February found us in Las Cruces (The Crosses), New Mexico in the Mesilla Valley, home of famous hatch Chilies. The locals just call this city of 75,000 “Cruces”. Cruces is the home to New Mexico State University giving the city a nice little college town buzz. We both really like Cruces because seems to be big enough to have everything you might want and still small enough to be friendly. We will make this our winter home. You gotta love those sunny 70 degree days in February.
Life has a way of telling us we need to slow down and pay attention. I got such a wake up call the first week of February. I broke my left arm and badly strained my neck and back in a ATV accident. One of the ATV ramps broke under me as I was loading. Th
e wheeler fell on me from about five feet. My left elbow has a compression fracture in the socket of the radius. The radius is the big bone in the arm above the wrist. This led to a couple of trips to the hospital emergency room, many trips to the chiropractor and an Orthopedic specialist. The Orthopedic Dr sent me for four to six weeks of physical therapy to reduce the hematoma (swelling and internal bleeding) and to regain as much motion and strength as possible in my left arm. He says there will likely be some loss of mobility of the elbow because of the location of the break and the inability to surgically repair the damage. So, I guess there goes my chances of winning big on the senior golf tour, but then, I never had much of a golf game to start with. The chiropractor tells me the back and neck strain should be manageable on an as need basis after three weeks of treatment. That likely translates to one visit a month for the next six months and less often after that.
I really am recuperating much better than all this sounds. The biggest inconvenience is the almost daily doctor visits. I thought my largest disability would be typing with one hand while my left arm was in a cast, but found the loss of that hand that didn’t change the speed of my typing all that much. Pretty sad, isn’t it! I still remember being thrown out of Mrs. Bucannon’s high school typing class with the short sighted thinking of it really didn’t matter. There is more to that story that I care to write or you care to read.
My forced slow down while allowing my body to heal gave me some time to reevaluate this next chapter of my life, so I created Treasure Masters, a business selling metal detectors and supplies. I am now an authorized White’s Metal Detector Dealer in Las Cruces, NM. White’s did not have a dealer here and the Distributor for this area was only too happy to have me. I placed my initial order on February 22nd and now have stock to sell. One of my best friends predicted my entrepreneurial spirit would not long tolerate inactivity in retirement. Cliff, you were right as usual. This venture is really good for me on several different levels and if I make some money along the way, it is just an added bonus. I have a grand opening event planned for March 22nd. There is a lot to do before the event, and it feels good to work on this type of goal.
Some really great people we met here that took us to Kilbourne hole about 20 miles south of Cruces. Kilbourne Hole is a crater actually called a marre. Scientists theorize that lava flowing from nearby Aden Crater flowed over the earth's surface and cooked the wet limestone beneath. After a time, there was a steam explosion that produced the Kilbourne Hole. The view is spectacular from the south rim. The "hole" stretches for more than 1 1/4 miles across and reaches a depth of nearly 300 feet in places.
The reason for our trip to Kilbourne Hole was to search for semi precious Peridot (pronounced pear-uh-doe). Peridot is terrestrial green glass made under the tremendous
pressure and heat usually associated with volcanic activity. Kilbourne Hole is one of the only places in the US where an individual can collect gem quality Peridot. We found lots of Peridot, most of it in granular form, the size of a BB or smaller. We did find one larger stone of gem quality. Peridot is of interest to me because I’ve been collecting the extraterrestrial form called Tektites for some time now. Tektites are formed when meteorites strike sand causing enough heat and pressure to fuse the sand into glass. I think the most beautiful of these is the Granny Smith apple green Moldavite from the Moldau Valley in Czechoslovakia.
I got my brand new looking wheeler back from the repair shop this week. We are already planning a treasure hunting trip into the Caballo (horse) Mountains, about 40 miles north of Cruces, where Indians raided a group of Chihuahua-Spanish in 1598. During this particular raid, the Indians killed everyone in the group. The Indians of course had no need for the valuables they stole therefore, they took the gold bars, silver and jewels by horse and mules to a hidden spring that used to run through Caballo Mountains. Here they buried the loot under various big rocks in the Canyon.
The ATV rack Dealer sent me a new set of redesigned ramps. I installed a winch on Susan’s wheeler, mine already had a winch. My loading process now uses the winch as a safety line keeping the cable tight as I drive up the ramps. This will keep the wheeler from falling over backward or on me if anything ever goes wrong again. I feel much more comfortable with this loading procedure. The Dealer is paying for my ATV repair and my medical bills.
Metal detecting this month was limited because of my ATV related injuries. I did find a child’s gold ring, a silver ring with diamond chips, a Pog slammer, and an Air Force ROTC medallion from New Mexico State University. I did not find nearly enough quarters to keep up with the laundry. I plan to do a lot better in March.
Life has a way of telling us we need to slow down and pay attention. I got such a wake up call the first week of February. I broke my left arm and badly strained my neck and back in a ATV accident. One of the ATV ramps broke under me as I was loading. Th
e wheeler fell on me from about five feet. My left elbow has a compression fracture in the socket of the radius. The radius is the big bone in the arm above the wrist. This led to a couple of trips to the hospital emergency room, many trips to the chiropractor and an Orthopedic specialist. The Orthopedic Dr sent me for four to six weeks of physical therapy to reduce the hematoma (swelling and internal bleeding) and to regain as much motion and strength as possible in my left arm. He says there will likely be some loss of mobility of the elbow because of the location of the break and the inability to surgically repair the damage. So, I guess there goes my chances of winning big on the senior golf tour, but then, I never had much of a golf game to start with. The chiropractor tells me the back and neck strain should be manageable on an as need basis after three weeks of treatment. That likely translates to one visit a month for the next six months and less often after that.I really am recuperating much better than all this sounds. The biggest inconvenience is the almost daily doctor visits. I thought my largest disability would be typing with one hand while my left arm was in a cast, but found the loss of that hand that didn’t change the speed of my typing all that much. Pretty sad, isn’t it! I still remember being thrown out of Mrs. Bucannon’s high school typing class with the short sighted thinking of it really didn’t matter. There is more to that story that I care to write or you care to read.
My forced slow down while allowing my body to heal gave me some time to reevaluate this next chapter of my life, so I created Treasure Masters, a business selling metal detectors and supplies. I am now an authorized White’s Metal Detector Dealer in Las Cruces, NM. White’s did not have a dealer here and the Distributor for this area was only too happy to have me. I placed my initial order on February 22nd and now have stock to sell. One of my best friends predicted my entrepreneurial spirit would not long tolerate inactivity in retirement. Cliff, you were right as usual. This venture is really good for me on several different levels and if I make some money along the way, it is just an added bonus. I have a grand opening event planned for March 22nd. There is a lot to do before the event, and it feels good to work on this type of goal.
Some really great people we met here that took us to Kilbourne hole about 20 miles south of Cruces. Kilbourne Hole is a crater actually called a marre. Scientists theorize that lava flowing from nearby Aden Crater flowed over the earth's surface and cooked the wet limestone beneath. After a time, there was a steam explosion that produced the Kilbourne Hole. The view is spectacular from the south rim. The "hole" stretches for more than 1 1/4 miles across and reaches a depth of nearly 300 feet in places.The reason for our trip to Kilbourne Hole was to search for semi precious Peridot (pronounced pear-uh-doe). Peridot is terrestrial green glass made under the tremendous
pressure and heat usually associated with volcanic activity. Kilbourne Hole is one of the only places in the US where an individual can collect gem quality Peridot. We found lots of Peridot, most of it in granular form, the size of a BB or smaller. We did find one larger stone of gem quality. Peridot is of interest to me because I’ve been collecting the extraterrestrial form called Tektites for some time now. Tektites are formed when meteorites strike sand causing enough heat and pressure to fuse the sand into glass. I think the most beautiful of these is the Granny Smith apple green Moldavite from the Moldau Valley in Czechoslovakia.I got my brand new looking wheeler back from the repair shop this week. We are already planning a treasure hunting trip into the Caballo (horse) Mountains, about 40 miles north of Cruces, where Indians raided a group of Chihuahua-Spanish in 1598. During this particular raid, the Indians killed everyone in the group. The Indians of course had no need for the valuables they stole therefore, they took the gold bars, silver and jewels by horse and mules to a hidden spring that used to run through Caballo Mountains. Here they buried the loot under various big rocks in the Canyon.
The ATV rack Dealer sent me a new set of redesigned ramps. I installed a winch on Susan’s wheeler, mine already had a winch. My loading process now uses the winch as a safety line keeping the cable tight as I drive up the ramps. This will keep the wheeler from falling over backward or on me if anything ever goes wrong again. I feel much more comfortable with this loading procedure. The Dealer is paying for my ATV repair and my medical bills.
Metal detecting this month was limited because of my ATV related injuries. I did find a child’s gold ring, a silver ring with diamond chips, a Pog slammer, and an Air Force ROTC medallion from New Mexico State University. I did not find nearly enough quarters to keep up with the laundry. I plan to do a lot better in March.
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