Month: February 2015

The weather continues to be a top story. Our sympathies to all our Midwest and East Coast friends who are suffering through this height of winter with all the cold and snow.

We are expecting snow from the latest storm that is going to blow in later today. While 3 – 5 inches of powder is in the forecast, the big issue, as in many other places, is the possibility of freezing rain. Our daily high temps are supposed to get slightly above freezing which means the morning and evening commutes will probably be on very slick roads. We are already planning to delay Monday’s morning commute (or maybe Snow Day!) based on expected conditions. We have to take into account that our destination is around 700 feet higher in elevation than we where we live; this climate zone change is enough to create different conditions at either end of the drive. All I can do is keep the car prepared and hope for the best.

We found a replacement for the old wicker sideboard; Pam had been looking for about a year for a unit of the right size. The wicker unit has seen better days; 15 years of service with cats and dogs around the house have taken their toll. The Habitat for Humanity store had a dresser Pam liked so we bought it and brought it home this past Friday. Pam will clean it with furniture soap (after a few minor repairs) before it goes into service as sideboard storage, and she will have another furniture update completed.

New sideboard

Curved front dresser was made in Italy

We continue to listen to old cassette tapes including artists George Winston (solo piano) and Simon and Garfunkle’s Concert in the Park. I dug out my old Bose 301 Mk III speakers and put them up in my garage but am waiting on speaker cable to hook them into the garage stereo system. The garage system does have an existing pair of bookshelf speakers; with the addition of the old Bose units it should sound pretty good. Wiring the speakers will be a next weekend’s project.

The Honda rolled over 355,000 miles last week. I don’t know how many more miles it has left in it; lately there has been an occasional  clunk coming from the front on left-hand turns and the SRS warning light (Side Restraint System)  has come on a couple times indicating a sensor or wiring problem may be developing. We really don’t want to take on a new car payment but may not have much of a choice.

KitKat is now (almost) a garage cat; Pam moved the cat pen out to the garage to get KitKat used to garage sights, sounds, smells, and other cats. I don’t think KitKat was pleased at this move but it will give her a lot more activity to observe and perhaps she will be less bored than she was in the house.

I don’t post a lot about politics as there are many forums for those discussions, but will say I am already tired of speculation about the 2016 elections. It looks to me that big money will determine who the candidates will be from both parties — not who has the best ideas. I did see this bit about Wisconsin’s Scott Walker (courtesy Pam’s sister Becky):

Scott Walker button

For those not in on the joke, Wisconsin residents Gein and Dahmer were both cannibals and are somewhat infamous criminals in Wisconsin circles. The comparison to Walker is unflattering to say the least (and I am greatly amused by it).

Colorado has it’s own cannibal story centered around a guy by the name of Alferd Packer. While not convicted of cannibalism, only murder (the conviction was later overturned), everyone, including Alferd, acknowledged he ate his companions in order to survive being trapped in the mountains by a winter storm.  The student cafeteria on the CU Boulder campus is named after him.

Anyway, life and work go on. March is not that far away and we hope real spring arrives on time and with appropriate weather. I finished updating my web pages, added a few files to the videos page, added a few photos to some galleries, and generally  tinkered with the site. Now entering year #5, keeping this going has been fun and quite a learning experience.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I don’t know who signed me up for a monthly “Bark Box” delivery, thanks whomever, the dogs and I are enjoying our third one.  Look up Bark Box on-line, great idea, wish I’d thought of it.  I think they need to develop a Purr Parcel (Purr Package?) as well.

Happy Trails.

The cassette deck I won on e-bay arrived and was added to the rehabbed stereo system. Nice to hear some of those old tapes again, some going back to live radio days of the late ’70s. I have a Gordon Lightfoot recording going as I compose this post. The deck is a low-end Nakamichi, and for those who might recognize the name, “low-end” in this case is still a pretty good deck. Nakamichi was considered the gold standard of decks in the mid to late ’80s.

