It was ten years ago this morning that Matthew Shepard died in a Colorado hospital, five days after two men tied him to a fence outside a small Wyoming town and brutally beat him with the butt of a gun.

I've written about Matthew and how his story affected me several times ... if you're new to my friends list I'd ask you to look here and here. And today I'd hope that we all take a moment to remember, to commit that individually and collectively we will learn from tragedies such as this ... so that at least in some way Matthew's life and death won't be in vain.

Took Miles out for a walk after a preservation board meeting last night, and froze my ass off. This morning it's even colder, and it's snowing ... and it's supposed to be like this all weekend. There go my plans to head into the mountains on Sunday.

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But anyhow, instead of my typical movie reviews, today I'm going to talk about some new music I'm listening to. With the election coming up, some of it is about the US presidency ... and it's very different from the first "presidential" song I remember, which was "Harry Truman," by the band Chicago.

I found a couple of great community radio stations during last month's drive to New Mexico, and one of them -- based in Paonia, Colorado, of all places -- played a live version of the Bright Eyes song, "When the President Talks to God." It inspired me enough that I ended up downloading for the album it came from, which is called Motion Sickness. I very highly recommend it, and not just for the attack on Dubya ... it's good stuff all around.

And NPR did a story a few days ago on a project called "Of Great and Mortal Men," which is a set of 43 songs -- one for each of the US presidents. I ended up downloading the whole thing, and though it's a little uneven there's some very well-done music there ... so you should all get it, too. Here are the lyrics for the song about our current president:

Though the night is very scary I’ll think about birds and trees and gasoline. To a
better world where we’re all free and America reigns supreme.

Though the world is very scary I have a plan to succeed: Lay out your memory.
We don’t need the strength of the world’s great minds. We’ll just say we’re right.

Hold me up in this darkest hour. I’ll treat them like a king. Because I believe in
Jesus but I wonder sometimes if he believes in me.

And the days are lovely—beyond my wildest Texas dreams. We’ll go shopping,
swimming, and golfing. Oh man, I just love this American thing.

On that January noon after you pass along the keys will you sit trembling in bed
hoping that Jesus loves you too?

I hope you sleep at night. I hope the ghosts don’t come. I hope your kids are safe.
I hope your TV works. I hope your wife puts out. I hope your days are bright. I
hope your nights are warm. I hope your conscience clears. I hope the guilt is torn.
I hope the dead don’t rise. I hope she isn’t right. I hope I did my best. I hope my
friends stay rich. I hope my dad is proud. I hope my friends back home can see
me now. Jesus loved him best. I hope he loves me too.

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And here are a couple of photos from my drive through Wyoming ... it feels like a black-and-white day today. I took the first one at a spot called Tie Siding, and it somehow seems like a quintessentially Wyoming view to me:



The old First National Bank at Rock River, which has seen better days:

Not much to report ... MIles is doing OK, and I'm still behind at work.

Its really starting to feel like autumn here, which makes me sad because it means that winter is coming. The leaves are turning, the days are getting shorter, and the nights are cold. I took out the garbage this morning wearing only a pair of jeans, and I just froze. But Miles and I saw more shirtless runners during our regular after-work hike yesterday, so all isn't lost quite yet.

One of the Preservation Board's committees met last night. It was at someone's house, and a little surreal because the debate was on the TV with the sound muted ... everyone kept making sideways glances at the TV, probably in the vain hope that they'd get to see McCain's head explode, or something. I took Miles along, and of course he was the hit of the evening.

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Here are a couple of shots from the hike Miles and I took to the "M" last Sunday. It was a cool afternoon, and it rained lightly most of the way up, so there weren't many people. Here's a view from the trail:



There are a couple of roughly-built wooden benches at the top of the trail, and when we got there I saw that one of them had been decorated as a memorial to someone. I wish I knew the story.

There's been very little non-dog news the last few days but I'll see what I can do ...

• Went out for beers with Mary and Mitzi at the Quarry a few days ago, and surprisingly, it was a fairly decent time. And I found a beer there that they actually like -- a wheat with kind of a smoky taste.
  
  
• Dale and I went out for food, beer, and conversation last night -- it was a good evening, and there was lots to talk about. (We argued arcane bits of politics, like whether a Montana college kid of 2008 would know who Mike Mansfield was.) And Colombo's has a new crop of adorable college-kid staffers ... including a boy who reminded me of a young Charlie Hunnam. Maybe it was just the hair.
  
  
• Like at least a couple of you, lately I've had a series of Russian-language LJ people add me to their friends list, lurk for a few days, and then disappear. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but it almost makes me wonder if they're up to something. And spammers have started adding me on Twitter, as well, even though I don't post there. Bah!
  
  
• Miles and I are going for a long hike this afternoon. Hope you guys have a good day, too.

