Dan | My Blog | Page 4

Enough!

Posted on July 23, 2015 by jsudar

The last two weeks have been.. Hell. Not the kind where you feel the ship sink or the train heading to run you over. No, this is more like being nibbled to death by ants or ducks. I don’t think I could even start to list all the wonky things that have gone on, but here are the highlights:

The president of the Celtic Music Festival resigned because of health reasons. Then the treasurer resigned. The only officer left? Me. We are meeting Saturday to see what we can do.
Car repairs. New tires, one tire replaced after the new tires. (curb bite) Two new CV joints. Still stuff to do.
Heat. Nuff said.
Late nights in spite of attempts to go to bed early.
People not thinking before they email 6-12 others with erroneous information. Argh!!!!
School stuff. OMG. Resignations. Interviews. More interviews. Special meetings to hire people. (4) Oh, and at last count, 20 new staff members. Keep in mind that we have just under 70 all total in the district. And… issues finding housing.
Our Superintendent having health issues. Emergency room to hospital to minor surgery. Gahhh!
Schedule changes. I don’t think we’ve gone a day without something being shuffled.
New bespoke sewing project. Good for the reputation and the pocket book, but have I had time to sew? NO!
Contract canceled, and another one just starting. The waiting is crazy. Meanwhile, the bank account dwindles. Oh, and trying to work from Mom’s house is problematic.
The land we wanted to buy hit access issues and neighbor issues. So, we start again.

Walsenburg also had a ‘brain fart’ yesterday. Two attempted suicides. One by train. An assault that ended up with shots being fired at police, and an arrest. Plus tire slashings, a semi rear ending a car and other bits of mindless stupidity.

One of the few good things going on is that our garden is going gang busters! I harvested the first crookneck squash and green beans. 🙂

I am hoping that the only thing on my schedule tomorrow will remain harvesting veg, cooking dinner and sewing. Keep your fingers crossed!

Brandywine

Posted on July 10, 2015 by jsudar

Our routine in the morning is one of tea and breakfast. Once Mom and Dan are awake enough, they “go feed the dog.” This is a time to let Mom smoke, feed Brandy and just sort of start the day. Mom and Brandy love one another. Brandy gets spoiled rotten, getting upwards of 5 treats.

This morning, Brandy wasn’t out waiting for breakfast and treats from Grandma. Dan checked on her and found that she had died. She was still warm. No issues, just went to sleep and never woke up. We spent the morning burying her and cleaning up the yard. And crying.

Brandy was part coyote, part German Shepard. Daniel brought her to us in October or December of 2007. I’d had a headache that day and was sleeping when he brought her in and dropped her on the bed. I tried to argue that we didn’t need a dog and that Stefan wouldn’t let us have one at the house. Daniel wouldn’t take no for an answer and called Stefan. Of course he agreed that we should have a dog.

We didn’t know she was a wild mix until we took her to the vet for shots. The vet put “mutt” on her records. She was also an escape artist. if she didn’t go over the fence, she went under it. We put her on a cable to keep her in the yard. Brandy figured out that if she ran in a circle and then straight out, she could torque and snap the cable. We went through a 50, 100 and 150 pound rated cable before we realized that we needed a linked chain. Even then she got away at times.

I also had the dog catcher meet me in Safeway and ask me not to go home alone as there was a coyote running around. He’d tried to shoot it, but missed. I told him that it was probably my dog. He shook his head and said that he knew coyotes, and that this was one. When I finished my shopping, I headed home. There was Brandy on the steps, no collar. When I explained that it was my dog, he shook his head and muttered that he almost shot my dog. From then on, Brandy wore a bright body harness.

She was a beaver dog, chewing up bones in record time. She loved treats from Grandma. Brandy was a bed hog and knew she was people. We were her pack. She was our furbaby. She will be missed.

Brandy. September, 2007 – July, 2015.

Gardens, Solstice and Father’s Day

Posted on June 21, 2015 by jsudar

On Thursday, District O.N.E. had a garden project in back of the high school. They got help from a bunch of people attending a music festival called Sonic Bloom. A big four day event up at Humming Bird Ranch, where Battlemoor is also held. Lots of sun, 30-40 workers and lots of work to do. We got some stuff accomplished, but people got distracted.

Then on Saturday, Dan and I worked on the yard. He mowed. I weeded. Together we tackled weeds, trees and a chunk of old pipe. We were really exhausted when we finished.

We found a juniper tree and a lot of pipe.

Today, Solstice, we got up early and headed down to Trinidad, and to Bob & Earl’s, our favourite greasy spoon, for breakfast. then we took a trip out HWY 10. Both were things that Dad loved to do. It was fitting. 🙂

Dirt!

