Mother Nature has Hiccups!

Saturday was Logan’s 3rd Birthday. His parents had a party for him down in Aguilar.ย  Since I don’t have a car at the moment,ย  I went down with my parents. When we got there, Logan ran up to my mom and I and said, “Two NANA’S!!!” He was just a little excited. There were a handful of kids and parents there. Logan had a great time running up and down the community center. At one point, he came running to me and after plowing into my leg, he looked up and said, “I love you Nana!” Later I found out he had told my mom he loved her and ‘Nana’. So she had told him to go tell me. ๐Ÿ™‚

There was lots of cake, pizza, cookies, punch and green jello with Gummie Bears. Oh, and lots of noise. We came home around 4pm. Two hours of noise was about all I could take.

It was nice and warm. Probably about 58, and I had hung laundry out in the morning. Of course, none of it was dry, so I left it hanging up. Silly me. We woke up to snow on Sunday morning. In fact, it snowed all day and most of the evening. Then the clouds moved off and it got COLD. Brrr……. We honestly wondered if Morgan would have school today. She did. The roads are icy, but not too bad. It has warmed up to a brisk 50. Some of the laundry thawed and dried. The rest will just have to wait. Tomorrow is suppose to be warm too.

One thing this cold weather has done is finally made a dent in the woodpile on the side of the house. Dan gets to chop more wood as soon as we have a maul. Then I will have to rake all the bark and sawdust and really small twigs to where I want them. The plan is to xeriscape the front yard. There are just too many deer that walk through the area to have really “normal” gardens. We had a bear through the yard too. Found the prints complete with claws in the mud. I think it was after the berries on this one bush out front.

Sunny and COLD!!!

The front yard
The front yard

Yeah, I know that sounds like a contradiction of terms, but…. it is Sunny outside and still only about 45 degrees! Here are some pics of the snow.

Snow Last night
Snow Last night
Bundled up Dan
Bundled up Dan
Spike has had enough!!!
Spike has had enough!!!
Spanish Peaks hiding in the clouds
Spanish Peaks hiding in the clouds

And back into the Icebox!!!

Last night it started to rain.ย  We went to bed fairly early because Morgan had a field trip to go on and they had to leave at 6am this morning. At some point in the night, the rain turned to snow. Daniel turned up around 2:15am. He didn’t want to fall asleep and not be able to be woken up. I woke up at 3am, when something pissed off the skunk. Oh gads! The smell sent me into an asthma attack. 4am, my alarm went off. Dan was suppose to get up, but didn’t want to move. I don’t blame him. 4:25am, Dan and Morgan finally got up and moving. It was snowing and they knew that they needed to get on the road. Dan, Daniel and Morgan left around 5am for Gardner. I went back to bed, as I could finally breathe.

7:35am-The phone rings. Daniel. “Hi mom, we’re stuck in the mud and Erin is coming to pull us out.” Huh? Okay. I figured that they had gone off the road and were just stuck on the side of the road. I hung up the phone and went back to sleep.

8:58am-The phone rings. It’s John this time telling me that Daniel and Dan are still stuck, Erin couldn’t get them out of the mud, and that they were waiting for Daniel’s Towing Service to unstick them. Great… The boyz went Mudding. What the hell were they thinking? I debated rolling back over and going to sleep versus getting up. While I lay there debating, Dan and Daniel arrived. Dan was soaked and mud covered. They were hauling the hose out of the back yard to clean off Daniel’s car. I got up and took a peek. There must have been ten pounds of mud on it.

Brandy and Blanca of course took advantage of the chaos to run off. Dumb dogs!

They hosed it off, and Daniel headed home to shower and hopefully get his car fixed. He had planned to get a ball joint or something like that repaired today. If he couldn’t, he was just going to sleep. While fixing breakfast, Dan told me what really happened. They had gotten Morgan safely to school and were almost home when they decided to go play in the arroyos near Toltec. Dan said to Daniel that this probably was NOT a good idea. Daniel, being Daniel said “Well, I want to” and off they went. They did fine right up until they hit clay. The sand in the arroyo was okay. However, the mud was…. sticky, sucking and treacherous. Daniel almost got them out. he slid off the ‘road’ and that was it. So, they called Erin, who has a big 4WD pickup. Daniel’s is a 4WD Blazer.

