practices in Peer Counseling. In addition to Loving Support funding, we read at the USDA website: The Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 (Public Law 111-80), provided $80 million for WIC State agencies to build upon and expand breastfeeding peer counseling efforts...more

There is also a description of a $350,000 USDA contract for a "train-the-trainer" curriculum.

The author, Peter Wilson, says "This contract will pay advisors to advise trainers who train trainers -- three bureaucratic levels removed from the actual act being targeted. Breastfeeding requires the assembly of two working parts, a mouth and a nipple."

Talk about milking the taxpayers...Obama is applying a breast pump to your paycheck.

Woolly mammoth hunters helped change climate

Ancient hunters who stalked the world's last woolly mammoths likely helped warm the Earth's far northern latitudes thousands of years before humans began burning fossil fuels, according to a study of prehistoric climate change. The demise of the leaf-chomping woolly mammoths contributed to a proliferation of dwarf birch trees in and around the Arctic, darkening a largely barren, reflective landscape and accelerating a rise in temperatures across the polar north, researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science concluded. The northward march of vegetation affected the climate because of the "albedo effect," in which replacement of white snow and ice with darker land surfaces absorbs more sunlight and creates a self-repeating warming cycle, the study found. If mammoth hunters helped hasten Arctic warming, that would potentially be the first such human impact on climate, preceding that caused by ancient farmers, Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology and a co-author of the study, said on Tuesday. With the advent of agriculture about 7,000 years ago at more southern latitudes, humans are believed to have modified the climate through deforestation and cultivation of new plants, he said...more

Wouldn't you know it...even thousands of years ago, hunters and ag producers were the bad guys. Oh well, at least they were breastfed.

Beyond Politics? BP & Obama

Oil firms have been lumped into one big, bad group by the U.S. drilling moratorium. But they're not all alike. BP's green politics played a big role in the Gulf spill. That's what should be repudiated, not drilling. No. 1, BP's been a big-foot lobbyist on Capitol Hill, spending $15.9 million to influence legislation — and not in the interest of producing oil. According to the American Thinker, BP played a key role in writing the economy-killing Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade bill that President Obama wants to ram through Congress. "BP is a strong White House and Democratic ally on the cap-and-tax issue," wrote Brad O'Leary. It also went green in the campaign sense, doling out cash to leftist candidates who opposed oil drilling. Obama took more than any other candidate BP financed, $77,051, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. BP and its employees gave more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years. Few were champions of producing oil. The politics gets even seedier. Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel took a rent-free apartment from a BP consultant who helped create BP's sanctimonious "Beyond Petroleum" campaign. Worse, news is out that the $20 billion BP fund to compensate residents of the Gulf ruined by the spill could mean tax savings for BP. BP's $5 billion yearly outlay over four years can be written off as a business expense, according to tax law cited by O'Leary. None of the other oil companies shut down by the moratorium will get that. So in the wake of its disaster, BP gains...more

Ethanol Industry Scrambles to Keep Incentives

The once-popular ethanol industry is scrambling to hold onto billions of dollars in government subsidies, fighting an increasing public skepticism of the corn-based fuel and wariness from lawmakers who may divert the money to other priorities. The industry itself can't agree on how to persuade Congress to keep the subsidies, which now come in the form of tax credits worth about $6 billion annually. One industry group, Growth Energy, made the bold move Thursday of calling for the tax credits to be phased out completely in favor of spending the money on more flex-fuel cars and gasoline pumps that support ethanol. A rival group, the Renewable Fuels Association, said it's too late in the year to make such proposals -- the tax credits expire at the end of the year, and legislative days are numbered. As the industry bickers over what to do, Congress is signaling it's growing tired of paying for ethanol. The House Ways and Means Committee is considering slashing the tax credit by 9 cents a gallon, from 45 cents to 36 cents, when it looks at a wide range of energy tax credits as early as next week. That would be the second cut in the credit in as many years. A key senator also expressed skepticism this week. Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Democratic chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a longtime supporter of renewable fuels, said Congress should "weigh all factors, including the credit's very high cost to taxpayers," when looking to extend the credit. Bingaman noted that the ethanol industry is protected by congressional mandates for its use...more

Go Jeff, you are right on this one.

