On Being A Teenager; Taos

Me: "What kind of teenagers do you kids wish to be?"

Eitan: "Really sporty, no drugs. I want to have a few close friends like Joe and Cyrus. I don't want to be in an 'all powerful gang.'"

Me: "Why not?"

Eitan: "Um, because I just don't like being the all powerful person."

Me: "Seems reasonable. How about you?"

Madeleine: "I want to be someone who does not have pimples and isn't fat. I don't want to take drugs. I want to be sporty."

Eitan: "That's what I said!"

Madeleine: "Well you just said it first! "

Eitan: "Think of your own!"

Madeleine: "YOU think of your own!"

Me: "Enough! You guys are acting like teenagers."

Madeleine: "Why would you say something like that, Dad?"

Taos is barely a city - more like a town, really - with 4,700 people according to the 2000 census. It is located near the Rio Pueblo de Taos, a tributary of the Rio Grande and, just to the west, is the Rio Grande Gorge, cutting through the basalt flows of the Taos Plateau volcanic field crossed by the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, US Route 64. The elevation is 6.950 feet which Sonnet and I feel during our runs (Me: out . . of. . shape . . .). Taos has its own pueblo, sacred and ancient site where Native Americans meet for ceremonial purposes. Only eight families live here year-round as there is no water nor electricity.

Me: "Taos is a 'Taco' without the 'c.'

Eitan, Madeleine: