No. 27 Jewelry making- refresh the silver soldering lessons.

No. 27- Refresh the silver soldering lessons.

First. I'm back. At least for a post. 

I've had a summer. 

My job changed, then didn't change, then changed again literally 4 days before it was supposed to end. The whole mess was exhausting and after six months of uncertainty, it turns out nothing changed after all.

And now I am on the cusp of Fall again in Colorado. It's been a lovely warm September but last night we had our first little cool front. Temps dropped at night and this morning I had my friend, the little yellow snowflake light, on my dashboard signaling a temperature below 38º.

But before I got to this cool spot, I went on vacation!   My first real vacation where I went where I wanted to and didn't just take care of kids or visit family or attend a wedding or shower.

Forty five years after starting college (so to speak) in Mexico, I returned to the scene of the crime with my two room mates for a reunion. Mind you this was the 45 year reunion of the START of our college careers as I don't think anyone ever finished school at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende.

Cathy (w/ Macho), Cherrilla (w/ Mugsy) and Me (w/ Mathilda and an unfortunate hair do)

Cherrilla lives full time in San Miguel now, joining our friend Jay who wasn't a room mate but was a friend back then. Cathy lives in Virginia, I live here in Colorado but we rented a house in "el Centro de San Miguel" for the week to go visit. Cathy had not been back for 40+ years. For me it had been 7. 

We didn't get the order the same but at least we got a pic of the 3 of us.

Cherrilla, Cathy, Me.

No pets. 

Our little house had been rented through Air BnB and it was perfect. Great location with 3 floors and 2 bedrooms and a balcony overlooking the Parroquia. The bathroom had a bathtub big enough to swim in which is basically heaven for me.

Our first morning Cathy woke up early and snapped this amazing pic from our balcony. 

That's the Parroquia glowing on the right. 

I slept through the sunrise. 

And...while Cathy was flipping through Air BnB offerings, she discovered classes. She sent the link to me and it took me about 5 seconds to find the silver working class.

 The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Forty five years later we are still learning.

 So...45 years to the month from the first time Cathy and I took silver working classes together, we returned to class. Our teacher this time was American, the class was only four hours and we learned the one thing I have been begging people to teach me: the basics of silver soldering.  I knew most of it but did not really want to practice on sterling silver without some guidelines. 

Enter our teacher, Nicole Williams, who made the class basic and fun and most importantly, gave me the confidence that yes, I can do this at home. 

Nicole explains the finer points of ring design.

We made simple wire rings- a set of 5 that stacked. 

Cutting up the solder...

Cathy places the solder carefully on her rings. 

Can you believe I was allowed to use a propane torch? 

Since we were so efficient and finished early, she taught us a couple of other tricks like twisting the wire to make a chain effect and doing a "spaghetti wire" ring where the wire was wrapped and soldered together. Let's just say we learned a technique and will hopefully be able to improve our skills with the more advanced efforts.  Our wire stacking rings were a huge success, though. 

Struggling to wrap the wire for my "spaghetti ring".

So. No. 27 is complete. Maybe I will finish the other challenges before I turn 70. Maybe not. But certainly I am thrilled to have completed this one. 

Now. All I need are supplies. 

Fiesta:Part Tres

Fiesta Part Tres
(No. 87: Go to Fiesta in San Antonio
(for Parts Uno and Dos go here and here.)

Saturday in San Antonio, after our full day Friday of judging and partying, was thankfully duty free.
Left to our own devices, Liddy and I grabbed another Uber and headed to the King William Fair.

A nineteenth century residential area located on the south side of the San Antonio River, the King William district is a feast of gorgeous old homes. The fair is the major fundraiser for the King William  Association, a non-profit organization whose goal is to preserve and protect the oldest historic district in Texas.

I didn't get a lot of pics because a) it was crowded and b) it was hot.   When it's hot, I get cranky.  

Lots of people, lots of booths.

