In the Yuri’s Night Kitchen

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A long time ago, in a Universe not so far away….

Wait. Hold on. Let me start over. 🙂

On April 12th, 1961, Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly in space. 🙂 His flight along with Sputnik in 1957 started off the scientific avalanche that became the Space Race. Twenty years later, on April 12th, 1981, Space Shuttle Columbia STS-1 launched. Twenty years after that, in 2001, a group of people thought it would be a great thing to hold a party commemorating the two important milestones in Space History. Thus was Yuri’s Night born.

Now, the week of April 12th is host to world wide parties. Mach 30, a group that Dan and I belong to held a Yuri’s Night Party yesterday afternoon. We had various maker spaces and students from our local high school here. Hurray for John Mall High School! You can read all about it here.  Or, you can watch the video and see what you’ve missed.

Colorado, the Menopausal State

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Last Tuesday, we went from warm to freezing snow storm. Probably 2 inches of the stuff. Then it got warm. 70’s. We had a couple of cool nights, but nothing dire. I even packed away most of the winter clothes. And before you laugh and tell me it’s all my fault for packing away the clothes, keep in mind it has been Hot! Warm! Sunny! In fact, today it has been as high as 74F. (9% humidity and 20-25mph gusts)

However, wait… hold on… Tonight the temps are due to drop to the mid 30’s and we are suppose to have snow again by 5am.  (humidity 45%) If we are lucky, we might have as much as 4 to 8 inches of snow accompanied by 50 mph winds. Yes, a blizzard. Akkkk!

So, I am hauling wood into the house. The stove is ready to lite and we will be going over to my parents to chop wood. Such fun. I am wondering if this year will be like the one we had in 1993, where May 1st was greeted with 5 inches of snow. Brr….

Tomorrow’s school board meeting will be fun. Ugh.

Maybe by June the weather will be nice.

PS…. Sunday evening

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We took Morgan back to La Junta so that she could start school after spring break. Half way home it started snowing. Yes, Snowing. We drove home slowly as I read the book we’ve been working on. The closer we got to Walsenburg, the harder it snowed. We got nearly a 1/4 of an inch in just the time it took for me to grab the wood basket and my gloves.

So, ten minutes later, we have a fire going in the wood stove and almost an inch of snow on the ground. ah… Springtime in Colorado.

Blizzard!

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If I had waited just a bit, I could have written about yesterday. I woke up early thinking it was a little cold. Just a tad. Brandy was curled up deep in her blankets and when I looked outside it was snowing. Between the winds and the size of the flakes, it looked like I was in the middle of a snow globe. I went back to bed.

A few hours later, we all got up. I made breakfast and we ate it in the dining room. Out the windows, we were able to watch the wind slew the snow sideways, and the cars not cope well with the icy roads. Once breakfast was done, we moved into the guest house and fired up the wood stove. While the temperatures dropped to as low as 14, we were toasty warm. Morgan reigned from the bed while Dan used a tv tray. I had my desk, which faces the windows and let me watch the storm. That snow globe weather didn’t stop until nearly 6pm.

Rather than cook, we splurged. Yeah Taco Bell! 🙂 It’s funny when we go there, because one of the staff is a friend and she knows what I want before I speak most days. Okay, I’m not very adventurous, but at least it isn’t difficult to take the cheese out of what I want to eat. Dan and Morgan pigged out on chicken tenders while I had tacos. Then we came home, fed the wood stove and chatted, played on the computers until midnight and in general had a good time.

Today the sun is shining and the temps so far have hit 40F. That’s good, as we have to take Morgan back to college today. sigh… I’m just happy we had her for a week. She gets to take home transport this time. Her half brother Matt finished her bicycle at long last. Her commute has just dropped to 5 minutes. We head to La Junta later this afternoon. March Blizzard3

March Madness

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I could have entitled this post Yet one more snow storm… but I didn’t. On Mach 8th, we had more snow. 14 inches all total. Brandy was not a happy dog.

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Then on the 15th, Dan went to La Junta to pick up our daughter, Morgan. It is spring break for her. On Sunday, we drove to the Sand Dunes NP. We had a long drive over all, as we went all the way up to Crestone and to the Karma Thegsum Tashi Gomang  It had just started to snow when we headed up the road to the Stupa.  By the time we got up to it, it was snowing very hard, so instead of getting out and looking around, we headed back down the mountain. In less than 20 minutes, there had been over 2 inches of snowfall.

On our way back to the Sand Dunes, we saw over 100 Sand Hill Cranes. It was really neat. The rest of our animal count that day was two hawks flying and about 45 prong horn antelope.

The Sand Dunes also got a dusting of snow. The moisture made the walking easier. Morgan climbed up to the second highest dune and rolled down it twice. Plus she hiked about twice the distance that Dan and I did. I walked the creek bed of Medano Creek. It wasn’t very far down the dunes yet, and there was a lot of fire debris from the forest fire two years ago. Overall, we had a really good time and came home exhausted.

The rest of the week has been spent relaxing. Morgan has had naps with her naps. 🙂 I’ve been writing and doing hand crafts. I’ve been carving Nalbinding needles. They fit in with my Viking persona in the SCA. I may be good enough to actually show it off come time for Battlemoor.

Nalbinding needles.16Oh, and just in case Colorado thought that it might give us a week off, there is more snow due on Saturday. sigh..

 

 

Yet Another Blizzard

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Yes, it is snowing again. We’ve had a lot of snow since I wrote last. Probably 18 inches all total. Life in it’s own way has been crazy. We took my dad up to Colorado Springs for cancer testing. His bladder cancer is back and they will begin chemo in about two weeks. While we were at the hospital, Dan got some sort of stomach bug which has kicked his ass. Ugh.

He was nearly over it by the time we went up to the Colorado Association of School Board’s Winter Conference over Valentine’s Day. CASB’s conference was good and a fellow board member, David Tesitor went with me this year. Things in general with the school board are settling down. We just finished the superintendent’s evaluation. We work on her contract on Tuesday. I had been writing a separate blog about school board stuff, but simply couldn’t keep up with it. I’m working on writing more on my NaNoWriMo story which is a little more involved that I thought it would be.

On our way home, we stopped at IKEA. 🙂 We got new dishes, a kettle, a BIG cup for Morgan and some little bits and pieces. It was a good but tiring day.

Since we came home, it’s been running errands, general housekeeping stuff, electrical work at The Cowboy Connection for  Marianne Smithey and stacking a ton of wood. We bought a cord and I think we got closer to a cord and a half. 🙂

About that snow… I could just recycle the pictures. You’d never really know. However, here are the latest out our window.

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As predicted, it began to snow around 11am. My son Bryan and the two grandboys, Gavin and Talon were due to visit around 1pm. They made it just before it started to snow heavily. We had a good visit and I gave them some things that Dan and I just don’t use anymore. It saved me a trip to Dorcas Circle, and them a trip to the store. 🙂 Plus, he brought me an armload of firewood. Wheee!

I gave the boys two books I’ve had for them which they were so excited about. 🙂 Who knew that Peter Rabbit and Goodnight Moon would bring such smiles. They devoured two apples and half a dozen gingersnaps while I made potato soup for dinner. When they said goodbye, Talon told me “I love you to the Moon and back.” Pretty good for a three year old. 🙂

 

A Snowy Tuesday

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It’s been a while since I felt like writing. On January 18th, after some of the most bitter temperatures in a while, I headed to Cheyenne. It had been 39 Very Long Days since I’d seen Dan. I swear that the travel fairies were with me as I literally flew up I-25. It is usually a 4.5 hour trip and I made it in just under 4 hours. 🙂 It was so good to be together again.

We had a computer client in Denver on Saturday. When we got back, we packed up all of Dan’s stuff and came home on Sunday afternoon. He will continue to look for work, but that will be done from here, instead of Cheyenne. Neither one of us liked being apart.

This last week has been hectic. Meetings, rearranging the house once more to accommodate the offices to the front porch where it is warm, and dinner with my parents. In that Dan missed Christmas dinner, he got to pick what he wanted for dinner. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans with bacon. Mom made oatmeal cookies with butterscotch chips for dessert.

Friday we had a Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival meeting. We are planning for the 9th Festival. It looks like it will be very good.

 

On Sunday we had a birthday party with a group we are a part of called Mach30. It was fun.  Monday was interesting. Dan got an offer to build some electrical parts for a local WISP. It is exciting and should actually net us some income. We had a school district meeting as well that lasted until nearly 8pm.

Today we were suppose to go visit Morgan in La Junta. It was going to be a quick trip as I had yet another school board meeting tonight. Well, we woke up to about 4 inches of snow with more falling. Right now I think we have had about 6-7 inches. The wind has settled down, but the snow is still falling. We stayed home and I canceled the meeting. My parents didn’t go to Pueblo either. They got about 25 miles up the road and turned back. About 30 minutes ago I took some pictures. We are snugged up in the Guest house keeping warm by the woodstove. 🙂

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Heatwave!!!

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Okay, so it’s only 42 outside, but in comparison to the last week or so, that is nice and toasty warm. We haven’t had any more snow, but it has been cold. Lovely star filled nights with no clouds suck the heat right out of the earth, the house and I swear, my toes. By an hour after sunset, even Brandy, the dog wants in. So, I’m soaking up the heat today.

As for the rest of life… Dan is still in Cheyenne trying to find work. He is frustrated by the fact that there are all these jobs ‘open’, and yet no one is hiring. He’s also applying for jobs out of state in all directions. So, all good wishes for employment will gleefully be appreciated. With the computer business failing, we really must find some sort of income.

And… the sooner that Dan has work, the sooner we will be back together. It’s been 26 days apart at this point. Neither of us are happy about the separation. I know it’s necessary, but that doesn’t mean it’s been fun.

Well, time to go bask in the sun some more!

Before I forget…

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We did have a white Christmas. It was lovely. I spent the day with my parents, Daniel and his SO Angela and Morgan. We had a lovely dinner, but missed Dan. He of course is still in Cheyenne.

A few days later, once the snow had melted, I had a young buck in my front yard eating berries. I stood next to our truck and tried to take pictures, as our tomcat, Redtom, was stalking the deer. I startled the deer, which in turn saw the cat. They startled each other and both ran. A few minutes later, the buck came back to eat berries and Redtom kept his back to the buck with the “That was NOT a mouse!” look on his face.

New Year’s was interesting. I spent most of the time trying to calm down Brandy, our dog, who did not care for the fireworks. She was upset until at least 4am. Yawwwwn… I ate dinner with my parents and Mom sent Brandy a bag full of ham scraps and bones. It helped. 🙂

I am hoping that 2013 will be a good year.

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