Well, thanks to a very slutty slot machine at the Sky City Casino in New Mexico, I’m a few grand heavier than I was a week ago. Lucky? Neh - hear what I did tonight: I oriented myself to the Cosmos, then sat at the edge of the Grand Canyon as the sun set .. the stage for the moon and a trillion stars to dance and sing above me. Now that’s lucky… beyond words.

[Edit: A few images are now up - a lot more when I have a better 'net connection.]

Hey folks - am here in Santa Fe for a weekend retreat / conference - with cold weather and extremely unreliable internet access. Once I had settled into my room, I was very pleased to see that the ethernet jack had been literally ripped out of the wall with just wires sticking out. No wi-fi at the hotel, either - but if I rest my laptop up against the wall near the window and the moonlight is just right, I can get a sip or two of wi-fi, when I’m lucky. Sorry, more will just have to follow.

After that awful video a couple months back of the US soldiers teasing the kid with the bottle of water, I wondered how widespread this kind of behavior is and what impact it has on the people of Iraq and the war overall, if any - and if the average resident sees our presence as benevolent or imperialist - or somewhere in between. I figured the best way to find out would be to ask a couple of people who live there and live with the madness on a daily basis - without the luxury of reading a sanitized newspaper version as they sip their lattes in Scottsdale (he says, doing so.) So, I interviewed an Iraqi woman, Faiza Al-Araji, about the conditions in Iraq and the impact of our daily operations. Faiza Al-Araji made a good subject because she is a civil engineer, she is a Shia married to a Sunni, and she and her sons have been writing about the war occasionally.
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Hey folks - a quick dispatch from Tucson, AZ. My photos from the journey through West Texas are up. The road up from Terlingua (170 and 67) toward El Paso easily qualifies as the best driving ever packed into one day.
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Howdy from the tiny old mining town of Terlingua, Texas. The place is as dusty as it is funky. I found a small cabin to stay in for a couple of days - as a base for exploring Big Bend National Park.
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I was nearly arrested tonight by a belligerent lieutenant from the Bexar County Sheriff’s office. I’ll put up a more complete piece when I’m up to it (and I’m sure I have his name right and all that jazz.) The charge was apparently “taking pictures” and having an IQ higher than 70. He was a law-man unlike any I’ve encountered in a long, long time.

Oh well, at least I’m not Lisa Marie Nowak. Diapers? Nice touch.

My hotel is diagonally across from the “Sanitary Tortilla Manufacturing Company.” I suppose I was naive to think there were other kinds. It made for a funny smell the first day or so, but you get used to it.
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