Category: Children

Children related posts

Busy Week

June 20, 2014 / admin / 2 Comments

Home Sweet RV (Graphic by Hensley Manufacturing)

Yes, it has been a bit longer than normal since my last post, but it has been a very busy interval.

🙂 Felicity came for a visit.

🙂 Worked on the Sanderling lot.

🙂 Attended an IT related event in Denver.

Our daughter Felicity returned from her month in Wales and stopped by for a visit. I picked her up in Denver on the 13th. (She was with us until the 19th.) Driving through Denver, not fun. Man, what traffic! I was late getting to the airport but, thanks to the magic of cell phones, I was able to call Felic and let her know what was happening. Getting out of Denver was also a real trick as Friday rush hour traffic is horrendous. Eventually we made it to a diner for a meal and eventually to the RV for the evening.

It was very good to see Felicity (been about a year) and we spent a few hours in conversation, catching up with her news about working abroad and traveling, and news from “stateside” that she had not been aware of. Felicity had a good time in Wales but due to her “working vacation” did not have as much time to go sight-seeing as she would have liked. She lost the use of her digital camera (a drop resulted in a broken screen) and had to resort to using her cell phone camera, not as good in quality but better than nothing!

Pam and the dogs joined us at Sanderling on Saturday and the rest of the weekend was spend talking, loading wood destined for the burn pit (4 loads on Saturday) and more lot clean-up on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon we packed up and headed home. Pam and Felicity (and the dogs) had the Honda and were planning to go home via the Boreas Pass route, but Pam found signage in Como indicating the route was still closed — surprising as the pass is normally open by Memorial Day. After a quick (!) tour of Como they headed home by our regular route through Fairplay and over Hoosier Pass.

Pam and Felicity clearing dead wood

Felicity on Pam’s Pavilion Point

Once the ladies had departed, I took the truck and RV over to the dump station and emptied the holding tanks, then returned to the lot to re-park the RV. Sure like that pull-through driveway! Once that was done I hooked up to our aluminum trailer, which we had filled with a load of wood to bring home to cut into firewood.

Sunday was Father’s day, and Pam surprised me with a sign:

Jerry with his Father’s Day sign

We’ll put the sign up over the door of the RV. It sure is appropriate and I like it.

Other photos of the weekend:

Blondie in the woods

Blondie saw a squirrel and could not be kept away from the tree she “thought” it was in. (We could see the squirrel in another nearby tree.) Kept her occupied quite a while. That dog has a one-track mind.

Other photos:

Humming bird feeder was put out in the circle

Harebells blooming on the lot

So…we were all home by Sunday night. Monday night I was in Denver getting ready to attend an IT (Information Technology) conference / trade show on Tuesday. That went well, but it was after 10:00 PM when I arrived home (Denver to De Beque, pretty much across the majority of the state) on Tuesday night. High wind had caused a power outage in De Beque; Felicity and Pam were sitting and talking in candlelight. (Power was out for about an hour and a half.) Wednesday I was back at work. Thursday I took Felicity to Denver so she could catch her flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico (visiting friends there). After dropping off Felic at DIA, I routed through South Park to check the RV on the way home. While I was there I put out our hummingbird feeder. I also relieved the mousetrap under the bathroom sink of a dead mouse…still dealing with them getting into the trailer!

I drove around 1,600 miles this week, quite a bit of mileage considering I didn’t leave the state! Yes, it was a crazy week; to and from Denver three times in one week is a record for me, one I’m reluctant to repeat soon.

I plan to take off on my 2 week motorcycle trip to Ontario, Canada on June 24th. I’ll be busy getting ready for the trip this weekend. The length of the cycle trip means no posts for a couple weeks, by the way, until after July 6th. Even then it will take me a while to go though the trip photos and get a post ready; there won’t be a new post to this blog until mid-July.

On the return side of my Canada trip I’ll spend some time visiting family in Wisconsin. It has been a couple years since my last visit and I am looking forward to seeing a number of people again. I should have quite a bit of material for my posts when I return.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Now that both children have been to Sanderling, they can appreciate the “grunt” work their parents are putting in to clear the property. I couldn’t resist having Felicity do a bit of wood gathering while visiting the high country – three sets of hands greatly improves the pace of dead wood removal.

