Hello, Dallas!

Well, this morning bright and early, I crawled on a Boeing 737-800 Jet and less than 2 hours later, I was landing in Dallas, Texas and Pueblo, Colorado was back in the rear view mirror.  I have lived 76 years and never even been tempted to leave the ground, but here I am!  When I got off the airplane, I still had no idea where I was and yet Sam found me before I could figure it out.  And then he scooped my suitcase off the carousel and we were headed across Dallas to his house.  7 1/2 hours after I left the house, I have traveled what would have taken me 14 hours to drive, ate a granola bar, had a nap and am on my second glass of water.

So what I have dreaded for all of my life has turned out to be a really cool adventure.  There is something about soaring way high above the earth that is very humbling.  To just be able to look out the window and see the tiny little world down below, is an adventure that can not be told, but has to be experienced.  Something about looking down on the clouds makes one feel infinitesimal.  I had made up my mind that I would just do it and that is what I did.  I had many people give me pointers on flying, but I knew it would have to be done to know for myself.

Oh, when the plane was taxing down the runway and it began to shudder a little and the guy in the seat next to me said, "No, that is not normal" I did know a little moment of panic, but then I remembered what Gayle's husband said about it being much like a car ride only way bigger and there would be some turbulence, I relaxed.  I figured about the worst that could happen was a fiery crash, but hell, when you are my age something is going to get  me and it might as well be a newsworthy event.   But here I am.  Sam had all the work of booking it, and paying for it, all I had to do was get on board and I am very glad I did.  For that I thank him.

I have a book at home by a photographer named Wark that is all aerial photos and I now know what they look like in real time.  There are many circles in Colorado and Oklahoma that I have no idea what they are.  I saw dried up rivers and lakes and reservoirs that I never knew existed.  Lot of farmland all green and growing.  So tonight I shall go to bed in Texas and instead of visions of sugar plums, I shall have vistas of clouds and mountains.  As for flying, I wish I had tried this back when I was young.  I might have been a bird! 

New hydrant, old friend, blossoms on the tree

OK, I have been trying to get this out there for 3 days and can not seem to get my pictures to load.  You are just going to have to use your imagination and when I figure out where I am screwed up at I will post the pictures.  This is supposed to be a picture of a hole in the ground with water in the bottom of it.  Sad looking sight.  Well, there it is, but it is really big.  Need to fix that.
So several days before I had started draining the stock tank and started water running in which is how I keep it fresh for the geese.  When I noticed a problem with the filling process I pulled the hose out and no water.  That is always a bad sign!  And in keeping with my string of bad luck I watched the dollar signs flash before my eyes.  Or I could dig it out myself.  All it entails is digging down about 7 feet, crawling down in the hole, unscrewing the old hydrant, buying the new one, screwing it on, and refilling the hole.  Made my back hurt to think about it.  So I scraped together a small pile of money and called my friends, Clifford and Frank who own an excavation company and have access to power equipment and actually still like me.  And within the hour Clifford was here looking the situation over and arriving at a solution.  He had a worker who would dig it out by hand and I smiled.

And the next morning Cliff arrived early with Wayne in tow. I had already told him to bring his own shovels because mine were either lost or had no handles due to being left in the dirt and ran over several time. Same with the rakes, hoes and every thing I touch.

So here are the tool of the trade.  After much digging, a little cussing, a couple trips into town, the deed was done!  Of course Cliff thought this should be a good deed and I thought it should not be.  After much haggling we agreed on a price we could both live with and he toodled off into the noon day sun.

So I ventured up to the house and found my Apricot tree full of blossoms which I can not post on here because I have once more jacked with the programs and the photo's won't upload.  Has something to do with my pop up blocker or my default browser or the fact that my fingers poke before my brain is through thinking!  

Now yesterday I went to the dentist to have a tiny fragment of what appeared to be a piece of bone from when I had a tooth pulled over 2 years ago.  X-ray revealed that the root from said tooth was still firmly in place.  20 minutes of digging and several x-rays later she finally got all the root out!  That woman was good! Luckily I was numb from the neck up because I could hear cracking and other sounds in there.  She called me in a pain pill perscription because we were both pretty sure that was going to be sore and aching last night.  I woke up this morning feeling like a million dollars!  I love that woman.  Going to put her over on my Been There blog later this next month when I get the computer back to functionallity!

