Once again. Sold!

SOLD!

Once again, the cabin has sold. This time for real. If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here.  Closing on April 1. All of the inspections have been passed, haggling has been done, appraisal was good. The problem in the Fall turned out to be the foundation which was a surprise since 11 years ago the cabin was declared to be a "solid well built little" place. Hmmm. Pretty sure nothing changed with the foundation in that time period.  

A "For Sale" sign out front. 

It's covered in snow right now.

So...I took the house off the market and tried to find someone to shore up the place. Ha! Finding someone to do the work was like finding unicorns in the grocery store. I finally decided to come down on the price and see what might happen...  Two weeks of showings and Voila! a contract. Actually two of them. And a tiny bidding war. And then an agreement. 

Love this little cabin, but it's time to move on.

So I am packing boxes and making collections for Goodwill and basically turning everything upside down. My last day of work will be this coming Friday.

Just a tiny bit of the mess I've made this weekend.

I will have neither a home nor a job and no clue as to how I'll support this next step. Fortunately I owned the cabin outright so there will be a little money to tide me over. And I intend to begin as I plan to continue. The goal is to never have another office job. The other goal is to do something creative.

Am I scared? A tiny bit. Excited? Definitely.  How many times in your life do you get to pick where you live?  I have a few requirements.  I want to live on a paved road with animals that won't eat me, have an airport within an hour, less winter than I have now and preferably a city under 100,000.

Out the front door today. I'm ready to be done with this.

This cabin has served its purpose.  It was the perfect place to land after my divorce. I've made fabulous friends, challenged myself more than I dreamed and interacted with more wild animals than I cared to. But...civilization beckons. 

To that end, I'll be subletting an apartment in Asheville, NC for a few months. If I love it there then I'll look for a permanent spot.  If not, I'll test drive Florida- I do have two daughters there. Mexico is always on the menu but with a dog and a cat I think that will be further down the road. I guess it's not impossible that I could end up back in Colorado or even Texas. But probably not.

Stay tuned. 

Wise words.

Life's a Challenge

Life's a Challenge...

and I don't mean that in a bad way, at all.  But I have been thinking about how I haven't done ANY of my Sixty by Sixty challenges in ages.  The List remains incomplete and unused.

BUT.  I have challenged myself a couple of different ways recently.  So maybe my challenges are just going to be more internal for a bit rather than activities or places.

My most significant challenge has been asking for, bargaining for and finally getting a much needed pay increase.  It's taken a few months and means I will have to change employers (although not actual jobs which is confusing but that's the way it is...) but it also means that not only am I getting a pay increase, but so are the two nurses that I work with.

The view out my work window.

A good reason to love my job.

I realized at my yearly review that I better be happy with the standard 3% increase as no one was going to say "Great job! We need to give you 20% more than you are already making."
At least not unless I asked.  
And I was NOT happy with 3%. I work my tail off, I'm a great employee and I have gone above and beyond this past year. So I said, no,  don't think so, I need more and outlined why in an email. A lot of back and forth but finally they came up with an agreeable amount.
Lessons learned?
Know your value.
And the one I always tell the kids: If you don't ask, the answer is always "no".


The other thing that I have had to challenge myself with is driving in the snow. I mentioned in the last post how Colorado was kind to me last year. Not so this year. There have been a few good snows, some ice and tons of cold weather. Over New Year's Eve I drove to Denver to stay with my friend Diana. It snowed all day on New Year's Eve, with about 2 or 3 inches accumulating in Denver.  BUT! At the cabin the inches of snow were piling up. Fifteen of them at least.

Snow from Diana's deck in Denver. 

An inch or so....manageable.

On New Year's Day I had to make the decision... drive home through the passes or through the canyon? Two ways to get from Point A to Point B and I had to weigh the pros and cons of each.  I've had scary drives going both ways. Drives that involved cars going off the road, cars going into the river, cars going into the mountains. Part of me wanted to just say "Eh, I'll wait and drive back to the cabin on Wednesday when the snow has melted." But my time off is limited and I needed to be brave.

Snow at the cabin.

Deep.

The mountain pass won and guess what?  It was a piece of cake. The anticipation of the drive was WAY worse than the reality. Roads were clear, snow packed in a few places, but the most dangerous part of the trip was pulling out of the Stop and Rob after getting gas. By the time I arrived home there were close to 18 inches of snow on the ground but my driveway had been cleared by the neighbor.
Lesson learned?
Like Nike™ says "Just do it."