Felicity’s digital nomad existence is past the honeymoon stage (the work/vacation trip to Wales). Now comes the real test – can she organize her time to work on-line while on the road? I think she’s missing her “nest” of personal belongings. Her road takes her back to Portland, OR soon (and familiar surroundings) for a period of housesitting.

While Fields takes his motorcycle jaunt for two weeks, I consider that period my vacation as well. I’ve arranged to work a different schedule at the community college — from now to the end of June — to maximize my days working at home and minimize the commuting time.

The jazzy plaid pants in the photo above are actually my fleece pj bottoms. It was a brisk morning…

Happy Trails.

Notre Dame vs Air Force (Toby’s Visit)

October 30, 2013 / admin / 3 Comments

My Notre Dame – Air Force ticket stub

Our son Toby drove to Colorado from South Bend, Indiana, for a quick visit and to attend the Notre Dame – US Air Force football game. He had purchased tickets for himself and me, planning a father-son outing.

We met at a motel in Castle Rock, located about 20 minutes north of the Air Force Academy, on Friday. There was enough time that day to drive to the Sanderling lot and show Toby around, after which it was dinner and back to the motel.

Saturday we had breakfast before heading to the Academy. I had never been on the grounds before, and we had planned stops at the visitor’s center and chapel. (The chapel is the iconic image of the Academy.)

There were a lot of Fighting Irish fans at the visitor’s center. Many sat with us through the A/V presentation “A Year In The Life of a Cadet” shown in the center’s small auditorium. Next a short walk brought us to the chapel.

Chapel at Air Force Academy

I must say the chapel is more impressive from the inside than the outside. The use and placement of stained glass is not apparent from the outside but is a key feature. While not large the chapel is impressive!

Toby inside the Air Force chapel

Artistic use of stained glass

After taking a walk around the Academy campus we returned to the car and drove back to the parking area near the stadium. Toby was on the lookout for a Notre Dame tailgate party we could join.

Now I have never tailgated in my life, so this would be a new experience for me. Turns out there is a large cadre of Notre Dame fans based in Denver. We headed toward a Notre Dame flag that was flying from the top of an SUV. Asking around, we were quickly introduced to the guy who had more or less organized this outing of fans. He said we were welcome to join in so we introduced ourselves and made ourselves at home.

I met people from Alaska (they were headed to Moab for some bike riding after the game) and quite a few characters who had come to see the game. A total of about 70 people eventually made up this particular group. With the talk, food, and adult beverages it was a good way to kill a few hours before kick-off.

“Irish” cupcakes were dessert

Around 2:30 we headed for the stadium to find our seats and get settled. Toby had pretty good tickets for around the 30 yard line behind the ND bench. We could see all the action at both ends of the field.

Here are a couple photos taken during the course of the game:

Players take to the field

Notre Dame cheerleaders urged crowd participation

Scoreboard showed replays, stats, and advertisements

It was a very enjoyable afternoon; the weather was great for football. Notre Dame won by a score of 45 – 10. The Air Force Drum and Bugle Corps provided a peppy half-time show. After the game and after the traffic queue out of the stadium area we stopped at Applebee’s for a late snack, watched the end of the world series game back at the hotel, then retired for a night’s rest. Sunday morning Toby and I had breakfast then parted ways– me back to De Beque and Toby off to Longmont (NW of Denver) to see some friends before he headed back to South Bend.

All in all it was a very enjoyable event. Toby and I had a chance to talk and catch up with news, enjoy the tailgating and football game, and just generally have a good time. Weather was perfect all weekend. The game went well and we met a lot of interesting people. Best of all Toby and I spent some time together.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

And I had a weekend to myself (if you don’t count all the animals in my care), so it was a win-win-win.

Happy trails.

October Lull

October 13, 2013 / admin / 2 Comments

We are home this weekend taking care of chores and finishing small projects. Here is what we have been up to.

Last Friday night we delivered our last big load of firewood to Kathy Hall. While we will probably be up to the lot a couple more times this fall we probably won’t be bringing home loads of wood, just some wood in the back of the truck, so this is the last major load of the year.

Load of wood in the truck

Fully loaded trailer

Pam came up with the idea to put vertical pieces of wood around the perimeter to increase the load capacity of the trailer — else we would have had to make two trips. Over-all we delivered between 2 and 3 cords of wood to Kathy this year. This wood will help keep the kitties warm in their rescue building.