So let' just recap my luck of the last 6 weeks.:

Sewer routed out.

Hot water heater replaced.

Sump pump rewired.

Furnace fixed.

Tire on car replaced.

Hydrant replaced.

Jaw bone routed out.

As near as I can tell, I should be setting pretty good right now, but far be it from me to think I may be about to lose my black cloud.  Do still need to have this computer back functioning!  In the meantime I shall hold this in my thoughts:  

Look for the silver lining behind every cloud you see!

Just getting up early to bitch!

Course I always get up early and have my alarm set for 5:30 AM in case I sleep late.  Since I get up early, I get my best work done before Mr. Sun pops over the horizon.  Several times a month I "redirect my emails."  By this I mean, the ones that have slipped by AOL's stringent spam eye.  That is a simple matter of clicking on the "this is spam" button which sends it to the spam folder which allows me to delete a whole page of trash with one little click on the delete button.  But occasionally I like to go in on each one and "unsubscribe".  That is a time consumer.
In the first place, most of them were never subscribed to in the first place.  Remember back when "junk mail" was the rage?  I used to keep a box by the door and toss it in there to be burned or shredded since I could not throw it in the trash because it had my name, address, telephone number, birthday and second child's information all over it.  I get very little junk mail nowdays, but the computer is full of it!
But sometimes I notice that the spam folder is becoming unmanageable so I start through and read them, sort of, but not very closely.  I can tell you, if I were to order all this stuff, I would need to be a very tall man, with a heaving bosom, a flat stomach, small penis, wrinkles, long eyelashes, full lips, flowing hair, shapely legs with varicose veins, in need of birth control, and suffering from erectile dysfunction!  This tells me that they have not researched me very well.  That being said, I start reading until I come to the "unsubscribe" button.
Now they want me to give them my email address that I want to unsubscribe from.  Excuse me!  This one.  And now, why do I want to unsubscribe?  Because I never subscribed in the first place.  Would I like to change my settings?  No, I don't think so.  What year did my father die?  Damn!  This is harder then I thought!
So when this is all done, I hear my mailbox click.  Oh, look!  A letter from them telling me how much they are going to miss me.  Won't I please reconsider?  This is much like the "do not call list"  that I update on a regular basis both on the land line and the cell phone.  Needless to say that does not mean you will not get phone calls from political parties, surveys, religious organizations, charities, off shore drilling rigs and the occasional scam to tell me that my darling grand daughter has been arrested, and I need to wire $15,000 to a bank in Tiawan to secure her release here in town.
But, on a lighter note, it is shaping up to be a great day!  Off to breakfast with the church people, then in to work with the step daughter, then home for what ever reason I always return here.  The moon on Thursday night was huge and beautiful before it was covered by the clouds.  Last night I could not even find it!  That troubles me cause I thought I knew where it was.
Have a good one and remember that every cloud has a silver lining!

A Colorado snowfall in real life!

Well, now if it has to snow, this is the way to do it.  Here I set snowed in by a foot of snow with one daughter, one grand daughter, one grand something in law, and two great grandsons, ages 2 & 5.  The highways are closed from here to Kansas and beyond.  Help!!
Some one suggested tranquilizers for them, but I find it works better if I take them along with a big shot of Jack Daniels!
I have measured all over the back yard and come up with a figure any where from 9 inches to 23 inches.  So I guess it is anyones guess as to how much we got, but here is the good news...it has stopped snowing and the sun is shining, so snow is going to be out of here in short order.  This is Colorado and I am in the Banana Belt part of the state.  The moisture here is usually nil, if you get my drift.  Even the geese did not get very excited when they saw the snow.  Just walked out and when they figured out their bellies were dragging bottom they just sat down.  They do not seem to mind the snow at all.  The only thing they do insist on is that the straw in the house stays dry.  I guess they are silly.  That is where that saying mother used to use came from...."Oh, you silly goose!"
OK.  I am going to go call Debbie and see if she is buried yet.  Just wanted you to know that I am house bound for a while.

