Eagles, Trains and water mains

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About two weeks ago, Dan got tired of the eagle on top of the flagpole in the chamber conference room looking shoddy. So, he got some Brasso, and started to polish the eagle. This would have been fine had the eagle been brass. However, it was gold painted pig iron. Aghast, Dan went out to get some spray paint to fix it.

Fast forward to last Wednesday. Just before 2pm, the City workers come over to install a water meter at the Train Depot, home of the Chamber… I say fine and go home for the day, as they were shutting off the water.

Next morning, we get to work and Dan has the spray paint with him to fix the eagle. He takes it outside and starts to paint it when he hears water. He also realizes that as he passed the basement window, that something didn’t look exactly right. Dan went back and looked at the window well and realized that it was full of water! This is a window well about 2.5ft square, which means that the basement was flooded. He came in, hollered at me to call the City and he ran over to tell them personally.

I called and started backing up my computer, because I figured that I’d have to leave the building. Dan got over to the City and tells the desk clerk that there was an emergency and they needed to shut off the water over at the Depot. The clerk looks at him and tells him that he’ll need to fill out a workorder and that they will get to it as soon as they can, and please give an address. Dan tells them again, that this is an emergency, over at the train depot, and that it needs shut off now! Again, the clerk asks for an address. Dan says, “you own the building! It’s city property” About this point in time, the City Clerk hears what is going on, tells the desk clerk that she doesn’t need a workorder, and starts hollering for people to get over to the depot NOW!

Meanwhile, I’ve got everything ready to go, and was waiting on Dan. The City work crew got there, found out that it was filled almost to the top with water and started to drain the basement. (20ftx20ft sq). San Isabel turned off the electricity, I called the board and let them know what was going on. Then, Dan and I went home.

Thursday, they were still pumping water. No work. Friday. No work. Monday, there was no electricity, etc.  So, I started hunting down a place to set up the Chamber with Dan. The City had no room. The County had a desk, but no phone or Internet connection. The Library had no room. Luckily for me, the CSU Extension office had room, a desk, Internet connections and phones that not only I could use, but that WorkForce could use as well! (Thank you Jim Conley!!!)

So, I have been working out of the CSU Extension office down at the Community Center. It is a bit cramped, but I can get most of my work done there. The only thing we haven’t done is transfer the phones. We are waiting to hear just how long we are going to be out of the building before we do that. It might be 3 days, it might be 2 weeks. They have to test air quality, and clean out the basement first. Wheee….. I don’t get to help with that because of all the mold. Dan took pictures of the damage, and when everthing floated, some of the old lightbulbs broke out of their boxes. When the water sank, they landed in the magazine racks like they’d been put there! What a riot.

Blink…Clouds…Blink…a few flakes…Blink…SNOW!

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Yes, it is snowing. One minute we coud see the houses across the tracks at the Depot, next thing it was like looking through a thick lace curtain.  No idea of how much we are suppose to get. However, if it is too deal, Dan will be driving Morgan to school, or she will be staying home for the day. We will just have to see.

Work was fun. I woke up with no voice. By 10am, I had a croaky voice. Now I just have that “sexy” husky tone. sigh,… The dogs think I’m barking at them. Granted, they keep giving me this “mom! your sick! get in bed!!!” look. sigh… Maybe I will in a bit. Right now I’m trying to sip down 32 oz. of the Wellness tea. Oh, and write in my poor neglected blog!

Everyone else is at work. John and Beth at the library. Dan at Huerfano County Youth Services fixing the phones. The wiring there is “special” to say the least. I won’t even go into the mess we found there a few months back. gads. I’d have been embarrassed to do a job like that and charge that much money. Oh well… We are getting it fixed.

Work has been interesting. Some of our members are a little odd. They think that a chamber of commerce should be able to run without contact from the outside world. sigh…. Meanwhile we have other members that want us to be everywhere Now! I”m a bit of that camp. I figure that we have to have a physical presence if we want to get anything done. sigh… We shall see if things get worked out.

