I have been writing New Mexico Diaries since moving to New Mexico in 1992. Each is a sort of family history, covering a period of a year to nearly two years, and after the first two in the series, each is cast as a sequence of diary entries for days of notable family events. Each diary is accompanied by one or more snapshots, which are available below. The diaries were mailed to extended family and to friends, but beginning with the 2007 January 15 entry, I have moved to a system of notifying family and friends by e-mail that a diary has been posted here.
My social and political commentary is available
here.
Carlton M. Caves
2007 January 15
Tuesday, 2007 February 6 : Eleanor wins first place in the New Mexico section of the 2007 National High School Essay Contest sponsored by the United Nations Association. Her essay, on the required, but unwieldy topic, "What should the United States do to improve maternal health and ensure that Millennium Development Goal Five can be reached by 2015?," was written over the Winter Break, when she could receive gratuitous advice from Karen, Carl, and Jeremy. Her essay becomes the New Mexico entrant in the national competition.
Tuesday, 2007 February 8 : Jeremy attends a speech by Bill Clinton at Autry Court on the Rice campus. Rice's Baker Institute sponsors the address, and members of the Baker Institute Student Forum, one of whom is Jeremy, are authorized to ask Clinton questions after the talk. One provocative question is, "Since we're at the Baker Institute, and you're sitting next to Jim Baker, what do you think of his role in stealing the 2000 election?" Jeremy reports that after some hesitation, Clinton whispers the response, "Life's greatest curses are answered prayers." Curse indeed. Much more
P.S. The photos show Jeremy surveying the spectacular scenery along the Grinnell Glacier Trail in Glacier National Park, Jeremy in a lavalava with Selai and Foga Levao in Samoa, Eleanor in her element, Eleanor with her just captured turtle, and Karen and Carl at the narrow neck that connects North and South Bruny Islands.
Saturday, 2005 April 16 : Carl, working in his garden for the first time this year, bends over to transplant a desert marigold and feels a sudden, sharp stab in the rump. He turns around just in time to see a curved-bill thrasher preparing for a second strike and so moves quickly away from the very prickly cholla where a thrasher couple is tending a brood of three nestlings. ... Much more
P.S. If you think too many days in this diary started way too early, you're right, but on any school day, Karen, Carl, and Eleanor get up at 5:30 am to get Eleanor off to band practice. The photos show Eleanor on the Amazon and Jeremy on the CT.
Saturday, 2003 October 4 : Carl rides his bike along the Tramway trail early in the morning on the first day of the 2003 Balloon Fiesta. Emerging from behind the Sandias, the sun shines fitfully through ragged clouds, ... Much more
P.S. The photo shows us, along with artist Janet Long Nakamarra, in the Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery in Darwin. Ms. Long painted the spectacular canvas behind us---wouldn't you just love to have it---and also the one we're holding, of which Jeremy is the proud new owner.
Saturday, 2002 August 31 : We're spending the Labor Day weekend at southern Colorado's Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. We have a big group, seventeen in all, including us, the Greys, and the Hollingers from Albuquerque and the Oster-Beals from Denver. Our chief objective is to test the Australian method of sand tobogganing ... Much more
P.S. The photos show J in the Sawtooths, K and C in front of E's cabin at CIMI, and E dressed to kill.
Monday, 2001 January 8 : Karen returns to the work force, working part time as an attorney at the Sutin law firm in Albuquerque. ... Much more
P.S. More for your money this year: nineteen months for the price of a year. The photo shows us all in our costumes for Eleanor's bat mitzvah party.
Saturday, 2001 January 1 : Jeremy becomes a Bar Mitzvah today. He gives a rousing speech on how to avoid the enslavement the Israelites endured in Egypt. A free-lance AP reporter, accompanied by a news photographer, covers the service, the second U.S. Bar Mitzvah of the new millennium. ... Much more
P.S. The photo shows the four of us, all flashing award-winning smiles and all but Jeremy wearing sunnies, cruising through the Katherine Gorge in Oz's Northern Territory. Thanks to Abby Hellwarth for the photo.