Nakamichi cassette deck

I spent some time reorganizing my web site pages. I started using “stylesheets,” also known as Cascading Style Sheets or CSS, to style certain elements that are common to all pages. Among these are the background image I use and the navigation links (links to other pages) that are present at the top and bottom of my  pages. I removed the code that generated a date and time message on each page. The results of these changes are pages that are more uniform in appearance and pages that load faster. Additionally, new pages take less time to create as the coding is simplified. I moved 3 galleries from sub-pages and put them on the main Galleries page and this process was simplified by the use of stylesheets.

Professionals who use stylesheets can create really stunning web pages. My stuff is very basic, but still useful in the 45 pages (mostly linked from the Galleries page) that now make up the site. CSS has been around for a while but is becoming more fully supported in modern web browsers, so I thought it was time to look into this technology and apply what I could. Going forward I will continue to develop more knowledge and apply what seems appropriate for my site.

(Just switched to a Moody Blues recording. What a hoot.)

Weather continues warm but there is a chance of rain/snow coming in a few days. Our tulips are sprouting new leaves and grass is greening up. Trees are budding out. I fear a hard frost will stunt a lot of growth that should be happening in early spring, not in mid-February. Pam worked on a corner of the lot yesterday, cleaning up a spot where I didn’t rake last fall. We also trimmed a tree growing in the neighbor’s empty (adjoining) lot; it had branches that were overhanging our lot over the parking spot we use for the RV.  Just general clean-up, but rare to be able to do this time of year.

And, one final photo from last week’s visit to the Sanderling mountain land:

South Park from Jer’s bench on Sanderling

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I think I’ll buy a ukelele (a tenor one, not soprano).  Also, Westminster Dog Show on TV this week.

Happy Trails.

As I write this it is 66 degrees outside; normal for this time of year is 42. For the first time I can remember, in February, we have had a night or two when the temps stayed above freezing. This makes the weather the big story in this part of the country. Orchard owners are concerned the warm temps will encourage their fruit trees to bloom early, which brings the chance a “normal” frost could damage or wipe out an entire crop. The rest of us are just enjoying the moderate temperatures! This week is supposed to see a cooling trend with temps in the mid to upper 50s, closer to average but still above norms.

I drove up to check on the mountain lot yesterday. There is snow on the ground but not as much as one might expect for this time of year. Many areas, exposed to the southern sky, are bare but the driveway and lower parts of the lot are still covered in white.

The Lot – February 7th

Lower end of drive

I didn’t bother to try and open the gate but walked up into the lot to check on the shed and the circle drive. My bench was clear so I sat on it for a while and smelled the pine scent; it was warm enough to start bringing that out. Time well spent!

I have just a few other notes to round out this post. Pam is out shopping right now;  I picked up a flu bug that is causing abdominal cramps that have taken away much of my energy. There may be a sick day or two in the immediate future.

My mother, now in her upper 80s, had an episode that kept her overnight in the hospital. She was having shortness of breath and, given her history of heart problems, thought it best to get checked. A new medication was prescribed and Mom is now back home and says she feels OK.

The last of foster kitten batch #25, KitKat, had a visit with the vet this past Friday for her spay operation. She is recovering nicely — but still is not any friendlier. Adoption is out; Pam has found a barn home for her (this placement is still some weeks away, waiting for consistent warmer temps) and I hope KitKat adapts to an outdoor life.  Pam will likely move the cat pen out into the garage in a few weeks, to give KitKat a taste of what is to come.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

In addition to a quick check of the Sanderling property, Fields was sent on a mission yesterday to drive by several homes currently for sale in Como and Fairplay.  I’m trying to wrap my mind around what kind of house makes sense to build up there.  There are plenty of log homes in the area – prow shaped and rectangular.  There are numerous unimaginative square cabins of the tarpaper roof variety (with the seemingly mandatory junk around the structure).  I think what we build will need to fall somewhere in the middle price-wise, and will have to rely on interesting architectural details and creative landscaping to stand out from the rest (while still blending in with the surrounding woods).  A bit tricky, that.

Happy Trails.