The Trujillo family had a get-together for Christmas in preparation for sending off our oldest son, Stan, to Denmark, where he may be taking a new job.
    Desirous of a boys’ night out, he got together with younger brothers Diego and Ben for an evening away from our house. Stan said, “Dad, we’re going out for a couple of hours?”
    And almost as if participating in a really bad high school play, Diego said, “We’ll take our own car?” and Ben cut in with, “So don’t wait up for us?”

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    It’s gone!
    The place where I was born no longer belongs to any Trujillo. My sister Dorothy, who bought us out after Mom died in 2002, let the house go to an outsider whose name I don’t know.
    Even when my parents were still alive, when I’d entertain out-of-town friends, I’d drive by their house and my birthplace on Railroad Avenue and say, “See that house, the neatest house on the whole street? Well, I was born there.”

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    A school workshop I dropped in on recently featured three speakers. The keynote speaker, who’d traveled from Albuquerque to share her knowledge got paid for her services. The other two speakers, well, they kind of performed gratis.

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    One doesn’t have to wait long before someone new to this area remarks on the way we in northern New Mexico “sing” many of our expressions.
    Whereas many people say, “I know,” around here, it’s usually something like “Eee guyy, I knoouuww.” And that’s only a slight exaggeration.

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    If there’s one thing I could pass on to readers for the New Year, it’s guarding against getting bilked. Almost daily we read about the people falling victim to unscrupulous scammers who promise instant wealth.

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    I was sweating it out this week, alongside David Griego, a retired Mora High School mathematics teacher. We were at the Abe Montoya Recreation Center. I wondered why he wasn’t even breathing hard while striding on his treadmill. With his 150-pound frame, he didn’t sweat at all.

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    In my youth, I came across a professor who became particularly vexatious one day in employing what most of us consider profanity. Making the point that words don’t hurt, he asked us students, “How would it hurt you if — hypothetically — I called you a — (because this is a family newspaper, I can only imply the sexual and scatological tenor of his quote).”

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    It’s interesting the kinds of spins we customarily put on words. Even the popular Fox TV talk show host Bill O’Reilly cautions viewers that they’re “about to enter the no-spin zone.”
    It’s a case of unmitigated irony, as Bill O’Really’s program is pure spin: bash the Democrats.

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    As a resident of the 22nd wealthiest county in New Mexico, I find it necessary to try to earn some of the big bucks the publisher throws our way.
    In case you missed it, of New Mexico’s 33 counties, San Miguel ranks in the lower half, with a median household income of $27,092, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The latest data reflect incomes from the year 2003.

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    There is probably no event in recent history that has riveted people as much as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. The president was killed while on a motorcade in downtown Dallas.

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