Heatwave!!! (and skunkwave)

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Supposedly. 46 today and 54 tomorrow! Wheeee! This morning, we slid down Jackson, thru the stop sign at Kansas, and the stop sign at Colorado. no choice, as the hill is one huge sheet of ice. Then we slid all over Colorado until we got to Main street. Geeze!

We had to dig our firewood pile out of the melt too. What a mess! Oh, and the skunk came by for a visit. Phewww!!! I actually opened up all the doors I could to let the house air. It was bad. Walking through the house was enough to make my coat smell. Ugh. Have I said how much I detest the damn things? Double it. With prejudice.

For once I am looking forward to the melty part of the storm and Spring. I want to introduce Mr. Skunk to Mr. Trap or Mr. Shotgun.  I think I’ll go snort Listerine to get rid of the smell.

Wrapping up the year

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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.

Snow for Solstice!

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Some people dream of a white Christmas. Well, we have a white Solstice! Happy Solstice Blessings!!! At the beginning of the week we got a bunch of snow. Around 10 inches. Wednesday was beautiful and sunny. It started snowing at some point in the night and now we have nearly 18 inches. We had to get chains for the truck, just so we could drive.  At least there is no wind as there was with the first storm. I’m just hoping it melts quickly as we are suppose to head to Denver for Xmas with my sister and family. The pictures are of the back yard, Brandy, Dan and the front yard. The bobcat driver is our neighbor Joe. He plows the alley for us so that we can park.

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Blizzard

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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.

I survived!

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My first business board meeting that is… Normally when a new school board is elected, they get sworn in and before their next meeting, they get swooped off to CASB’s big Winter Conference where there is all kinds of training and opportunities for board members to learn how to be board members. Then they have their first serious/real meeting. Well… we voted not to spend the money and didn’t go. Instead, we are having workshop trainings, and the first one is Friday night.Yeah, we are doing it backwards.

So, we had our first real meeting and had to deal with some interesting issues. If you want to read about it, it is all here. It will be really nice when the board has more training. Even I understand that I need more training. Randy Black from CASB will be here to help us out.

Funny thing about the meeting is that I had to keep reminding myself that it was ME running the meeting. I’m the one who had to keep it moving. It is a big difference from sitting in the back of the room and writing note on what is being done. I was running the meeting, taking notes, listening and directing. Good think I can multi task!

I did have one small bit of revenge and gleeful delight last night. I got to put Dan on a sub-committee for safety. 🙂 And last night I had a terrible time unwinding. I must have laid there for thirty minutes until it struck me. I’m so use to writing an article for the paper and getting the meeting ‘out of my system’ and now I don’t have that. Hopefully writing the other blog will help.

Had another epiphany this afternoon. It went along with the … “I need to attend all of the little social gatherings like the holiday program.” We changed the date of graduation and I idly though… gee, that’s cool. Then it hit me. I have to BE THERE! I’m the president of the board…. and the president hands out the diplomas! Geep! Last time I handed out ONE was when Stefan graduated. Oh did my social calendar just get busy. Better get my sewing area up and running too. I need more clothes. I can’t attend a bunch of functions wearing the same skirt all the time. Aieee!

My busy week!

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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!

I should have known better

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Life didn’t mellow out, slow down or get easier. Instead, it got crazy.  The school board meeting that should have happened on the 8th was canceled. We had snow and the auditors that check the election couldn’t certify the vote. You can read all about that here . I started a blog about my school board life.

The 9th was my birthday. I made dinner and a carrot cake. It was great and while we did nothing really special, it was a good day. Thursday and Friday Dan had to work sound for the local high school play. Saturday we had dinner in Trinidad with my parents. We went to Wonderful House for my ‘birthday’ dinner. Yum!

Over the weekend, I attempted to seal cracks in the Wendy House. The wind was brutal and my parents called us on Sunday to tell us how they’d driven up HWY 12 and came across the wind damage at Stonewall. We were lucky here in Walsenburg. A few limbs down and that was about it.

Monday… Bryan and Katie have been having issues. Not exactly fighting, but issues. They decided to talk, but didn’t set a time. Katie kept pestering Bryan when he was either just waking up, going to sleep, heading to work, etc… Not a good time to talk. So, he said ‘let’s talk on the weekend’ (ie Nov 19th) She said okay. He went to work. Tuesday morning around 6:45am, Bryan knocks on our door. Katie and the kids are gone. The house was trashed and she apparently packed as much as she could get in the car and left.

We were all devastated. Eventually we found that she was in Ft. Smith, OK. with her girlfriends. I have to admit I am worried about the boys. I miss my two grandsons, Talon and Gavin.

Wednesday was the make up meeting for the school district and a Accountability meeting. Dan and I are now part of the District Accountability Committee. So, Dan went to the Accountability meeting and I went to the school board. We got sworn in and then held elections for officers. I’m now the president of the school board.

Thursday morning, we had the police doing a welfare check on Katie as she hadn’t reported to work. Then that afternoon, her boss from the hospital was by. Katie never called the school, daycare or her job. She just left. The day was lightened by the fact that I had a mouse try to run up my pant leg and then later ran across the sleeping dog.

Friday we went out to Gardner School for One Room Schoolhouse. Each year they have a day where the whole school reverts to the one room school system. It was a lot of fun. Dan helped make ice cream cone cones and we both helped Pam’s class make telephones. Afterwards we went up to see Jack and Barbara Yule. Dan did some computer work and then we had a nice lunch.

As for this weekend, it has been fairly quiet. We did some work, got paid, enjoyed a good meal in Pueblo and Brandy got sprayed by a skunk. We also took a drive where we saw at least 100 deer and 60 wild turkeys. It was great.  Today I got to spend two hours visiting with a dear friend I haven’t seen in 30 years. Bill Farquhar and his wife Kristen were on their way to Denver and stopped in town long enough to eat lunch and visit. 🙂 It was so good to chat and catch up with him.

Now I’m catching up on all the blogs, emails and other things, because if things go as they have been, the next two weeks will be busy!

 

Crazy November

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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.

 

Paganism in the news

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CNN had a good article about Paganism on the Internet yesterday. It was nice to see such an even handed article. Yesterday of course was Halloween, and like many, we celebrated with our family and the rest of the little goblins in town. I dressed up for work.I had two wee Viking lads visit me and demand candy else they’d raid my basket of sweets.

Of course I gave in and deposited candy in their sacks. 🙂

Dan and I will be having a more traditional celebration on November 7th, which is the cross quarter day. This site is great for marking your calendar. This next two weeks will be busy. Election day today, Samhain, my first school board meeting, my birthday, a trip to Denver for a State Youth Council meeting and Dan has two days of work lighting the high school play. Wheeee!

Oh, and it is suppose to snow again tonight. We had our first real snow storm and we got about 14 inches. It was a wet sloppy snow, and the moisture was much appreciated.

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Not So Lobo Savvy…

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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.