Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - Hidden Valley RV Park, Tijeras NM
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Hickory walking stick, November 8, 2011
So much for Albuquerque
I came here in large part to get the front end checked out and aligned to correct the altered right front tire wear that cropped up on the way out here with the trailer. But once I took a really close look at the tire wear and the mileage on the tire I decided it was not excessive and scuttled the plan.
So I made my stop at the Apple store, used their high speed internet connection to upgrade a few OS X apps and iPhone & iPad apps that are too big for my Verizon broadband accounts to gracefully handle, and managed to get out of there without any new toys. Amazing!
Walking stick
Having some time on my hands I came back to Hidden Valley and finished up the walking stick I had been working on. More on that tomorrow.
Night camp
Site 100 - Hidden Valley RV Park, Tijeras NM
- This is an older, 100 site, dirt pad, full hookup, RV park on a wooded hillside. The sites are a little small and close together by today's standards but are quite serviceable, quiet and clean.
- Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are available here with a strong signal.
- Locate Hidden Valley RV Park on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Writing From the Inside Out
A young writer, if he is unknown, can be at a party and watch what everyone is doing. If he has a marveluos ear for dialog, he can wake up the next morning and remember all that was said and how it was said. He is a bird on a branch. Sees like a bird and writes books that are extraordinarily well observed. But once he is successful, especially if that happens quickly, it's as if the bird were now an emu. It cannot fly. It grows haunches and foreshoulders and a mane: lo and behold, it is a lion. And everyone is looking at the lion, including the birds. But it is a lion with the heart of a bird and the mind of a bird. So there is a terrible period when the transmogrified emu is trying to live like a lion and has little talent for it. Then the beast begins to experiment. When it runs, it now sees other animals scamper. It takes a while - often years - for the writer to get to appreaciate his effect on others, and even longer to begin to understand human beings again. In the old days, he could write about friends, enemies, and strangers by intuition, by induction; now he puts it together by deduction. Of course, he does have more material on which to work his deductions.