Now it’s mud.

We are in Santa Fe, a place we first visited some 40 years ago and it is so good to see that the heart of this city, The Plaza area, remains unchanged. Long ago, city officials wrote strict building codes that all structures must be in the adobe style. This homage to preservation of a unique sense pleasing uniformity has attracted a brilliant combination of wealth, culture and fine art talent. Santa Fe is doing okay.

But our poor California. I saw where route 58, between Bakersfield and Mojave, reopened after days of closure after a massive mudslide brought on by torrential rain. The interesting news clip also had a “science spot” where they showed how drought baked soils need to absorb water slowly. Too much at once, and it just runs off, not in. A very wet El Nino winter is forecast for southern Cal. It feels like we are living in the “Age of Natural Disasters”— although the picture did make me wonder why they would build a non-elevated highway on a flash flood plain...