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And I haven't posted pictures for a while, so here are three from the little town of Grants, New Mexico. The place was a uranium boomtown back in the 60s, and for years THE local dining establishment was a place called the Uranium Cafe. Reportedly, they served yellow cake for dessert. :)



Here's an eerie, fuzzy shot looking through the front window. The place is out of business, but it's for sale if you're interested:



And finally, here's a boarded up storefront just down the street. I liked the tiles, and the colors.

I promise I'll go back to less dog-obsessive postings tomorrow ... but I wanted to give a quick update on Miles.

The big issue from a couple of days ago was getting him to eat something ... and slowly, that's starting to improve. (OK, so he's mostly eating raw hamburger rather than kibble, but at least he's eating.) He's never been the greatest eater, and he's not even back to his pre-sickness level of finickiness, but maybe he's getting there. He's already about as skinny as he can get, though.

As for the infection and the intestinal blockage, well ... sometimes his urine is still reddish, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was. The bigger worry is the blockage -- for the last few days I've watched him straining to take a dump, and then having nothing or almost nothing come out. But then last night, while we were out hiking, it worked!! It was disgusting-looking and not very large, but it still made my day. I've never been so happy to see a pile of dog shit in my life. :)

And he seems to feel pretty good, too ... behaviorally, he's back to his usual obnoxious self. So all in all, the news is good. And while there's no way of knowing what tomorrow will bring, I'm going to try very hard to stop thinking about this for a while -- being freaked out doesn't do either me or Miles any good.

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Finally, I want to again say thanks for your messages of concern -- please know that the comments, notes, and phone calls have all been much appreciated, even though I haven't gotten back to most of you. I'm going to get back to answering comments and reading my friends list, too ... catching up on your lives. You're all great friends.

Just a quick note to confirm that I'm still alive and ticking.

Rough week at the office. I'm still behind, and my co-workers are evil. I really question the motivations of some of them.

Chaired a very long Preservation Board meeting last night, selecting the winners of the city's annual historic preservation awards. We've evolved into a group with a good chemistry, though, and so it was actually fun.

Hung out with Dale at the Co-op a few days ago, with much to discuss. One of the topics was Canadian politics ... and thanks to bdouville, I was prepared! :)

Speaking of politics, I actually have candidate yard signs displayed on my property this year, for the first time. Two of them, in fact. You can come visit me if you'd like to find out who they're for. :-p

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And here are a couple more train photo for today, since we've established that everyone loves trains. :) This morning I'd like to introduce you to Locomotive 481, built back in 1925 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Eddystone, Pennsylvania. The 481 spent decades hauling ore out of the Colorado mountains, and delivering supplies to the New Mexico oilfields, and it's still going strong today. I took these shots a couple weeks ago in Silverton, Colorado.

So here's the story of the best thing that happened on my trip to New Mexico.

For the ride out to Gallup on Thursday, the tour organizers gave everyone a raffle ticket, and as the bus rolled across the desert numbers were drawn and kitschy little prizes awarded. I ended up with an old postcard of a little roadside cafe in the town of Echo, Utah ... a place that I'm sure is long gone. I had to trade someone else for it, and I couldn't have been more thrilled.

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When I was a little kid my family lived in Ogden, Utah, and my maternal grandparents lived next door. We all spent as much time as we could at the family's summer cabin up in the Uintah mountains, and I always wanted to ride up there with my grandparents. I loved my grandma, and they had this great old Jeep Wagoneer ... and they always stopped somewhere on the way for ice cream. Usually, we'd hit the Dew Drop Inn in Evanston, Wyoming, and sometimes the little drive-in in Mountain View. I'd nearly always order a black raspberry milkshake, because it was my favorite.

Once, though, when I was maybe five or six, we ended up stopping at the cafe in Echo, instead, and I suspect I was particularly pleased because it was a real restaurant instead of just a drive-in. The cafe was across highway 30 from the Union Pacific railroad tracks, and while we were there a local freight train came in and tied up in the yard. A couple of guys from the crew came in to get some food -- and I was thrilled to death when they headed straight for my table. In later years I learned that they belonged to the same Masonic lodge as my grandfather, but of course that didn't matter at the time ... all I knew was that I was hanging out with a train engineer! It was the great moment of my young life.

I still love trains, and I still keep my eye out for black raspberry milkshakes. Too bad they're not they're not on the menu much anymore.

Talked to my old friend Nate again last night ... and as it often does, it made my day. I heard all about his trip to St. Paul a couple weeks ago, where he was arrested for protesting at the Republican convention -- you gotta admire that, and I absolutely do. I've made plans to burn a few frequent-flyer miles to go visit him in New Orleans in early November; it'll be great to see him again, and it should be a memorable time.