Posted on May 17, 2015 by

I am so exhausted. We’ve been trying to figure out how to dig enough garden for what we want to plant, and the thought of all the shovel work had daunted us. Then in conversation with Brian Rosino, he offered the use of a rototiller. Wheeee!

We picked it up this morning and started on the right half of the back yard. My mom’s yard is huge. After the first go round, we picked up weeds, raked and then took a break. After lunch we trimmed a tree and I took out three sucker trees in the yard. Those got chopped up and or saved out for trellis bits. Dan mowed the front yard while I did a lot of this. Then he mowed the back. While he did a second round of tilling, I raked up and moved the weeds to the area that will be our compost bins site.

Brandy of course thought we were nuts and took a nap in protest of all our work. We think we have about 500 sq ft of garden. 🙂 If the rains will cooperate, we will be planting squash, (3 kinds), pumpkins, radishes and whatever is left of the seeds from the side garden planting.

Around 4pm, we returned the rototiller. We finished up the last of the work in the back yard and then collapsed. Tomorrow is going to be a very stiff day. Even now my hands are aching from all of the weed pulling. Ugh!

Time to begin a new chapter

Posted on May 7, 2015 by

In that crazy thing called life. Eight weeks ago, life went to hell in a handbasket. Every time something happened, I thought… “It can’t get any crazier, complicated, worse.” Well, it did. It’s been two weeks since Dad died. We had all the family here that weekend. Aunt Toni and her son Kris, Lori and Bill, Jill and Daniel. It was hectic, sad, wonderful and productive.

While so much of the family was here, we went through a lot of Dad’s stuff. We sorted out clothes, backpacks, drawers full of stuff and even set some aside to look at later. We also moved Dan and I into the bedroom that had been my parents computer room. A door to slam at last. 🙂 First pics are with Daniel and Mom and how the room looked. The next three are how it changed. It was a lot of work. Thank goodness for Bill, Lori and Daniel’s help!

Daniel and Mom when it was a computer room

The last of the company left on Monday, and Tuesday we were heading up to take a bunch of stuff to the ARC and then buy some groceries. Just as we were getting ready to leave, the phone rang. It was Tara! She and Celestial had driven all the way from Kentucky to see GiGi (my mom, Great Grandma). So, we had a whirlwind 3 day visit. It was wonderful.

They left on Thursday, and it was time to try and get back into the swing of things. Meetings, work and gardening. More on that later.

A Pause, A Breathe, and Waiting

Posted on April 15, 2015 by

We finished moving into my mom’s house. 90% of our stuff is in storage. The rest is in nooks and crannies in my mom’s house. Brandy is learning to live in the back yard, and we are getting use to living with mom. It’s a good thing that my mom is a good friend as well as my parent. As time passes, we will adjust. We are doing our best to leave a lot of the hurt behind us and work on the positive things.

One of the last things I did was dig up my garden. We brought it over to my mom’s and spent a day digging and transplanting. I shared the rest of the irises I didn’t plant with three friends.

This last week we have caught up on sleep, email, meetings and life in general. I cleaned house and did laundry. It hasn’t been easy, but we are taking those deep breaths. We are pausing and trying to smell the breeze that carries the hint of spring.

Today we went shopping in Pueblo for the first time in weeks. After we did our shopping, we ate lunch at Romero’s. Then we went to visit Dad. Over the last week or so, he declined rapidly. They moved him into hospice on Tuesday night. In some ways, it was a relief not to visit him at the mental unit. The hospice is very nice. It had a good feel to it and the staff was pleasant. A friend of our had been in hospice and that place had not been nice. It looked alright, but had an ick to it. This place did not. (phew!)

We went in to see Dad and then let Mom have time alone with him. We chatted with the nurse, and she talked about how he was doing. She said he was restless, which to them means that it won’t be long. This matches with what my mom felt. We were originally going to visit on Friday, but she had this feeling that it had to be today. I’m glad we went up. He didn’t wake when we were there, or when we talked to him. Mom has his wedding ring now. We said our goodbyes and headed home. We may go up on Friday.

Mom has made all the arrangements with the local funeral home where our cousin works. In her own way, she’s getting her ‘ducks in a row’. Dan and I are doing our best to keep things running smoothly. And it is the little things that help so much. A dear friend sent us a lovely package full of treats. 🙂 It even had twiglets in it! Others have sent good wishes, hugs and energies for an easy transition for Dad.

Where to start?

Posted on April 6, 2015 by

When last I was here, my aunt had just passed and my mom had returned home. Then all hell broke loose.