A home visit by a potential kitten adopter late in the summer led Pam to formulate a “home upgrade” plan for this fall, as she realized the place was embarrassing and dumpy looking. So far she has purchased a new hallway runner, a couple of rugs, a new cover for the couch, and yesterday I picked up a fire pit from Tractor Supply (upgrades the deck?). A few more purchases are planned, and coupled with a major re-arrangment of existing furniture, the house will have a new look for fall.

New fire pit

We also bought a Keurig (K-cup) brewer. I have had one at work for years courtesy of the company, but Pam thought it was time to have one at home as well. We are not coffee drinkers but like to have tea, hot cider, and hot chocolate on hand. I think we will get a lot of use out of this purchase.

Otherwise it is more of the mundane. I winterized the swamp cooler, went to Walmart to pick up cat supplies, washed the truck by hand, did the normal auto routine (oil levels, washer fluid, tire pressure checks), put away the fans and brought the heaters down from the garage attic. I spread the last of the grub killer and lawn fertilizer before I put the spreader away. Today I need to change the Honda oil and filter, clean the mower decks, and paint the snow plow blade that is mounted on my little red Gilson lawn tractor. (The paint is a super-slippery type designed for snow blades.) Maybe I’ll even get back on the roof and replace several shingles lost in one of the summer storms.

Ebony’s kittens have their eyes open and are just starting to move around a bit. I’ll have a few photos of them in my next post.

Sinbad the Cat has gone missing, along with another adolescent kitten that was living in our garage. We know a couple other cats are missing – flyers in the Post Office and people out looking for their cats – and suspect foul play but have no proof. It could be Sinbad was picked up to be a house cat as he certainly was friendly enough. We hope that was the case. Not knowing what happened is hard for Pam.

There has been snow around us but so far none down at our level. Below freezing temps at night are now pretty common. Weather people say we are having below average temperatures and the extended forecast shows this trend continuing. We are not ready for winter and keep hoping for a spell of Indian Summer. Pam has been covering some of the flowers and plants to try and keep some color around the house. How much longer this will be feasible is in doubt, but it’s nice to still have some Mums and other flowers still giving us some color.

Leaves are beginning to fall and I suspect I’ll have to start raking and mulching in the upcoming weeks. Our neighbors have already left for their place in Arizona (which they do every year), and I take care of their leaves as well. It’s a busy time of year.

Our son Toby had plans to be out for a visit near the end of the month, near the date of his birthday. He and I would attend the Notre Dame – Air Force football game in Colorado Springs, but we haven’t heard if Toby has firmed up these tentative plans. We’ll have to wait and see what transpires in that story.

The truck had been running poorly and the engine light had been coming on. I bought one of those code readers and eventually found one of the O2 sensors had come unplugged. Fixed that and the truck is again running fine. Code reader was $18.00 from Amazon; the local Ford dealer wanted $118.00 (1 hour of labor) to hook the truck up to their system and trouble-shoot the problem, so I figured I saved $100.00 by doing the work myself.

So, life goes on. Pam is entering a slower part of the college calendar as far as transcript evaluations are concerned, and I just finished a major project of getting our Rifle Sheriff’s Office Annex wired with fiber-optic cabling to our internet provider. (Connection went from 4.5 mb to 500 mb.) Now I can get started with other projects that were dependent on getting the high-speed connection in place, but those can wait a week or so. So, for both of us, there is a lull in the action. It won’t last long, but we hope to enjoy it while we can.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

When the Habitat Recycle store has better furnishings than anything in your house, it’s time to upgrade a bit. What with puppies and kittens running around the place the last 5-6 years, I’ve been letting “style” slide. The mobile is clean (wet mopped with Pine-Sol every other week) but shabby. And not shabby chic. So I decided just because we live in a mole-on-the-bum-of-Mesa-County type town doesn’t mean we need to descend to being low-lifes ourselves. The refurbishing is greatly overdue and, in the scheme of things, won’t cost as much as mountain land, an RV, or a truck.

Happy trails.

Nose Job, Cats, Toby, and Miscellaneous Stuff

October 12, 2012 / admin / 2 Comments

Well, I am back to bandages on the nose.

