Back into the icebox!!!

At least that is where it feels like the world has been for the last few weeks. We get teased by a warm day and frozen the next. Brrrrrr!!! I am so ready for Spring!!!

Over the last few weeks I have… chopped down a tree, gone on a walk with my Dad and Dan and brought home a bag full of fossilized clams, done lots of laundry and school work, had fun at KnitWits and tried not to stress too much. I think I’m making progress on the stress, but some days it is in the wrong direction! Oh well.

I passed my computer class with a perfect score. No surprise there. I’m now in the middle of two business classes. yawn.. big frustration for me is that the classes are aimed at the 19-24 year olds. Sorry, but I already do most of the stuff they are talking about or… see no use for it in this economy. Oh well. 6 papers to go and I age a week off.

Let’s see…. Dan went to Denver this weekend to talk to the Government about this idea he’s had for unemployment. One meeting on Friday and one on Monday. He’s up in a hotel for the weekend. When not up to his eyeballs in papers, he has gone out with our friend Caron a time or two. 🙂 I’m glad she is willing to show him around. Denver can be fun or a nightmare, depending on how well you know it.

Today, I started out the morning slow…. Slept in a bit. Then the phone started. First my parents. Just a hello type call. Then Dan and I chatted for 30 minutes and I got caught up on his day. After that, I got a call from the Census office. An interview via the phone and then 30 minutes later, a job offer!!!! I’m going to be an assistant crew manager. Wheee!!! I could really enjoy a paycheck about now. While the Huerfano Journal has been the cement holding all the bits together most days, it would be nice to have a little more in my pocket. Plus, all the other job offers are still in the wings with no firm offers yet. sigh…. I start training on the 8th of February.

After all the phone calls, it was off to a gardening meeting. The community garden is gearing up. Wheee!!! Funny bit is that I have spinach in my bed from last year!!! Salad in a few days if it doesn’t freeze too hard. 🙂

Heatwave!!!!!

It was nearly 65 today!!!! It was soooo nice to open doors and let the air flow through the house. I did a bit of housework and general tidy up. It really needed it. I had to restack the wood pile too. Why? Because I needed to get to the cat carriers.

A friend of Morgan’s lives on a ranch up in Gardner. Liz and her grandparents wanted some barn cats. Now, I know that it helps when you can send a mom and kittens. I had been looking for someone who’d be willing to take seven cats. Then Spike, Daniel’s pit bull which lives with us started targeting Five, our cat. This meant that we had two choices. Confine Five to a life on the front porch, or find him a new home. Liz’s grandma said that they would take all 8 cats. So, today we drove up with them to Gardner. It seems odd not to have the cats and kittens in the den, but there are the two little tomcats that come to the door each morning for breakfast. I will just get my cat fix with them.

I’m plugging away at two classes this session. Personal Finances and Principles of Business. The most frustrating thing is that most of this stuff is aimed at the 18-25yr olds. sigh….Trying not to get bored or cheezed off with the class.

The rest of life is quiet. Dan is working on our website for LoboSavvy. I probably ought to read or do some knitting. Just feel a bit at loose ends at the moment.

Three Cups of Tea

Over the holidays I finally got a chance to read this book. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Great book! Wonderful book.

It first got brought to my attention a few years ago when Gardner School was doing a Pennies for Peace drive and had the short synopsis of the story available. I emptied my pockets into the jar that afternoon. I tried to get the book at the library and had no luck. So, I bought it. Did I have time to read it at first? No. sigh… So it sat on my shelf and waved every time I passed the shelf.

I finally picked it up on Yule. (December 21st) The story is about Greg Mortenson, a mountaineer and high altitude climber. He was climbing K2 when a team member needed an emergency evacuation. On his way down, he gets lost and ends up in a small Baltistan village called Korphe. The villagers take him in. “Here ( in Pakistan and Afghanistan) , we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything—even die.” Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan (Moretenson & Relin, 2006, Penguin books)

Mortenson realizes that so much depends on education, and that was one of the biggest things missing from the small villages. He promises to build a school. Working on that epiphany, he returns time and again to build schools for the small isolated villages in Pakistan and later Afghanistan. The book is about his struggle to achieve this.

The book struck cords on many levels. First off, I’m a daughter of a mountaineer. I spent every weekend as a child either hiking, camping or waiting for my dad to come down off of the high peaks. I understand the climbing culture and the drive that some people have to be out in the mountains. It took me years to understand that when Dad talked about God, he meant Great Out Doors.  I share that love of the mountains and high places.

Next, education. I live in a rural area where education is a struggle for so many. I’ve been on the local school board and shared the joys and frustrations that go hand in hand. Especially when it came to raising money.

Most of all, this is a wonderful story about what a person can do if they try. Greg Mortenson is a beautiful human being. Three Cups of Tea is worth the read! http://www.threecupsoftea.com

Saturday, here in the ‘burg…

Trying to get back into sync with the world.

2010

December went out quickly. Here is Morgan as one of the three kings. She is the one in the purple cloak. It was avery nice production.

Yule was nice. Dan and I had a quiet morning watching the sun come up while sipping our tea.

We did the last of the train performances on the 23rd. Reconnected with an old friend, Caron Bressan. She stayed for dinner and we talked all night. 🙂 She came by another day and once again, we visited for a long time.

December 29th, John called around 10am. Morgan, my DIL had her baby at 9:36am. 8.1 pounds and 19.5 inches long. Ewan Nicholas.

