August 9th - Ridgway, CO - A touching but bittersweet story was told to me by a very nice elderly woman in Ridgway this past weekend...She was purchasing two framed prints of white horses as they reminded her of her horse which she just lost this week after 35 years.

She said it could not have gone any more peacefuly as after eating some in it's stall and as she was petting it, it simply layed down and died... at 35, she knew it's time was not far off but still...

What did come as a shock was when just a day or
two later her next door neighbor arrived at her door to tell her that her horse of 25 years and fence mate to the 35 year-old mare for all of those years had just died as well... tell someone this story the next time they try to tell you a horse is just a horse.

Speaking of mending broken hearts, my younger brother and his wife's effort to get over the loss of their cat of 19 years has backfired, but not for lack of good intentions...rather than jump right into another cat or a dog, he decided to hold off for a bit, but his love of animals found him instead feeding some of the local wildlfe in his back yard.

What started out as just feed for the birds, soon turned into squirrels and raccoons which then led to both Red and Gray fox and not long after that, the deer arrived.

Well as you might guess, it became quite a show every night, in fact this spectacle soon replaced most of his tv viewing. It was nature at it's finest, but just the other day he was reminded that nature has an ugly side when "his" Gray fox arrived limping and walking on three legs. He otherwise looked ok, but it was apparent that his front paw was injured.

As if that were not enough, that very same day the buck also arrived with his family walking gingerly on what was either a badly injured or broken leg as well...well, to say the least, this has taken my brother's mind off of his cat, but now of course he gets to watch two animals whose beauty he has grown to appreciate immensely, endure great pains and slowly lose all of that spirit and energy.

The buck has not returned of late so one only assumes his fate, but he did get these sad images of the Gray Fox recently and as you can see, he struggles to survive, his once full coat is gone (mange) and he seems to arrive each night bearing more wounds than the night before...it looks like his days are numbered.

Random Thought

I watched from a ridge the other night down onto a lake as a man below sat by himself fishing AND reading the bible...I could only think, "boy if that isn't that a soul looking for some peace."

Note to Readers

I was told by another RoadNotes reader that they are "too long" ..for those of you feel that, this would be a good place to stop.

The More Things Change...

As we all know, gold prices are going through the roof and with it comes amateur prospectors emerging from all walks of life...well as anyone who knows their history will tell you, most of those who got rich in America's last gold rush offered the tools of the trade...picks, shovels and levi's...anyway...

My camp host in Prescott has never forgotten that lesson and in between tapping his own claims, he also builds metal dectors (best there are he claims) and offers lessons to the hordes...just not in the spots he prospects in his off time. As he says, you have to "mine the miners."

Random Thought

I get sent a lot of hard-to-believe stories in my email...for those of you who don't already know, snopes.com is the place to start if you want to find out if you're heart is is being tugged at by a hoax or if something is just too amazing to be true..

Yet More Proof We're a Nation in Decline!

Not sure what it is about Colorado, but for the second time, a spouse(one husband and one wife) told me they were leaving their significant other after the show and the partner didn't know it yet.

What a comforting thought it must be to know that the person you love is telling some guy n a park that you're done..and with such moral character, odd the marriage didn't work...geez.

The next sign we're doomed occurred when I was filling up my tank at a truckstop in Arizona when a young woman drove up beside me and rolled down her window (No it's not another truckstop hooker story so no need to unsubscribe).

She was a pretty girl of about 25 and wore a low cut top so I immediately thought, "Here we go again."...anyway, she softly said something I couldn't quite make out so I leaned my head into her car, when she spoke up and told me that she was almost out of gas and "could I possibly help her out with a dollar or two."

I told her I was sorry and was just about to explain my policy on this age old scam, when I saw a better way to prove my point. For as I looked down into her car in the storage area just behind her floor shift, I saw what I thought was the tips of a dollar bil. I then leaned in a bit further and with my finger tips slid from the compartment, a pile of cash at least two inches thick. There was a twenty on top and who knows how much below, but the amazing part was that when I suggested she use some of that for gas, she without shame said, "well, you know."

She then turned the car around and approached two more guys...I stopped counting after the next three men she approached, but it certainly did nothing to strengthen my already wobbling faith in humanity.

Random Thought

I've filed a complaint with the "Writer's Guild and they have started an investigation into the producers of "Virginia", that pathetic film I co-wrote. The smart money says I wasted a phone call and will never see another dime.

They say the judge of a man is how he acts when angry, drunk and how he
spends his money. If that's true, I have to admit I measure up pretty well...
Just glad it's not based on how many friends he has.

Unlike most people I know, I look forward to things more fondly than I do back at things.

There was an article in a British newspaper where British naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, said that in the age of video games, computers and the like, that children have lost touch with the natural world. While the quiz is a bit tougher for we yanks as some of the common fauna and flora (mostly birds) don't look like ours, my hunch is American youth would do even more poorly.

A filly at the Babbitt Ranch horse auction starts at about the same price as a Colt at a local gun show.

The radio just told me Warren Jeffs, the polygimist sect leader, is drinking plenty of fluids after not feeling well...no mention of whether the young girls he forced into marriages or worse, can keep anything down....hmmm...

Forget jail time, if you want to get people to stop drunk driving, get a good look at a less than althletic bartender as she reports for work having walked a couple of miles in an unexpected thunderstorm without a raincoat or umbrella...mix in a tank top and well...it wasn't pretty.

And lastly, the revised website is near completion and along with it will come RoadNotes archives as well as mnay new additions..until then, this shot from the Babbitt Hashknife horse auction in July has taken off quite nicely...at least with the public...the ranchers haven't got back to me yet...hmmm...

Until next time....be well and as always, please excuse any typos (and you know who you are) and most importantly, "Save a Horse, Ride a Mustang."

Jim