At the Roundhouse: Whitewater Rafting

I went to bed thinking I’d already lost my river maps overboard — my annually renewed resolutions to meet all of the newer members and be really studious about reading legislation disappearing in the froth behind.

Studious, yeah, right. Six hundred or so proposals in the hopper from 112 lawmakers. Committee hearings starting at quitting time, bills blurring, debate droning, editors exclaiming and, for some of us, metaphors mixing.

It’s at the point where you’d rather talk about your dogs than appropriations and amendments, time when you want to turn your horse and leave politics in the dust, time to burst out of this circular sweatshop into the sun. I’m looking forward to flat water and adjournment Thursday.

I’ve tried to seek survival tips from fellow commuters. Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Los Chavez, seemed of questionable help.

Sanchez was showing no pain as he stood outside a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, eating a package of saltines for dinner.

I had just written a column I called “Bedlam Brewing.” No problem, said the senator, who drives home to Valencia County almost every night, sometimes to rise at 4 a.m. for the return: Two Diet Cokes and down the road, oldies on the radio, time to think.

Sanchez, however, left me with other concerns.

I  was told that he had also consumed a packet of beef jerky for supper that night. Cool, calm and collected  maybe, showing no outward signs of blood pressure brimming — I still found myself worrying he would return to his committee panting with thirst.

Meanwhile, I kept my eyes open for rocks ahead, specifically lawmakers who might want to rip a hole in my hull over Journal coverage.

Fortunately, Sen. Bill Payne, R-Albuquerque, the lawyer and former Navy SEAL, was smiling when he sailed past.

Or, uh oh, maybe it was one of THOSE kinds of smiles.

But the double-threat senator seems to have loosened up since retiring as a rear admiral in 2009. He’s grown a beard and looks positively …  swashbuckling.

Maybe all of my images are distorted now. It’s that time when you just try to keep your head above water.