1999 January 9 : Today finds us at El Malpais National Monument, west of Albuquerque. The Monument encompasses an extensive area of lava flows, beneath which a network of lava tubes extends for miles. We intend to explore the Four Windows Tube, to make plans for Jeremy's birthday party, ... Much more
P.S. The photo shows Karen, Eleanor, and Jeremy outside the Jelly Belly factory, celebrating the acquisition of several sacks of Belly Flops.
1998 January 8 : Uncle Doug, Aunt Sherry, and cousin Josie are living for a year in Costa Rica, at a place called Monteverede in the cloud forest of the central highlands. Eleven days ago we flew to San Jose with Carl's parents, where we joined Doug's family for a tour of Costa Rica's wide range of terrians, climates, and flora and fauna. Carl got a taste of the '60's ... Much more
In the photo Jeremy and Eleanor confront a thorny problem in the teddy-bear cholla garden. Watch out! The spines on those deceptively cuddly "jumping cholla" can jump right out of the snapshot.
1997 February 16 : A Sunday with no Religious School prompts us to try downhill skiing at Sandia Peak. It's a sunny day, warm enough even at 10,000 feet. Resuming skiing after a thirteen-year hiatus, Carl breaks nothing and decides skiing is not a bad idea. Jeremy and Eleanor take a day of lessons, from which they emerge enthusiastic for more. ... Much more
P.S. The photo shows Jeremy and Eleanor, windblown and suntanned, watching for marine life in the Santa Barbara Channel from the deck of the Condor.
1996 January 5 : A long day of travel, begun before sunrise in Hawai'i, ends after dark as we pull into our driveway in Albuquerque, patches of snow reminding us that it's winter. Carl's parents, accompanied by their children and grandchildren, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with nine days in Hawai'i, three days among the volcanoes on the Big Island and six days at Kapalua Bay on the northwest coast of Maui. ... Much more
A stop at the National Academy of Sciences nets the photo of Jeremy and Eleanor resting on Einstein's capacious lap.
Dear Jeremy and Eleanor,
This is a blow-by-blow---or spout-by-spout---account of our trip to Hawai'i to celebrate Grandpa and Grandma's 50th wedding anniversary. The letter was written over a period of six months, beginning shortly after our return from Hawai'i. It represents to some extent the collective memory of all the participants in the trip. Undoubtedly more incidents and experiences could be included, but much is here. I specifically don't mention each game of hearts and dominoes and Skip-Bo nor each of the pineapples that we consumed, so I summarize at the outset by saying that there was plenty of all of these, especially dominoes and pineapples. ... Much more
Although the above was not a diary letter, I include it because I like it.
1994 December 23 : A wintry dusk, clouds stretching from horizon to horizon, the light grey and diffuse. The Sun hides from those hurrying along I-25, deep in the Rio Grande Valley, first behind clouds and then, as it sets, behind the West Mesa. Suddenly, a narrow band stretching along the base of the Sandias flares the deep red of dying embers. The Sun, reluctant to surrender in this Land of the Sun, has found a crack between clouds and earth and lit a lingering fire, which fades slowly and then goes out. ... Much more
Embarking after lunch, we climb through desert scrub and pine forest to the upper reaches of La Luz Canyon (see photo). There we discover aspen gold shimmering amidst the dark green of firs, all set against a background of pink Sandia granite and a cloudless blue sky.
"My part comes first." "No, mine does." "Guys, it doesn't matter who comes first." "I said it first, Eleanor." "Jeremy, I never get to be first in this house!" "Guys, this is your dad speaking." Silence. Don't let it slip away. "I can put your parts on opposite sides of the page. There won't be any first." And so it is. ... Much more
The photo shows Jeremy and Eleanor in their Purim costumes.
This is an interim report on life in New Mexico. When we left Los Angeles in August of 1992, we pulled up deep roots. After transplanting ourselves to Albuquerque, we could only hope to put down new roots in the desert soil of New Mexico. It is a measure of our dissatisfaction with LA that we were willing to leave ... Much more
P.S1. In the snapshot, taken the first weekend in October, Jeremy and Eleanor sit amid the chamisa in full bloom in our front yard.
