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COUDCROFT ONLINE NEWSLETTER #215
May 21, 2004
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Dear Subscriber:

Let's talk about hate.

I used to hate green peas but as I grew older and was introduced
to certain green pea dishes I changed my mind about the little
rascals (I had a girlfriend in college that had a mother
that made a mean pea salad. Unfortunately my girlfriend dumped
me before I was able to procure the recipe.)

I went through a period in my life when I hated school. When I
came to realize school was not an interruption of my life but
more an extension of my life I quit hating school. It actually
made school easier for me. I didn't even have to take Ritalin.

Now I consider every day a new day in school. I don't think
I'll ever graduate.

Hate has lately taken on a new and dangerous meaning. I'm not
talking about those that lynched people and bombed churches in
the South in the sixties and those that drag people to death and
shoot people from their car windows. There's always going
to be that kind of people. They're better defined as human
debris. That kind of person is always seeking someone or
something to hate. Come to think of it, I'll bet you won't be
able to find one person of that kind that liked school.

I like to discuss politics with my friends. Many of my friends
disagree with me politically but I'm fortunate enough to have
friends that don't hate me because I'm of a different opinion,
whether it be over the war in Iraq or my views on the government
or green peas.

Hate is a volatile attitude. It seems to me the word "hate" is
being thrown around with too much abandon lately. I think hate
should be reserved for things like eating mud or having your
fingernails pulled out. Nowadays people with otherwise
sensible beliefs are using the word to describe their political
preferences. It scares me to see this movement growing. I'm
afraid hate of another person's social attitudes or choice of a
political position is becoming more generally accepted. Hate
is becoming a green light. I think it should be a red light.

I think hate should be a word that describes an ultimate and
profound dislike. If someone says they hate someone, they're
using a very poisonous verb and should have to back it up with
a solid argument. "Because I didn't vote for him and a lot of
other people didn't either" falls woefully short of those
parameters.

Most veterans of war will tell you they didn't hate their enemy.
They sought to defeat them for the sake of the country's future.
The other side had an idea juxtaposed to theirs and the other
side wanted to impose it on other people...therefore their minds
had to be changed.

We disagreed so strongly with them we were willing to fight them
for our side of the argument. Of course hate commingled with
philosophical differences because it's hard to shoot at somebody
over arguments of ethics.

I don't hate terrorists. I don't personally know any. I just
want them gone. There's only one way to make them gone and
that's to rid them of this earth with whatever means at our
disposal.

I wish someone could invent a big terrorist roach motel.

I don't hate people of a political persuasion other than mine.
I just don't think they're right and they don't think I'm right.
See? We have something in common.

Here's my idea. Let's reserve the word hate for things we
really hate. None of us really hate our country's leaders. We
just occasionally disagree with them and sometimes they're good
for a little comic relief.

If you think you hate them, don't tell me. Just argue against
them and vote against them when the time comes. That's the way
this society works and, so far, it's worked pretty well.

Don Vanlandingham
Cloudcroft.com

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. LOOKING AT THE WEATHER
2. VILLAGE NEWS
3. INSIDE THE SHOP -- CLOUDCROFT GALLERY AND GIFTS
4. CLOUDCROFT ONLINE SPOTLIGHT -- WHITE SANDS
5. Q AND A -- BECAUSE CLOUDCROFT ONLINE READERS WANT TO KNOW
6. COMING EVENTS
7. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
8. CONTACT INFORMATION
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LOOKING AT THE WEATHER
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Much warmer and dry this week. Highs in the upper-70s. Lows
in the upper-40s. A trace (.03 in) of rain on Saturday. No
Forest restrictions.

The Cloudcroft.com weather station is on-line. Go to
Cloudcroft.com, scroll down and click on the "Cloudcroft, NM
Weather" listing in the left margin for up to the minute
Cloudcroft weather conditions and recent weather history.
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VILLAGE NEWS
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Work has been completed on the Highway 82 tunnel. "Click it or
Ticket" campaign has been instituted by the state as well as a
crackdown on uninsured drivers. A spokesman for the state says
persons stopped for not buckling up will not receive warning
tickets. They'll get the real deal.
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INSIDE THE SHOP -- CLOUDCROFT GALLERY AND GIFTS
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Features art with a Southern New Mexico theme. Our displayed
works include oils, pastels, watercolor, acrylics, graphite,
charcoal, sculpture, pottery, Raku, photography, jewelry,
stained glass, and rustic furniture. Please feel free to drop in
and browse. We are located in the Burro Street Exchange on Burro
Street in the heart of Old Town Cloudcroft. We are on the West
side of the building, facing the Post Office. 

