Happy Solstice

I'm a day late, but the solstice day found me fatigued,and I missed the timely observation. Mary and I were in a festive mood last night reflecting on and projecting forward on the consequence and opportunities my position in Greeley brings. After the holidays until now have been an anxious period. I will need to retire someday in the next few years. Landing this job gives me a break to arrange our affairs for a smoother return to the Rancho Groucho. Back in Loveland, birds roosting in the tall pine outside our bedroom window tweet at around 4:00 a.m. No such alarm here, only the cool breeze blowing through the windows. I am composing this entry on my iPhone in the living room, it's very tedious. I will stick to the Mac mini in the green room. However, if any of you Tweet, I could start sharing just in time observations and insights via @delnortian.

Two Months Later

Dear Ones, a correction - I mentioned in these posts that I had been married 27 years. A pity as it was 37, now closer to 38. However, what's a few years between best friends? A decade or so ago Mary and I dealt with the illness of her dad and from then after returning a struggle. I was lucky to find work after returning from Dallas, more fortunate to have landed the position that pulled us away from the homestead in southern Colorado to a new life in northern Colorado. Though our only son was far away, we found ourselves close to the four daughters. "I can't believe we're living in Loveland" and "Back to the 'Burbs" were frequent outbursts the first two years, even after Mary found a remarkable little foreclosure with lots of space I grew to love. However, it is all up in the air, that old black magic pales and I have to re-tool and re-market myself for one more trip up the sigmoid curve - look it up!
For now, we are back to the homestead to prepare the grounds for the best wedding experience we can muster for our second ranch wedding. Not ironically, who can foresee the weather, climate or fire season, it occurs during another dry spell marked by smoke and fire bans. Let 'em try to stop us from roasting marshmallows!

Mid-April Return

Yesterday Mary and I observed our 27th anniversary as a legal married couple. Actually, I remembered it and Mary observed it by bestowing me with a pocket Henley T-Shirt and a new pair of shorts, a Courac tray with a hummingbird man kachina image, a ceramic fish to match other pieces of a line she has collected and an uncharacteristically artistic Hallmark card featuring two stylized cranes. Thank you, Mary - I love you.

The real celebration occurred at Hannah's house warming party yesterday. Jeremy grilled some hamburgers and franks, Hannah prepared the sides and drinks, Mary brought two angel food cakes. Pele entertained us with songs and later challenged me to an indoor bout of paddles in the den. I took over a pair of mobile modules of six horizontal decorated paper triangles glued to garlic stalk frames that Jessica said reminded her of a kite. Later that afternoon I handed Lucas my stock of garlic stems for him to try his hand at mobile making. Eve didn't make it, but she said later she was rested and feeling better.

The weekend weather warning prompted me to tend to yard chores and to planing a set of seeds in the reduced space garden lately turned into a flower bed. Our trips and returns to and from the valley leave me with two short growing seasons, one about two months long before and perhaps three after returning. On our way back from a shared anniversary dinner, Mary and I stopped at the two big box hardware stores looking to replace the one bleeding heart perennial we lost to the winter - two returned and have started blooming! More on all this and my job situation later.  CIAO

Approaching Saturnalia

Claire is back. She flew in from Costa Rica a day or two back. Last night, she and Jarrod stayed over to join us, then Jarrod left for the Broncos-Patriots game. While he was gone, the other sisters and partners came over to wish her an early birthday. I will post a few pictures later, but will only mention here the mid-day meal menu. Mary and I marinated two sets of chickens thighs, one in lemon and black pepper and the other in yogurt, cumin, cilantro and garlic. The latter I cooked less thoroughly because I selected out the larger thighs to fit in the larger casserole dish... Accompanying the poultry were grilled Brussels sprouts, cut in half and doused in olive oil and garlic/butter mashed potatoes. The weather allowed us to sit outside in the sun as the temperature hovered in the low 60s, but we retreated to the family room to listen as Claire narrated hundreds of photos she collected during her fall semester experience. Shane called from Knoxville to say he was on the way. I spoke to my parents to touch base in the pre-holidays. Tally ho for now, Cheers.