Agents raid farm...again

When the approximately twenty agents arrived at her farmhouse door at 7 a.m. last Wednesday--from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, Los Angeles County Sheriff, Ventura County sheriff, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture--Sharon Palmer didn't know what to say. She had just the previous day pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of mislabeling goat's milk cheese that took more than a year to materialize from two previous raids in late 2008 and 2009, pushed by CDFA. She thought that at the least the authorities would leave her alone until that case was resolved, since she had made no attempt to get back into her original business of selling raw goat's milk and cheese. But her 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, wasn't the least bit tongue-tied. "She started back-talking to them," recalls Palmer. "She said, 'If you take my computer again, I can't do my homework.' This would be the third computer we will have lost. I still haven't gotten the computers back that they took in the previous two raids." Alas, the agents took nearly six hours to conduct their "search," and took the replacement computer, along with goat's milk Palmer feeds her chickens and pigs, since she can't sell it--"The chickens get the curd and the pigs get the whey," she told me. The raid last Wednesday on Sharon Palmer's farm was carried out on the same day as a raid on Rawesome Foods, the Venice, CA, buying club run by nutritionist and raw-food advocate Aajonus Vonderplanitz. The main difference seems to be that her raiding party didn't include agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Canada, as did the Rawesome raid. Because the CDFA had previously suspended her dairy license, in late 2008, Palmer says she had worked hard to survive without selling dairy products, instead selling beef, pork, chickens, and eggs she raises on the farm. "They nearly forced me out of business with the previous raids," she says. She and her three children "are barely surviving."...more

Why Did the National Road Fail?

“Let’s build a national road across the I country!” many Americans cried in I the early 1800s. The idea of a national road was appealing because it would encourage settlement by connecting the east coast with the interior of the recent Louisiana Purchase. So popular was the idea that in 1806, Congress voted to fund such a road, and Thomas Jefferson signed the bill. Constitutional arguments were important in this debate. Those who favored the road argued that it was a “post road” for mail delivery, and thus was consistent with Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution. But would the national road — which would eventually stretch from Cumberland, Maryland, to Vandalia, Illinois — be economically sound? Put another way, even if the road was a good idea, was government funding the best means to achieve it? After more than 700 miles and $7 million in construction costs, we can answer that question. No, the national road was not sound. Nor was it particularly helpful to westward settlement. By 1850 it was little used, and soon after that it was almost abandoned. What went wrong and why? Three problems inherent in government funding help explain why the national road largely failed...more

The West: Locked in a spell of deep wonder, poetry and awe

Writing in 1973, Andy Russell, the Lethbridgeborn trapper, grizzly bear hunter, photographer, trail guide, rancher and writer, exulted in the classic Western vista. And the love was obvious. He gloried in the "sprawling peaks of the Great Lewis Overthrust," and of how "mountains, meadows, lakes and ageless stone couple into solid magnificence." In a description of the sunrise at the foothills of the Rockies, he characterized the moment as "sudden-bursting life, a marriage of light and life," and wrote of how "the mountains light up at first sun in deep rose, swiftly changing to gold, and all shot through with deep purple's shadow." It was, he wrote, as if "the whole universe pauses for a long, heart-stretching moment, locked in a spell of deep wonder." Such awe at the natural world is at the heart of the Western experience and explains much about the West and the optimistic, open spirit that lies at its core...more

Song Of The Day #361

It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio.

So here is a nice little swing tune by the Asylum Street Spankers titled Move Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue.

The tune is on their 14 track CD Mercurial.