Food. Salmon and brussel sprouts to be exact. Both über popular and neither my faves. I have tried salmon  many many times in an effort to acquire a taste for it, but nope.
It's ubiquitous.
People like to make it for meals. It's good for you. Ugh. I just couldn't.  But like a good girl, I've kept trying.

Finally, at my favorite restaurant in town, I tasted my companion's maple glazed salmon and then tasted again.  And again. Surprise! It tasted good.  Have my taste buds changed? Not sure. Have not had the opportunity to try salmon again but I'm willing to give it a go.

An acquired taste, I think.

But these were pretty good. 

Same with brussel sprouts. They really DON'T taste that great but I've had them prepared creatively enough that I can tolerate them. I recently had Brussel sprouts with bacon, parmesan, and cashews. YUM. Maybe it was the bacon that elevated them. Isn't everything better with bacon? They were so yummy that I made Brussel sprouts for dinner last night . Mine had balsamic vinegar and honey. Again, they were pretty yummy.
Did my taste buds change? Maybe.
Lesson learned?
Tastes change. For many things. Never quit tasting. Or experimenting.

So. Challenges. Not on a list. But little mountains to climb. And plant my flag on top.

My mountains.

My flag. 

Musings on Mountains, Majesty, Men and Murder

Musings on Mountains, Majesty, Men and Murder...


The mountains and skies around me have been drama queens. We got our first snow this week which is a big event in Colorado. The skiers get hyped up, predicting when the resorts will open. Boots and sweaters come out. Everyone is excited.

Before the snow came rain, and through all of it...amazing skies.

Rainbows on the way to work.

A double rainbow to start my workday

Sunrises to knock your socks off.

 No filter. Just your basic sunrise in paradise.

 Pink mountains with pink clouds behind. 

Pretty amazing, huh?!

The cool front coming in.

Sun shining on the foreground, mountains behind shrouded in clouds. 

And then SNOW!

I woke up to a car covered in white.

Had to run down to the basement for the snow scraper!

LOVE my new windows. 

The front yard got a good dusting.

The Twin Sisters are in hiding...

The view from my parking lot at work is pretty amazing. The Collegiate Peaks off in the distance, with snow caps on!

I'm surrounded by mountain ranges!

By the end of the day most of the snow is gone.

I love these first fall snows. They dump a couple of inches of white stuff, then the sun comes out, the temperature rises and it's another gorgeous fall day. Soon enough the temps won't rise above 40º. I'm in no hurry to get there.

Thursday morning's temps.

I'm not too big on turning the heat on in the house overnight so, yes, 

it was 58º in the living room.

And men? Sigh.

Inspired by my friend Libby who obviously has a stronger constitution than I do, I briefly signed up for online dating. So briefly my picture never got approved before I took my profile down.  Less than 12 hours. And why did I stop before I even  started?
Take a look.

Give Theatreguy points for smiling. At least I know he has teeth.

Bandit? What are you planning on stealing? The silver?

And the other two?  I can't even. 

These may be lovely gentlemen but seriously. Are these the best pics you can come up with? Just what/who are you trying to attract? Here's my bit of advice for guys on dating sites. Put down the fish. Have someone else take your picture. Smile so I know you have teeth. Come up with a name that makes me believe you won't rape, rob or carve me up at the first coffee date. 

This guy had about twelve different names, all with the same lovely picture.

However, as bad as these might be... Libby made me feel better. These are a couple of her favorite shots from Texas.  

Just No.

Again. No. 

I'll pass.

And murder? Maybe that should be mercy.

On my way to work this morning I passed a truck on the side of the road, three men in their thirties standing next to it, with a doe on the ground, calmly staring straight ahead. My brain snapped; they had struck her. Then I realized she must be very hurt to not be running off. A quick glance in the rearview got me an image I won't soon forget. A hand raised, two men turning away slightly, a trigger pulled and a head flying back.

I believe that is the first time I have ever witnessed something be shot. I'll be just fine if it is the last.  I'm grateful one of those guys had a pistol- the poor deer did not need to suffer. I know it was the right thing to do. Just a rough way to start the day.

Deer in the road. It's a fact of life around here. 

It's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when" you will hit one.

This is Bunny's car after she hit a BIG buck a few years back. 
The sheriff had to put that one out of his misery.