For more information email Kay@Cloudcroft-Gallery.com, call 
(505) 682-2630, or see the link to our web site on the Shopping
page of Cloudcroft.com:

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

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CLOUDCROFT ONLINE SPOTLIGHT -- WHITE SANDS INFORMATION
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http://www.wsmr.army.mil/paopage/Pages/WUindx.htm

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Q AND A -- BECAUSE CLOUDCROFT ONLINE READERS WANT TO KNOW
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Q - What was the official results of the "Toilet Seat Up or
Down" debate?

A - Using our correspondence on the topic as a yard stick, the
"Seat Down" advocates were the most vocal. While all but one
female that wrote voted "Seat Down," most of the guys agreed.

See the original article at:

http://www.cloudcroft.com/news/news212.htm

The most logical argument I heard:

The ladies use the facility with seat down 100% if the time
while the masculine sex uses it close to 50% of the time (it
turns out some guys actually use the sitting position as much
as the ladies, if you get my drift).
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COMING EVENTS
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May 29 -- Flea market and garage sale. 9am - 5pm. Cloudcroft
Elementary School parking lot. $15 booth rental. Booth rental
will benefit Cloudcroft Schools. Contact D'dre Brock, 687-3263.

May 29, 30 -- Mayfest. Cloudcroft.

May 29-30 -- Cloudcroft Art Society Show and Sale. Old Red Brick
Schoolhouse, 10am-4pm.

June 2 -- High Noon Book Club. 12pm. In the library. Bring your
lunch and join us in discussing O PIONEERS! by Willa Cather.

June 10 -- Cloudcroft Art Society. 5:30pm. Old Red Brick
Schoolhouse. Demonstration by local pastel artist, Linda Green,
who specializes in portraits.

June 12 -- Miss New Mexico "Show Me Your Shoe" Parade. Golf
Tournament at the Lodge Golf Course. Proceeds go to the
Scholarship Account for the Miss NM Contestants.

June 18, 19, 20 -- Western Roundup. Cloudcroft.

June 19-20 -- High Rolls Cherry Festival. 9am - 5pm each day.
Food, drink, cherry and cherry products, activities for kids,
arts/crafts vendors. (505) 682-1151

June 25-27 -- Chimney Spring Bluegrass Festival. For more
information call 505-687-3520.

July 10, 11 -- July Jamboree. Cloudcroft.

July 23-25 -- Singing in the Clouds. Gospel singing, solo's,
trio's, quartet's, and a lot of group singing by all.
(325) 691-9123.

September 19 -- Gary Johnson’s Cloudcroft Run. World’s highest
certified 10k run. For more information call 505-687-2133.

October 2, 3 -- Oktoberfest. Cloudcroft.

Cloudcroft Art Society meets the second Thursday of each month,
5:30-7pm, in the Old Red Brick School House.

Cox Canyon Volunteer Fire and Rescue is organizing an
auxiliary unit. If you would like to help support this group
of dedicated men and women, call 682-3084, 682-4664, 682-3719
or 682-3234.

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 button.

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:

We missed this week's edition (May 20th)! Hope all is well. 
It's tough when we can’t get our CCN fix of the week!
 
J. Dalton
CCNM, formerly FWTX

[A confluence of events prevented us from getting this issue 
out on Thursday. Note, however, that all issues are given a 
Friday date, so the Newsletter is not truly late unless it
fails to come out by Friday midnight.]

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Dear Newsletter:

First of all, I want to thank you, Don, for all the wonderful
newsletters that you bless us with. Thursday is the highlight
of my week because I know that I can take a little vacation
away from reality and live vicariously in Cloudcroft through
you.

I wanted to give a suggestion to the Village council regarding
the issue of Village owned cell phones and whether they should
be vouchered to employees. My husband is in law enforcement
and his department issues cell phones.

The officers are required to pay $5.00 per paycheck (which is
taken out as a regular deduction) to pay for their personal
use of the phone. This is a simple solution that works very
well for everyone involved.

God bless!

DJR

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Dear Newsletter:

I loved your Pat Tillman piece. I sent it to all of my
employees. 2 years ago I finally got my wife to agree to buy
property near Cloudcroft. I grew up in El Paso and spent every
summer in the CC area.
 
Rick Peters 

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Dear Newsletter:

If you've not seen it yet, there is a really nice article about
the annual High Rolls cherry festival in the latest issue of
New Mexico magazine.

Congratulations on the weather station. Now if we could just
have something similar for the village of Ruidoso! The need is
here. The NOAA reporting station at the airport is too far
removed and in a much different environment and rarely
representative of Ruidoso proper.