Top Secret In America: A hidden world, growing beyond control

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work. These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine. The investigation's other findings include: * Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States. * An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 11/2 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances. * In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space. * Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.* Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year - a volume so large that many are routinely ignored...more

NSA Executive Leaked After Official Reporting Process Failed Him

A former NSA executive who is fighting government charges of leaking classified information was part of a group that pursued several sanctioned paths to report concerns about an agency spy program, but was repeatedly frustrated by the government’s inaction, according to a report Wednesday. Thomas Drake, now reduced to working at a Washington, D.C.-area Apple store while awaiting his trial, first notified his superiors at the National Security Agency, then looked to Congress to address his concerns, and finally worked with a group that went to the Defense Department’s inspector general, according to The Washington Post. When all of these avenues failed to net results, he took his information to a reporter at The Baltimore Sun. Drake now faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison if convicted of mishandling classified information and obstructing justice. Drake’s information involved a data-mining program called ThinThread that, after the Sept. 11 attacks, was going to be replaced by a more expensive, less efficient and less privacy-friendly program called Trailblazer. When he expressed concerns that the new program would ignore constitutional safeguards around wiretapping, he was reportedly rebuffed by his superiors. “He tried to have his concerns heard and nobody really wanted to listen,” attorney Nina Ginsberg, who is representing a former Capitol Hill staffer but is not representing Drake, told the Post...more

And from the Washington Post

Drake, 53, may pay a high price for going nuclear. In April he was indicted, accused of mishandling classified information and obstructing justice. His supporters consider him a patriotic whistleblower targeted by an Obama administration bent on sealing leaks and on having something to show for an investigation that spans two presidencies. Many in the intelligence community, by contrast, view Drake as the overzealous one, an official who disregarded his oath to protect classified information so he could punish the agency for scrapping a program he favored...

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

The pocket watch

by Julie Carter

I lay deep in the dust, unseen and missing to the world. As the winds of time put layer upon layer of corral dirt over me, I slipped into history without notice.

Quietly, I remained in my unintended grave, enduring the seasons that came and then left - the long deep winters of driving frost permeating the soils, the warming sun of spring that brought soft living-giving rains and the gentle warmth of summer that delivered the sustaining harvests.

I saw both ends of a family generation make their living off the land near where I rested. As the older ones faded from the horizon, they made way for the young as they too changed, grew, and moved on in one fashion or another.

The circle of life, fueled by a never-ending source of time, continued.

This silent, stationary journey began when I fell from the pocket of a young cowboy easing into his teen years.

The buck deer engraved on my gold cover was the reason his grandmother selected me as a gift for him. He was so proud, feeling rich and elevated in status to own such a fine item - a pocket watch.

He braided a leather fob for me and would often sit and just stare at this treasure of his, flipping the cover open, closing it again. There he scratched his name, laying an eternal claim to me with the "brand" given to him by his parents. It simply read, "Blayke".

For the first couple years, we were inseparable. Then one day in the course of some of the usual cattle work that happened regularly in the family's old pole corrals, fate parted us.

The punchy young cowboy was riding a newly acquired bronc his dad had brought home from the sale barn.

While a little on the spooky side, the short-coupled sorrel, sporting one white sock on a hind leg, a snip of white on his nose and pig eyes that indicated some stubbornness, was the perfect horse for sorting in a corral.

Afternoon rain showers made the ground slick, and in the instant of a quick move by the sorrel to turn back a calf, all four hooves were simultaneously in the air. In a blur of motion, the horse fell hard to the ground, landing with thud on the corral floor.

The cowboy's quick instincts flashed a signal to his brain and he was able to kick loose from his saddle at the onset of the wreck. He hit the ground with a rush of air leaving his lungs, only to return in short gasps as he pulled himself to his feet.

It wasn't until a day later that he realized his gold pocket watch was missing. He returned to the corrals, kicked around in the area of the fall but he never saw me lying in the dirt where momentum had flung me.

A sadness for the loss registered in his heart and as years continued to tick away in the life of the cowboy, that day was moved to share the memories that recorded a sweeter time in his life.

Recently and some 25 years later, I was unearthed by another generation of that family who was cleaning the corrals. My face is still intact and my cover still has the name of the boy that scratched his mark there.

When he was told that I'd resurfaced, basically unscathed by the experience and the years, the cowboy retrieved the memories of that day and period in his life.

In recall, they erupted in Technicolor and were accompanied by emotions now felt deeper by a wiser adult that had seen a lot of country, done a lot of living.

I'll be glad when he has me back in his pocket. We have a lot of catching up to do. Time doesn't stand still, but timepieces can.

Real-life details provided by Blayke Cardenas. Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net.