Winter Solstice and Last Day of Zappadan

One of my favorite end points--the East end of Kwage Mesa 
overlooking the Rio Grande Rift. Seems me or the
Blackberry camera are having a bad day.

 It was a lovely, if short day today, the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. With a high around 38 deg F, I took the mountainbike out for a short scoot and otherwise piddled 'round the house, cleaning, vacuuming, doing laundry, and rearranging the mess in the garage.Strangely but predictably, another loop around the sun has gone by while I was doing something else, leaving me wondering where 2014 went, and hoping for a few more laps before I'm chased down by that inevitable closer of breakaways, the Grim Reaper.

The North Mesa trails are more interesting this year, given Open Space specialist Craig Martin's great work in creating more trails/singletrack headed east from the horse stables. One can now do a great loop of North/Kwage Mesa without setting tire on the main jeep road except for a couple of crossing points. Its beautiful back there. A tip of the hat to Craig and his volunteer corps who made that possible. I think it was the Boy Scouts?

It was also the last day of Zappadan, that period celebrated by Frank Zappa aficianadoes, especially my pen pal and newly minted New Mexico resident Patrick O'Grady. Zappadan starts on the anniversary of Zappa's death (4 Dec, 1993) and ends on the day of his birth (21 Dec. 1940, coinciding with the Winter Solstice). So here is a tip of the brain bucket and guitar to anyone reading this.

Just enough snow to make curves interesting. 
I was practicing my drifting technique, 
almost getting it sideways on one occasion.