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CLOUDCROFT ONLINE NEWSLETTER #243
December 3, 2004
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Dear Subscriber:

There are periods when I seem incapable of thinking in complete
thoughts. Sometimes my thinking just does not come with a
beginning, a middle and an ending. Maybe it's due to advancing
age or it could be the lack of proper intellectual exercise.
Heck, maybe I'm just lazy.

In any case, when times like these come about, I am reduced to
sharing with you my fragmented thoughts.

-o-

Last night I had a dream that I was at a dinner party and 
everybody there had nothing on but their underwear and they
were pointing and snickering at me because I was fully dressed.

-o-

I ran some errands in Alamogordo this past Monday.

First I stopped at the water lab. The state requires us to take
a water sample to the lab once a month. There on the front desk
at the lab was a plastic cup full of ball point pens and a 
little label on the cup that says "Free...take one." I didn't
take one.

My next stop was the print shop. Had to pick up my new business
cards. There on the counter was a box full of ball point pens
with a little sign on the side of the box that said "for our
penless friends." I picked one out of the box, signed my credit
card receipt with it and put it back in the box.

Then I went to Wal Mart. I bought some mouthwash, some razor
blades, some dog food and a twin-pack of ball point pens.

I drove home with the shadowy feeling I had done something dumb
but I couldn't put my finger on it.

-o-

I've been thinking about it and I think I would like to own a
horse.

I've never had a horse. When I was a kid I always asked Santa
for a horse but I never found one under the tree on Christmas
morning. Over the years a bicycle, a paint-by-numbers set...
even a chemistry set (my folks lived to regret that one), but
never a horse.

Wonder if the dogs would let my horse eat out of their food
bowl? I'm almost certain Peggy wouldn't let it lay on the
couch.

Maybe I'll just re-name the parakeet Trigger.

Don Vanlandingham
Cloudcroft.com

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. LOOKING AT THE WEATHER
2. THIS WEEK'S PICTURE --- REMEMBERING THE SUMMER
3. VILLAGE NEWS
4. INSIDE THE SHOP -- GARY MACK REAL ESTATE
5. CLOUDCROFT ONLINE SPOTLIGHT -- NEW MEXICO LIFE STORIES
6. Q AND A -- BECAUSE CLOUDCROFT ONLINE READERS WANT TO KNOW
7. COMING EVENTS
8. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
9. CONTACT INFORMATION
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LOOKING AT THE WEATHER
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No new moisture since last reporting period. Much colder.

Low of 4 degrees at midnight November 30th. High of 46 at 11am
on November 27th.

Total precipitation for the year to date --- 23.83 inches.

Check Cloudcroft's current conditions anytime by going to
Cloudcroft.com. The only online weather station based in
Cloudcroft. It's free.
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THIS WEEK'S PICTURE --- REMEMBERING THE SUMMER
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http://www.cloudcroft.com/pics/cloudcroft7.jpg

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VILLAGE NEWS
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Ed Bunn was posthumously honored as Cloudcroft's Citizen of the
Year last month. Bunn passed away in September.
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INSIDE THE SHOP -- GARY MACK REAL ESTATE
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We've got what you want at Gary Mack Real Estate. We will take
care of all your real estate needs. We offer quality service
because our customers are our top priority. So the next time you
are in the Cloudcroft area, stop by and say hi. Gary Mack Real
Estate, where the coffee is always hot and the smiles are always
free. For additional information, please see the link to our
web site on the Real Estate page of Cloudcroft.com:

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

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CLOUDCROFT ONLINE SPOTLIGHT -- NEW MEXICO LIFE HISTORIES
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http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/nmcat.html

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Q AND A -- BECAUSE CLOUDCROFT ONLINE READERS WANT TO KNOW
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Q - Does Ski Cloudcroft have a web site?

A - To our knowledge, no. The phone number listed for the ski
area is (505) 682-2333.
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COMING EVENTS
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December 4 -- Skywatch program. Museum of Space History.
Alamogordo.

December 4 -- Christmas Parade. Alamogordo. Arrival of Santa
Clause.

December 4 -- ULLR-fest.

December 11 -- Pet Parade on Burro Street. Cloudcroft.
Late night shopping in Cloudcroft.

December 12 -- Community Contata -- 3pm -- Cloudcroft Methodist
Church.

December 18 -- Christmas in Cloudcroft and Santa Land.

February 4, 5, 6, 7 -- Mardi Gras celebration. Cloudcroft

Cloudcroft Art Society meets the first Sunday of each month,
2:30pm, in the Old Red Brick School House. Visitors are always
welcome. Refreshments usually served.

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 Wednesday morning.

Free Vitals Clinic. Cloudcroft Senior Citizens Center, every
Wednesday. High Rolls Senior Citizens Center, first Thursday
of each month.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Dear Newsletter:

Thanks, Don. You do a great job with the newsletter and made
that change of my email without any problem. 

Hope you also had a great Thanksgiving. My brother from Santa
Fe was here. They had about 8 inches of snow before he left
his home yesterday. Guess this will help the dry spell, but I
heard it really needs to be 5 wet years in a row. I imagine a
lot of the water will percolate toward El Paso. I understand
the water utilities department there recently said they don't
believe they will ever have any water shortages. This after
they got everyone to landscape with rocks.

Gary Conwell

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Dear Newsletter:

Ray Fourzan commented that El Paso Eastwood HS won a Texas
State Basketball Championship in 1976.
 
El Paso High School also won the Texas High School Basketball
Championship twenty years earlier in 1947. One of the better
players on that team was a kid named Dick Savitt, who also won
the Texas State Boys Tennis Championship that spring. Dick 
then went on to win the Wimbledon Men's Singles Championship
four years later in 1951. Dick is occasionally shown in the
crowd at US Open matches.
 
Bob Turrentine
High Rolls, NM

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Dear Newsletter:

Excellent article about basketball. You may have heard
basketball players called "cagers." That's because in the
sport's early years they placed a cage around the court to
protect the spectators. May have to return to that idea.

My father graduated from Weed High School back in the '30s
before they had a gym. To hear him tell it, when they played
basketball at home against Cloudcroft and other rivals, they
would first go out in the parking lot and clear off as many
rocks and sticks as possible because the parking lot was the
basketball court. He says it takes quite a bit of talent to
dribble on rocks - improves the passing game. They used the
same area for their football games. Tough mountain kids, no
doubt. I think your idea of outdoor hoops may be just the 
ticket.

Talking about Cloudcroft losing the state 1A football 
championship - as I recall, in the late '80s Cloudcroft was
state 1A champions in basketball three years in a row and
runner-up the year prior to that. I think high school hoops
still hold much of the integrity of the game lost in the NBA
and even college. I get confused, which is which, WWE
or NBA? Guess a good NBA brawl makes up for the lack of NHL.
I saw a boxing match last night where a basketball game broke
out . . .

Ed Buckner
Lenexa, KS

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Dear Newsletter:

Basketball -- NBA -- ugh!
 
Maybe I'm wrong but it seems to me at one time, it was illegal
to touch the rim. Now professional basketball to me is more
like overpaid acrobats.
 
Tattoos -- Not sure anymore but at one time you could not be
a officer in the armed services if you had a taboo. This also
went for several prestigious businesses who frowned at those
having tattoos for advancement in these organizations.
 
When I was in college, the now no more Texas School of Mines,
basketball was enjoyable. It's too bad money had to ruin the
sport.
 
Richard King
Round Rock, TX

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