Kwage Mesa Trail and Engineering Marvels

Although I saw no mad dogs or Englishmen on this trail this afternoon, it was hot enough! Clouds were building over Pajarito and I thought "Hot dog - it would be fun to go to Kwage Mesa and watch the clouds build over the Sangres and the Jemez and maybe it would get overcast and cool off - WRONG! Clouds built but they didn't do anything and the trail was sunny and dry but I had it all to myself as no one else was so stupid! I went on the trail to the right of the dressage arena instead of the old road to the left of the dressage area that I usually take. The official Kwage (also called North or Horse Mesa) Mesa Trail winds and winds across the mesa and seems longer than the 1.4 miles that Craig Martin says it is. The only living beings I saw were large raptors flying around, waiting for something to die.

Walking along, I had views to the south of Los Alamos Mesa and the Los Alamos Airport. The cap on the old dump on the side of Los Alamos Mesa, at the south edge of the airport, looks like a dam with the earth above the cap shaped like a funnel. I need an engineer to explain that one to me. If you cap an old dump, why would you build an earthern funnel above the cap? Maybe I could figure out things if I had brought my binoculars.

I could also see that work has begun on the Airport Basin site. It's between De Colores and the Industrial Park on Los Alamos's Main Hill Road and the site is on the steep south side of the mesa and is above some breathtakingly steep cliffs on Los Alamos Mesa that plunge straight down to Pueblo Canyon.

I also wanted to take a gander at the road work on Diamond-Conoco Hill. It looked exciting but it still looks like piles of rubble to me. Pity the homeowners in that area. I didn't realize that Volvo makes excavators but there it was shoveling dirt with Volvo emblazoned on its rotating cab.

LA Roofing: Not Above Reproach?

I tend to think that LA Roofing exaggerated the need for our roof to be replaced. So far two different people have told me that even in the case where narrow crown staples (better to use broad crown staples or nails) have worked their way up to the top of the shingle, the asphalt shingles are self-sealing and will, in effect, seal any penetration caused by the staples. The roof is only 13 years old and not every staple is showing. There are some diagonal lines of staples showing on the roof. I stood on the ladder while LA Roofing was here and even commented to them that I could see large numbers of shingles that did not have the tell-tale black line of the staple head. The owner also acted like that was what was causing the leak around the furnace exhaust vent and that it was imperative to replace the roof ASAP. When I asked when I might have a problem if I didn't, he gave no further elucidation. I think the reason he lit up a cigarette and smoked in my face, without asking if I minded, is that he's stressed when he tries to convince a potential customer that 1+1=3!!