May 26th, 2009 by admin

May has been a tough month full of family, financial, moving and health obligations and issues. It definitely could have been worse. I’d fill you in, but to do that I would have to relive it all, so I am opting to move forward.

Now I strangely feel I have little to say. Unfortunately the obligations that May brought won’t actually be over until the very end of May, so I may not post again until June.

North Dakota struck oil, so it is probably the only state with a surplus and not a deficit. I’m only mentioning it because I was half-tempted to drive up there and start a new life when May’s events and pressures threw me for a major loop.

I finally caught up on sleep, so I feel much better now.

My dad’s recovery from the heart attack in February is now officially complete! Yay! I am grateful to everyone who emailed me about his health. It made a difference.

May 8th, 2009 by admin

Date day was Wednesday. I’m finally loading the photos from the hike.

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Per my request, we went on an “easy” hike. Ron and I and our three dogs walked up the game trail that goes through the foothills at the back of our property. Mostly Big Horn sheep and deer created that trail but bear, bob cats, mountain lions, horses and people use it too.

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The hunters that come in the fall always tell me not to hike up the trail without a firearm. And one day my friend’s mom came by the property and the first thing she said was, “there are mountain lions here”. I usually just nod and smile.

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Then last year, after the bear broke into our RV and the mountain lions mauled a number of deer on our neighbor’s property, I finally asked Ron to teach me how to use a gun this summer, but I won’t have time to train until the end of July or August.

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Ron brought a firearm on the hike on Wednesday. I saw fresh bear poo as well as mountain lion scat, but didn’t see much wildlife besides birds. Maybe having three dogs helped.

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Russell and Halle, the two little terriers were great off leash: Russell lead the way and Halle followed just behind us. Ron had Willie on a leash, but she’s the best rock climber and jumper of all. Y’know, she’s a Min Pin!

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I didn’t get any photos of Russell because she was running around scouting, but here are three photos from one of our last breaks on the top of a rock outcropping above our property:

<Halle surveys the land below>

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<Water is good!>

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<It was warm and breezy - perfect for a day hike>

May 2nd, 2009 by admin

The weather was supposed to be good, but it started to rain as I put the last load in the car. It was so packed I couldn’t see out the sides or the back. Finally I began the two and a half hour trip to our summer home. As I neared the curvy and steep mountain passes it started to snow. Soon afterward I felt so sleepy I had to slap myself a couple times (hard) before I found a safe place to pull over.

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I was so tired I barely remember turning the engine off. I woke up about an hour and a half later with a migraine, nausea and intense light-sensitivity, but I was no longer sleepy.

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When I drove through the old mining town of Leadville, one of my windshield wipers snapped off. “Of course this would happen,” I thought to myself. I stopped and snapped it back on.

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Half an hour later, still in pain and squinting, I managed to drive right past the county road I live on. Upon finally arriving at our property, I stumbled out of the car and straight into bed where I debated (again) what was worse, the stabbing pain in my head or the nausea that always seems to define the word “misery” when you re-experience it.

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Ron brought me migraine medicine, unsalted saltines and ginger ale, all of which seemed to me like divine medicine. Nothing could be better than those three things, a quiet dark place to recline, and especially Ron’s care.

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Later, when I was able to have coherent thoughts, I thought about people who experience chronic pain daily and felt gratitude for my relatively pain-free life as well as for the opportunity to not be ignorant about physical pain.

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Thank goodness for my little dogs too. I never felt alone or scared because of them. When I was lying in bed feeling miserable, Halle the Yorkie slept on my head, with legs draped over every side of my head. I felt like someone cracked a warm furry egg on my head. Russell the Morkie licked my face lightly and Willie was nearby too, except I seem to remember her leaping over me like a little deer practicing for an agility competition.

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She’s a Min Pin. Need I say more?

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Oh yes, there’s my worry-wart sister. Even if I didn’t have the dogs, if I took any longer to make that drive, she may have called the local fire department to do a manhunt (person-hunt?) for me. I’m not even kidding, but that’s another story.

May 1st, 2009 by admin

I’ve always been adept at cleaning, packing and moving, so much so that I often help my family with their moves. However, this particular move has been enormously time-consuming and torturous. I almost hated it except that now that I’m done, I feel very satisfied with my work.

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The best part was painting the red tail hawk on the living room wall. The rest of the wall and trim painting was strenuous at best and makes for pretty boring pictures.

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I’ll just show the sketch of the hawk with Ron in the background. Yes, he is wearing something like five hats stacked on top of each other.

<Ron poses with the sketch>

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Here’s the completed red tail hawk. It’s a gift from me to the hardworking international raft guides who will be living in the apartment this summer.

<You can tell how big it is by looking at the light switch by the hawk's tail>

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I haven’t painted in years. It felt good to paint the hawk. There are tons of red tail hawks in Colorado. I can spot them easily now. Ron loves them. The downhill (alpine) ski racing course he works on is called “The Birds of Prey Downhill”.

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Six years ago I didn’t even know what a Red Tail Hawk looked like. Now they are a meaningful animal for me.