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Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - LoW-HI RV Ranch, Deming NM

Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, February 1, 2010
Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, February 1, 2010

Morning at JT's Auto Service

There. That's done. After a morning at JT's Auto Service LD now sports a fine newly rebuilt air conditioner compressor and a new belt tensioner pulley. That quieted the belt just fine.

Now it's on to find replacements for the rear tires which are getting down to their last 10% or so of tread depth. That's plenty far enough for me. I'll sacrifice that 10% for a little peace of mind out on the highway. A flat dually will often disintegrate before the driver even notices it has gone soft. We've all seen those road snakes out there. Trouble is, a disintegrating dually can do major damage to the plywood wheel wells on the Lazy Daze. I'd rather not deal with that if I can help it thank you.

So tomorrow I'm off to the tire shop JT's recommended, Tinley-Tee Tire & Auto Services, a mile across town.

Night camp

Boondocked - LoW-HI RV Ranch, Deming NM

Listening

As the poet Gary Snyder said so well, "Beyond all this studying and managing and calculating, there's another level to nature. You can go about learning the names of things and doing inventories of trees, bushes, and flowers. But nature often just flits by and is not easily seen in a hard, clear light. Our actual experience of many birds and wildlife is chancy and quick. Wildlife is known as a call, a cough in the dark, a shadow in the shrubs. You can watch a cougar on a wildlife video for hours, but the real cougar shows herself only once or twice in a lifetime. One must be tuned to hints and nuances." After more than thirty years of living in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and spending a great deal of that time out-of-doors, Snyder has seen the mountain lion on just a few occasions. One of these sightings was most unusual. Gary had been visiting a neighbor and was walking down from the nearby ridge to his home when he observed a cougar sitting near one of the windows of the house. The animal appeared to be listening intently as one of Snyder's stepdaughters practiced the piano.

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