Wrapping up the year

Posted on by

It is the last week of the year and  we are wrapping up various client work, and all the end of year stuff. blahhhh! Last week we had all of that snow and then a last minute trip to Denver to celebrate Christmas with the family. Maybe next year we can get everyone to meet down here in Walsenburg.

There has been a lot of change this year. Divorce, CEO of the company, new committees and responsibilities, moving family and the business and finally, school board. Some have been good and others, while not bad, could have been better.

Next year will be interesting. More involvement with the school board and all of the various committees that Dan and I are on are a sure thing. Our business hopes to land a couple of big contracts and that would be fantastic. (think good thoughts!) However, after moving out of the house, and having a slow year this year, we may move the business back into the house. It would cut our bills in half. It is something we will be looking into over the next month or so.

Blizzard

Posted on by

This morning at 10am, it started snowing. By noon, when we went to fix my mom’s computer, there was about 3 inches and it was slick. At 2pm, we went to Jacque’s house to pick up firewood. We saw the drive, braked and slid right past by at least 200ft. Damn!

We got the firewood and came home. Then it was back to the office for a bit. By 6pm, there was probably 6 inches in some places and drifts up to 10 inches. It took us 35 minutes to drive 10 blocks. Worse yet, every time we slowed down, we lost momentum and that meant we had to circle around again to try and roll onto our street. In the end, we’ve parked about half a block away in a neighbors driveway. No way else to do it. This is one hell of a storm.

I’m really glad we’ve moved into the Wendy House. Small space to heat and very cozy.

My busy week!

Posted on by

I have been trying to get into the swing of being the school board president. Aieeee!!! Lots of meetings. Tuesday Dawn and I went to a meeting at Trinidad State Junior College. TSJC. I wrote about it here. It was neat to meet the Lt. Gov and to see Felix again. Felix Lopez is on the Southeast Workforce Investment Board with Dan and so we see him at meetings.

I also went with Dan to the Colorado Rural Workforce Consortium Winter Meeting. That was up in Colorado Springs. Three days of Workforce info. Lots of good stuff to think about, process and put into use. One big thing they are starting is the Virtual Workforce Office. They are putting them in public libraries where there are no workforce offices. This is really interesting and the possibilities are expanding.

Next week is not slowing down, and so I am spending the weekend getting over the last of my ‘cold’. I had an asthma attack that settled in my lungs. I sound like I’m breathing through a sponge. ugh. Of course, the weather deities are having fun. Woke up to about 6 inches of snow this morning. Brrrr!

Crazy November

Posted on by

Today is Samhain when dated by the cross quarter days of the calendar. New Years. Dumb suppers on the table and pictures of loved ones on the altar.

November has been hectic, starting with Election Day. I got over 1000 votes and I am now the Director of District A in Huerfano RE-1 school district. Our first board meeting is tomorrow. I’m also on the District Accountability Committee and so is Dan. LOL… I told him that I was sharing the pain. He wanted information, so I handed him the CDE D.A. C. handbook and SB 09-163  Now he is gnashing his teeth and banging his head on his desk. This of course will be interesting as he is on the Colorado Workforce Development Council, the SouthEast Workforce board and I am on the CWDC State Youth Council.

Since Election day, our shop has gotten a ton of computer jobs. There is a new virus out there and so far we’ve seen 5 in the shop with it. For the most part it requires a total wipe of the system and a re-install. Not fun. It means money in our pockets though which is good as business has been slow all year.

On top of the work, we have lots of meetings. Two today. More later in the week. It’s my birthday on Wednesday and Dan has a light show to do on Thursday and Friday. Oh, and dinner with my parents on Thursday night.

Daylights savings time ended yesterday. We spent our ‘extra hour’ catching up on all the sleep we’ve lost over the last month. ZZZZZzzzzzz!

Here’s hoping for a mellow week next week.

 

Not So Lobo Savvy…

Posted on by

I don’t know whether to yell or cry. Be frustrated or furious.

Why?

Well… in the time honored tradition of the cobbler’s children having no shoes, it seems that the computer tech failed a back up cycle.

Normally this wouldn’t be an issue. However this time it is. As I left for Denver today, Dan had forensic work to do on our project server. It was the only project server for things we’ve been working on over the last few months. Apparently last night for reasons unknown, it died. The big concern was whether the last back up was in fact the most current back up.