So...I'm going back to looking at the mountains. Tonight's drive home was magnificent.
And when I got home?
The Twin Sisters shining in all of their glory.

Snow at the higher elevations, nothing near me. 

Life here in South Central Colorado is different. So very very different from where I grew up in Houston, Texas. I marvel at the path that brought me here. I marvel at the things that are part of my daily life. 

Bear scat on the road behind my cabin,  a black widow spider on the wall outside my office door, mountains everywhere, beautiful skies, and freezing temps, sometimes indoors AND out.  It's now my life.  

Lucky me.

Ten Days In....

Ten days in ...

Ten days in to the New Year's "guidelines" and how am I doing?

Not too bad.

On "No. 1: Less sitting, more walking" I have made a dent. On the weekends I do the two mile walk each day with Carlos. Fortunately the weather has been fairly mild.  Usually by the time I get home at night, it is dark. Wednesday it started snowing about 8:00pm. What started as flurries quickly turned to buckets of snow. It had been "one of those days" at work and I needed to get out. I threw on my favorite camo quilted jumpsuit (straight from the little boys' hunting department at Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply), grabbed a flashlight and shoved the dog out the door. It was a serenely quiet and soothing walk, snowflakes fluttering around us. (Ok, they were pretty much dive bombing us by the time we headed home...but it was still lovely.)  As quickly as the snow started, it stopped and by the next  morning there were only traces left.

As quickly as it started, it stopped.

But a walk in the snow is the most peaceful walk there is. 

No. 2: Less social media, more socializing:  Well, that social media is still out there. And I still waste time on it.
But how's this for satisfying? Every day I have hit "unsubscribe" on two or three (or more) email subscriptions. Online shopping seems to sign you up for every store related to the one you actually bought something from.  My inbox has gone from crazy to manageable.
On Facebook, I hid some people. If every other post of yours is a sales pitch for whatever,  I am not reading you anymore. There's a wonderful little click that allows me to stay friends, click on your posts if I want and otherwise ignore every single testimonial you post. Liberating. I highly recommend it.
 For the socializing aspect, I did just that. Sunday night was dinner for the neighbors. Newsflash! My living area is too small for four people. Instead we all sat around the dining table and chatted, feasted on chicken enchiladas and brownies and had a lovely little visit. Neighbor A had not met Neighbor B. That is no longer true.  It wasn't a "crappy dinner party" because I did clean and vacuum. Hey! It pretty much hadn't been done since Christmas. It was time.

 I had every intention of photographing the merriment of dinner. 

Instead I have only the aftermath. 

And Sorry, Jean Mom. 

I kind of borrowed those Mexican runners and forgot to return them.

But don't they look fun? Colorful? 

The Mexican dishes came out of the cabinet for dinner.

Nothing like enchiladas with a side of lead poisoning. 

I figure the food wasn't on the plates long enough to kill us. 

There were also a couple of dinners out, another dinner in and some plans made.  Heading to Texas in March and I'm already lining up outings. The rodeo with Martha will figure prominently into that week. Can't wait.

Martha, Me, wine, great musical acts, bunches of pretty horses.

Pretty much sums up the 2017 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

No. 3 hasn't gone so well. How about lots of fruits and veggies and pasta and cheese and bread and BUTTER?  What can I say? It's winter and I want comfort food.

Chicken enchiladas with green chiles. 

And cheese. And sour cream. 

And more cheese. 

But green chiles!!! 

They are a vegetable, kind of, right? 

No. 4: Less TV, more reading has gone a little better.  I used to live in a house where the TV was always on.  The Nightly News and Letterman were my bedtime story.  (I miss Letterman. Must check out his interview with Obama on Netflix.)  I never liked that habit but somehow had continued it. No more.  I go to bed with a book or my Kindle and usually a few games of "Words with Friends".


More color? (No. 5) Not in the closet. Not yet. No shopping being done around here.
Outside, yes! Every morning I fight the urge to pull over to the side of the road and take pictures. Sunrises are amazing. The light, the colors, the mountains. It's a miracle I ever make it to work.

 Good morning! There's some color.

Ok. I did pull over for this shot. 

Right before I turned onto the highway. 

Look at that sky. 

