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CLOUDCROFT ONLINE NEWSLETTER #176
August 22, 2003
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Dear Subscriber:

I'm having an onset of nostalgia this week.

My earliest memory is pushing my baby sister down the sidewalk
in her stroller. I think Vicki was a year old. That would make
me about 4. We lived in a small West Texas dust-driven town
where cotton was king and we burned our own trash in 55-gallon
barrels in the alley and the pleasures of life were accented by
a box of Crackerjacks (with a prize in the bottom) and a cold
bottle of Pepsi.

One afternoon as I rolled Vicki down the walk, a sense of
adventure must have taken over. I had been forbidden to go
beyond the end of the sidewalk, but I decided to broaden our
horizons a little and pushed the stroller across the road and
into the area that was then the Texas Highway Department
maintenance lot. The lot was surrounded by a high fence, but
kids find holes in such fences. We found one just big enough
for Vicki's stroller.

I had never seen such large trucks and equipment except from a
distance. Men in hard hats were walking around and spitting
brown gunky stuff and talking to each other with language I had
never heard in Sunday School. When they spotted us, they
chased us away.

When we got home, my mom was delirious with worry. The keys to
the stroller were taken away.

It was too late. I had my taste of sin. While Vicki wasn't
with me, I would often venture past the end of the sidewalk and
peek into the lives of those working men surrounded by big
machines and piles of gravel. My little brother became my
partner in crime. We would wander over to the work area when
the men were lounging under a big oak tree having their lunch.
They ate from large lunch pails that their wives had packed for
them that morning. It was a little like Christmas as each man
opened his pail and unwrapped the wax paper from their
sandwiches or cold chicken. A pause in the middle of what must
have been a hard day's work. The occasional cookies and apples
we were offered served to sustain our addiction to the
experience.

Then, one day, it ended.

I suppose he was the foreman. I suppose he was afraid those two
little hangers-on would get hurt around all that big machinery.
He let us finish our cookies and then called us to one side.

"You boys aren't the first little boys that hung around here.
There were two little fellers here last year, but they got ate
by Mitch."

Me being the oldest, it was up to me to ask "Who's Mitch?" or
maybe my little brother and I asked in unison. I can't
remember. That was 50 years ago.

"Mitch is the mountain lion that lives around here. He ate them
boys. Maybe you should go home."

I guess this guy fancied himself some kind of child
psychologist. He probably thought we would run home and never
come back. That wasn't what happened.

He had us wet-our-pants scared. As the men closed their lunch
pails and went back to work, they left us standing there...and
somewhere out there was Mitch. If we ran home (about 40 yards
away) we stood the chance of being chewed up and spit out. We
took refuge at the trunk of the big oak.

"See him?" my little brother asked...his eyes large and darting.

"No. I think that guy's storyin'." I felt responsible for
getting my little brother and me into this mess and I was trying
to belay his fears. Fact was, I couldn't get close enough to
that tree.

"Let's make a run for it," my little brother said. He probably
heard Davy Crocket say "Let's make a run for it" on TV.

Finally, after about three days in little boy time, the foreman
spotted us near the oak tree, came over, gathered us up and took
us across the road and back to the sidewalk and safety from
Mitch.

We were cured of our ventures to the highway department lot...
for about a year.

The highway department abandoned the big lot. I assume they had
finished nearby highway projects and moved their operations
elsewhere. We screwed up our courage and soon made the old
highway department lot our playground. The state had left a few
small piles of gravel on the lot...just enough for my brother
and I and our buddies to stage cavalry attacks on nearby
imaginary Indian marauders and rip the knees out of our jeans.

I was getting older and wiser. I decided there was no Mitch.

Then one day a letter came. It was addressed to my dad.

"Mr. Vanlandingham: It has been brought to our attention that
your sons and their friends are trespassing on state property.
If this activity does not stop, we will be forced to take legal
action."

Dad showed us the letter. I was about 7 by then. I could read
most of it. The trespassing and property and legal action stuff
wasn't familiar to me but I concluded it was right next to the
electric chair.

"I guess you guys will have to play somewhere else," Dad said.
I don't remember him being mad at us. I think he probably
thought the whole thing was silly. Dad was law-abiding, though.

When we laid Dad to rest near my old home town in April of
2002, I drove by the house where we grew up. The house is still
there, but it looks much smaller than I remember it. The road
in front is paved. Back then it was a dirt road. The old
sidewalk where I drove Vicki into a different world was still
there. The old oak tree is long gone.

As Peggy and I drove by, I saw a sign in the old highway
department lot (yep, it's still a vacant lot). It was the sign
they put up there after they sent the letter to my dad.

"No trespassing by order of the State of Texas."

The sign was tilted and faded by the years, but it brought a
smile to my face. I told Peggy that's where we used to play...

...me and my sister and my little brother and other assorted
cohorts...and Mitch.

Don Vanlandingham
Cloudcroft.com

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. LOOKING AT THE WEATHER
2. SPECIAL -- EMAIL VIRUSES - PLEASE READ
3. SPECIAL -- SEASONSCAPE, PHOTO 13
4. VILLAGE NEWS
5. INSIDE THE SHOP -- SUMMIT INN
6. CLOUDCROFT ONLINE SPOTLIGHT -- CARLSBAD CAVERNS
7. Q AND A -- BECAUSE CLOUDCROFT ONLINE READERS WANT TO KNOW
8. COMING EVENTS
9. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
10. CONTACT INFORMATION
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LOOKING AT THE WEATHER
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A rainy week. Daily fairly heavy showers and highs in the low
80s. Lows in the mid-40s. Higher than normal temperatures in
the basin area.
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SPECIAL -- EMAIL VIRUSES -- PLEASE READ
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At least 10% of you, the 5,000 readers of the Newsletter, are
infected with a virus. Those of you that are infected are 
causing the rest of us huge problems, so you have a social
responsibility to make sure that you are not infected.

The papers have been discussing a virus called MSBlast that has
hit millions of computers in the last few days. That is a big
problem. But the virus I want to talk about is called the
W32.Sobig.F@mm virus.

The W32.Sobig.F@mm virus also hit several days ago. It is the
worst email virus yet created, because it can send out hundreds
of copies of itself at the SAME TIME using what is called multi-
threading.

How bad is it?

For the last two days cloudcroft.com has been getting about 1
copy of the virus EVERY MINUTE! That's 60 a minute, and over
1,000 a day.

Here is what it looks like in the email program I use. Each
of these emails contains a virus attachment.

http://www.cloudcroft.com/photos/emailshot.jpg

These viruses are coming from you, the subscribers.

We normally get about 20-40 viruses a day. On the day that we
send out the Newsletter, we will get 150+. That is because the
virus that is in an infected computer immediately sends back
a copy of itself every time you get an email.

Because all viruses nowadays "spoof" their return email
address, it is very difficult to identify where they actually
come from. What is even worse, it takes an address out of your
address book and uses that as its return address. The result
of that trick is that people who get a copy of the virus think
it came from someone else, and blame them.

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN UP-TO-DATE ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM RUNNING
ON YOUR COMPUTER, YOU PROBABLY ARE INFECTED AND ARE INFECTING 
OTHERS.

If you do not have an up-to-date anti-virus program, go down
to Office Max or a computer store TODAY and buy one.

Each copy of this virus is 90,000 bytes in size. That means
that cloudcroft.com is getting 90 meg of virus attachments
a day. Think what that would do to us if we had to use a 
dial-up connection. Think what that is doing to the internet.

And remember, if you get one of these things from our email
address, that is a "spoofed" address. It is not really from
cloudcroft.com.

I have been a professional computer programmer since 1978. 
In all that time, I have never been infected by a virus,
because I have always practiced safe computing. You need to
do so also!

-o-

One last point. Many people send out emails in which they
list many email addresses in the "To" or "CC" field, because
they want to send copies to many people.

This is a terrible practice! Do not do this!

