True to My Word

True to My Word...

Last I wrote I was contemplating taking the rest of the summer off. And I did.

My goal was to enjoy the most of a full Colorado summer and I did the best I could. This is the first time I've spent an ENTIRE summer here.

While I still had to work a 40 hour week I managed to tick off some boxes.

Camping (once)

Sunset at the campsite by Lake Deweese.

Fishing (once)

Also at Lake Deweese. 

I confess I was not enamored with this style of fly fishing although I did catch one fish.

Dinner outside (lots) with visitors (not enough)

Visitors, neighbors, friends. 

This was my favorite dinner spot. 

And I came up with a new favorite recipe:

shrimp tacos with mango salsa

Trips (A couple that required plane rides, others that did not.)

It's a miracle. I had leg room on the way to visit these chicas...

Destiny and Bunny in Oxford, MS.

They were kind enough to include me in Bottomless Mimosa Sunday.

Live music outside

Second generation Allman Brothers Band kids at Riverside Park

(Devon Allmän and Duane Betts)

Also at Riverside, the US Air Force Academy Band

Live music inside

Pike and Sutton at the Steamplant

Planted a not very successful garden

The garden needs amending and more rain.

Next year.

Had dinners at new places and old favorites, spent time with friends and family

 With Libby at Bar Louie in Sugar Land

Also in Sugar Land: Jean Mom, the Big Guy, Bunny, me and a bunch of great nieces and nephews.
(Even though Belle lives the closest to me, she never stopped by long enough to have her picture taken.)

With brother Steve in Breckenridge

and Bunny even made it to the cabin for a couple of hours to hug Carlos.

(Carlos HATES to have his picture taken)

Accomplished some home improvement projects - the most exciting of which was new windows.

Drew- the window guy extraordinaire. 

Not one window in this cabin was done correctly- but now they all are.

Or maybe it was my blue dinner table.

Dinner with a view. 

Or my blue bedroom wall

Love how a little paint can make such a huge impact.

Or the doors on the shed

 The shed is part of the view out the front window. 

These doors make me so happy.

Even if they don't match.

I saw the start and finish of a burro race!

A fuzzy contestant

And they are off. 

13 miles on a mountain trail.

Went to the hot springs but I never got into the river to raft. I wanted to hike but I didn't. Next week.

All in all it was a great summer.  Work started out awful and confusing and mostly STRESSFUL. Now it has settled into a routine and has once again become kinda fun.

Heading into fall I have some decisions to make. My job is great but the pay is awful. The cabin is paid for and I love it but it's also in the middle of nowhere.  New job? New city? Or figure out a way to make it all work?

We shall see.

Here's to fall. My most favorite time of year here.

Six Things From April...

Six Things from April....

What can I say?
It's been over a month since I've written.
Why?
I'm not sure.
I came back from Texas and I've been busy?
I've been living life instead of writing about it?
It's been beautiful outside and I can't stand to be in?

I think the answer lies somewhere amongst all of these excuses reasons.

What have I been up to?

1. I had put the word out at the dump that I was looking for a gate. I love my dump. Every Saturday I drive to the little dump/transfer station where I hand over my money and my trash. I had asked them to keep an eye out for some gates as Carlos needs a fence and I wanted a functional gate on the back deck. Not two weeks after putting that bug in the dump owner's ear, I pulled up to see the perfect little gate waiting for me.  For TWO dollars!!  (The mirror that matches my vanity also came from the dump. It's a treasure trove of cast offs.)

Is that a perfect fit or what? 

It took a bit of searching for the hinges but with a little help (i.e. I held the hinges in place while someone else drilled the holes and screwed them in place.) I managed to get the gate installed. The latch part took about 4 trips to the True Value and lots of brainstorming.  After 7 years of having a sideways fence piece held up with twist ties and closed with cinder blocks, I now have a functioning, opening, closing, latching gate.

A Carlos-proof latch.

Next project is the second door on the shed. Neighbor Beverly was over on Sunday and we figured out how to make the current unattached door work without using any major power tools. Yay. Stay tuned.

2. I visited some fossils and dinosaurs. Love a good museum and the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park delivered. Tons of dinosaur bones, many from the Colorado area. Their signage could use a little work and the Houston Museum of Natural Science is bigger and better in the dinosaur department, but for an afternoon of entertainment- this worked.  (Also, the difference is tiny town private museum and fourth largest city in the US and lots of funding.)
Also visited the redwood fossils near Florrisant, Co. Had no idea there used to be redwoods here...but the trunks are there to prove it. Sadly most of the  fossils and trees had been carted off as curios, but a few remain and are now closely guarded. It was a beautiful day and the one mile trail around the tree trunks was a perfect way to kill an hour.

