I know it has been a long time since my last post, but with the new job I have been a bit more out of pocket than I otherwise would have been. Yes, I started a new gig two weeks ago and spent the first half of it in the home office in LA. Of course, it’s not really in LA, since almost no place that one thinks is in LA is in LA. Susan’s brother adamantly notes that he lives in Orange and not LA but everyone who lived most of their lives outside of California sees the megalopolis as LA. It’s in a place called Aliso Viejo which I had never heard of until the new job (admittedly I have driven through it a couple of times and never even knew).

The good news is that we’ve finished the new roof on the cabin. A beautiful forest green metal roof that looks just great and hopefully will solve the leaking problem we’ve been dealing with. Everyone who sees it compliments us on it.

The bad news is that the last of our chickens have been killed. Last week I found Queenie, Red (formerly Non-Jealous Red) and The No Love Chicken (once known as Fatty-Face, and sibling of The Love Chicken who passed away a few weeks back) killed and largely devoured in their coop. The culprit is obvious: one or more raccoons. He, she or they, climbed the back of the coop and pulled back a section of chicken wire at the top. It was where I had put up a little metal roof over the chickens' favorite sleeping roost to keep rain and snow off of them. Only a little beast with opposable thumbs and great climbing skills could have pulled it off.

No wonder they wear masks, the banditos!

Now we no longer have chickens. While sad, it does mean that I do not have to be in a hurry to build a coop up here should a miracle happen and we sell the house. It also means that they won’t have to move here. It was pretty ideal for them in Corrales. This is a much harsher place for chickens.

The ugly is that I still have to winterize the basement – and soon. It’s pretty nasty down there and I will have to crawl through some nasty stuff to get it done. I am not looking forward to it at all.

Maybe it’s the corner of New Mexico that we live in, but I think that tomorrow the state will go from pale red to deep blue and pull the lever for Obama. I don’t know if you’ve heard this where you live, but a very popular bumper sticker and t-shirt and graffito making the rounds is:

Obamanos.

Hopefully your Spanish is up to the task of “getting it”.