I do have a couple of painting projects to complete which will bring more color into the house. And I made an executive decision to leave the Christmas tree up. Why not? The ornaments are leaves and pine cones and icicles highlighted with little white lights. Basically I am just bringing the outdoors in and lighting it up. The tree will come down when it is light outside when I get home. I'm thinking the beginning of March.

My rage against the dying of the light.*

A lit up tree in the house AND outside.

And No. 5: Obviously not much effort there since this is my first post in ten days. Couldn't even hit the "post once a week" goal in my first week of trying. O well.  With the help of friends I have hit on an idea for a long story, maybe even a book if I get motivated. It's all in my head right now but who knows? It will probably get typed out eventually.

And Dream Good? Only when I'm awake. The first of the year has brought absolute insanity into my work place with people fainting and yelling at each other and arguing with me and on and on and on..... At night I have passed out, dead to the world, and dreamt of nothing. But during the quiet moments of the day, my mind wanders and yes....I do Dream Good.

I hope you do too.

*from the poem by Dylan Thomas

Visitors

Visitors in the Night

Tuesday we woke up to the first little snowfall of the season. Only ½" but still a solid dusting.

As I went out to warm up Bunny's (my) car and clear the snow, I noticed some little dips on the railing.
A closer inspection revealed some teeny tiny footprints.

 Teeny little feet prints, maybe the size of a dime.

They travelled to my potted plant and then back.

I searched my Mammals of Colorado Field Guide and the closest I could come to these prints is some sort of weasel. It actually looks more like a tiny fox print but I don't think tiny foxes would be walking on my railings.    There were the same prints on the front porch, wandering up to another potted plant that had been left there. 

On the back railing, the birdies hopped around.

No idea what kind of birdy.

My Birds of Colorado Field Guide doesn't show

foot prints. 

Then Carlos and I took a walk.  And found more prints in the snow.

These are turkey prints. All over the place. Don't they know Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK? 

That's my footprint on the left which means these turkeys have enormous feet. 

These prints probably do belong to a little fox. Each paw print is about 1 ½" to  1 ¾" long. We see the fox at the end of the driveway a lot.

Surprisingly there were no bunny prints to be found, although usually they are alllll over the place. 

And somehow I missed the deer tracks. Thought I had a pic of them. O well. Missed Carlos's tracks also.

And fortunately there were no bear tracks. No mountain lion tracks. 

And no Chupacabras. 

Whew. 

Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts from a Random Mind...

Goodness.

So many thoughts running through my brain, none having to do with anything specific.

We are supposed to have snow tomorrow night. It will be the first snow of the season. I could wait a little longer for snow but I guess I don't have any say in this.  But judging from previous year's pics, it will be pretty.

Carlos in the snow- 2013

••••••••••••••

I live in a little town called Howard. Many locals call it "How-weird" because, well, because it fits.
But.
I am realizing that I am also surrounded by some amazingly creative people. 

One neighbor hand makes leather shoes for a company in New York. I'm pretty sure they qualify as "bespoke", a word that I have recently grown excessively tired of.  And he does this in a little log cabin studio on the side of a mountain surrounded by deer and horses.

Another neighbor makes gorgeous photo quilts. She has a fabulous little studio with alpacas outside her door. Under her cat's supervision (and the alpacas' ) she takes paper photos and turns them into fabric photographs. I wish I had some examples. They are quite impressive.

No pic of the quilts but one of Bunny with the alpacas!

Down on the highway, a regular customer from the coffee shop showed me the ski cabinets he makes. Beautiful custom cabinets to hold skis and boots and  jackets. I admired a pen and ink sketch on his wall and he shared his copy of it...slightly different but equally as intricate and impressive as the original artist's. 

Another regular customer is preparing for her upcoming East Coast gallery showing. She does mixed media work including textile assemblages along with more traditional paintings.

All of this makes me feel like a total slacker.  

••••••••••••

A few days ago I realized that in just 6 ½ weeks Bunny will be graduating from high school and I will be out of the "parenting a school kid" game. Although she just came in and told me she has her "Capstone meeting" in the morning.  Unsure of what that is, I asked. Apparently all of the Seniors meet individually with the Principal, Counselor and assorted other school officials and tell them about her experiences in school. She is collecting her test scores, academic achievement certificates, and college acceptance letters to share. The school wants to know how she has done and what her plans are. It is a requirement to graduate. What a fabulous idea. 