We are also revving up for our big fundraiser, the Black Diamond Jubilee. A black diamond is a piece of coal. We are a coal mining area. So, it fits. It is a big event with vendors, street fair stuff, etc. in June. Wheeeee…… and here we are just getting over the Groundhog Breakfast.

Aieeeee!!!!!

laptops, groundhogs and conspiracies

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It has been forever since I wrote last. Why? Well… the backlight on my laptop died. It took Dan over a week to have the time to fix it. I was just glad that he had the spare parts! Having a Panasonic Toughbook CF 50 can make it a little difficult to find parts at times.

Then there was the ALA conference. John and Beth left January 23rd. That same day, we went up to Pueblo to get a few groceries and we ate dinner at the Village Inn. I just thought I had food poisoning. Oh no… I had some hellish gastro-intestinal thingy. 4am… up to the bathroom. Felt horrid. Crawled in bed, and got up nearly every 30 minutes. Ugh….. Still felt bad when Dan checked on me at 9am. He went off to do some errands. I threw up. Oh gods! Now, I hate to throw up. In fact, I don’t think I’ve done so in the last 9-10 years. However, I more than made up for it on Saturday morning. ughhhh… Crawled back in bed, and I think I finally surfaced Sunday afternoon.

Managed Monday at work. Barely. Felt ok, unless I ate. Gads. Oh, and Dan came down with it too. This wouldn’t have been such an issue, but we had the Groundhog’s Breakfast with the Chamber on Sunday. So, we were trying our best to get healthy. Saturday, we felt pretty good. Had to head to Pueblo to get a few things for the breakfast. While we were there, we tried the new chinese buffet, Ruby Buffet. Very good! Lovely atmosphere too. The waitresses were very people oriented. It was lovely food too. Dan was in heaven because they had sushi with  unagi (smoked eel).

Sunday morning, we were up at dawn to get to the Golf Course and start the food for the breakfast. After all the stupid hassles during the week over this event, I was just glad it was underway. Dan, Chris and Bill cooked while I did prep work. I think I scrambled 40 dozen eggs. My parents came, along with about 121 other people. We served from 9am to 1pm. An all you can eat breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, coffee, tea and orange juice. It went really well.

As much as I wanted to collapse, we did’t get the chance. Why? Well, because this was the meeting week from hell. One or two meetings every day. Some of it was about Ordinance 982, the Business license law the City of Walsenburg is trying to put through. Another one was about the garden workshop we are having next week.

Yesterday was suppose to be a take it easy day. We did for the most part. Ran to Pueblo to get parts for a job next week. Today I was suppose to go to Pueblo with John. He didn’t feel good, so Dan and I went. Just got home and now I get to go unpack groceries. Wheeee…..

Lucky Number 9?

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Happy New Year! I had a really quiet New Year’s Eve. However, since then life has been hectic. Today is the first day that hasn’t had me going 9000 miles per hour.

About 15 days ago, one of our chamber board members got given an Ordinance that the City was gong to put into law. #982. That one was all about business license. Biggest issue was that this ordinance was so broken, that if we as the chamber didn’t do something, it would be criminal. They upped the license from $5 in perpetuity to $35 a year. Plus, the way they worded it, you had to have a license if you even thought about being in business. Oh, and the lawyer who “authored” this thing cut and pasted from about five different places. The numbering and bullets were all wrong and some things just did not make sense.

So, we called our “pet city councilman” who happens to be the chairman of the finance committee and a fellow journalist at the Huerfano Journal. It was a general “hey! this is Broken! Want to FIX IT!” call. Larry came over and we talked about it. Lots of good ideas exchanged and some things clarified. I took notes, Larry took notes. All good. We let the general business population know what was going on and that we planned as a board to go to the next finance committee meeting.

In the meantime, we were also made aware of Ordinance 981, which was about the liquor license which is set out in Colorado Revised Statute 12-47-505. Oh was that messed up. It took us most of the weekend to fix our brains on that one. Sunday was one of those “Oh My Gods” epiphany moments when we realized that the City was trying to follow the law as they are a Statutory City, and yet had gotten it horridly wrong.

Monday of course was the Finance meeting. We went along with a lot of the Chamber Board and various business people. Dan got to be spokesman. 🙂

Dan looking serious
Dan looking serious

My cousin Brian Orr took lots of pictures. He also captured Dan looking very “Ben Franklinesque”

Dan and the mob
Dan and the mob

That’s me trying not to look at the camera and Nancy Lave, one of our board members next to Dan. He did a really good job. We got the committee to decide to recommend to the City Council the idea of taking 982 back to committee.

Next day, while getting ready for the City Council meeting, we took another look at 981. I finally got cross eyed enough that I called the Department of Revenue and got the number of a man named Dan Gunter. He is the head of the liquor license division, and the expert on 12-47-501-505. After a 45 minute conversation, I told our Dan that we needed to go talk to the City people again. So, off we went. We spoke to the City Clerk, and the City Manager, and they both said that they would talk to Dan Hyatt, the City Lawyer. (too many Dan’s!) Of course, by this time I have people patting me on the head with the whole “Jaye, you are just out of your depth, and  you don’t know what you are talking about.” grrrrrrrrr!

At the meeting, they discussed the whole thing and when we got to Ordinance 981, the lawyer stood up and admitted that he was wrong!!! That he had made a typo! One Hell of a bloody typo! Overcharging local businesses by nearly 50%! That we didn’t all jump up and cheer is a miracle. However, Dan was a smart arse and mentioned that he’d call off the pitchfork, torch, tar and feather brigade. 🙂 That got everyone’s attention and elicited nervous laughter from the 30+ audience. He also stood up and said that the Chamber of Commerce would support 981 as long as the changes were made. Everyone agreed. Then 982 was legally turned back to committee and the Chamber will work with the Finance committee on that one. Yeeeeehawwwww!!!!!! We were so happy! Best part for me was the councilman who came over and apologized to me for saying that I was wrong! I was right. :):):)

It was very cool too that the Chamber was actually doing what it is meant to do. Help business!

Wednesday was slightly calm. I went to a meeting of the county commissioners and got ready for our chamber meeting. First one of the year and elections.

Thursday… Election day. I had things as ready as I could get. And of course, the screw up fairy hit. Two board members neither called or showed up. So, we started 15 minutes late. I had to run the elections. Wheee…… I am the recording secretary for the board. Mike got the presidency, Nancy the Veep, and Dan is now Treasurer. I have the feeling that Patty, our old treasurer is floating on air with happiness! We got through a very long agenda and then finally got home around 9pm. Nearly 4 hours of meeting. Blahhhh

Oh, and Dan got his picture on the front page of the Huerfano Journal. Not sure what is more fun. Watching him when people recognize him or just watching the people. teehee…

Today was hectic on other levels. I started out the day by taking the two dogs, Brandy and Blanca to the vet for shots. Then it was off to the Chamber. It started snowing at about noon, and is still dumping the white stuff down. argh……

Meanwhile, I have paid the electric bill, water bill, tank rental, bought propane, picked up Morgan from Badito, ran errands for the Chamber and now all I need to do is make some dinner and go to bed!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

And the copier commits suicide…

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Today was busy at work. Pauline stopped by, as did John Carlson, Carol and her hubby as well as half a dozen people looking for work. At least Shirley was there to deal with them. Oh, and the phone rang. Most of it was hang up calls. Why on earth would anyone prank a Chamber of Commerce? Bored? Stupid? Oh well… I was trying to get two days work done in one so that I could have tomorrow off. Since I get paid by the hour, it doesn’t work to just take time off.

While trying to hunt down information on concealed carry permits, I told one of our businesswomen in town about the Open Source software we’ve been trying to make people aware of for weeks. She wanted a copy of the  disk and a chamber application. So, gathering my stuff, off I went. Dan covered the office. I dropped off the software, new brochures from the chamber, got invited to present this info at the next school board meeting and then stopped by the Huerfano Journal. I had paychecks! Wheee! I really enjoy working for the Journal. It helps that my cousin Gretchen and her hubby Brian own and operate the paper, but I actually enjoy writing the articles.  (hi Brian! hi Gretchen!) I’m starting a history column mid January. I already do three. I picked up a laptop they want Dan to work on as well.

I got back to work with lunch in hand. I was working on getting stuff caught up and almost had everything ready for the board meeting next week in between bites of french fries. Emphasis on almost. Dan went to go copy something and the printer made this noise. Sort of a cross between a cat being pulled apart and one of those really annoying party horns. He cussed and tried it again. Then the tool bag came out. First he threatened it and then he started pulling it apart. Dan worked on copiers and printers in another life, far away in Nashville. More cussing. Then he borrowed the phone. He talked to Gobins and discovered that while the parts needed were covered by our service contract, the labor  wasn’t. $380 worth of labor for a 14 year old copier. Hmm…. I don’t think so. However, that isn’t a decision that I can make. So, I added it to the agenda for the meeting.

It also meant a whole new flurry of emails to boardmembers to let them know what is going on. Wheeee……

Snow pups and Chamber hiccups

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The last week has been busy. Between trying to teach Blanca how to be a housedog, changing weather, plumbing foul-ups and Chamber events, I haven’t had much time to post. Oh, and it snowed.

Not just a dusting like we’ve been having ever 3-4 days since Thanksgiving, but an honest to goodness snowstorm. More on that later.

Middle of last week, the laundry room sink clogged. No way to fix it, so John started to undo the U-neck under the sink. 40 gallons of water later, he pulled a clog of lint/cat hair and OMG’S gunge out of the pipe. Only problem, the plastic was so cold it shattered at one end and we couldn’t put the pipe back together. Dan and I would have to do that the next day. Not a problem.

Next morning, I hear water running. We thought Beth was in the shower. She thought that one of us was in the shower. John went to look. Next thing I hear is “OH Shit!” and the sound of the water being shut off. It had been a VERY cold night, and my first thought was that the pipes had frozen. Burst pipes, etc. No, some idiot had walked into our back yard and turned on the outside tap. Water ran for about 15 minutes, but that was enough to flood the basement and the kids room with about 2 inches of water. Ice cold water. ARgh! While the kids cleaned up, Dan and I fixed the laundry room sink.

Last week we also had the on-off-on again Chamber of Commerce Christmas Party. On Tuesday, no one had sold any tickets. So, we canceled it. Then they changed their minds and on Wednesday, they got it up and going again. So, by Friday they had about 30 people coming. Oh, and me. I hadn’t planned to go. Couldn’t afford the ticket. However, they decided that being the Chamber Rep, I aught to be there. So, they paid for my ticket. Chris gave Dan his ticket at the last minute, so off we went. It was at the La Plaza Inn which is a very nice B&B in town. Marty made roast beef. Lovely. After dinner, Larry Patrick ran the present auction. Everyone brought a gift and then it was auctioned off. Now Larry plays dirty tricks, so if you scratch your nose, you bid. If you blink loud, you bid. Lots of laughter ensued. We raised about $650. Dan got a bag of kids toys and one person got a traveling trophy. A plaster deer head. It now lives in the Chamber office.

Sunday was a really warm day, so Dan and Matt started digging a trench for the electric line from the house to the guest house at 520. I had to help for a while when Matt had to run home. Gods we were tired by the end of the day.

Blanca all worn out
Blanca all worn out

the ditch
the ditch

Monday Dan was suppose to help me at the chamber after he got the pipe at the local lumber yard. It was 4 times the cost, so he headed to Pueblo. The weather was getting bad, and by the time that he got home it was raining. Dan and Matt put the pipe in the ground and covered up the trench as fast as they could. They were soaked.

However, it was a good thing that they got it done. The rain turned to snow, and when we woke up on Tuesday, we had nearly 9 inches of the stuff in places. Brrrr!!!

Snow drift
Snow drift

It was a very cold day and even colder night. Today I concentrated on keeping warm. At the Chamber, the heater circut blew again and so the boiler didn’t go on until nearly noon. The dogs are not enchanted with the snow either. Brrrr!!!

Sunday, Puppy Sunday!

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Ok, I know it is Tuesday, but the latest episode in my life that makes things go “Kersplat!” happened on Sunday.

Daniel came over to visit. He was here at 520 for a few minutes and then left. He came back with my “late birthday, early Yule prezzie”. I should have been afraid, very afraid. My prezzie was…. drumroll…. a puppy. Not a little puppy, but a 4-6th month old puppy. Not a little puppy, but a 40 pound puppy. Lab, chow, husky and goodness knows what. Feet the size of soup can bottoms. Oh, and white. Brown eyes and black nose. So, I named her Blanca.

Blanca and Brandy
Blanca and Brandy

Keep in mind that while Blanca is 4-6 months old, Brandy is as year old. Blanca is going to be a big dog! She is a very sweet natured dog which is a good thing. Oh, and clumsy too! Does not know what to do with her feet.

It is going to be a very interesting few months.

Work has been interesting this week too. We had to cancel the Christmas party as no one had bought tickets. I think that the economics are just against things like expensive parties. Plus, La Veta was having their party the same day at no cost to attendees. Ours was $20 a person. So, we are going to have our regular meeting on the 11th, with refreshments. Or, in other words, a small party that doesn’t cost $20 a head.Chris Galvan and I are going to make some savories and hopefully, someone else will bring some sweets. I am planning to make the cheese sticks that I made for Thanksgiving. If I can keep Dan out of the dough! Gads! He is addicted to them. (teeheehee)

Tomorrow I’m going shopping in Pueblo with John. Wheeee…. We are having to borrow Erin’s car to do the shopping. My poor little car still has issues. Oh well.

Roadrunners, birthday parties and phones

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Right after I promised to try and write more often, we lost the DSL at the house. Our phone service has been screwed up since we got it. Dan tried to get it fixed. I tried. Finally in utter frustration, I called and canceled everything except the basic phone. Out of the 5-6 people who “tried to help” with our bill, only one did any good. Even he admitted that our bill was a “cluster f**k”.

I’ve been trying to keep up with email, and stuff online at work. Except for the journal. Just not enough time. I’ve gotten lots of chamber stuff done, but not much else. Dan is working on this brochure and map which has been interesting. It means that he has gotten very involved with the chamber too.

Last week, it was so warm! Nearly 75. In November!!! We went for a little drive and while Dan and Matt took a bit of a walk, I sat in the car and knitted. It was so lovely to just relax with the windows open. When we first pulled up, we saw a roadrunner sitting on the fence. That was really cool. I heard something and looked around. Nothing. Heard a noise again. Nothing. This happened 3-4 times. I was working on a green wool shawl, and was knitting away when the roadrunner jumped up into the window of the car and freaked when he realized that my green yarn was NOT a bug! I freaked too! He skittered off the car and across the bit of road to look at me like “how dare I scare him!”. Then he walked around the car a few times and hopped back up on the fence to watch me.

It wsa really very funny, when I had a chance to think about it. Dan and Matt thought it was a riot too.

I am finally feeling better too. I’ve been ill with some sort of upper respiratory infection for the last three days. I went to work, but Dan did the whole watch dog thing and kept checking on me. Granted, I work 4 hour days so it wasn’t too bad, but… it would have been nice to just stay in bed.

Yesterday we decorated the Chamber offices for the Parade of Lights festival. We have Santa here at the office after the parade. It looks really pretty and if we can get some pictures, I’ll post them.

