Sunday, December 27, 2009 - Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu NM
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Photo Shoot, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu NM, December 22, 2009
Brrrrr... 1:30AM and it's already 5 degrees below zero. Last winter, camped down at Leasburg Dam State Park, I met fellow fulltimer Jan, living in his Honda sports car, who observed that the temperature drops noticeably an hour or two before sunrise. Will tonight's low break LD's record 10 below set just last night? [6:30AM] Nope - didn't happen - in fact it warmed up a tad to -3 degrees.
Where will I find warm enough weather in the next week to thaw the tanks in time for the next dump? I may have to take a southern route to Las Vegas this week to get enough hours above freezing to thaw the tanks. The shorter I-40 route won't see much above 32 degrees for most of the way.
Night camp
Ghost Ranch Campground, Abiquiu NM
- This is a basic, small campground with full hookups.
- Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are not available here.
- Locate Ghost Ranch on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Disaster and the Failure of Authority
Disasters are almost by definition about the failure of authority, in part because the powers that be are supposed to protect us from them, in part also because the thousand dispersed needs of a disaster overwhelm even the best governments, and because the government version of governing often arrives at the point of a gun. But the authorities don't usually fail so spectacularly. Failure at this level requires sustained effort. The deepening of the divide between the haves and have nots, the stripping away of social services, the defunding of the infrastructure, mean that this disaster—not of weather but of policy—has been more or less what was intended to happen, if not so starkly in plain sight.
The Uses of Disaster Rebecca Solnit, Harpers.org, September 9, 2005