July Monsoons

Sitting out on my land, feet kicked up and reading a book. There's a storm coming over from the west, flat and mingling shades of blue, obscuring the mountains of Taos and Los Alamos and the mesa of Bandelier. This is a common sight this month, those heavy dark airships dragging their sodden curtains that sweep the land. What's unique tonight is that it is moving toward another storm crashing like a wave over Santa Fe Baldy and the ski area, a wave dark and billowy and heavy. I sit in the center, and just above me, perfectly centered, is a winking patch of bright blue summer sky. As the two storms collide, the rain begins to fall in fat heavy drops, and from inside the house, the sound of Keith Jarrett moaning as he works though his runs, moaning like the sound of the local ghosts...

On the turntable: Keith Jarrett, "Testament"
On the nighttable: Frederick Barthelme, "Painted Desert"