Springtime in the Rockies…

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Geeze! We had the ultimate in flip-flop weather this week. First part of the week was warm. Flowers were blooming, trees budding and even the wind was fairly warm. Well, this morning it was cool and cloudy. I took the kids to Badito, and the clouds followed me home. I wasn’t at the office more than 15 minutes when Dan said it was snowing. I looked out the window, and there were big fat flakes landing everywhere.

We brought some firewood in and got the fireplace going to warm up the office. Dan had broken a lot of the dead branches off of the tree in the front yard yesterday. Some of them had been ‘widow makers’, so we didn’t want to leave them hanging. It had been a real adventure as he went up in the bucket truck to reach the branches. Mom and I watched as he pulled these branches off and dropped them to the ground. We have a nice stack started which will probably last about four hours.

By 9am, we had to cancel the day’s activities that we had originally planned. There was no way that Dan was going to climb the tower to adjust the antennas in the snow. It was bad enough the other day in the wind.Dan up on Aguilar tower

Doing that kind of work in snow,…. No Way! So, we rearranged our workday and started on Friday’s work. By this time, we had nearly 5 inches of snow.

Snow outside the office.

This meant that I had to do all the editing of the various webpages. Hardest part was trying to find a Terms of Service policy. However, WordPress came to the rescue! Thank you WordPress!!! Spending 20 minutes reading through and altering that document saved me so much work. Then we had to edit our “how to” flier for both the Budget Host and Aguilar. I barely got started on that when Daniel called.

Because of the snow, he didn’t go to Trinidad for his building trades class. I dug out Blue, our Ford pick-up, and headed over to the school. I picked him up from school, grabbed the snow shovel and headed over to my parents. Daniel brought Oscar. While Daniel shoveled snow, Mom and I went to run some errands. I grabbed lunch while we were out, and we arrived back at the office just in time for Erin, Morgan and Logan to show up. We had him running around the office pointing and jibbering away like babies do while the phones were ringing and Dan was printing the first drafts of the fliers off.

The fliers looked pretty good. There are two of them, and each has unique bits. He started the run for the Aguilar fliers as we finished eating. Dad called, so I took Mom back over to her house. Daniel was ready, so we piled into the truck. Lovely…. mud, snow, steaming wet dog, Daniel and me. I dropped Daniel and Oscar off at the house and headed back to the office. Dad sent a bag full of wood that we added to the fire. :> Lovely heat!

Then it was back to answering phones, editing and Google searches for information. Wheee! Tonight when I head home I get to tackle laundry, clean house and hem up Morgan’s trousers she is taking on her trip to DC.

And maybe, just maybe if it’s warmer, we’ll go to Aguilar and while Dan climbs the tower to adjust antennas. I’ll deliver fliers. We’ve got both T-1’s up and running, software working and money being generated. Huzzah!!! This might turn out to be a business after all.:>

Brrrr!!!!

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    Oh gods is it cold! It’s about 28 degrees and trying very hard to snow.  We tried to get some winterizing done yesterday at 520 Penn, but… Dan and I ended up running to Pueblo instead. Got some of the stuff, but not enough. Came home tired enough to want to head straight to bed, but I needed to do catch up on laundry. Yerch… At least I got some of my story edited. I’m working on Sheeple at the moment.

Today, we woke up with the cold front breathing down our necks. This means we didn’t get to put the window glass in the kitchen, but have to deal with the leaky windows. brrrr! We also took a look at the heater in the kitchen. Dan almost electrocuted himself trying to disconnect it, as it was a wonky wiring job on a 220 line. Aieee!!! It means that we will be totally re-wiring the house instead of just sections of it. sigh….. glum….. sigh… I really was hoping to not have to redo the entire kitchen that way.

We also went down and got our copies of the Huerfano Journal! Huzzah!!! Very happy! Brian and Gretchen were glad to have the first one under their belts.

Tomorrow is turkey day. We are having home made pizza. I really don’t like turkey, so I tend to find alternative dinners for Tday and Yule.

Literary Ramble

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I have been editing various stories I have worked on over the last 5-6 years. Some of them are very vanilla, and “family” acceptable reading. Others delve into those shades of adult reading and items best left to places like Literotica.

What I find interesting is how things have changed. I’ve gotten much better at dialog. Especially the punctuation. Oh gods was it messed up before… I’ve also gotten more comfortable describing realities. I can even write a sex scene that the FCC wouldn’t get too overheated about and still have it make sense. (woohoo!) Not that I really care to, but it is a necessary skill at times.

Hardest part I find though with my writings are the jumps in genre and the cases of “how the hell do I finish this!” The one story I did finish, got comments of “Good!”, “I like it”, and “When are you writing more of it?” sigh…. In fact the single biggest comment was that it was too short. The skips in genre are frustrating in their own way. My mind gets set on a path and then all of a sudden my brain says, “Look at the Kitty!” and off I go on another story that just has to be written on right then and there. Fickle muse! I have tried to “be good” and stick to the story I am on, but often I find myself stuck until I go back and finish the bit my brain has cooked up. It’s like trying to get a song out of your head that has gotten stuck there. You either have to sing the whole damned song, or totally distract yourself. I’m obviously not so good at it, because I have five incomplete stories and a bunch of ‘finished’ stories that are really chapters of a book I’ve yet to write all the bits connecting it together.

I keep promising myself I’ll get my writing organized. (all of you who know me can stop laughing any time now) I guess that will have to go into that same category of dreams about organizing my house, sewing, crafts and life in general.

I even tried using a notebook where I could write down all the tantalizing bits that generate stories in my head. However, that didn’t work very well. It just sort of coagulated the stories more firmly in my head instead of making it possible for me to ignore things until I finished something. Also, lots of what inspires me are visual clues. Pictures, phrases I read or things I see on my daily travels.

dan.jpg

This picture of Dan on a rock inspired a work that is now 150+ pages. And, from what is in my head, it is only about 1/4th of the way written. Another story was inspired by a dream. Others are products of dares and creative competition. All in all, it is a rather random way to be inspired, but it works. Now if I could only get things finished.

Time to go type!