As I write this, the wind is howling outside (gusts up to 26 mph), making it feel below freezing. Even the dogs try to go potty as fast as possible and go right back inside. Apparently, spring is the windy season in ABQ. Winds gust almost every day - starting around noon - from late February to May. Then of course there are the random ones like tonight. For the most part though, it's almost always sunny here. 310 days of sunshine a year. It might rain in the morning, but will be sunny by noon. It started out a little grey this morning - the mountain tops were shrouded with grey clouds. But the sun came out pretty quickly.
So I decided to wander around Old Town for a while today. I talked with several shop owners. The down economy is really hitting them hard. Especially this time of year - their slow period. Several shops have gone out of business, including at least one restaurant. The consensus seems to be to just hunker down and ride it out as best they can. There's been a lot of that going around for the past 5 years. At any rate, today there was a lot of heavy discounting. So..... I allowed myself to be tempted.
My first stop was at Gowen Arts. I had been there in December when I came for the interview, and really loved their stuff. I found some prints I really liked by an artist named Doreman Burns. He's originally from Texas, but lives in Corrales - just outside Albuquerque, near the Sandia Mountains. He has a series of works called "Dancing with Cowgirls". So I bought 2 of the prints to grace the walls of the apartment.
After browsing several other stores (I'm searching for just the right ristra - a string of chli peppers - for my godmother), I stopped into Four Corners Pottery & Jewelry. The kind store keeper there was offering really good deals since it was such a slow day. There was only 2 other people in the shop. In most of the stores, I was alone. Basically I was just looking around for fun, but my eye was immediately drawn to a set of clay figurines. Dogs, of course. They were white clay with black spots - and the spots were miniature paw prints. I asked to see one. It felt heavy in my hand. It was made by Derrick Tsosie from the Jemez Pueblo, a StoryTellers pottery piece. His family also makes figurines. Storyteller pottery figurines all have open mouths - as they are Storytellers. The clay comes from the grounds of the Jemez Pueblo. Once again, something that was meant to be has fallen in my path. The Jemez Reservation was where I went in December to see the Luminarias on a snow covered mountain top. I looked at the price and blanched. $400. But the store keeper offered it to me for $125. And who can resist that kind of discount??!!
And, the last stop of the day..... a purely hokey, just had to do it stop at The Rattlesnake Museum. Now I don't really care for snakes. I'm not terrified of them. But I have a healthy respect. Many, many long years ago, one of my jobs at Pet Village was to pull the black snakes out of the exotic bird nests or cages and get rid of them. Yuk! But, here I am in New Mexico - desert country where rattlesnakes live. And the sign promised that I might learn some educational insight about rattlesnakes. So before I thought too hard about it, I went right in and paid the $5 museum tour fee.
I can't say that I learned a whole lot. The snakes did give me the shivers a bit. But I found myself feeling sorry for them. They were stuck in smallish glass acquariums. If snakes had expressions, I would swear they were bored and sad. I did learn that deaths by snakebite account for only 1 out of every 1000 deaths - not very many. Also, most snakes try to avoid human interaction as much as possible. If you encounter one in the wild, (and I'm guessing they are supposing that you actually see it before you step on it!) the best thing to do is to walk away. Most of the time, the snake will not attack unless cornered. A few of the snakes had signs on them that stated if the snake started to rattle to please back away from the glass. It meant that the snake was scared. These particular snakes were wild caught and startled easily. A couple of them were rescued from a "Rattlesnake Roundup". I'd heard of such things, but the explanation provided in the museum sounded terrible. Gasoline was poured into the holes, killing off other wildlife and vegetation. Then the frightened, sick and dying snakes were "rounded up" as they left the hole and decapitated to become hatbands, etc.
The museum was a maze of small rooms with videos, live snakes in acquariums, gift shop paraphenalia, and examples of snakes in art, fashion, etc. Besides rattlesnakes, there were ball pythons, a few other snakes, reptiles (a gila monster, snapping turtles) and several small tanks (a scorpion, a black widow spider, a brown recluse spider, a screeching roach).... Ugh. Okay. Had enough. Time to go. At least I got a Certificate of Bravery.
So I decided to wander around Old Town for a while today. I talked with several shop owners. The down economy is really hitting them hard. Especially this time of year - their slow period. Several shops have gone out of business, including at least one restaurant. The consensus seems to be to just hunker down and ride it out as best they can. There's been a lot of that going around for the past 5 years. At any rate, today there was a lot of heavy discounting. So..... I allowed myself to be tempted.
My first stop was at Gowen Arts. I had been there in December when I came for the interview, and really loved their stuff. I found some prints I really liked by an artist named Doreman Burns. He's originally from Texas, but lives in Corrales - just outside Albuquerque, near the Sandia Mountains. He has a series of works called "Dancing with Cowgirls". So I bought 2 of the prints to grace the walls of the apartment.
After browsing several other stores (I'm searching for just the right ristra - a string of chli peppers - for my godmother), I stopped into Four Corners Pottery & Jewelry. The kind store keeper there was offering really good deals since it was such a slow day. There was only 2 other people in the shop. In most of the stores, I was alone. Basically I was just looking around for fun, but my eye was immediately drawn to a set of clay figurines. Dogs, of course. They were white clay with black spots - and the spots were miniature paw prints. I asked to see one. It felt heavy in my hand. It was made by Derrick Tsosie from the Jemez Pueblo, a StoryTellers pottery piece. His family also makes figurines. Storyteller pottery figurines all have open mouths - as they are Storytellers. The clay comes from the grounds of the Jemez Pueblo. Once again, something that was meant to be has fallen in my path. The Jemez Reservation was where I went in December to see the Luminarias on a snow covered mountain top. I looked at the price and blanched. $400. But the store keeper offered it to me for $125. And who can resist that kind of discount??!!
And, the last stop of the day..... a purely hokey, just had to do it stop at The Rattlesnake Museum. Now I don't really care for snakes. I'm not terrified of them. But I have a healthy respect. Many, many long years ago, one of my jobs at Pet Village was to pull the black snakes out of the exotic bird nests or cages and get rid of them. Yuk! But, here I am in New Mexico - desert country where rattlesnakes live. And the sign promised that I might learn some educational insight about rattlesnakes. So before I thought too hard about it, I went right in and paid the $5 museum tour fee.
The museum was a maze of small rooms with videos, live snakes in acquariums, gift shop paraphenalia, and examples of snakes in art, fashion, etc. Besides rattlesnakes, there were ball pythons, a few other snakes, reptiles (a gila monster, snapping turtles) and several small tanks (a scorpion, a black widow spider, a brown recluse spider, a screeching roach).... Ugh. Okay. Had enough. Time to go. At least I got a Certificate of Bravery.