All the best,
Jack Schuller
Ruidoso

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Dear Newsletter:

Great job on the weather station hook-up and the detailed
weather table on Cloudcroft.com! We love knowing all of that
Cloudcroft area weather data. You guys have LOTS of parameters!
Hey, all you're missing is cloud conditions.

We have a weather station at home here in Sandia Park (east
of the Sandia Mountains, which are east of Albuquerque). Yeah,
we're weather geeks. We never hooked it up to our computer
though (the two machines reside in different parts of the
house and for good reasons). We have a couple of 'bum' sensors
and data stores, so we never know the outdoor humidity (only
indoor) or the daily low temperature. Boo.

Thanks again!
Lyn Canham
Sandia Park, NM

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Dear Newsletter:

I like what you said about "sick twisted minds" out there who
would put a lighter to the temp gage! However, I own a Bar in
Texas and if I put up a sign that says "Don't throw your
cigarette butts in the urinal", I get the entire can of butts
thrown in there.
 
Maybe it's best to not tell them, I bet you will have a few of
those "sick twisted minds" out there tomorrow looking over the
mountain side.
 
Anyway, your informative news is just great, thanks.
 
Bob Sparr
DeSoto, Texas

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Dear Newsletter:

Your recent communications on the weather station for
Cloudcroft being accessible on your website reminded me of
the most reliable weather forecasting system in the area many
years ago.

My wife is a native of El Paso (lots of folks don't know there
is such a creature) and I lived there for twenty years from
the late sixties to the late eighties. We spent many memorable
weekends in the Cloudcroft/Ruidoso area through our high school
and early marriage years.

But back to the weather memory....there used to be a local that
could forecast the weather better than any meteorologist... 
he used a mason jar of bear grease, or bear fat! And invariably,
his forecast would be more accurate than Ted Bender's forecast
on a network channel in El Paso. Don't remember his name, he
may have lived in High Rolls and might have owned a small
general store. Maybe this will bring back memories for others
that have a history in your fine mountain hamlet.

Keep up the great letter...look forward to it every week.

God Bless,
Stewart and Carla Dearing
Leander, TX (Austin suburb)

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Dear Newsletter:

Good news about the new weather station. Although I would like
to see a long-term scientific study documented in your
newsletter. Will all this fancy weather detecting equipment
perform better than a pickle jar full of bear grease?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Ed Buckner
Lenexa, KS

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Dear Newsletter:

In my opinion, the toilet seat should be down when not in use.

Background: I'm the oldest of 7 sibs, 3 of whom were girls,
brought up in a one bathroom home. I'm married for 10 years
and have a daughter, 8 years old, and a son, 6 years old. We
live in a 3 bathroom home. My extensive experience with
cleaning family bathrooms, which began back in the mid-50's,
leads me to the conclusion that the seat should never be left
up.

I look forward with great anticipation to the discussions
that follow. 

Michael 
Alamogordo, NM

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Dear Newsletter:

Thank you so much for running the article about the
Revitalization of Camp Mary White. The camp has meant a lot to
all of her campers and counselors over the years and it is
thrilling to know that she is still an important part of the
community.

Paula Homer was right in saying that the people in the area
have been a part of our lives at camp. I was always getting
lost on our out-of-camp trips. 

And I was always rescued by people who knew the area. One time
it was a retired doctor and his wife who were living in Wills
Canyon. Somehow or another we ended up on the wrong side of
Prestridge Hill (or Prestridge Bump as some have called it).
I had about 6 4th-grade girls with me and we had been hiking
all day. We stopped at this house that looked occupied and met
the doctor and his wife. We borrowed the phone so I could call
my camp director to come get us. I wanted us to wait outside,
so we wouldn't bother them any more than necessary, but his
wife insisted that we all come in.

She served us cookies and Kool-aid, while the doctor told us
stories about the mountains and the times he testified in
court. Thanks to their kindness, we had one of our best
adventures.

Another 'local' that I remember is Gordon Wimsatt. He used to
come to camp to tell us about predicting the weather with
animal fat - with bear fat being the material of choice. He
would also throw in some lessons on dousing or water-witching.

Getting to go into Cloudcroft was a special treat, whether it
was to get a burger in the bar where people wrote on the ceiling
or for more formal times when we went to the Lodge.

Another place we enjoyed frequently was the Tunnel Steakhouse
in High Rolls which was owned by the parents of one of the
girls who was at camp with me. She later became the camp
director.

Once again, thank you so much for your support. Camp Mary White
is a vital part of your community and has changed the lives of
girls and women around the world.

Tracy McFadden

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