Monday, April 2, 2012 - Elephant Butte Lake State Park, Elephant Butte NM
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Canyon Towhee, Elephant Butte NM, April 1, 2012
Early morning light
The sun was barely up and I got the pictures but the light was insufficient. There was a female Hooded Merganser on the river this morning having a crayfish feast fit for a queen. There must be a pool here where crayfish survive when the river flow is turned off for the winter. It was a fine moment I wanted to share with you. Ah well...
Night camp
Site 10 - Paseo del Rio Campground - Elephant Butte Lake State Park, Elephant Butte NM
- Verizon cell phone service - very good
- Verizon EVDO service - very good
- Find other references to Elephant Butte on this website
- List the nights I've camped here
- Go to the Elephant Butte Lake State Park website
- Get a Google map of this area
- Check the weather here
Skepticism is Helpful
If you want to notice things that seem wrong, you'll find a degree of skepticism helpful. I take it as an axiom that we're only achieving 1% of what we could. This helps counteract the rule that gets beaten into our heads as children: that things are the way they are because that is how things have to be. For example, everyone I've talked to while writing this essay felt the same about English classes-- that the whole process seemed pointless. But none of us had the balls at the time to hypothesize that it was, in fact, all a mistake. We all thought there was just something we weren't getting.
The Age of the Essay, Paul Graham, September 2004