••••••••••

Also Bunny and I will be heading back to Texas in 6 ½ weeks and one day. Ugh. That means I have to pack up this little cabin and somehow cram two wardrobes, two people, one dog, a computer and Lord knows what else into two cars.  Maybe one car. Bunny really really wants to sell her car here where she knows she can get more money for it and then buy something smaller in Texas. 

Me and Bunny come December...

So between now and mid December I have to go through this cabin and dispose of all the accumulated ephemera. 
Pretty sure after this year no one will be attending school here so we will not need a gazillion notebooks and school supplies. Off to one of the schools they will go. 
Clothes that haven't been worn, that no longer delight or possibly no longer fit will be sent to my favorite consignment store or maybe just Caring and Sharing. (The local version of Goodwill...) 
The pantry and medicine chest need to be sorted. 
Pretty much every cabinet, every drawer and every closet needs to be looked at. There's a huge difference in closing the house for a few weeks or even for the winter and closing it down after having lived here for almost 3 years. 
I'm considering it practice. I cannot even imagine the shape of that Texas house. Having lived here for almost 3 years with only occasional trips to Texas means I have NOT lived in the Texas house for almost 3 years. Every time I have gone home I have thought "This place needs a dumpster."  So much stuff and no one has disposed of anything in my absence. 

•••••••••••••

And ...shhhh.... Christmas is around the corner. I've been thinking of presents to be bought. My goal is to buy them here from small businesses before I head back to Texas. Of course, that also means presents to be stuffed into that car. 

Before Christmas comes Thanksgiving. Bunny and I will be in Santa Fe for Thanksgiving. Belle is staying in Florida. The Big Guy and the Hubs will stay in Texas. Too much traveling to get us all together for a few days considering three weeks later it will be  Christmas, when we will all be home. (Yet. Where is "home"?)

I get the feeling this next 6 ½ weeks will fly. 
And my brain will not have the chance again any time soon to wander randomly.
So I guess I'm grateful it's getting a little exercise now.

*

me....

Won't you come into the garden?

Won't you come into the garden? 
I would like my roses to see you.*

Finally!

A garden update.
Sunday morning my garden looked like this:

Happy Mother's Day?!

Yep. About four inches of snow and everything underneath about to bloom.

I was a bit panicked, thinking everything would be dead. 

Fortunately, I was wrong. 

I have daffodils...

And the tulips are just starting to bloom...

I find it interesting that last year I bought expensive bulbs at the garden shop and they pretty much did nothing. This year I bought a cheap 200 bulb pack at WalMart and they are all up and  blooming like crazy. Not sure what the lesson is there or if there is one.

See?

Last year's tulips- no blooms, hardly any foliage.

And they actually look better this spring than they did last.

The volunteer grape hyacinth is going to town though.

I think I can, I think I can .

And this is going to be my pride and joy. I just know it.  These are my peonies although I am pinning all of my hopes on that larger one. Doesn't look like much but it was here when we bought the cabin and I have been working on getting it to grow ever since. We made some missteps like over mulching it. And last year it got divided and I was afraid that would be the death of it.
I LOVE peonies. They are my most favorite flower ever.  I have dreamed of owning an actual plant that produces actual peonies. That would be Heaven! And yes, I know.  I could just run down to the garden store and buy a grown up plant and I would have peonies and life would be perfect. But not yet. I want THIS peony to produce.   I may be asking too much but I'm not giving up yet.

Overall the garden has flowers with more to come.
I realized that the swing, which has been there since we got it a few years ago, was blocking my view.
The fact the swing needs refinishing did not help.
Also, no one ever sat in it because it was too far from the house to engage in a conversation with the porch sitters, but also faced the cabin which was silly. There's nothing but views and pretty surrounding this place- why look at the cabin?

 This bed used to be empty except for the logs and wagon wheel.

It's a big bed, takes a lot to fill it.

So the swing has a new spot and I can see the flowers from the house. 

 It needs a flowering pot on the end, I think.

All in good time. 

View from the swing.

This is where the deer graze every morning. 

And this is a much better view than staring at the cabin.  Look! Even the weeds are getting in on the action. Blooms in the grass....

What makes it a weed? 

I think these are pretty.

Crossing my fingers that was the last snow.  The tomatoes got burned a bit as did the basil.
Hopefully they will pull through and do what they are supposed to do.

I am ready for Spring!!!

*Richard Brinsley Sheridan. One of my favorite quotes. And there are roses in the garden,  just still very tiny.