The last trip to the dermatologist resulted in a session of “dermal abrasion” to smooth the edges of the skin graft and – eventually – blend the graft and skin color into the rest of the nose. It hurt like heck. Not the abrasion itself, but the needles used to inject the local anesthetic. The nose did not feel all that great after the anesthetic wore off, either. I hope this is the last session I need!

For what it’s worth, the tool used by the doctor looks like an engraving bit used in a Dremel tool. It looked something like this, but a little rougher:

(The doctor did the work by hand, just in case you were wondering.)

We had planned a trip over to the lot this weekend, but the forecast of 4 – 6 inches of snow above 8,000 feet means it would be a poor couple of days to travel and work, so we are staying home. I’m working on this post instead!

We heard from Toby. He is settling in and starting to look for work. His bedroom is under the eves of an old house and he says he can’t stand fully upright in the shower, but he will just have to get by. Living and kitchen are on the main floor and are OK if not exactly spacious. Laundry is in the basement, which means trips up and down a very steep stairs. Ah, the joys of being single and young.

I’ve taken a few more photos of our cats and will be adding them to the cat slide show. Here are a few of them:

Antonio (Tony the Tiger)

London cleaning out a can of Friskies

5 of our cats: (L to R) London, Antonio, Sunny, Cirrus, and Soot. Missing are Velvet and Mira, the 2 girls.

Well, I am running out of things to write about, so it must be time to quit.

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

Interlude

July 22, 2011 / admin / 2 Comments

Well, the rallies are behind me, and I’ve recovered from the stomach flu. Time to catch up on things and take stock of what we have planned for the rest of the year.

The Colorado Dream land hunt continues. Last Saturday we looked at some properties in an area we had not visited before. This area is south of Lake George, Colorado. Lots are smaller, mostly in the 1.25 to 2.5 acre size, but the prices are more reasonable per acre as a result. There are some nice views from some of the lots. Pike’s Peak is to the east, and South Park and the Collegiate Range is to the west. We were very taken with the area, and plan a return visit in a week or two to look at more properties.

We are looking for a lot that is relatively flat and has a mix of pine and aspen trees on it. A mountain view would be a real plus. We saw some lots, not for sale, that meet all these criteria. We think that if we keep a close eye on the listings something will come up that we could get serious about.

We’ve kind of given up the idea of using the land in a dual-purpose mode, for both full-time living and commuting to work. The closer in places are just more than our budget can handle. So, the land we choose will be pretty much recreational use only, not full-time living unless we win the lottery.

We would, most likely, put a small garage with an apartment built-in on the lot. Pam insists on running water and a bathroom, I don’t know why. 🙂 So, the lot would have some developement (well and septic) and we would run off a portable generator for a while. Doing some research, we can expect to pay about $10k each for a well and septic system. We would need to fence part of the lot, at least, so the dogs could run a bit. The search for our dream land continues.

The rest of the summer looks to be a little less hectic than it has been since May. A trip back to Wisconsin will be in the works for early fall, as I still need to get Dad’s tractor home, and there will be a memorial service for Pam’s Aunt Angela in Merril, Wisconsin, in the early fall that Pam would like to attend. With Pam’s permission I recently bought a used snowmobile which sucked some money out of our savings. That will curtail some of our travel plans for the year. We had discussed a trip to Prince Edward Island (North-east of Maine) but that will probably not happen this fall.

In other news, our son Toby is now employed full-time instead of working temp jobs, and that is good news. He is even getting some overtime, so he can pay off of his credit card debt and put some money aside. Felicity is interviewing for a 2nd part-time job this comming week, and if she gets it, the income between the two will cover her living expenses while the jobs she picks up re-doing web pages and writing newsletters provides some discretionary income. We hope she gets the job.

My thanks to Tabitha, Larry, Becky, and a few others who take the time to read these posts and respond. I do appreciate it!

Thats it for now. Thanks for looking in!

More changes

March 30, 2011 / admin / 0 Comments

I’ve added a new link to our home page…Kids. This link will take you to a brief description of our 2 children, including a photo of each. I refreshed some of the text on our main page as well. Next to come…Jerry’s Toys.

Category: Children

Busy Week

Notre Dame vs Air Force (Toby’s Visit)

October Lull

Nose Job, Cats, Toby, and Miscellaneous Stuff

Interlude

More changes

Categories

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