Month: December 2025

Christmas was a couple days ago as I write this. Becky came over on the 26th and we opened many gifts, had pumpkin pie and ice cream, and enjoyed the visit.

In addition, I worked over many of my old galleries and made a new one featuring old slides and negatives from visits to the Colorado – Yule Marble quarry near Marble, Colorado. This quarry provided marble for many projects across the US, and is most famous for being the source for the marble block used in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Washington, D.C.

I’ll begin with several photos of our Christmas, beginning with a few indoor decorations.

Becky brought over numerous presents, to add to the ones wrapped for her. So gift opening was quite the event.

We all received much-appreciated items — most practical, a few humorous. I have several new short-sleeved shirts (to replace my aging and worn collection of Sheriff’s Office gear). Much appreciated for next spring! Other items of apparel, gift certificates, a “reacher-grabber’, and a Big Ass Bar of Soap were exchanged. It was a good and fun time.

During the lead-up to Christmas I continued to work on updating my old galleries. This took longer than expected and led me to creating a new gallery. I dug out my Minolta Dual II scanner which can handle 35mm slide and negative film. Going through my slide collection I came across a batch dating from the late ’70s and early ’80s featuring one of my favorite Colorado places, the Crystal River Valley and the town of Marble. (The Lead King Basin, a delightful ATV destination, is accessed from Marble as well.)

Marble has quite a history, much of it tied up with the high-quality marble found in the area. At one time Marble exported thousands of tons of material annually, making Colorado the second-largest source of marble in the world.

The largest of the quarries was the Colorado-Yule quarry located along Yule Creek. (The name changed with different owners over the years.) I first visited in the late ’70s and went back several times. At that time the quarry was abandoned and one could walk up to the site, look into the vaults, and wander around. The gallery’s photos reflect this freedom which, sadly, is no more as the quarry was re-opened sometime in the 2000s and public access is denied.

Clicking on Colorado-Yule will take you to the gallery page. It may be of more interest to Colorado viewers and those with an appetite for history, but it brought back many good memories for me while I was putting it together, which was the point of doing it.

These are two of the photos used in the gallery, taken in 1978.

Here in NE Iowa, we’re looking at a quiet spell as we move into the new year. Hopefully there will be mild conditions when it comes time to take down our outside lights. The weather has been unpredictable so far with spells of frigid, well below average temps followed by mild and above average conditions. Weather in the Midwest!

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

Pam’s Penny

Scanning weather reports for a break in conditions, then planning for temps suitable to retrieve outside holiday decor, seems to be an annual tradition prior to New Year’s Day.

I personally will be pleased with lengthening daylight as it presents in late January and into February. At the moment, I do my “farm chores” (refilling outside cat feeders/water dish) before dawn in the a.m. — then again in the p.m. twilight. (Grayce gets me up before dawn, or I wouldn’t be awake then. I’m sure the roving neighborhood cats would thank her, if they could.)

Upcoming: 2026 – 250th anniversary of the American experiment. “A Republic, if we can keep it.” [Ben Franklin]

Today’s humor:

We are in that space between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are few active projects so this post will cover some random topics. It has been cold, more snow arrived, and I updated some of the underpinnings of my web and blog pages.

First, a comment on the cold: This morning’s low temperature was -4. Currently it is +1. Tomorrow (Sunday) is forecast to be the coldest morning so far, with a projected temp of -10. It is c-o-l-d! In comparison, temperatures at our Colorado lot (elevation 9,300 feet) are projected to be in the low-to-mid 20s at night and daytime temps in the low-to-mid 40s. Current temperature in Como is above freezing at 33.

Because of the colder temps, the cats have re-discovered that heating vents are the place to park when the furnace is running.

In addition to the cold, we received another 5 inches of snow last week. This is the second storm in about 8 days; I mentioned the first in my last post. While this follow-up storm did not deliver as much snow as the first, 5 inches vs 9 inches, it was still a pain to deal with. The cumulative totals make this one of, if not the snowiest, Decembers we have had here in Iowa.

This time of year brings out some Norwegian treats such as Lefse. An ad for this delicacy appeared in our local shopper.

Our local bank sponsored a Kolachi Day; kolachis are a pastry of Central European origin, primarily Czech / Slavic, and are a sweet pastry filled with (in this case) fruit jams. Other fillings can include cream cheese and walnuts. We tried cherry and blackberry versions; they were quite good.

Warning: Tech Talk Ahead

Web pages are built on a programming language known as HTML, and there have been different versions over the years. I recently began using a programming tool known as BBedit, a Macintosh-specific program. I had been using Adobe Dreamweaver on a monthly subscription but Adobe increased the price, more than doubling the monthly cost. (Old cost = $29.98, new cost = $69.99.) BBedit has both a free version and a licensed version with more features. The licensed version has a one-time price of $59.99.

Using BBedit, I went through my current web pages (Kids, Dogs, Cats, Gallery, and Blog) and brought the code up to the current HTML5 standard. I had to create new entries in my CSS stylesheet and change some code on several pages, a task that took a few hours to complete. To expand my skills I decided to go through my older Galleries, retired some time ago when I scaled back my web site.

These older galleries required more work as many had been created under the older HTML4 standard. Several commands have been “retired” (deprecated) or changed in HTML5, including “align”, “clear”, and changes to the way video formats are coded. While the older code still works, I felt it best to update and stay current and widen my (very basic) coding skills.

Here is a sample of the “head” section used in almost all of my pages:

I change the contents of the <title> tag to reflect what the rest of the page is about. Below the <body> tag comes the code that makes the page unique and determines what you see on your computer. Some pages, particular those with many photos and links, are more complex than others.

Anyway, that is how I spent some of my time these last few days when the cold and snow limited outside time and tasks.

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

Pam’s Penny

This winter so far =

⊝ RECOMMEND

✅ DO NOT RECOMMEND

Rock on.

Today’s Humor: