Considering moving to Santa Fe: Advice? (Albuquerque, Las Cruces: buy, public school, statistics)

[ziaAirmac]

Originally Posted by Dancingearth

"BTW I know many in NM do not approve of picking up Indian artifacts. That's why I pointed out that I picked up my arrowheads in California, and did that in the '50s and '60s before archaeological considerations became commonly known. And I can't go put them back, can I?"

I believe it is illegal here - also why I said I put the shards back. I have things that were given to me from who knows where or I didn't know you shouldn't pick up that stuff although it was on my private land in PA - don't know the rules for that.

I don't know if anyone caught it, but in the station at Chaco they've got a plexiglass box filled with shards that have been returned in the mail along with letters detailing untold woes and mishaps that visited the people. Some of the letters were pretty amusing to read. They're like a National Lampoon's script. Anyway, just thought of that when I read your comments.

A really great time of year to walk up Canyon Road is around Christmas when everyone is bundled up, the farolitos are out, the galleries are open and offering hot cider and biscochitos. People stroll along and carol. It's a unique experience.

[Xavious Orgus]

ziaAirmac,

I see you lived in Colorado. In your opinion, Colorado or New Mexico?

BTW, how is the new airmac?

[Dancingearth]

Originally Posted by ziaAirmac

Where's the fun in that?

Somehow I think you have young bones. My daughter use to tell me age is in your head and I'd reply no, it's in the body.

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by Towanda

I remember years ago when we were young and we lived in ABQ, we dug up a few prickly pear cactus out near Madrid in an open land area. Later my husband's cousin in Santa Fe told him it was illegal to dig up plants from public or private land. We felt bad about it.

Is that still a law I wonder?

I travel and camp in deserts all over the Southwest, and as far as I can tell it's pretty much a universal law that you can't dig up plants, or as far as that goes can't disturb anything including plants, animals, etc. In some places you can't even pick up rocks. Anybody considering any of that should consult with the proper authorities in advance before doing it.

The safest rule: "Take only pictures. Leave only footprints."

Originally Posted by Xavious Orgus

Age is just a number! You are only as old as you think!!

Lovehound, there is nothing wrong with being single and I sure would not worry about meeting people! You seem like an easy going, positive and interesting person and won't have any trouble finding new friends!!

I too will be starting fresh when I move to SF and I can't wait for the new adventure!! Sure there will be people I miss (don't know if I will be missed), but they can always come visit me.

I'm not concerned about my age, primarily because you can't do anything about it. If your age quits increasing by one year every year you've got even worse problems.

There's some benefits of getting older, like my impending retirement for example. In a very few years, or maybe already, I won't ever have to even think of getting up and going to work. Plus there's that NP Senior pass, there's Social Security (I'm almost eligible) and there's Medicare in a few more years. All those are, as my mother says, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

I'm a bit worried about connecting socially when I move, but on the other hand it's like teaching somebody to swim by throwing them in the lake. There really isn't much choice by then, so I'll find my way socially if for no other reason than there's no other choice. I think I've got a good sense of humor, I've got lots of hobby interests and will be able to find others who share some of my many hobbies, and I'm gregarious like my name Greg implies.

I recall camping in Chinle during one of my visits to Canyon de Chelle, had been alone on the road for a week or so, was lonesome one evening after dinner, spied a neighboring campsite with a group of people having fun around their campfire, so I asked them if I could join them. They said, "sure," and I had a nice evening chatting with a group of singles and a few couples from Las Cruces. It was one of the nicest evenings on my trip.

Originally Posted by ziaAirmac

I don't know if anyone caught it, but in the station at Chaco they've got a plexiglass box filled with shards that have been returned in the mail along with letters detailing untold woes and mishaps that visited the people. Some of the letters were pretty amusing to read. They're like a National Lampoon's script. Anyway, just thought of that when I read your comments.

I've heard that same story although never saw any box, but yes I've heard of people who absconded with stuff, thought they had been jinxed, and mailed it back.