New Year’s Eve, we spent with Caron watching movies, eating and giggling. She finally headed home around 4am.  I think we slept most of New Year’s Day. And of course, I’m trying to get caught up on everything so that when classes start tomorrow I am ready to go. I got to see Ewan for the first time today too. He is a cuddly small armful.

Pumps….. damn pumps and more pumps…..

We finally got the neon’s gas pump fixed. Wheee!!! Wheels at last.

I should have known better. However, Dan got a job from the Conference and on the 17th, we dropped Morgan at school, drove the back way up HWY 69 to 96 to 50 into Pueblo. It was a lovely drive and we got stuff at the bakery and then I went to the library while Dan went to Denver.

I had a great time at the library and our friend Curtis picked me up around noon. We ran errands and then he took me home. I had a quiet evening and a good nights sleep. Right up until 7:30am. That’s when the phone rang. It was Dan. The job was done and he got paid. Only problem was that the water pump blew. He was at mile marker 188. That is 135 miles from Walsenburg.

Argh!!!!!! So, I got up, called Curtis and arranged for him to drive up to Denver to rescue Dan. Once he got there, they decided it was NOT a by the side of the road fix, and were going to tow it home. Keep in mind that Curtis drives a little beat up old Chevy Luv pickp. Not a real powerhouse. So, they decided to come home via the Easter plains of Coloraod. Yoder, Ellicot, Fowler and then up HWY 10 to Walsenburg. This made for a LONG COLD trip in an unheated car for Dan. Curtis wasn’t much warmer. The two of them got back to the house at 1:30am, and they were two popcicles! I think it took us till almost 4am to warm up and settle down. Everyone piled under various covers and we all slept till 10am. Yawn….. Morning came wayyyy too early! Copious amounts of tea were needed. We decided that this time the car could go to the garage to have the water pump replaced. Dan made enought to take care of that. Phewww!!!

Then of course it was clean up, eat and get ready for the Christmas Train. Curtis left the same time we did. The train was great this time. Expecially the coach group which understood it was a melodrama and really got into the boos and hisses as well as the yeahs!

It of course turned into another late night. At least for Dan. He was doing homework and the Windows side of his computer ate the file. So, he had to start all over again and didn’t get to bed until 5:30am. So, rather than thump around the house, I calld Pauline and we went out to the laundromat where we sat chatting while the washers did their thing. I knitted and she crocheted. 🙂 We had a good visit and got the clothes clean too!

Tonight I’m for an early night. Dinner and maybe a movie and then off to bed. Solstice eve of course!!!

-23degrees is COLD!!!

After a week of snowy cold weather where I thought it couldn’t get colder, it did. BRRRRR!!!! I’m sitting between the fire and the heater and I’m still cold. Next summer, we WILL do insulation! Oh, and on top of everything else, the pipes are frozen. Argh…..

Only good (?) thing is that it is just Morgan and I tonight. Dan is up in Pueblo for a Colorado Workforce conference. Three days of central heat and lots of running water. Damn.

Let’s see… since Thanksgiving,… what has happened? Hm…. Oh. snow. Lots of it. Last Thursday, we had our friend Curtis down from Buena Vista. Of course it snowed. However, we had a good time. Lots of funny CW McCall music including Four Wheel Cowboy. In it is a stanza that says…

Well, Texaco’s open in Trindad
I didn’t stop for gas but I wished I had
‘Cause I could use some
They’s a bunch a’ wild women in Walsenburg
They all make love like a buffalo herd
I wish I knew one

ROFLOL!!!!!!

He might come back down on the 17th if the weather isn’t too terrible. We want to run around Pueblo. 🙂 You know, lure of the big city… movies, bookstores, food. 🙂 He is a ham radio operator, which makes Dan pleased. They chic-chat away.

I have Knit-Wits tomorrow. That should be fun. I enjoy my knitting time with the ladies. Dan gets home Friday and we have the Christmas train again Friday and Saturday night.

Saturday we also have a holiday party with Sangre De Cristo Volunteers for Change. Not sure if we will make that for more than an hour, but we will see. We also have to start digging up the water pipe to re-insulate it if the weather is warm enough. Oh, and one other thing. We have to repair my car. It is still in pieces due to the super cold weather. sigh….

I am looking forward to warmer weather. You know, something in the 40’s! 😛

Turkey Day!!!

Yes, it has been forever since I last wrote. A month in fact. Sheesh! Let’s see…

Shadow had another litter of kittens… 6 this time,

Had a fun Halloween,

A good Samhain with Morgan here to celebrate with Dan and I,

A very mellow 50th birthday. A lovely romp, breakfast in bed and an easy going day doing what I wanted,

Applied for jobs,

Had a job at a coffee house for two weeks… until the owner decided that he couldn’t cope with the bills the previous tenant left,

Applied for a job as a dispatcher,

Oh, and I’ve been doing theater on a train! A melodramatic version of A Christmas Carol. I’m the narrator, Dan is Scrooge, and there are three other people acting out the rest of the characters. It is on the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad and we will be doing that until Christmas.

And of course, we did the big family Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house. Lori, Bill and Shawn came down from Littleton, Aunty Toni and Uncle Karl came up from Las Cruces and Daniel and I went as well. Lots of good food, wine, and of course, dessert! It was really good to see everyone and as soon as Dad and Toni send me pictures, I’ll post some.

Mother Nature has Hiccups!

Saturday was Logan’s 3rd Birthday. His parents had a party for him down in Aguilar.  Since I don’t have a car at the moment,  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. 🙂

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.  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.