Denver

Because it’s Monsoon Season! Here it is Saturday, and it has been raining almost non-stop! Apparently, it rained most of the time I was gone, and the few partial days we didn’t have rain have been made up for. My friend Chas posted a lovely piece in his blog. rain-on-back-order.html

As for myself, I blame my parents. teeheehee. You see, Hell is attempting to freeze over and all this rain is the result. My Dad decided at long last to retire. He has been a park ranger at the Grand Canyon for over 25 years.

Dad did the whole Interpretive Park Ranger thing. Trail talks, Evening Programs, etc. He was very good at it. However, over the years the politics of it has worn him down. Plus, he will be 72 in just over a month. So, he retired.

My parents bought a house and have slowly been moving things in. They did the final packing and left the Canyon yesterday. They arrived today on this bitterly cold August day. 30 degrees below normal! I almost started a fire in the fireplace! I woke up to thunder and lightning at 5:15am. Could not believe the length of the thunder roll. Nearly a minute at one point. We’ve had a few breaks in the rain, but not many. Right now, the gutters are flowing so full that they are spreading out into the street.

As for the rest of this week… I spent most of Monday and Tuesday trying to catch up on sleep and house hold stuff. Lots of running around and trying to get stuff done while jobs kept piling up on top of everything else that needed done.

We wired Boutique Blvd. on Wednesday. Marianne Smithey is a sweet lady who was having telephone troubles. Dan re-did the wiring and fixed that issue. Thursday I went down and worked on her computer for 2 hours. Made $50, which was nice. However, that will get dumped into the bank on Monday for bills.

Friday, we went with Maryjane H. up to visit her husband who is finally up at the VA hospital in Denver. Friday was Carl’s 77th birthday. He was happy to see all of us. He also learned that he has cancer that can’t be operated on. They can treat him, but not cure him. Not a nice thing to learn on your birthday. We stayed as long as we could and then had to drive home. The trip up had been wet and rainy. The trip home was just as bad. I swear that parts of the highway were under 2-3 inches of water at times. Dan drove which was a good thing. Got home around 10pm and collapsed.

I planted a few Italian plum trees in the back yard. I hope they take well. The plums are wonderful for cooking as they are very meaty and tart. At least I don’t have to worry about watering them for a while!

Well, pretty damned fast. I think I saw 96mph at one point yesterday. Dan and I did a run to Denver for computer parts. We have been having issues with our systems for the hotel and Aguilar. Finally find out in a telephone conversation that the software is specific to a certain type of hardware! Aieeee-ya! I wasn’t sure which one was going to leap down the phone line first, Dan or Karen. However, I have to admit that this week has been a “comedy of errors” as we are all a little stressed, tired and in general just worn out from going too hard for too long. We all need some downtime, but that isn’t going to happen any time soon. :<

However, Once we realized that we needed different computer parts, we talked to the software guys who also sell the hardware. Downside is that it would take until Tuesday or Wednesday for the stuff to get here. As it is, we have been losing income for a month trying to get this stuff working. So, the idea of waiting was not what we wanted. Karen discovered that there is a company in Denver who also carried the parts we needed. They’d be open until 6pm, and they had the parts in stock. So, we told them to put them on hold and we would be there. Dan and I jumped into the Nissan and headed north at breakneck speeds. It was 2:39 when we left. We got to the business at 5:15pm! Talk about flying! We had just come over 160 miles in less than 3 hours. I am surprized that the Nissan hadn’t melted.

The rep had all of our stuff in a box, and then gave us a tour of the warehouse. Lovely!!! I know it sounds daft to think of computer parts as cool, neat, or lovely, but it was. All these antennas, routers, wire, cable, Rohn towers just waiting to be used! It was almost as much fun as heading to Home Depot or Lowes. Yes, I’m weird, but I like the DIY shops!

We left at 6pm, and then headed across Denver to a mongolian bbq place we found down on Wazee street in LoDo. (lower downtown Denver) Heavenly food! We loved watching the guys cook on the big grill. One of them was a real ham, playing with the food and the “swords” they use to turn the food. A lot of the staff is gay, which is fine by me. However, this one guy, a customer, just ‘swished’ in with his big oversized drink in one hand, wrist at the flop, ascot scarf and cordury coat just as we were about to leave. I had to bite my cheek not to giggle. He was just sooo over the top! Dan and I giggled all the way out the door. Of course, Dan forgot where we parked. I hadn’t. We joked about not needing GPS when I was around. I can’t help it I have a good memory for places. Especially ones I walk to! We drove home uneventfully and arrived at about midnight! Had a cup of tea and then dumped my head on the pillow!

Today, we have components to build, systems to augment and then test the systems. Later tonight, we plan to sit back with a movie and relax!!! Better do it now, because tomorrow we go finish the wiring at Town Hall in Aguilar.

Build a boat, grab an oar!

And how fast does that Nissan go?