Diane was feeling a little better today .. so we decided to take another socially distanced walk.. we walked up to the Railyard and checked out a new interactive art collection called “the Art Vault’ .. it exists because a wealthy patron created the space , invites the artis.. and subsidized the vists.. it was free.. and worth much more.
The pieces were more subtle and more artistic than the pieces we saw the other day at currents a couple of days ago
Despite covid, We were determined to find ways to hang out with Max and Becky.. We opted for a very socially distanced dinner at their house…
We also got some good doggie time.. with violet and her best freind and next door neighbor Lando .. whos moving away in a week or so
We opted for Great afro/carib takeot from Jambo.. So tasty ! We learned the same chef is opeing another caribean lace up where max and becky used to live.. Definetly want to try that
It was so great hangign out with Max and becky if even at a distance.l Max was loving the new hammock that my mom got them as a marriage present
A different vacation than we planned.. Still a very good one
We began the day with our new goto for breakfast.. on our tri to austin a few weeks back we got hooked on acai bowls.. In the time since, diane has mattered the creation.. so much goodness, so many tastes adn consistancy.. so little un natural stuff !
After breakfast , we took grandog Violet to the wonderful Ortiz Dog park.. its 100’s of acres of un fences running through cedar, juniper, cactus.. a dogs paradise.
Its touching to see all the tributes people have made for their furry friends..
I certainly get it !
it turned out to be a red line day … welll.. maybe pink line..
Diane was feeling kinda crummy this morning.. she had a sore throught.. tLater oday she decided to test for covid…
the test line turned a very attractive light pink .. which meant she was covid positive.. bummer.. ! that happened to us once before when we were visiting .. along with Becky’s parents. We called it “Camp Covid”
well.. we had to adjust our plans.. and isolate .. even from each other 🙁 .. I tested negative.. so we kept our ditance, wore masks and stayed away from other folks. We layed low at the aribnb.. towards eneving we went to Pho Kim a great Vietnamese lace about 10 min walk away… .. We ate outside away from other people .
I got this great fortune cookie message (since when do you get fortune cookies at vietnamese resturants ? )
On our walk home , we came across this guy.. a full grown coyote ! Beutiful and graceful.. he strolled u the river ath we were about to cross. then took off running when soem dogs barked. He/she was beautiful to watch !
ALso on the way home I saw this grafitto.. everything I like in one place.. John Goodman in big lebowski with grateful dead logs.. What more can soemone ask for ?
So .. thats how we began a very differnt vacation than we planned.. a bit dissapointing in that we needed to distance from each other and max and becky.. and no hikes, … But we were determined ot enjoy our stay regardless . I have confidence we will !
Diane and I are staying in a really sweet Airbnb about 5 min walk from Mx and Becky.. It’s perfect. We took it wasy today.. We spent the morning walking around this part of town.. We have learned to acclimate a few days to the altitued (7200′) before running or strenuous hiking.
Tonight we had dinner with Max at Maria’s, one of our favorite SW place.. Becky had a meeting over dinner.. we caught up with her later..
Fantastic dinner, woth google translate he.ping me decipher Maxs flaming lips shirt.
Our Uber arrived at about 5:30AM to get us to ORD for our flight toe Albuquerque. We’re on our way to see Max and Becky
Flight was smooth and made even smoother by watching the big leboskie again for the zillionth time. Ever time I watch it, I pick up more things !
Max and Becky picked us u at ABQ and we took the scenic route back to Santa Fe.. Much nicer than driving 25. We actually got to make a drop-by pilgrimage to “Bajo Bob’s” .. a company max knows well, biut has never seen/
We stopped at Madrid (rhymes with “bad kid”) for a great lunh and look around. We’ve been doing some reading on Madrid and its a very interesting place.. It used to be a booming coal town.. with more people than Albuquerque at one point in the 19th century. The place was aa company town until the 1950’s (i think).. at one point everyone who lived there had free electricity .. Employees were required to buy a christmas tree from the comany and light it u with electric lights. It was such a bog deal that folks came from far and wide to see the christmas lights.. THe airline TWA even altered their flight paths to allow passengers to see the lights of Madrid from the sky. Today its pretty much a ghost town except the small strip along the highway that bisects the town. Thats filled with art galleries and funky gift shops .The mine tunnels and machinery are still visible all around. We had lunch and the old mine resturant that we’ve been to before.. it’s supposed to be the most haunted lace in Madrid !
The other thing in town is a dispencery wheir Max and Becky and our freind Chad works. It was a fun paying a surprise visit to chad. !
From there it was a retty short ride to Max and Beckys.. The lace is looking great.. they’re working on adding a new bathroom in a part of the house that used to be storage. These two cdo it all themseleves.. .. and they can do *anything* !
We said hi to our grandog Violet and our grandchickes (?)
Max showed us a new tintype a freind had made of him in exchange for soem technical work.. I love this picture !
Afyter getting settled, we walked over to the railyard to see an exhibit of interactive art called ‘currents’. it was the last day.. so I’m glad we caught it.. Super interesting stuff. Lots of AI art.. but several simple mechanical builds too.. they were my fav’s ..
like this very cool zooetrope of candy
A synthesizer that converts geiger counter clicks into music. >The clicks are made in response oto the radioactive decay of a piece of trinitite (fused glass from the first A bomb from the manhattan project)
I liked many of the projects.. this one is a woman whos constantly changin parts were displayed on small screens
Or this that visualized physically all the moves of the famous deep blue chess programs game that defeated chess champion GaryKkasparov
And a bunch of other stuff: electronic collidescope, AI interpretation of the perfect female face – (which appears to be angry most of the time in the full width of the web ). , a cool round screen cat , a high xncept projection peice and a display of plant s whose vascular structure had been replaced with glassy silica
One of my favorite peieces was totally low tech.. it was a collection of bent threaded rods with washers on them … you were invited to spin the device and watch and listten to the washers as they fell
I also likeed this high concept peice of a boat skeleton in the sky.. it reminded me of an art proposal that several of us made to Electric Forest that didnt get selected
FRom there we took a nice long and hot walk at the dog park.. the place where max and becky got engaged .
We ended the day with a really wonderful birthday dinner for max . We had oysters, sashimi, mahi mahi, steak.. super great food.