Banks, Birthdays and by-laws

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I really need to post more often. Apologies in advance for the tome!

After the joy of the elections, I got buried in work. Curtains for my parents house…. yes, I’m still working on them. Plus drivng Morgan to school most of last week ate up gobs of time.

Can’t forget either that I flubbed a date. I thought I had until November 12th to get the house taxes paid before they went up for auction. No, it was November 5th. Why did I discover this in the nick of time? (the 1st?) Because the Bank sent me a letter telling me that since I had obviously forgotten to pay my taxes, that they would pay them for me and add the amount to my loan! Talk about PANIC!!! I pulled together enough to pay off 520’s taxes and part of 203’s. The gal at the Treasurer’s office said I could pay off the rest in the next 5-6 weeks. PHEW! Talk about relief. I called the bank and told them thank you, but I didn’t need the bail out. Of course the next day, the Treasurer’s office calls to tell me that the bank sent a check over for the remaining amount, and did I want them to accept the check or stick to the payment plan we’d worked out the day before. Once I got over the shock of it all, I told them to send the check back. I called the bank and told them I was sending the check back, and they still tried to get me to accept it and the extra on our loan! nooooooooooo!!! However, we got it all straightened out. Added a few white hairs, but got it straight.

Samhain, the cross quarter day was on the 6th, which meant time to put up my ancestors altar and spending some time remembering all who had passed.

Then there was work. Getting out renewal notices, clearing up the details for the meeting on this Thursday, working on the website, and redoing the by-laws. Someone in their infinite wisdom typed them in ALL CAPS! Have you ever tried to read legalese compounded by ALL CAPS??? It’s bloody painful! Worse, it was extreme legalese! Poorly edited, poorly ammended and hadn’t been updated in over 8 years. ::::::shudder:::::: Oh, and did I mention that they were in ALL CAPS?

I kept putting them off, because the idea of trying to sort out that mess was daunting.

So, instead, I had a birthday. I am now 7squared. I got cards from my mom and dad and my sister. John and Beth gave me the graphic novel Guilty Pleasures by LKH. I liked the book, and will see how the GN goes. I got kisses and phone calls too.

Last thing I did was write the Locavore article for the Huerfano Journal and slogged through the by-laws. Uggghhhhh!!!! Finally finished at 10:30pm.

Yesterday was hell. Woke up umpteen times in the night and was dozing between alarms when I hear the sound of an aerosol being used in the bathroom. Being an asthmatic, aerosols are tops on the verboten list. The only one allowed is Spray & Wash, and it is used sparingly. Usually when I am not around. The only one up at that time was Morgan. She had bought hair spray a month or so ago, and had been told not to use it when I was in the house or going to be around her. Better yet, throw it away and get a pump spray hair spray. Even better, don’t use the stuff, cause you’re only 12! She promised not to use it around me.

Now, I won’t say she forgot. I figure she didn’t take it seriously. I figure she thought she could get away with it. Teens know everything don’t they? sigh….

Less than 3 minutes after I heard the noise, I felt the first tickle in my throat. Determined not to have an attack, I put my head under the covers. Willed myself not to cough, because she couldn’t be that stupid and use hairspray on an ice cold morning less than 5ft. from my bedroom door!

Didn’t work. Bad attack. Really bad. John grabbed my inhaler for me and I used it twice to start to calm things down. Meanwhile, he closed the bathroom door and opened the window to air out the house. (remember it is about 25 outside!!!) I coughed/wheezed and whooped loud enough to wake up Daniel. He’d worked graveyard shift and was really tired. Used the inhaler again and finally got things under a bit of control. Sounded like a wheezy bellows. Of course, the lingering hairspray and the cold air from outside were not helping. Of course, a hot shower would have helped, but that was the frozen sprayed zone… I lasted 25 minutes before I said to hell with it. Closed the window and showered. Ah…… hot steamy air… Things relaxed a bit, but there was no way for me to stay at the house. So, I left early. Ended up at 520 at 8am. Dan gave me that whatthehellhappened? look. I explained, and talked my way out of being put to bed. My chest was still so tight that laying down would have been bad.