Originally Posted by ziaAirmac

A really great time of year to walk up Canyon Road is around Christmas when everyone is bundled up, the farolitos are out, the galleries are open and offering hot cider and biscochitos. People stroll along and carol. It's a unique experience.

Oh yeah, and I remember another custom that I think is particular to Santa Fe. I haven't been there in the winter, but I hear people put candles in paper bags so that the candles illuminate the bags, then set them on walls or parts of their houses or maybe along walkways. I think the bags can be decorated. It's like a candle equivalent of Christmas lights. Somebody please detail this if I'm right.

[Dancingearth]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

Oh yeah, and I remember another custom that I think is particular to Santa Fe. I haven't been there in the winter, but I hear people put candles in paper bags so that the candles illuminate the bags, then set them on walls or parts of their houses or maybe along walkways. I think the bags can be decorated. It's like a candle equivalent of Christmas lights. Somebody please detail this if I'm right.

You take a brown paper lunch bag, put a couple inches of sand in the bottom and stick a candle in it. For the last five years, I was always homesick for Santa Fe at Christmas. There is no better place. I remember one Christmas the full moon was coming up from behind the mountains--huge--just as I walked up Canyon Road. People gather around the little fires and sing or just wander into galleries and down the side roads. A historian told me that the words luminarias and farolitos are not interchangeable as many people believe at least in Santa Fe. One means the candles in a bag and the other is the little fires they build alongside the roads. Can't remember which was which but that was his story.

[ziaAirmac]

Originally Posted by Dancingearth

Somehow I think you have young bones. My daughter use to tell me age is in your head and I'd reply no, it's in the body.

I actually would never turn a cot down and meant to make a joke about Lovehound's hope to avoid sleeping with little critters; although, now that I write it out it seems creepily inappropriate.

[ziaAirmac]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

Oh yeah, and I remember another custom that I think is particular to Santa Fe. I haven't been there in the winter, but I hear people put candles in paper bags so that the candles illuminate the bags, then set them on walls or parts of their houses or maybe along walkways. I think the bags can be decorated. It's like a candle equivalent of Christmas lights. Somebody please detail this if I'm right.

Dancingearth is right on with her description, although I'd point out it's not just a Santa Fe thing. It's pretty much statewide and strangely, doesn't seem to bleed over the borders much. I know when I was at State (in Las Cruces, all the way south) Mesilla (old town) was always in farolitos. These days all the marketing has mixed the words up, but generally, Santa Feans call the little bags farolitos and by the time it gets down La Bajada hill to Albuquerque the same glowing bag is a luminaria.

Dancingearth also gets extra points for her facts on the historical difference. Luminarias were used first. They were larger bonfires used during Las Posadas (a festive reinactment of the night Mary and Joseph looked for a home or inn to take them in, played out over 9 nights (novenas).). We used to actually do this, and it was a big honor to be Mary or Joseph. I always seemed to end up being one of the livestock at the end, although I didn't mind because it was a low pressure role. Come to think of it, I was Wilber the pig in our 3rd grade production of Charlotte's Web... what's the deal with that? Anyway...I digress. You'd go to houses and most people would turn you away (as occurred to Mary and Joseph), but in a fun turn of events, some would invite you in and serve up traditional New Mexico Christmas fare like posole, (my favorite soup on the planet. Forget what you get in a restaurant. You can't do it right in a restaurant.) tamales and biscochitos (sugarbread cookies with anise and a little cinnamon.). Apparently the period flowing costumes weren't a good match with the bonfires lining the routes for the celebration, so at some point a switch was made to the smaller, neater farolitos. As Dancingearth described they're just a votive candle in a bed of sand inside a standard brown sack, but you wouldn't believe the warm golden glow they give off. Line them on the streets, winding paths and the linear architecture of the Southwest and it's magic. A shout out to Brother Ben, my religion teacher at St. Mike's for explaining to me what was actually behind what I thought was just a play where you scored food off strangers.

These days some of the magic is lost when you go into a Walgreen's around Christmas and see plastic bagged electric stringed farolitos with little dancing shadow images of kokopellis, zia's and what have you while a cheap Casio version of 'Christmas Rock' plays in the background.