But we met up with Felicia and Tom from Thursday night and visited Felicia's sister's booth, the Champagne Mermaid. Sandi of Champagne Mermaid learned her jewelry skills at my old school, the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende. I took that same silver working class but obviously did not get as much out of it. It is on my list though to refresh my silver soldering skills. (No.27: Jewelry making- refresh the silver soldering skills)

Then we moved on, walking the district and stopping occasionally to shop. My big purchase of the day (weekend) was a Mexican shirt. Haven't had one in ages and I was super happy with this one. 

Love all the embroidery

We wandered the streets admiring the  old houses until our stomachs started rumbling and I needed air conditioning. 

One of the gorgeous old houses. 

Wish we could have seen inside some of them. 

Another Uber ride (with, amazingly, the same driver who had brought us there) got me and Liddy back to the hotel and our cars. A quick drive down Broadway took us to an air conditioned, uncrowded Mexican restaurant where I'm pretty sure I downed a full gallon of iced tea. 

For Saturday night we were lucky enough to have the use of a house from a friend who happened to be out of town.  Right in Olmos Park, it was the perfect spot to rest and cool down. We finished up our evening with snackies at the Broadway 50 50, once again meeting up with Tom and Felicia and their family. What a welcoming group.  

The whole weekend was a blast.  I felt like we really got the feel of San Antonio and especially Fiesta. 

Again many many thanks to all of my friends who made it possible for us to experience this fabulous weekend. I am beyond blessed to have such wonderful, supportive friends. Y'all are the best!

•••••••••••

And now I am packing and packing and purging and cleaning. Putting the house we've lived in for 17 years on the market. Do you know how much stuff a house accumulates in 17 years?? A LOT.

A surprise arrival from Florida of Belle and her little dog- for the summer- made my day but complicated my cleaning. I thought I was going to be able to store stuff in her empty room.  Wrong! And then last night Bunny got home with yet another car full of stuff. 

Carlos, Dakota and Belle. 

Dakota is a Tri-pawed dog. 

He's missing one of his front legs. 

And where are we moving to? Don't know yet. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

Definitely it will be an adventure. 

No. 4: Performance at Red Rocks

No.4: Performance at Red Rocks

Imagine. In spite of the pandemic, I managed to make it to Red Rocks Amphitheatre for a performance.

For those not in Colorado, maybe Red Rocks needs an introduction. It is a natural open air amphitheater outside of Denver. An amazing setting tucked amongst some enormous red rocks (hence the name)  with naturally occurring perfect acoustics. Many artists consider it their favorite place to perform.  If you want to know more, click here. The theater seats almost 10,000 people.

The view from the top entrance to the theater.

The Colorado Symphony has been experimenting with small sections of the symphony playing to a limited number of performers. Tickets were procured for the weekday performance of the brass and percussion sections. Maximum number of tickets sold: 175.  Which means we pretty much had the place to ourselves. I counted. Somewhere between 150 and 170 people were there the same night we were. 

From the top, looking down on the seating and stage. 

Pretty amazing set up.

Of course, we needed refreshments and I had my first White Claw which I suspect pretty much makes me a 20something, doesn't it?  Only one concession stand was open and our choices were limited- beer, wine, coolers, soft drinks, pretzels and chips. So much for dinner.

My first foray into the land of hard seltzers. 

Turns out it was pretty yummy.

Here was the set up for the symphony sections:

17 performers more or less and one conductor

The music obviously could not be full on classical with such a limited orchestra so there was an assortment. Some classical, some Star Wars, a march, it was a nice combination. And the best part? It was all acoustic, NO amplifiers. (Well, the conductor had his amp so we could hear his voice. The instruments needed no amplification.) 

The conductor, Christopher Dragon (what a GREAT name) made the evening. There is a reason he is so thin. He never stopped moving, dancing, jumping the entire performance.  He even played the drums at one point. 

 Goodness, he was having fun.

While I don't feel I got the full experience...parking was convenient and just a few steps from the entrance, no crowds hence no combined anticipation of a large group waiting for something to begin...it was very special. And now, I've been.

Me and Friend, appropriately masked, at the end of the night. 