I went into work early. Thank goodness it was a quiet day. I had one lost soul looking for Cost-tilli-a county. He got a traffic ticket and had to go to court in San Luis. I lent him the phone and had him call the courts. It was a cold snowy sort of day and I knew he wouldn’t make it over La Veta pass in time.

After he left, I printed out the agendas and by-laws for the meeting and then delivered them to the board members. Got home just in time for Dan to turn me around and head off to Pueblo to do a print run on the flier we are doing for the chamber. I had planned to got to bed, but he said since no one else was home, that I wasn’t staying by myself. Considering how I felt, I agreed.

We got the prints, grabbed some cd labels and then a quick bit of dinner. We were home by about 9pm and I got stuffed straight in bed.

Today I feel better, but still have this feeling that I got hit by the #9 bus. I worked on a bunch of fast public service announcements for Chris at KSPK and Gretchen at the Journal. I also edited copy for Dan. We finished up the brochure before dinner.

Erin dropped by for a few minutes and then Dan headed off to bed early. He has to be up at 3am to take Beth to Pueblo. At least my car can make it that far most days. She is catching the bus to Denver and an interview for her MLS degree.

Gads!

Have you seen a week floating around here?

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I’m missing one. I know that one went on, as it is over seven days since I last posted, but… where did the time go? Gads. Somewhere along the lines, I have:

  • Sent Matt to join El Fandango-a dance class/troupe/cultural thingy run by my cousin Gretchen
  • Been to parent teacher conferences with Morgan
  • Gone to work for at least 4 hours a day, M-F.
  • Totally rearranged the Workforce office and my storage area at work
  • Dealt with volunteers/board members/tourists
  • printed, collated, folded, stuffed, labeled and mailed 80+ renewal packets for the chamber
  • Gone to Pueblo for car parts for Divot
  • Cleaned out the guest house for a workspace
  • went through 2 years of microfilm searching for stories
  • seen my parents
  • sewn curtains, Yule prezzies and knitted
  • and did the whole Halloween thing last night.

Yesterday was fun. I dressed up for work. Or should that be dressed normally…??? Long black velvet dress, B&W striped socks, black shoes, pointy witch hat, pentacle and my hair going any way it wanted. I even had candy at the chamber to hand out.

After work, I had lots of errands to run. I didn’t bother to change, so I went to the bank, post office, San Isabel Electrics, Edla’s and Mountain Harmony (the local health food shop) in costume.

After I got home, I took off the hat and added my reading glasses as I was working on the computer. big surprise! We had treats waiting for the trick or treaters. Not too many at first, and then there was a rush around 7:30pm that went on for at least an hour. One little girl, probably about 3 came up to the door all dressed as a witch. I answered the door, and said Happy Halloween. She looked up… and then looked me up and down really well. Then looked at her own costume and then back at me. I smiled at her, gave her the candy and said bye! She was still giving me “the look”, with her eyes wide. Her mom, who has noticed none of this says “lets go” and starts to move the little girl down the stairs. The little girl is still giving me “the look” that says “she’s a real witch” the whole time. Steps down a step, looks back, steps, looks back all the way down the stairs. Mom still hasn’t noticed, and is nudging her down the stairs. I wave, close the door and start giggling. Dan asked me what I was giggling about and I explained. Dan started lauging and said, “No, she wasn’t expecting Aunt Jet to hand out candy.” I laughed. It’s true.

Today has been very warm. I think it was nearly 70! I ran around in a teeshirt and jeans most of the day. Beautiful Indian Summer weather.

I’d love to sleep in tomorrow, but I hope that we will be going to Pueblo for some grocery shopping. John is suppose to borrow Erin’s car as mine are still out of commission. sigh…