On Monday, Bryan came by to let me know that he’d bought the house from Stefan. He wanted to let us know that he planned to move in and that we’d have to stuff everything in storage and/or the Wendy House and live there. We tried to explain that this just wasn’t viable. We wasted our breath. Shock. Horror. Disbelief. A week later, we were told we had to totally leave the property. Leave the Wendy House…

While we were reeling from this, my Dad had a major ‘sundowners’ moment. Yelling, screaming, threatening people, etc. We called the police and the EMT’s. When all the dust settled, Dad was in hospital in Pueblo. In the mental unit. Meanwhile, we moved in with my mom, as she was very upset and didn’t want to be alone.

We have been up to see Dad. He’s been diagnosed with moderate to severe dementia and psychosis. From what the doctor and nurses said, he’s been bipolar all of his life, but could deal with it. The dementia robbed him of the control to cope. When my sister and I talked, we could see it looking back. My dad has always ‘escaped to the mountains’, and we figured he just didn’t like living in the city. Now we see it was his way of coping. Now we are working on Medicaid paperwork and other bits. It has been a crazy time.

And… in the mean time, we’ve been packing. It’s very hard to leave our home of 10 years. Hard to leave behind all the work we did on the Wendy House. We are doing our best to keep positive. It’s just tough. Brandy isn’t doing too badly. She has a new yard to explore and we hope to build her a dog house soon.

Menapausal March

Posted on March 25, 2015 by

Yesterday, it was warm! mid 60’s with decent winds. Today, it’s 33F, and snowing. Brrr!

The last week or so has been a game of catch up. My Aunt Debbie died on Friday the 13th. We had work up in the Castle Rock area on the 14th, and Dan worked for the county and school district during the rest of the next week. We had lots of little meetings too. Tech committee, and website committees.

We took care of Dad for a week and Mom came home on Saturday. We almost got to sleep in on Tuesday. Today, we shopping in Pueblo. We started out warm and sunny, and now we have close to 3 inches outside and it is still falling.

There are a few other things going on, but I’m not going to post about them until the dust has settled.

Taking a deep breath

Posted on March 13, 2015 by

We headed to Denver in snowy weather the last week of February, on our way to a CASB conference. (Colorado Association of School Boards) Two days of Legislative Updates on what our local state politicians are up to. It was a pretty good conference, and we had a lovely hotel. Of course, there was about 10 inches of snow that fell while we were there. Thursday night we went to a COCatalyst.org meeting which was different.

Friday, Dan went off to get the car so we could head home. What should have taken 15 minutes took forever. The doorman at the Brown Palace heard that there had been a couple of accidents because of the snow, and of course I panicked a bit. My phone was in the car, so I finally borrowed a phone to call Dan. He was alright, just. He had literally bounced from one accident to another. We finally headed out of Denver about 90 minutes later.

On the way home, the “fun” started. Dan was feeling worse and worse. By the time we got home, he was ill. We thought he’d eaten something bad. Nope. A very Nasty Virus. And of course, two days later, I got it. Ugh! I haven’t been ill like that in 15 years. All we did for the next week was sleep. I did everything possible via phone or email.

My first outing was a Celtic Music Festival meeting. Dan drove. I spent most of Sunday and Monday trying to recover and get back on my feet. I survived the school board meeting on Tuesday, shopping with my mom, and the Tech committee meeting on Wednesday.

In the middle of that meeting, I got a call from my mom. My Aunt Debbie had a stroke. Thursday was crazy. A new washer for my parents, my dad having a bad Alzheimer’s day and waiting to hear about my aunt. They did a lot of tests, and the decision was made to take her off of all the machinery today. If she lasts the night, they will move her to hospice. I know it may sound rather cold hearted, but I truly hope that she passes quickly. My mom went up with my sister Jill this afternoon to be with my cousin and sister. Dan and I are staying here to take care of Dad. Plus, Morgan is due home from college for Spring Break today. Oh, and one of my favourite authors passed away. RIP Terry Pratchett.

What a exhausting couple of weeks.

Waiting is…

Posted on February 20, 2015 by

We are under a Winter Storm Warning. One that had people scrambling for groceries, firewood, batteries, etc. It even canceled our SCA event, Corazon. I took my mom to the grocery for a few things and then for a bit of a drive. It was crazy. Oh, and 62F was our high temp today.

When I got home, I made bread, a plum cake and then a casserole. While it was baking, I helped Dan with the firewood. We heat with it, and we’ve been whittling down a ‘hedge’ of pine. Today, we cleared the last of it. What wasn’t chopped, split, or stacked went into the compost bin. It was so strange to see the yard clear. By the time we came in, it was 38. We now have a bunch of firewood. 🙂