And just in case the musical aspect of a Red Rocks performance did not qualify, a second trip to Red Rocks that same week cemented my completion of No.4.

We went to the Drive-In! Film on the Rocks, presented by the Denver Film group, has movies in the parking lot of the amphitheater.  Admission is one set price per car and includes two Coke products, popcorn, and two boxes of candy. (Twizzlers and M&Ms!) Every show day except Sunday they also offer the pre-purchase of a ChickFilA sandwich and waffle chips. We saw Clueless. It was perfect except we needed to do a little better planning. Cars are too smart these days. The sound comes through your radio but few cars allow you to turn the car off and leave the radio on. At least not long enough for a two hour movie. Once the radio cut off, the car had to be restarted which meant the lights came on and then the parking lot attendants came over to tell us to turn the lights off. And so went the night. A portable FM radio solved that problem when we went again last night to see Field of Dreams.

While waiting for the movie to start they have entertainment.

So, No. 4 is done. I followed up with adding to No. 65: Travel to new states and repeating No.77: Continuing Education: Take a class.  Technically I completed No. 77 last year with my silver working class but more education is ALWAYS a good thing.

Stay tuned.

Also, wash your hands, wear your mask and VOTE. (Register, request your mail in ballot, whatever you need to do.)

Less than two months

Less than Two Months!

Yikes! I have less than two months until I turn sixty. And I'm supposed to have this list finished. 

Not gonna happen.

O well. 

When I made this list, I lived in a different world. Seriously. Right outside the fourth largest  city in the United States with every imaginable opportunity/product/event at my fingertips. An airport within an hour's drive. The beach an hour away in the opposite direction. Traffic, stores, MALLS!! and lots of people.

About one third of the way through the list I ended up in a tiny rural town of maybe 1200 people. When I go to "town", that means about 7000 people, a Wal Mart, a grocery store (Safeway) and  a Murdoch's Ranch Supply. The closest airport is two hours away but the one that we usually have to fly out of/into is a good 4 hours away. Mountains are everywhere but no beach.

Me on the beach in Florida.

Where I won't be at Thanksgiving.

Which is why No.13: Thanksgiving at the beach won't happen. I had hoped to spend Thanksgiving with Belle in Florida. But Bunny and I were in Florida back in September. Last week Belle was here. I just put Belle on the plane back to Florida from Colorado (twice- TSA lines at the airport took over an hour, she missed her first flight because of it) so it seems silly to go visit her again so soon. Besides, Bunny has a severe case of Senioritis and since she has already missed 5 days of school and she graduates in December, I cannot condone her missing any more school. The hubs and the Big Guy are staying in Texas for Thanksgiving, Belle will be in Florida and Bunny and I will stay here. Or somewhere near here. I'm open to suggestions.

No. 11: Get something published....well, I guess I can say I have self published my own blog. Some things I have no control over but it doesn't hurt to put them out there. For now I will consider it accomplished. Multiple times. 

No. 27: Refresh those silver soldering lessons doesn't seem feasible. I've asked around and no one teaches silver working classes. I'll have to wait for civilization to take a class. I could probably pick it up from YouTube but the supplies are expensive enough that I prefer not to make a lot of mistakes trying. And I want to be able to repair the jump rings on my bracelets, so I don't want to ruin my favorite jewelry with inexperience. 

As an alternate I've decided to refresh my leather working skills. More on that later this week.

A little leather pocket on an inspiration bag.

The next one will be all leather. 

No. 19: Go up in a hot air balloon could be done here. But hot air balloons require very early morning departures and the hot air balloon rides nearest me are still 2 hours away or more. So I thought maybe a helicopter ride over the Royal Gorge. That's only an hour away and doesn't require me to pop out of bed at 4am. Or earlier. Except. I just checked.  Helicopter season was over October 15. Oops. O well. I've got some ideas for that hot air balloon in the future. 

No. 55:See a polo match.  Wrong season. Wrong place. I was hoping when Bunny and I went to Florida to visit Belle in September we might have been able to catch a polo match, but no. Wrong season there, also. If I had stayed in Texas, it would have been done by now. Never occurred to me that possibly there was polo in Colorado, but I just checked. There is. I just missed the season. Again, it will happen. Just not in the next two months.