Erin came out and couldn’t even get near Daniel’s Blazer. He got stuck twice and finally gave up. So, they called the towing company. The guy with the tow truck has a Mudder truck that he tows with for situations like this. He almost got stuck. It took Everyone, 8 wheels, two drivers and lots of luck to finally get the Blazer out. The guy told Daniel he was lucky! gads! Boyz!

Dan said the mud was sucking the shoes off of his feet, and rivaled Montana mud. (and that is something to rival!)

So, now we are curled up with a fire in the fireplace, the two dumb dogs have returned and are drying off on the back porch, Spike is with me in the house and the cats are on the front porch. Dan keeps saying he will take a nap. (ha! silly boy) At least he did crawl in bed even if he does have his computer with him.

There is about 10 inches of snow out there and it is still snowing. Such fun. I’m going to finish this post, play on the net a few more minutes and then go back to writing my story.

Sunny and 75 Degrees! It must be October!

Yes, while my parents got a load of wood in today, it decided to be a balmy 75 degrees today. Yesterday it was in the 80’s. Oh well. So much for snow in September. Of course, it will probably snow 3 ft tonight. (you think I jest?) Autumn is such a weird season here in Colorado. Either warm and pleasant, or bitter cold. Sometimes both on the same day!

Morgan is off to Mesa Verde for a field trip on Wednesday and Thursday. She is excited. She has been enjoying not having volleyball practice. With my car down, I’ve rather enjoyed the brief break in driving. Daniel has been doing it, because he has a car. Wheee!!!! It means I get to stay home and do things like school work, blogging and story writing.

We still have Spike here. Dan swears that Brandy tried to kill him last night. The dogs got so tangled up that Spike was choking. Today we moved the cables so that no one is close enough to tangle the other.

I might have a job soon. A friend of ours who owns an antique shop wants to open a tea room. Yeah, English tea, tea breads, etc. She didn’t have a clue how to do it, or who to run it until Dan mentioned that I’d be perfect for the job. So, I went down, talked with her for an hour and then looked where we could put the shop. She is going to hunt down some of the details and I will do some other work. Whee!!!

Yesterday was the Staff appreciation dinner put on by the FOL. We had KFC. ๐Ÿ™‚ It was a pleasant 2 hours. Then it was home for work on my college class. Professional Communications. A’s so far, and I’d like to keep it that way.

At least today I get a chance to write!!!

Update on life, part 2

I ran out of hours in the day…ย  I didin’t get to the fun of Thursday. We got Morgan off to school and I started to get ready for the day. Spike, Daniel’s dog, went tearing into the house and scared the kitten, 5. 5 ran and Spike gave chase. He caught the kitten and started to shake it, when the kitten planted all twent claws into the dog. Meanwhile, Dan and I are trying to get the dog to let go. Spike is a pit bull… I thought that we were going to loose the kitten. However, Dan pulled Spike’s gums back and popped him in the jaw. It worked, and We got the kitten free and out of the way. Spike went out on the back porch, and we took 5 to the vet. Just a puncture in the jaw from what the vet could tell. So, we came home. Cleaned up the blood and looked at Dan’s hand. He broke two small bones when he hit Spike. Ouch!!!!

Then Dan went to work on a computer for a client. Meanwhile, I discover that there is a bat on the inside of the porch. Normally, this wouldn’t have bothered me. However, with everything else, I was a bit nervy about moving the bat. When Dan got home, he moved it outside. I have a picture, but it isn’t very close…

the bat....
the bat....

The other thing that freaked me out is that I adjusted the piece of plexiglass between the bat and the outside world earlier that morning, and I don’t remember seeing the bat!!!!