Approaching Saturnalia

Claire is back. She flew in from Costa Rica a day or two back. Last night, she and Jarrod stayed over to join us, then Jarrod left for the Broncos-Patriots game. While he was gone, the other sisters and partners came over to wish her an early birthday. I will post a few pictures later, but will only mention here the mid-day meal menu. Mary and I marinated two sets of chickens thighs, one in lemon and black pepper and the other in yogurt, cumin, cilantro and garlic. The latter I cooked less thoroughly because I selected out the larger thighs to fit in the larger casserole dish... Accompanying the poultry were grilled Brussels sprouts, cut in half and doused in olive oil and garlic/butter mashed potatoes. The weather allowed us to sit outside in the sun as the temperature hovered in the low 60s, but we retreated to the family room to listen as Claire narrated hundreds of photos she collected during her fall semester experience. Shane called from Knoxville to say he was on the way. I spoke to my parents to touch base in the pre-holidays. Tally ho for now, Cheers.

First two days in July

Mary and I arose late for us. The SLV sun rises early, but yesterday we didn't. I intended to get out to fish early, but didn't make it until closer to noon. I spent two hours perusing the on-line content for a web class on family and community engagement, then headed out. The river is still fairly swift, so I looked for places up the south bank, across from Nat's house, to cast. Brown trout followed my spinners, but they did not bite. By now Mary and Eve had walked up to where I fished across the river from the Beaver Patch. Determined to try something more natural looking, I considered casting one of the flies in the tackle box, but settled on a small rubber minnow. A 16" brownie took the bait, got landed then grilled for lunch. All in all I spent two hours on the outing from cast to meal.

After lunch, Eve and Mary drove to the Peddler to provision Eve for a hike she planned to take up to Crestone Needle by way of Westcliffe. More on that below. I spent time in the potato cellar culling through cables and OLD computer hardware, we are talking back to the early 1980s and Texas Instrument 99/4a "upgraded" with an additional 32 KILOBYTES of memory. I sorted ADB and serial cables and loaded the Subaru with some old Mac books and trash bags for a combination trip to the dump and Rainbows End. Intentions to have Eve practice night driving were dashed when I discovered I had misplaced my keys, but Mary accompanied me to leave Eve at the Basinger's for the trip out this morning. Eve texted this morning that she and Ian had set up camp.

We drove to the Rio Grande Sanitary Landfill, the dump, this morning then enjoyed breakfast at the Movie Manor (me Huevos Rancheros and her eggs and sausage) then decided to drive on to Alamosa to pick up a prescription and other errands. We dropped off some old books at Rainbows End strolled around the Green Spot where I picked up a bag of blood and bone meal combo. Next was back to the Alamosa Rainbows Inn where I found, then rejected an old printer but picked up another vintage full size USB Apple keyboard. Next was to Milagros for coffee, then City Market for groceries, finally to Big R for a fishing filet knife.

We had to stop in Monte for coffee at the bakery on main street. Mary visited Sheryl Scherzer at her bead store. Owen works with her there. Upon arriving home, we noticed how unsettled the weather was, so I checked out the radar for the Westcliffe vicinity. Mary did some research on the Crestone Needle climb, a level 3. With the weather passing through, and news of a couple of hikers who died trying a Level TWO climb, we fretted a bit, then felt some relief to see the front had passed through the camping area Ian and Eve set up for the climb tomorrow. They are both outdoors types, but a climb up a 14,000 peak could be challenging.

Hither and Thither

On a recent email to Hannah, I remarked that my day was full of blog worthy events, but now I can't recall anymore than that they were a mix of work related readings and doings and ranch diversions. I tend to multi task due to general restlessness and the need to avoid sitting too long. I don't keep a regular journal like I used to which brings me to ask Mary questions like "What did we do yesterday?" or even "What day is this?"

To keep track of work I want to document, I am using a little iPhone app called "TimeLogger" which lets me set a time and categorize the task. With July on the horizon, it will be too soon that I need to return to work. One of the tasks I set for myself was something of reinvention, at least sorting again through strengths and interests to package and market to the administrative work I do for the school district. Perhaps that will be what you hear about next.

It has been hot, dry and windy. But this morning, rumblings over the mountains brought coolness.