Nos. 57 and 58 should get done. Ice hockey game and fly fishing. Seriously. I live less than 3 miles from one of the best fly fishing spots in the U.S.  And ice hockey is in Denver, 4 hours away.  Colorado Springs has ice hockey but not professional. We shall see....

No. 28: Learn to shoot a gun. I could do that here. But it may take more effort than I am willing to expend in the next 7 weeks. The weather has changed and do I really want to spend a few hours outside in the cold? No.  It could be done easily in Houston. That can wait.

No.7: Learn calligraphy is another one that would benefit from a larger locale.  I tried teaching myself but I was not successful. Someone that reads handwriting would have a heyday with my script. It can be bold, cursive, block letters, leaning left or right. Depends on my mood. So to tame my propensity to be all over the page- literally- I need professional help. 

No. 24: Organize all those photos.  Well, I have made a dent in the digital photos that I have here with me on my computer. But a gazillion photo albums lurk in the cabinets back in Texas. 

No. 5: Go the opera or ballet.   I hope to accomplish this one once I am back in Texas. Not before my birthday but before the end of the year. I always love The Nutcracker. Time to go again. 

And No. 1:Big 60th Birthday Trip.  That one is planned. There will actually be two little trips. One in February to S. Padre Island (a place I have never been) and the second to Lake City, Colorado in June.  That's a place I have been to many times and will be thrilled to go back. 

But seriously? With this group of women I could go to the La Quinta in Podunk and have fun. 

Fifty out of Sixty. That doesn't sound so good. BUT. The whole point was to get me out of my routine, to reunite me with some aspects of myself that I had let fall by the wayside. I have certainly accomplished that. 

And the ones that don't get done? Ninety by Ninety!!!
(I've already got the blog name reserved...)

Voilà! Asheville and gone again...

 Asheville and then gone...

For Part One of this odyssey, click here.

This is Part Two where my friend and I leave Asheville after dropping off my car load of stuff and head South. 

From Asheville we headed to Saint Augustine for the night. It was too long of a drive. We ended up having a decent seafood dinner at a loud touristy seafood restaurant in Saint Augustine Beach after a very harrowing wrong turn into a dead end street. Poor Roger thought he could get through behind a building but..oops!..that was not the case. He went about half way down the street before he realized it was a total dead end, not even a cul-de-sac to turn around in.  Which meant he had to back up 27 feet of RV with another 10ft of car hauler on this narrow street at apparently the exact hour all of the residents arrived home. And no one was interested in waiting for us, instead they just yelled at us because "people are always turning around here, it says 'no outlet'". Ok. Thanks. That was so helpful. We made a mistake. No one died and nothing was run over. Roger persevered and was still smiling once we got turned around. Whew.

Also, there was zero social distancing or mask wearing at that touristy restaurant. Thank goodness for being vaccinated. 

Saturday we arrived at the Lion Country Safari RV Park outside West Palm Beach where Belle lives with her very patient and sweet boyfriend. We dumped the RV, loaded up the dog (Miss Mina stayed behind in the air conditioned comfort of the RV)and headed to the Hilton Canopy hotel which backs up to Belle's condo. We were immediately whisked away to dinner at PB Catch. Lovely and quiet and not touristy- the perfect antidote to the previous night. The seafood was excellent. Drinks followed at the Leopard Lounge. Check out their cool ceiling. 

I loved this painted ceiling with faces. 

 After dinner Belle and Mitchell came back to the room to see Carlos and it was such a happy reunion. Roger's daughter, also living in West Palm for the winter, stopped to see Carlos, too, as she had lived with him last summer.  I'm sure Carlos was totally confused but also so happy to see all of these people that had disappeared on him.

And Sunday was sad. Belle came out to the RV park to see Mina and then Roger and I made a mad dash through Lion Country Safari. Well, as mad a dash as you can make on a busy Sunday. 

Belle looking a little two-headed with me behind her. 