Then it was time to head off to Gardner and then to Westcliffe, because Morgan had a volleyball game at Custer school. It was snowing of course.ย  We drove up and watched the game. The girls won!!! After that, we went to Pizza Madness for pizza. Very good! Ate more than I should, but oh it was nice. Then we drove home in snow and fog.

Next day was suppose to be nice and quiet so that Dan and I could get school work done. Hahaahahaahaa….. First Daniel showed up to talk to us about Spike. (7:30am!!) We know he was just being a dog and 5 a kitten. Now we will just take care to lock up the cats before we let the dogs in. sigh…. Finally got Daniel out the door and thought we’d snooze a bit when the phone rang. It was Dad. He had computer problems. So, we got up and tried to get stuff done… Oh yeah….. I think the phone rang 20 times in at least a two hour span. Sigh. Daniel came back with new cables for the dogs and then they all escaped. Dan and Daniel went after them and I stayed put in case they came home. That escapade over, Dan tried again to get his school work done. He finished it just in time to go out to Lathrop park to help my Dad and the park rangers with the computer equipment. Meanwhile, I did laundry, housework and tried to start my school work.

Morgan spent the night and Dan and I got our school work done around 10:30pm….. Off to bed because Saturday was Volleyball tourney time!!!

Up at 6:30am and started to get ready. Dan was a slug….

Dan and Brandy
Dan and Brandy

And Brandy wasn’t helping………

Bed slugs
Bed slugs

I finally got everyone up and fed… and out the door. There was ice all over the car. Brrr….. Dan got it started, but then it died. No idea what is wrong. So, I came in and called Faith Espinosa who’s daughter Madiana (sp?) is on the team as well. She gave us a ride up and we got there just as the tournament started. Wheeee!!!!

HPIM2903
The Gardner Team

Gardner B team played Gardner A team first. Then there were games between Primero, La Veta and Gardner. Gardner B team ranked 4th. La Veta 3rd, Primero 2nd and Gardner A team Won First Place!!!!! It was a really good set of games with lots of breath holding. Morgan did really well and we are so proud of her. We got home around 1:30pm and started a fire in the fireplace. It is still bitterly cold. I’ve got chicken in the oven and I figure we will curl up with a movie later tonight. Brrrr!!!!

And Now to play Catch Up!!!

When last I wrote, it was warm… sunny…. and Summer. Well, Summer went out with a SLUSH!!! It was cool, andย  began to rain. Next thing I knew, it was SNOWING!!!!!

Looking out the front.
Looking out the front.

We ended up with three inches of snow in town. Not exactly what we had planned for the last bit of Summer. Nor, for the Celtic Festival that was due to start the next day!!!

Up the street.
Up the street.

Of course, I had to tease Barbara Yule, the festival co-ordinator that she really didn’t have to import the weather as well as the musicians…… ๐Ÿ™‚ She did laugh. Dan and I worked the festival again. Lights and sound at the Fox Theater. We had a good time. The music was fantastic. The main band this year was GiveWay, a 4 sister band from Edinburgh. Great! Lovely! I liked Roger Landes and of course Aine Minogue. ๐Ÿ™‚ There was a Burn’s supper too as it was the 250th anniversary of his birth.

GiveWay in Concert on Saturday Night
GiveWay in Concert on Saturday Night
Linda Hickman, David Coe & Roger Landis on Friday night
Linda Hickman, David Coe & Roger Landis on Friday night
Coe, McKee & Willson
Coe, McKee & Willson
Girl'sNnight Out at the Ceilidh
Girl'sNnight Out at the Ceilidh
Jack Yule
Jack Yule
Ed Miller at the Ceilidh
Ed Miller at the Ceilidh
Barbara Yule at the Ceilidh
Barbara Yule at the Ceilidh
Aine Minogue
Aine Minogue
Roger Landis and David Coe
Roger Landis and David Coe
GiveWay Girls
GiveWay Girls
Willson & McKee
Willson & McKee