You are making all of those addresses available to both
VIRUSES and SPAMMERS. We occasionally get emails like this
that have hundreds of email addresses listed.

If you want to do this, always use the "BCC" field. That
stands for "Blind Copy" and it prevents other people from
seeing who else is getting a copy.

David Thomas
Webmaster
Cloudcroft.com

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SPECIAL -- SEASONSCAPE, PHOTO 13
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The SeasonScape photo experiment by Kit Richards continues:

http://www.cloudcroft.com/photos/seasonscape.htm

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VILLAGE NEWS
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The village council declared the Burro Street gunfights as
politically incorrect and voted not to allow them any more,
according to the August issue of the Mountain Monthly.
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INSIDE THE SHOP -- THE SUMMIT INN
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Conveniently located just one block off Hwy 82, the Summit Inn
is one of Cloudcroft´s finest lodging establishments. All rooms
feature wall-to-wall carpet, phones, color cable TV,
kitchenettes complete with dishes and utensils, and all linens.
Daily maid service is provided.

The Summit Inn has several cottages which are ideal for those
who desire a little more space and privacy. Weekly rates are
available for both rooms and cottages. For more information,
email summitinn@hotmail.com, call (877) 682-2814 (toll free) or
(505) 682-2814, or see the link to our web site on the Lodging
page of Cloudcroft.com:

http://www.cloudcroft.com/lodging.htm

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CLOUDCROFT ONLINE SPOTLIGHT -- CARLSBAD CAVERNS
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One of the most popular tourist attractions in the state...just
a day trip from Cloudcroft.

http://www.nps.gov/cave/

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Q AND A -- BECAUSE CLOUDCROFT ONLINE READERS WANT TO KNOW
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Q - How is Peggy's battle against the Miller Moths going?

A - It's not just Peggy's battle. Everyone on the mountain has
been fighting the pesky moths.

According to internet searches, the Miller Moth should move on
when it becomes rainy. It seems to have worked. There are
fewer of them than there were in June when the infestation
seemed the heaviest.

Peggy was introduced to a de-greaser called Orange Clean that
seems to kill the bugs where standard insecticides seem to have
little affect.

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COMING EVENTS
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August 23 -- Larry Fox Memorial Fun Run. Alamogordo.

August 23 -- Tailgate Concert. Bayou Seco. Space Museum
parking lot.

August 30 -- James Canyon Volunteer Fire Department's annual
Auction/Dinner/Dance. Community Barn at Cloud Country Estates.
Dinner served 5-7pm (cost $6). Auction/Raffle/door 7-9pm.
From 9-12 dance and good music.

August 30 -- Alamogordo Amateur Radio Club Hamfest.
Fairgrounds.

August 30, Sept. 1 -- 13th annual Cottonwood Arts and Crafts
Festival. Alameda Park. Alamogordo.

August 30, 31, Sept. 1 -- Cloudcroft Labor Day Fiesta.

September 13 -- Mountain Garden Club Style show.

September 20 -- Lumber Jack Day. Zenith Park, Cloudcroft.

September 19-21 -- Healing Hearts. www.GatheringOfCircles.com

September 21 -- Governor Johnson's Run/Walk. Cloudcroft.

October 4, 5 -- Oktoberfest Juried Art Show. Zenith Park.

October 18, 19 -- High Rolls Apple Festival.

November 29th -- Santa Land opens. Cloudcroft.

December 13 -- Pet Parade. Burro Street. Cloudcroft.

Cloudcroft Art Society meets the second Sunday of each month,
2-4pm, in the Old Red Brick School House. Call (505) 682-3004
for more information and details on the Cloudcroft Summer Art
Workshops.

Would you like to help deliver meals to the homebound around
Cloudcroft? Monday through Friday deliveries. Call the
Cloudcroft Senior Center at (505)-682-3022. For information on
other Senior Center services, see their web site, listed on the
Cloudcroft.com Links page.

http://www.cloudcroft.com/links.htm

Mountain Garden Club meets every third Monday of each month.
Call (505) 682-2910 for more information.