But look how happy she is to see Mina.

Belle brought both Carlos and Mina home as a teenager and then promptly moved away-

 leaving her pets with me. 

Sigh. Isn't that how it always goes? 

This ostrich pecked at everyone's decals.

A whole line of cars was waiting for him to get out of the road and 

he took advantage and inspected everyone's windshield.

Once the animals had been seen, Roger and I  parted ways.  He headed to his daughter's to pick up some furniture to haul back to Colorado. I drove to Tampa to see Bunny. While I am confident that I don't want to live in Colorado full time, I am certainly going to miss my friend.  I'm working on convincing him he can live in two places. 

Miss Bunny was just as happy as Belle to see her family pets. Carlos was not quite as welcoming to Bunny's boyfriend without Roger around. Carlos takes his family protection VERY seriously. Fortunately, that was short lived. 

Me, Carlos, Bunny.  

He really was happy to see her even though he looks concerned here. 

Carlos frequently looks concerned. 

We had a lovely quick dinner at the boyfriend's parents' house and then I came back to her house and crashed. All of that driving just caught up with me. 

I stayed an extra day at Bunny's house, ran some errands and then met the sweet boyfriend and family for another dinner at Bartaco. Confusing ordering online but the tacos were yummy. I just wanted someone to take my order, though, rather than figure out how or if I had ordered my dinner. 

Tuesday morning Carlos, Mina and I were loaded in the Subaru and off. 

All of this traveling is just exhausting.

My goal was Savannah. I had booked a boring hotel on the highway since I had the animals with me. But then I had an Aha! moment. I REALLY wanted to see downtown Savannah. It's hard to leave Carlos in a hotel room though because he opens the door and lets himself out. But I downloaded a walking tour on my phone, told Mina to behave and off the two of us went to explore Savannah. And O!  Driving into downtown I had the instinct to just ditch Asheville and move to Savannah. How beautiful. 

There were statues...

It even SMELLED good. We gave up on the tour pretty quickly- I got turned around reading the map- and just wandered. So many people out, the parks are gorgeous, the downtown historic district was amazing and I just don't understand why I'm not living in one of those beautiful historic townhomes.   I WILL go back. It's also on my Zillow morning real estate porn list now.

And trees dripping Spanish moss...

Plus historic buildings with gorgeous stairs.

The next day I loaded up the animals and decided to visit Tybee Island before we left the area. Only 30 minutes from downtown, it seemed a shame not to go. But...it turns out dogs are not allowed on the beaches at all. So I went to the Lighthouse-climbed all 150 stairs to the top- and took a picture of the beach at least. It looked so inviting.  Again, I will go back.

The Tybee Island Lighthouse.

My legs were sore for dayyyyyyssss.

And the beach. No dogs allowed, $300 fine. Bah humbug.

And then...

we headed North West.   Arrived in Asheville early evening. And have been here ever since. A total of 3200 miles traveled to get here.

I did wake up the first morning in this very sparsely furnished apartment and think "what the Hell am I doing?"  I have a blow up air mattress, two chairs and a folding table. One friend in Asheville, another couple in Hendersonville just 30 minutes away are my only connections. 

Then I remembered the rule I used when I moved to Colorado full time. Do it like you mean it.

Also I reminded myself that there is no law that says I can't change my mind. This is an exploratory adventure. I can live just about anywhere. This is my time to figure out where that will be. 

So I researched parks, museums, contacted a woman about a silver working class, joined MeetUp, and  perused Bumble. (Bit of a waste unless I'm looking for Conservative Christians...a group I have soured on.)  Took the first two days to put the apartment in order and stock the kitchen.  Joined a MeetUp group for Taco Tuesday. Met some new people. Visited the arboretum and walked Carlos until we both dropped. It's exhausting being social after a solid year spent with basically one person. But.  I am doing it like I mean it.

So much green at the Arboretum.

Friend Diana is coming this weekend. I am slowly getting plans in place for the rest of the month. I do want to go spend some days in Savannah. I've heard its a great place to visit, but not so great to live. I need to see for myself.