Finally, Xavius Orgus, I must be tired... what did you mean by:

...how's the new airmac?...

I'll be happy to let you know, if I know what you mean.

[ziaAirmac]

Originally Posted by Xavious Orgus

ziaAirmac,

I see you lived in Colorado. In your opinion, Colorado or New Mexico?

BTW, how is the new airmac?

Sorry, Xavious Orgus, I got so caught up in visions of farolitos and posole, I forgot to get to your query. Let explain where I've been so I can properly represent my answer.

I've lived in Littleton (once south of Denver, now south Denver), Denver proper, Broomfield (north of Denver) and the family has a cabin near San Antonio (an intersection with a sign at the very southern edge of Colorado. During that time, I checked almost all of the old mining towns and parks in the front range of the Rockies. I personally didn't care for anything but the Front Range, the skiing, Garden of the Gods and the Great Sand Dunes. The places are beautiful, and there's no lack of things to do, but I just never found the little events and festivals filled with so much color and culture like I do here. I'm obviously biased by my growing up here, but there's something to be said about enjoying a pueblo feast day one day and Spanish colonial harvest festival the next. Plus the winters are milder, and for me, that means more time outdoors and not shoveling snow or sliding around on chained tires. It just felt like you have to go farther to get to the things you're working for. The Rockies are there, towering over you, but sometimes I'd go weeks before I could get away to commune with them. I walk, stroll, hike, and bike with my girls daily in Albuquerque. Along the river, up in the foothills, along one of the diversion channel trails, around the parks, around downtown just to watch the turistas, at the zoo. It's minutes away in any direction. I'm not saying my limited experience would suggest that Colorado doesn't offer similar things, but I never found the diversity I do here.

My pick is New Mexico.

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by Dancingearth

You take a brown paper lunch bag, put a couple inches of sand in the bottom and stick a candle in it. For the last five years, I was always homesick for Santa Fe at Christmas. There is no better place. I remember one Christmas the full moon was coming up from behind the mountains--huge--just as I walked up Canyon Road. People gather around the little fires and sing or just wander into galleries and down the side roads. A historian told me that the words luminarias and farolitos are not interchangeable as many people believe at least in Santa Fe. One means the candles in a bag and the other is the little fires they build alongside the roads. Can't remember which was which but that was his story.

You guys (and gals) are freaking me out. I'm feeling the spiritual pull of the Land of Enchantment all the way from Los Angeles, so strongly that I want to be there this coming Christmas so I can see this in person. I read about it, I've heard it from you, and I want to be there and experience it for myself, and I want to decorate my own home that way to share the joy with my neighbors!

Airmac, now that I recall, DE's description with the sand adds accuracy to my recollection. And I'm pretty good at this stuff, I understand how the candle lights the bag. Really, although an engineer I'm an artist at heart. Actually the engineering I do (mostly programming) IS an art, regardless of what they tell you. Every program is hand crafted. None of them obey any science except that of logic. Art has a logic all its own and I understand the logic of art.

And Airmac, I see you're a fellow skier, although honestly I haven't skied for many years, but I'm good at it, honest!, a natural ability or affinity that I inherited or something, but are there any ski areas near SF? It's not a deal breaker and I wouldn't feel too bad if I never skied again. And okay, Taos (duh) right? Perhaps you can relate what Taos is like and if there are any other popular local areas for SF residents. Thanks!

Oh, and EDIT, I want to add, would it be appropriate for us to request that CD add a "Santa Fe" forum? I mean, it's probably been asked before, and I don't want to alienate our hosts, but Santa Fe is a very popular city in NM, and it is after all the state's capitol, so why doesn't Santa Fe have its own forum section on CD?

[Xavious Orgus]

Airmac,
Thanks!! That is exactly what I thought and was looking for! My sister lives in Fort Collins, so I had been thinking of moving there as well. However, I love to ski and take advantage of the things Santa Fe has to offer.

Lovehound,
I am also love skiing!! You just might have to move earlier than 3 yrs!! Skiing right out the back door in Santa Fe (well, almost anyway)!!