On a Sunday evening, Lyson and Chris and I made it to the ruins of Abó just as the sun was setting, but moments before the entry gate was closed. These photos document the sunset, turning red with the first wafts of California fire smoke drifting into central New Mexico, playing with the rough red sandstone masonry of the ruins.

If you’re one of those types who are looking for volunteer opportunities in your communty, but don’t want to do something menial like feed the poor or shelter the homeless or teach the children, you may be interested to know that your local draft board is hiring.

“Night falls on Socorro” This week’s Photo Friday topic is night.

By 2am last night, I’d almost gotten us to Memphis, but then I got sleepy. But Chris was just waking up so we switched places and here it is 8:15am (local time) and we’ve just passed through Oklahoma City. The only item of note thus far is I’va actually been able to connect to the internet using my Handspring Visor – something Cingular has been tharting for some time now. Next on our path: Amarillo and then a turn northward to Capulin volcano in Northeast New Mexico.

Today Chris & I travel to a magical, far away place where the sun is always shining and the air smells like warm root beer and the towels are oh so fluffy where the shriners and the lepers play their ukuleles all day long and anyone on the street will glady shave your back for a nickel – Albuquerque. Though likely we’ll just be passing through as we visit the more interesting portions of New Mexico over the next two weeks.

We don’t want Mr. Peanut to be a crude huckster, using his monocled appearance to hit on chicks. . . . That would be scary. : The specific guidelines and rules of thumb that govern corporate fictional mascots. I like fonts. Did you see the goat? : See all your installed fonts using this cross-browser web application. To the average person they would seem like ordinary stones you would find on the beach : Archaeologists learning how to scuba dive discover preserved stone-age settlements. Nationally, two acres of farmland are lost every minute : But here in North Georgia, it’s disappearing much, much faster. Are you a Windows user who hates RealPlayer and QuickTime because of all their bloat and disrespect for the user (such as installing icons all over and constantly running “quickstart” programs when you tell them not to), but put up with them because you need to view the content? Rejoice! There are alternatives.

Just so you all don’t think I’ve gone away somewhere… [that won’t happen for another couple weeks yet] Another couple items got knocked off the to-do list. The company I work for moved to new offices over the weekend. I had a day trip on Monday, though, so my first day in the new digs was Tuesday. Too much work to get through to properly unpack, however, so that still needs to happen. Luckily, I don’t have much. Our Town , the play I’m directing (and acting in) opened to what might be termed thunderous applause last night. It runs through Sunday at the Commerce Cultural Center, for those of you reading this close by. Showtimes are 8pm with a 2pm Sunday matinee. The Cultural Center is in downtown Commerce, Georgia, right behind the newish Civic Center. Downtown only has one main street, so it’s not too hard to find. Haven’t been able to make it to market the last three weeks (including tomorrow). A combination of not enough to harvest and a spate of Friday night commitments have put a hiatus on going to market. There are a few fall items growing and I’ll put more in the ground tomorrow, so there may be a return to market in November. Our first frost is right around the corner – it may have actually happened last night. Had a birthday a couple weeks ago, and so I got myself a present. Didn’t buy from Amazon, though – got a great deal on a new unit on eBay instead. It’s wonderful. 20 gigs of music, video, and photos in my pocket is a good thing. I’ve got all of my CDs with me now, wherever I am. And all of my farm photos, too, which has been helpful already in my efforts to make a bit of money off of them. More on that bit another time…

Chicken in the car, and the car won’t go . . .

Good night Wesley, good work, sleep well, I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.
[Listening to: The Story of Reuben Clamzo & His Strange Daughter in the Key of A - [Arlo Guthrie](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22Arlo Guthrie%22) - One Night ]

216 years ago today, the constitution of the United States was signed with “Unanimous Consent”* from the thirteen states. In the years since, many have used the other writings of those governmental framers to interpret the constitution. To make that task easier, the University of Chicago Press offers The Framer’s Constitution, an exhaustively annotated document that includes not just references to those other writings, but the complete texts as well. The print version is 3200 pages and costs a pretty penny, but thanks to the Liberty Fund, you can access it on-line for free. If you’re visiting Philadelphia, you can make a trip to the National Constitution Center and museum. Their web site is almost as good, and it contains resources of special interest to teachers. The National Archives on-line exhibit includes hi-res images of the original document – great for those into handwriting analysis. The Government Printing Office has a site that contains a constitution annotated with Supreme Court decisions over the years, including a list of acts of congress that were deemed unconstitutional. Finally, usconstitution.net offers no-nonsense plain-text pages containing the constitution, related documents, biographies of the framers, and other goodies. * Sure, the constitution claims it had “Unanimous Consent”, but there were quite a few no-shows and hold-outs that didn’t sign when it came time.
[Listening to: Nesbitt’s Lime Soda Song - Negativland - Escape from Noise ]