a short visit to albuquerque - about four and a half hours, and i'm back home, in the stunning fall weather, with a lot of stuff to do, starting with mount laundry, which seemed to grow but fortunately not crack a chasm with volcanic lava.

the occasion was the arrival of my grandson in albuquerque - he is traveling with his parents, my son and his wife, from portland oregon, and they live a relatively isolated life there, so their opportunity to visit albuquerque was actually bringing him out of a shell. these pandemic babies will have the characteristic of growing up their first few years in isolation - no daycare, no parents' groups, just safety. at one point we were all out on the lawn of the botanical garden listening to a blues band - my friend - and the under-twos found each other and ran around a bit. it was outside - no masks, sunshine everywhere - but people were still wary, including his parents, who were wearing masks, and who noticed that the other children's parents were not. i was a little more relaxed - I and mine are vaccinated, but the same cannot be said for anyone in the two-year-old range. so i can see the parents' wariness and general hesitance about all social interaction.

the day was beautiful, the garden was beautiful, the grandson was beautiful - it was the garden's harvest festival, and albuquerque's balloon festival. off in the distance over the neighbor's house we saw the balloons - but the young family had gone closer to the balloons the day before and almost gotten run over by someone who was chasing one. they of course were colorful and interesting and attracted the fancy of the young lad who of course is still discovering the world around him. his time indoors was occupied by walking from door to door, testing each doorknob, turning doornobs and pulling, trying to get doors to open and shut. he did this repeatedly, as he was still getting the hang of the process, but of course all the while he was watching his elders and noticing what kind of extended family he had around him. for my part, i took him my favorite book, yertle the turtle, and tried to get him to let me read it to him.

the new mexico countryside was wide and empty and beautiful. but, on the way to the city, we encountered one remote junction where people were staging a demonstration. i assume it was a "freedom" demonstration. i sense something very disturbing about this.

first, you have about thirty cars and thirty people standing at the junction with illegible signs, presumably anti-mask, anti-vaccination, pro-freedom. i have no problem with the freedom of speech angle. if all they want to do is protest and let their feelings be known and gather a majority to shun mask mandates, let them, they'll be gone in a few years or badly depleted. but it's more sinister than that. all these people have guns. people travel hundreds of miles to organize and stir up rallies in these remote places. in the fresh air, away from town and away from being recorded, they recruit. and what happens to these right-wing groups, recruited? you can guess. i hope the government is infiltrating them, is all i can say. i'm not eager for another january sixth.

the grandson loves the balloons. he loves yertle the turtle. he loves his uncle corey, who he knows is family and who he'll let hold him. he probably doesn't love four or five hours a day in the family car crossing the vast dry west. it's like utah is only the middle days of the trips. that's two days without coffee. hope those parents survive, and make it back to oregon ok.