I got the news when I got home this evening. Nothing survived. The back up had the beginnings of the project list and none of the data. So, we get to start coding all over. Dan is hoping he still has his notes. However, as we have moved the office, some of them may no longer exist.

Good thing I love him. Otherwise, I’d probably be yelling instead of just holding my head. Damn.

Life, Family and the Celtic Music Festival

Posted on by

My life has been on hold.

My family declared me missing.

Why?

Well, because this last weekend and part of last week was the Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival.  This year, Dan was the stage manager. Oh boy… What this translates into is that he had to make sure things got done. Mostly to do with sound and lights. This year’s theme was “From the Appalachians to the Rockies”. This festival was also special in that our daughter Morgan got a scholarship to attend the entire festival. The caveat is that she has to write a scholarly paper about the music/culture as it migrated from Scotland and Ireland to Appalachia.

Things started winding up on Wednesday. (ie, things got busy!) Dan was hunting equipment and doing his best to be in three places at once. Thursday afternoon, we had to be in Cuchara at the Dog Bar by 1pm for a “Ceilidh at the Dog Bar”. It was a smattering of the musicians giving everyone a sample of what was to come. Funny part is that one of the bands called the Old Blind Dogs got lost. So, we were making jokes about the Blind Dogs needing a seeing eye dog (guide) to get to the Dog Bar.

Then it was down to Gardner for  a “Taste of things to Come”. This was a ceilidh with the musicians playing teasers. The best part of this event is always Jack Yule. He and his wife Barbara are the reason we have this lovely event. His dry Scots sense of humor makes us all giggle. Lovely time! Of course, I baked two carob mayonnaise cakes for the potluck performers dinner. 🙂 The concert was great and we got home late. On the way back, a car ahead of us looked ‘wrong’. There were no tail lights. Brakes, but no tail lights. So, we followed them all the way back (27 miles) to make sure that no one hit them from behind. When we got to the junction, we pulled up beside them and told them why we had followed them. They were very grateful. Later on, I found out that she was one of the festival harp teachers, Nancy Bick Clark. She was very sweet and so happy that we’d done that. How could we not. Taking care of people is one of those things we do during the festival.

Friday… Free picnic at Uptop. We had a ceilidh which was fantastic. When we got there a piper was playing. I thought it would be our friend Jim Conley. No, it was a young man dressed in 1800’s cowboy gear with full claymore, plaid, knife and sixshooter. Wow! Later on, we found that this young man could dance a jig…with spurs on and sing. Wow!

The concert was great, but… we had to pack up all the gear and get to La Veta for a performance called Wickedly Funny Songs and Tales. We were a little late, but it went fine. Once we pulled our equipment for the second time that day, we had to head to Walsenburg for the big evening concert. “Scotland Meets Appalachia”. This was the Old Blind Dogs and David Coe. The Dogs had a new fiddler with them named Claire Mann. She was great. Dan ran the lights for this concert and it went very well.  Once again, we got home Very late. (see Jaye, Dan and Morgan. see Jaye, Dan and Morgan fall asleep 5 minutes after they got home…)

Saturday was crazy in it’s own way. We spent most of it running around La Veta making sure that sound was available wherever it was needed. Our biggest afternoon event was a concert and demonstration of harp and fiddle. David Coe played fiddle and Aine Minogue played harp. We were at the Methodist church in La Veta. It was called, “They met Here: Irish Harp and Appalachian Fiddle”. I knew that they had played together once before about three years ago, but honestly worried that the mix would be like chalk and cheese. That fear lasted about 6 notes. It was a beautiful concert and discussion.

The concert that night at the Fox in Walsenburg was “From County Clare to Appalachia”, with Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill performing. I’d heard them twice on Thursday and was really looking forward to this performance. It started out with two Appalachian fiddlers, Cleek Schrey  and Stephanie Coleman. Cleek does the flat foot dancing or clogging. Really cool. They play so well. Then… Oh My Gods!!! How do you describe a fiddle that starts out slow and then works to a beat so rapidly that you can barely tap your foot that fast? Take the time to look up Martin and Dennis on YouTube. Amazing. Simply Amazing. The crowd wept, shouted, clapped and acted more like a rock concert audience than a bunch of Celtic music lovers. Three or four standing ovations. After they played, the four of them played. It was magical. Simply magical. Afterwards, home, bed and ZZZ’s. Oh, and we remembered to eat dinner!

