Archive for January, 2012
Employment Opportunity: Nurse-Family Partnership
by John Weckerle
Checking in on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find employment opportunities in the Nurse-Family Partnership, in which Bachelors-prepared nurses work in-home with low-income, first time mothers. For more information, see the Mountainair Announcements article.
It is certainly nice to be able to post an employment opportunity. As a reminder, if you’re hiring, please feel free to send us an announcement and we’ll post it under our Employment category.
Oops, UPS…
by John Weckerle
When Friday morning dawned, your editor was looking forward to a weekend that would involve a certain amount of photography – because a new camera was due to arrive that day. Having paid extra for two day delivery, we anticipated the weekend with a certain excitement. The UPS tracking indicated that the package was “out for delivery” at 6:16 a.m., so it seemed that delivery was a certainty. The package, however, never showed up, and at 7:36 p.m. somebody entered an exception: “emergency conditions beyond UPS’ control.” A new delivery date was “unavailable.”
Now, as it turns out, your editor had Friday off and, with errands and appointments in both Edgewood and Albuquerque, managed to traverse nearly every possible road that the UPS truck could have taken to get to our location (including the one it usually takes). The Albuquerque errands actually took us right past the UPS distribution center on the way home. The sun was shining all day, and the roads were clear. So we called UPS and, on the first round, got a very unhelpful person named “Mike” who indicated that no information regarding the nature of the “emergency conditions” was available, nor was a revised delivery date, but it would be at least Monday before delivery because we had not paid for weekend delivery. I offered to pick the package up Saturday, but apparently UPS in Albuquerque is closed Saturdays. Before I could offer to pick it up Monday, “Mike” hung up on me, or we were disconnected. I then tried the e-mail support, and at least got an apology on that one, but they again could not give me a new delivery date and stated that they didn’t have to refund the two-day shipping charge because “emergency conditions beyond UPS’ control” apparently exempts them from doing so.
I called again yesterday and got a more helpful person, “Susan,” who guaranteed that the package would absolutely, positively be delivered Monday. With a potentially substantial winter storm barreling toward us, we have our doubts, but we’ll take them at their word for now – and hold them to it. But that’s not really the purpose of this article…
La Nina? Really?
by John Weckerle
Update 8:30 a.m. The weather channel “weather in motion” shows precipitation approaching Belen from the southwest, and NMRoads indicates difficult driving conditions in the west-central and southwest portions of the state, mostly “snow packed and icy.”
Well, here we go again: another winter storm is bearing down upon us. We’re providing the current Winter Storm Warning from the National Weather Service (NWS) below. We’ll note that before the last storm, the winter storm warning indicated 4 to 8 inches above 7,500 feet, which is the weather we usually get at New Mexico Central Headquarters – and we got more than a foot. This time the NWS is projecting 5 to 9 inches. The NWS also has indicated that travel will be impacted, including areas of I-25 and I-40. We suggest that our readers pay close attention to their favorite weather sites and also keep an eye on NMRoads.com. Stay warm, and be careful driving!
...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM MST MONDAY... A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM MST MONDAY. * SNOW ACCUMULATIONS...GENERALLY 5 TO 9 INCHES POSSIBLE FOR ELEVATIONS ABOVE 7500 FEET AND 2 TO 6 INCHES POSSIBLE BELOW 7500 FEET. LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS CLOSER TO A FOOT ARE POSSIBLE OVER THE SOUTH CENTRAL MOUNTAINS INTO EASTERN LINCOLN COUNTY. * TIMING...SNOW WILL INCREASE IN COVERAGE TODAY AND CONTINUE TONIGHT. SNOW WILL GRADUALLY DECREASE FROM NORTHWEST TO SOUTHEAST ON MONDAY...POTENTIALLY EXTENDING INTO MID DAY OVER THE SOUTH CENTRAL MOUNTAINS. * WINDS...SIGNIFICANT WINDS ARE NOT EXPECTED. * SNOW LEVELS...SOME RAIN MAY MIX WITH SNOW DURING THE AFTERNOON AT ELEVATIONS BELOW 6500 FEET...BUT TEMPERATURES WILL QUICKLY TURN COLD ENOUGH FOR SNOW AT ALL LOCATIONS AS PRECIPITATION INCREASES. * LOCAL IMPACTS...HAZARDOUS WINTER DRIVING CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED ALONG WITH REDUCED VISIBILITIES IN SNOW. TRAVEL MAY BECOME DIFFICULT ACROSS THE REGION. THIS INCLUDES PORTIONS OF U.S. HIGHWAYS 60...70...AND 380.