A huge redwood stump. 

So sad that most of the forest was carted off as souvenirs.

3. For a few years now I've dreamed of an outdoor table. Nothing fancy but I KNEW I didn't want plastic or traditional outdoor stuff. My plan was to buy an inexpensive wood table at the local Caring and Sharing (or somewhere along those lines) and just stick it out in the  yard, surrounded by an odd assortment of chairs. The budget was no more than $50 for the table and no more than $10 a chair. Knowing wood will not hold up for long unprotected under the Colorado sun I fully expect the life span to be maybe two years.   I found the perfect table at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Buena Vista and it was $40.  Even better, it came with not one but TWO leaves so there can be a party! My original thought was to put it on the side yard but one day it hit me. Out front it is level and exactly where the table needs to go. So it did. I found a few chairs at the Amish thrift store in Cañon City and Beverly is donating a few too in exchange for a  "seat at the table" come summer dinners. The whole mess is  going to be painted with chalk paint and it may or may not be sealed. No matter what it is going to look darling and be the perfect spot for summer breakfast lunch and dinner.

It's a start. The table will be almost navy.

Chairs will be shades of blues and greens. 

Doesn't it look like the perfect summer dining spot?

I'll have to teach the deer not to poop in the dining room.

4. I've been to some new restaurants, mostly in Buena Vista. BV is a little town past Salida, exactly an hour from the cabin and since I work there on Wednesdays, I've had the opportunity to explore. There are some really wonderful restaurants...I'll do a review or two soon. For Labor Day Dierks Bentley is doing a country music festival (Seven Peaks Music Festival) there and I am thrilled to be so close. Hoping to wrangle some tickets like I did for the Gentlemen of the Road show a few years ago.

5. And mostly? I've been working. Love my job but it is going through a "transition period" to say the least. Doctors are changing and while the current doctor is out, no one seems to know who will be replacing him. There is no schedule beyond mid June which makes scheduling a challenge and overall there is a sense of confusion. Not a very comforting position to be in but I am confident it will all work out.

 My little desk with no counter space. 

We have been BUSY!

And some of my favorite patients:

 Bailey (L) belongs to a doctor as does Wynn on the right. 

They stay down in oncology most of the day. 

 Tucker (above) and Ringo (below) 

are therapy dogs. 

6. And last but not least, look what I got! 

A fishing license!

The waders are on order. I'm going to learn how to fly fish for real. No. 58 is going to be completed!

So maybe for the summer posts will be once a month. Maybe there will be a hiatus. Maybe I will get back to weekly.
Who knows?
In the meantime...get out and live your life. Get off the computer and the phone. That's what I have been trying to do.

A Fly Fishing Attempt

No. 58: Fly fishing- take a  lesson. 

I didn't quite get a real professional lesson but I certainly had an experienced fly fisherman try to teach me.  Try being the operative word.

Wynne, my teacher for the day, decked out like a pro.

When I was in Lake City with Liddy, she convinced her patient husband, Wynne,  to take me out on the river and try to teach me to fly fish.
Decked out in all of Liddy's gear, with a pole in hand, I hit the South Fork of the Gunnison River. Wynne wins the prize for patience and determination. We started near a bridge on their property. He instructed me on the proper way to cast. Then he told me just to fling it. He was being pretty realistic about my skills. Trying to keep my wrist straight, I got pretty good at putting the fly close to where I wanted it. 

Wynne was smart and put a bobber on my line, knowing that the trout are pretty quick and by the time I felt one, it would be gone. But guess what? Even SEEING the strike, I missed the fish. 

We tried closer to the bridge, on the other side of the bridge and even through the bushes and upstream to a deeper spot in the river. 

Three or four strikes, no fish. I was too slow. 

Threatening skies and thunder echoing through the mountains cut my lesson short. 

The fish were safe for another day. 

BUT...

I've done it before and I WILL do it again. 

Thirty something years ago I caught this one little trout...also in the South Fork of the Gunnison, also in Lake City. As I know so well, lightning CAN strike twice in the same place. Just not this time. 

A much younger me pretty delighted with myself for catching a fish!