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Anyhow, here are a couple of movie reviews to start off the week. Two really good films this time.

The Straight Story: This is one of the greatest cinematic anomalies of all -- a David Lynch film, but rated "G" and released by Walt Disney! Based on a true story, the film describes an elderly man's trip across iowa to visit his estranged brother ... since the guy can no longer drive, he makes the trip on his riding lawn mower. :) The film is extremely poignant, and beautifully filmed (Lynch "gets" the appeal of the Midwestern sky), and it has enough classic David Lynch moments in it to keep you smiling. The actress whose car hit the deer really deserved an Oscar.

The movie also scores points for starring one of my very favorite character actors, the late Richard Farnsworth. The guy was amazingly endearing in everything he did, and he figured prominently in two of my other favorite films: Comes A Horseman and The Grey Fox. He was nominated (or received) major awards for all three of those movies, but I bet you've never heard of him.

And I have to give you two quotes from the film. This first one was used over and over in the movie, so you know it must be true ... right, Drew? :-p

"I hear that's a real party place, Wisconsin."

The other one I liked is more poignant:

"The worst thing about being old is remembering when you were young."

Dorian Blues: Yet another teenage coming-out movie with a precocious, first-person narrator. Normally I'm sick of movies like that, but there was something about this one that worked. The main character was sympathetic and his story heartfelt, the ending satisfying without being sappy. And the protagonist's brother was the most adorable thing ever, which helped me forgive the fact that the main teenage roles were filled by actors who were pushing thirty.

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And for todays pics, here are a couple more shots I took at the Light Sanctuary outside las Vegas, New Mexico. I definitely loved that place.

OK, here's the final catch-up entry from my Albuquerque trip ... lots of photos and minimal text, just as you like it. :) And next I'll try to catch up on comments and friends list and stuff.

Checked out of my motel about 8 Sunday morning and headed north, again resolving to stick to the two-lane roads as much as time allowed. Took US 84 up through lovely desert mountains to the little town of Chama, where there were more steam trains to photograph:



( Through the high country ... )

As always happens, I've fallen behind on my travelogue ... I actually made it home late last night. So this is a catch-up entry, describing my group's heroic activities in New Mexico last Saturday.

( An heroic act, with pictures ... )

I hope you guys aren't getting too tired of all this New Mexico stuff ... and don't worry, it'll all be over soon. :)

Anyhow, yesterday at the conference was devoted to paper sessions -- basically, researchers presenting their current projects to the audience. Though this is the best group of history people that I know, that didn't change the fact that conference paper sessions are the most horrible events ever invented by man. So after having lunch with the group at a little Italian place, I skipped out and hit the road:



( The 'other' Las Vegas ... )



I had the place to myself, and stayed there for a long time, pretty much enthralled.

Made a brief stop at the local hot springs afterwards ... there were cute Hispanic boys in board shorts there, but I was too inhibited to try photographing them. And then back to Albuquerque, mostly in the dark. Yet another great day.

Another too-brief entry this morning ... but I wanted to keep the travelogue current with a quick overview of yesterday.

( Getting your kicks ... )



Then back into town. I joined the Canadians and a couple of others in visiting an old Route 66 coffee shop for dinner, where I impressed them with my bravery by ordering a chicken-fried steak. :)

Another excellent day ... I'm having a fine time down here.

Greetings from Albuquerque! A very quick update before my day takes off.

Left Green River about 9 or so, heading down to Moab and the canyon country. Moab's a tacky and tourist-overrun place, but I love it -- and I love the scenery and roads, too. Anyone want to vacation in Moab with me next year? (I'm not kidding, here. :-)

Then over the state line, and into Colorado. More quintessential canyon country, to start:



( Mountains and deserts ... )

Still heading south. Unfortunately, things started going downhill yesterday after the wolf sighting:

• Miles threw up on the back seat (and floor) as we zoomed through northeastern Idaho. I'm pretty sure it was just carsickness -- if any of you ever drive Idaho 33 with me, you'll understand. :) Fortunately, it all happened in a lovely setting:
  
  
  
  Those mountains are the Tetons.
  
  
• Got a well-deserved speeding ticket north of Pinedale. The citation informed me that I had violated the "peace and dignity" of Wyoming ... as if Wyoming actually had either of those things.
  
  
• I hate truck drivers. I hate RVs. I hate SUVs. I hate little old men driving Buicks.
  
  
• Speaking of trucks, one of them kicked a big rock up at my car -- scared Miles and put a spider crack in the corner of my windshield.
  
  
• There's a great stretch of road south of Rock Springs ... no people, no traffic, and long, immensely-steep hills. I got held up by a wreck at the bottom of one of those hills -- a big truck that had gone careening over the side. We had to wait, and watch, while they loaded the guy into the Life Fligh