Public Service Announcement: Capulin Snow Play Area
by Karen Takai
Update: Clarification:: The closure of Capulin is due to the dangerous icy conditions on the slope not the roads. Thanks KT
Due to dangerous icy conditions Capulin Snow Play Area on the Sandia Ranger District will be closed this weekend. We will continue to monitor the conditions and keep you updated. Thanks!
Karen Takai
Fire Information & Public Affairs
Sandia Ranger District
11776 Hwy 337
Tijeras, NM 87059
505-281-3304 ex 120
Press Release: Bernalillo County Offices Closed Tomorrow for Holiday Observance
by Tia Bland, Bernalillo County Public Information Department
Bernalillo County – Bernalillo County government offices will be closed Monday, Jan. 2–with the exception of emergency and public safety services.
Happy New Year!
by John Weckerle
It is January 1, and we find ourselves looking eagerly forward to 2012. With some positive life changes having occurred during the latter months of 2011, the denizens of New Mexico Central Headquarters find themselves more optimistic about the coming year’s prospects. We hope that our readers do, also.
Over the last few days, your editor has been giving some thought to how the year is looking and what it may mean for New Mexico Central. A few thoughts:
- Photography may play a more important, or at least a more routine, role in NM-Central’s content. This is in part because your editor is planning an equipment upgrade, and will be feverishly snapping away at everything in sight in order to learn the nuances of the new camera. We may also be introducing some video; in fact, we have the first one put together but need to make a decision on rendering software so we can post it. We used Adobe Premiere Elements to compile it, but the outputs are inadequate and Premiere Elements 9 was widely panned. If any of our readers have suggestions, we could use them.
- Digital art may also start showing up from time to time, possibly a little later in the year. Fractal and 3D art are a couple of your editor’s occasional hobbies, and designing fractal-art Kindle sleeves (these can be seen at your editor’s Cafe Press site under the Digital Worlds collection) as part of this year’s Christmas present inventory has perhaps reinstated the itch. We’ll see.
- We are excited that our gardening experiments have been successful – successful, that is, in demonstrating that 1/2-inch PVC is not sufficient to withstand heavy winter snows if used for a hoop house. The recent barrage of winter storms provided us with a great “test case” and, despite the fact that we didn’t have the plastic on, the snow on the bird netting was still enough to crush the frame. We’ll repair, redesign, and rebuild with thicker pipe when the weather gets a little nicer.
- We’ve given it some thought and we find ourselves even more fed up than in the past with people dressing up intolerance and dishonesty as patriotism. We’re also sick and tired of people in certain quarters constantly tearing down our government. No government is perfect, including ours, and we think the focus should be on making what we have run as effectively as possible as opposed to rather than cripple it or tear it down. We’re tired of intransigent idealogues monopolizing the discussion and gumming up the works. There’s probably not much we can do about it other than continue to “write the wrongs,” as it were, and we’ll continue to try and do so. However, we may be a bit more pointed in some of our critiques, and may also be looking at the backgrounds of those whose writings we are reviewing, as this puts some perspective on the situation and gives an insight into just how much these people actually know about the subjects upon which they are expostulating.
- The recent omission of the Capulin Snow Play hours was a little embarrassing, and we’re going to try to do a better job at posting the public service announcements and press releases the various agencies send us.
With those thoughts in mind, we’ll move forward into the New Year with a sense of adventure and at least a couple of goals. We wish our readers, and everybody else, a happy and prosperous New Year!