notes on new mexico & scenes from an airport

"there's a new mexico?" as many of you know, we went 'off the grid' last week. although we did discover some wi-fi by the second day, i still stuck to my 'internet fast' for the most part. but i took notes on some of the interesting things that happened while visiting family in taos, here are some highlights:

- we saw shirley maclaine at the santa fe airport, she was wearing a big jacket that said 'ghetto blaster' on the back

- there's a pretty cool radio station called ktao 101.9fm (it's solar powered!); and i was listening for the emergency alert system test to happen, but they didn't participate. (here's what the test looked like elsewhere) and apparently, they weren't alone: 'emergency drill fails in new mexico'

- meanwhile, they're working on something called the 'taos regional command communications center'. brought to you by homeland security & the local 'power' company kit carson, it basically looks to be a consolidation of emergency, power & communication services. and, of course: "this system will also be responsible for monitoring cyber security tied to smart grid and green grid systems."

- our plane out of santa fe was delayed, which made us miss our connection at lax... yesterday, i saw this article about the airline we used: 'dept. of transportation issues first fine against airline for tarmac delay'

- i hope keane made a lot of money licensing "everybody's changing" to alaska airlines, but damn i used to really like that song...

- the council on foreign relations magazine, foreign affairs, was prominently displayed on sale at the newport news store in the los angeles international airport.

- i had my first chance to opt-out of the radioactive naked body scanners at lax; instead, i got felt up by a very nice gentlemen who didn't even tell me his name. it was around this point that i remembered it was veteran's day & that's why it was so crowded... we were reminded once again that it was a holiday by the fine folks at heinz ketchup.

i also drove a car for the first time in a decade, saw petroglyphs & more that i'll mention on the upcoming episode239... thanks for indulging me, james