Sunday. Sunday was “How many places can we be at once day”. We split the sound system three different directions at one point. We had a Dulcimer class with Wilson and McKee. Then we had a demonstration/talk/performance on Gailic Songs by Margaret Bennett. Once again in the Methodist church. I got to run the sound for that one as Dan had to set up for the ceilidh in the park. A bit nervous, but I’ve been learning to run the sound board. Margaret is amazing. Another one worth hearing. Her voice… oh my. Once that was finished, I headed to the park where the last concert of the festival was being held in the park.

Now, David Enke, who usually does a lot of the sound work for the festival had another engagement, so Dan got to run the concert. David’s equipment and Dan’s brain. 🙂 It started out with Roger Landis and David Coe. Everything was going well and then there was a change over. All the fiddlers got up on stage, joining Roger and David.  Martin, Claire, Cleek, Stephanie, Arlene Patterson and then Dennis and the rest of the Old Blind Dogs. Of course everyone was trying to plug in or find a mike and all the careful layout that David and Dan had done went away. Dan was now flying/mixing by the seat of his pants. Then there was another break and all the singers from the festival got up on stage. Ed Miller, Jennie McAvoy, Robbie O’Connell, Margaret Bennett and a choir of singers who’d been learning songs for the last three days joined in. Add to that a couple of fiddlers and I think there were nearly 30 people on stage. And yes, they too were looking for mikes or pick ups. Aieee!!!! Dan was sweating! Yes, he had no idea of who was where. However, he managed. He managed beautifully! 🙂 The sound for the whole concert was great! And no, it isn’t just my opinion. Loads of people commented on how well it went and he even had someone buy him a beer. 🙂

After that concert we packed all of David’s stuff up and stowed it and then went to the after festival ceilidh. Dan got his beer, we relaxed and after an hour or so, we packed the last of our equipment up and went home. By now it was nearly 8pm. We ate dinner and were in bed by 9:15pm. Gad it had been a long weekend of 14-16 hour days. Lots of wonderful music. Tons of things to do and lots of friends to visit with or meet. It was a great festival.

Now to get back to ‘normal’. Yawn… Still exhausted.

Oh, and Chas, In answer to your question… Yes. I went to the festival. Did you?

A Wild Time in Walsenburg!

Posted on by

Just in case anyone in the universe missed the news yesterday…. This   is what happened in Walsenburg. Around 9:45am, Dan called to tell me that he might be late getting home from lunch. He’d gone to get gas at the Acorn when suddenly everything went crazy. He got over to George’s Drive Inn and managed to grab a burger while waiting to see if he could get out of the area. He finally ended going up over the hogback and through the back side of town to get home. He also got the chance to talk to our local sheriff, Bruce Newman.

Meanwhile, Daniel and some of his work buddies were getting gas as well. Everyone got hung up. My parents were trying to come home from Pueblo where they’d gone early this morning for groceries. I don’t know how long it took them to get home. Oh, and Morgan and I were suppose to go to Pueblo to do some shopping. We got delayed and had to go out of town by the southern exits. We passed the scene and could see the car and the traffic backed up for miles.

We got our shopping done, had lunch at Bingo Burger and still managed to be caught in the traffic jam. We did see the Dougherty Gang being taken in convoy to Pueblo. Lots and Lots of law enforcement vehicles with flashing lights.

It certainly has been a media circus. Walsenburg’s one day of fame. Now to going back to a quiet sleepy town in Southern Colorado.

Wind Power in Huerfano County!

Posted on by

Who’d have thought that would ever happen? LOL! Good grief! We have more wind here than you can fly kites in! We’ve had wind studies for years. BP did one and said that there was No Viable Wind Power in the county! Others have said there is plenty of wind, but no one wanted towers to ruin the view. Now Black Hills-Vestas is going to try to bring wind power and the associated jobs to the county. It’s about time! We need industry in the county. We need to use renewable resources as well.

Read the article here

August Already?

Posted on by

Damn! Where has the summer gone? I want a refund or at least a rewind. One second it was June and now it’s August!!! sigh. It has gone so fast this year. Granted, we’ve been busy.