This is my first sight when I set down to the computer in the morning.  Icarus has slept with me all night, but she knows it is morning and  the routine is same-o, same-o.  See that little picture just to the right of the cd's?  That is my momma and daddy when they were young.  That was a long time ago, but she likes to keep an eye on me even today.  So I behave.  Doesn't Icarus look crazy?  She is!

After I have been up a while the sun thinks it should come up also.  These two shots are looking Northwest out my office window.  Course I know the sun comes up in the East, but I like this view of the sun just painting the clouds a beautiful pink.  The tree on the left is a Cherry tree.  It will be covered with blossoms probably in the next week or so.  I planted this when we first moved in here in 1982.  It has never had a Cherry.  The neighbors in front have a Cherry tree and it is prolific, so I know it gets pollinated.  I think it hates me!

This is looking North out the living room window.  Contrary to popular beliefs those white squares are not flying saucers, but reflections of light fixtures in the dining room.  Feel better?

                                    

Now I ask you, with a view like this who would not want to jump out of bed and see it?  Colorado does have pretty clouds.  I just love clouds and these pink ones are especially nice.

OK, so here is the real crux of the matter.  I spend 50% of my time taking pictures and 50% looking for them on this goofy computer.  I try putting them in albums, but then I have the original picture, plus the album.  So then I think I will put them in folders.  I then have the original, the album and now the folder.  Oh, plus every thing I do is backed up in Document, HP, Picassa, Snapfish and no doubt the camera is storing them also even though I use a card and delete it after each use.  Now I heard that if I actually delete pictures then they will disappear from where I have sent them, ie; blog, eBay, etc.

So here is my solution, I am going to jerk out my hard drive and take it to the geek guy over on the highway and have a little talk with the boy.  He has got to be way smarter than I am.  Hell, if he can eat without running the fork in his eye he has me beat!

Ok, Icarus is down, sun is up, fowl are out of the pen, clock is announcing nine o'clock and here I set in my jammies.  Better at least act like I am alive.  I think the wiccan is coming to help me do something downstairs.  Right now I am starving!  You have a very good day and I will surely check in again. 

Dear Bret took these for me to enjoy!

I have always been fascinated by the powers of the Universe and by the beauty of the skies, especially the cloud formations. I spent many years taking pictures of these beauties and had a bunch of them in an album. Now this was back in the day when you took the roll of film out of the camera and took it in to the store to be developed. At that time you got an actual 4" x 6" picture that you could put in an album.

                                                           

One of the most beautiful pictures I had was one entitled "The Wyoming Cloud". Now granted the skies in Montana are one of the most spectacular sights in this world, but the Wyoming Cloud was a true work of art.  Alas, like all things bright and beautiful, my album was doomed.  Enter a son in law!  Open season for the Bronco's.  Stir up my natural desire to wager.

We started out small, "Here is a lovely shot of a cumulus over  Pikes Peak. " Well rats!  What are those Bronco's doing?  "OK, this Buttermilk Sky over Fowler on the way to Kansas the day after Al died."  Crap!  Now I was sure the Bronco's could not lose every game, so I was finally down to the wire.  "Alright, Jimmie, the Wyoming Cloud against all the others you are holding.  This will put me back in charge of my album!"

What is that famous poem that says something about "Ah, somewhere birds are singing and somewhere children shout, but there is no joy in Mudville, for mighty Casey has struck out!"  Or something to that effect.  Who would have ever dreamed that the mighty Denver Bronco's could lose every damn game!

So there I sat, a defeated woman and the new son in law!  Now one would think that a boy in his position would have been eager to please, but such was not the case.  I have the album and a few scraggly clouds that no one really cares about and somewhere over at Jimmie's house in the bottom of a box buried in a closet is the beautiful Wyoming Cloud, lost and forgotten.

But Bret took these for me one afternoon while I was gone and he just thought they were pretty.  I had one as the wallpaper on here until he got his new bike and now he sets there on his Harley smiling so I can see the $6,000 worth of dental work.  And why did I get up this morning thinking about that cloud in Wyoming?  I miss the days of dropping my film off to be developed.  I miss the jumping in the car and going somewhere far away on the spur of the moment.  I guess the cloud represents a part of my life that is gone and forgotten and it is just another thing I need to let slip away. 

 Life does take it's little twists and turns on the way from the cradle to the grave, doesn't it?