It has been a long 10 days of ordeal.

On the last day of April, I drove to Chaco. I hoped that the predictions of terrible wind would keep the crowds away. It is always windy in Chaco. On one occasion 10 years ago, the wind ripped out all the screws that held one of the canva sides of our popup camper. Years before that, I had to set a tent up as a storm approached. I didn’t have time to stake it out, so I threw everything plus myself into the tent just before the storm hit. The tent blew so much I expect to wake up in another campsite. With the experience of more than two dozen trips over 20 years, I believe I have never experienced wind as bad as this latest trip. Damn! The drive in was a vision of the Dust Bowl, as the dust quickly moved from a lovely pattern swirling  a foot above the road, like vapor over ice, to a complete brown-out with no visibility beyond my windshield. In the campground and everywhere else, the wind scoured every surface like sandpaper. It was fierce. And it got cold. Two weeks after the last frost date, it got down below freezing one night.

Of course, it’s not a pilgrimage without some adversity. Even with almost no hiking, no wildflowers (no rain this year) and long hours in the camper or driving around, Chaco is still my Mecca.

Not twenty-four hours after my return from Chaco, I came down with a cold. The timing was terrible in that I wasn’t sick enough to realize I should cancel dinner plans with friends, so they also got sick a few days later. Merri, too, was sick during this time. Rarely are we both sick at once. While this was in many respects a minor cold, it lingered more than a week and it ruined sleep for both of us.

With nothing better to do, I decided to wipe out one of my computers and install the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. Thus began a nightmare that lasted 6 days and ended just an hour ago when I rolled everything back to the way it was on Cinco de Marko.

The unexpected crisis that ensued from my worse-than-useless desktop peaked late Thursday. Merri and I were both at our limits from the combo of sickness and sick computers when we went out to the Cooperage to see the Asylum Street Spankers of Austin. In spite of the service and the shockingly mediocre but expensive food, and, in spite of the recurring sound system problem, the show was truly delightful. The Spankers are political, acerbic, and great musicians and entertainers.

That was the turning point for me. Not only were music and laughter great tonics, I was actually reassured by the problems I saw around me with the service, the kitchen, the sound system. These were not *my* problems and the show goes on, regardless.

Yesterday, I taught my last class of the semester at UNM Continuing Education. I dreaded teaching all day long on Saturday, especially after this week. But the subject was Advanced (X)HTML and the students were enthusiastic. The first hour or so of the class was the best classroom hour I can remember. It is fitting that I just completed my 20th year teaching at UNMCE (an event unmarked by them).

Now, eight days later than expected, I can begin to post some pictures and my Chaco journal and an account of my battle with Vista-64. Soon. peace, mjh