We have moved into the Wendy house in preparation for the great plumbing attack. I have the floors in the main part of the house oiled and I’ve been sorting out things. Do I use this? Do I use that? Oh, and why on earth did I keep this?!

On a trip to Denver we went to the IKEA store. Oh my god! It took us three hours just to walk through at a FAST pace. Lots of wonderful things to buy. Lots of things I’d like for my house.

We also did something brave. We moved the office out of the house and into an office on Main Street! Scary. Lots of change. Most notably, Dan has to wear ‘dress clothes’ most days. LOLOL!

Return from Battlemoor II

Posted on by

Yesterday, the 4th, we packed our camp up and returned to the 21st century. sigh…

Battlemoor was great! Probably should have been called BattleDUST, but we had a wonderful time. The rain on one day did help, and made  the dust/powdered cow patties settle. I swear we inhaled/ingested at least a pound of that dust. Ughh! However, the Stroh Ranch is a working ranch and there are cattle!

We arrived Wednesday and set up camp in a lovely little dell. Amazingly, it was only 50 yards from the Town Hall. There was a cool tree that had fallen and it looked all the world like the Pi symbol or a henge. While we were all part of the Shire of Villaleon, we were also in three separate areas. So, there was the main camp, Persia where Arty and Nyusha lived and then ‘the Savages’,… us. 🙂 Rather appropriate as I’m a Viking and Dan is um…. Lothar de Savage. This lead to many jokes. “Oh, that isn’t Viking,… Oh. Wait… you plundered that didn’t you…”  and “I’m a Viking. You going to hand that over or shall I just take it?” It was a lot of fun. We teased Lothar as his era didn’t write…. “Don’t worry dear, I’ll teach you how to write…” and other bits. “He’s a savage, be glad he’s wearing clothes… eats with a spoon… cooks his meat…”

The week was busy with a number of tourneys and classes. I learned how to tablet weave and to spin!!!! Oh, and how to write/send a letter. 🙂 That was fun. I took tons of pictures and they can be seen on my Facebook page. I really enjoyed the spear tourney. Dan of course was watching most of the tourneys. Between answering questions, making comments on fighting, patching up a few fighters and other bits and pieces, he got offered belts three times! So, while he didn’t accept a belt to be a squire, he will be getting his armor together and will be getting his heavy fighters card. He teased me at one point calling me his armor bunny. I about spewed with laughter. (an armor bunny is someone who helps their knight with armor, spotting weaknesses, etc.)

There were also courts every night and revels. (parties!) Thursday night was Hafla. Rolling Thunder played drums until probably 4am. Women belly danced, people chatted, good beer was consumed and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Friday night was Halls of Valhalla. There was a Viking ship where you could memorialize someone and then the boat was burned. We payed homage to Sir Starhelm. Once again, there was great conversations and lots of beer. I had one called Vikings Drool. It was a lovely dark stout. OMG! Oh, and there was a non-alcoholic ginger beer that was heaven, as well as a sarsaparilla to knock your socks off.  I drank more of those than the beer. 🙂

Saturday was the Medieval Red, White and Blue celebration. Everyone tried to dress in red, white and blue and still stay in character. It was a riot. The drummers played again and it was about 1am before I got to bed.

Sunday night was the Farewell Siege Revel. It was a time to eat and drink all the leftovers, say goodbye to people and unwind. It was another late night, but well spent.

Monday of course came Way Too Early. However, we broke camp in about 90 minutes. We said our goodbyes and headed home. Once we were home, we unpacked, showered, checked a few things on the computers and then crashed. I even got my article written for the Huerfano World Journal and pictures sent. 🙂 We napped from 4pm to nearly 10pm. We got up for a little bit of food and were back to bed by 1am. Damn we slept heavy! I have to admit that about the only thing I missed was my BED! So, we are planning on making a Viking bed for next year. Whether we make a Viking tent or a yurt is still being discussed.

Today we are putting stuff away, cleaning and washing things and trying to move. All the aches and pains have come home to roost. We didn’t get too badly sunburned, but there were lots of bites and Dan got all itchy from bucking bales of hay used at some of the battles. Yes, we clean up after ourselves so that the ranch can be a ranch.

Only a year till Battlemoor III. 🙂