Senior Van from Timberon to Alamogordo leaves the Timberon
Lodge promptly at 8:30 every Tuesday morning.

Free Vitals Clinic. Cloudcroft Senior Citizens Center, every
Wednesday. High Rolls Senior Citizens Center, first Thursday
of each month.

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For an online calendar of area events, click the Events Calendar
link in the left column of our home page:

http://www.cloudcroft.com/index.html

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Dear Newsletter:

"Alamogordo, just 30,000 yardsticks (17 miles) from
Cloudcroft."

I just returned from a visit with the segment of my family that
lives in the Denver environs. On the way to the local Walmart
there, my grandson asked me, "Grandpa, how come you don't move
here?" My reply to him was, "Because in Ruidoso (where I live)
I would have been to Walmart and back by now."

And we were going to the closest Walmart to my son's house!

Cheers,
Jack Schuller
Ruidoso

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Dear Newsletter:

Believe it or not, we are just as excited about your new Home
Depot and Lowe's! Even though it's a twelve hour drive, it's
better than hauling all your tools across Texas to do your
mother-in-law's little projects at her cabin in Cloudcroft.

We love it up there, and don't mind the projects, especially
for free room and board. We're going to try to make it back
up this Fall. New to the sight-seeing list will be the Home
Depot and Lowe's in Alamogordo! Can't wait!

Richard & Andrea Henderson
Katy, TX 

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Dear Newsletter:

I should have met you while you still lived in Lubbock. Seems
we had the same upbringing!

My youngest daughter asked wife and I over to her boyfriends'
home one night to tell us something important. She was just
out of High School, and he was a Jr. in college.

Sharon and I were sitting on the couch when I reached to my
side and pulled out my Case knife (to clean my fingernails, 
of course). Rocky's eyes got big and Kim got nervous. They
finally got around to telling us they wanted to get married.

What I didn't know is that they wanted to get me away from our
house where I had a gun cabinet full of guns. Kim was sure I
would do Rocky bodily harm!

Here it is 20 years later, two wonderful grandsons, and a very
good dad and husband. (Who is now in Iraq. He's been there
since February and doesn't expect to be back 'till after
Christmas.)

I can imagine how your future son-in-law felt.

Archie
Just West of Lubbock

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Dear Newsletter:

I have no suggestions on how to improve your Newsletter. We
simply love it.

We were fortunate and spent a week in Cloudcroft the first of
August and had a wonderful time. Simply love the weather and
all the nice people there.

Something I've been wondering about ever since I started
reading the Newsletter. Somewhere I read that there are about
800 full-time residents living in Cloudcroft. I'm sure that
has increased somewhat, but it puzzles me to see the schools
there. Also when I read about the school activities. How many
students are in the school system and if there are so few
full-time residents, how does it warrant having schools there? 

Did I read some outdated population number?

Thanks for your interesting and in formative Newsletter.

B. Bromley,
Kingman, Arizona

[Yes, Cloudcroft is a village of about 800 full-time residents
(about 1200 in the summertime). Our town has been about the
same size for the past 30 years.]

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Dear Newsletter:

I look forward to receiving the Newsletter every Thursday and
I will have to say this past Thursday tops them all.

I LOVE all you have to say and this current article you wrote
about, your observations and experience at Lowe's (or was it
Home Depot?) was absolutely hilarious! I am still laughing/
crying.

I have had a similar experience and am not of the male gender
and therefore thought my frustration in trying to get the
little screw head for my electric screwdriver was about my
ignorance. Not so, and reading of your whole experience has
absolutely delighted me and all I can say is, THANKS!

I so enjoy reading your wonderful articles. 

Some months ago I was searching New Mexico Properties, looking
for a place to live and came upon Cloudcroft. Everything about
Cloudcroft exudes friendliness, welcome-to-our-paradise message.

I don't think it is the place for me to locate, but have been
tempted just because of your articles. You are a bright beacon
in New Mexico.

Diane Roberts

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