Heatwave!!! (and skunkwave)

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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!