Snow: We woke up to new snow this morning, guess the weatherman was wrong this time. Forecast was for rain with snow above 7,000 feet and we are at 5,000 feet. We just hope the roads are cleared up a bit before tomorrow’s commute. We didn’t get a lot, less than 2 inches, but there are still flakes in the air and 30 – 40 percent chance of more to come in the next couple of days.
Cats: A couple of our inside cats are more likely to sit in my lap than others. Cirrus and Soot are used to being lap cats and like to settle in while I watch TV. Here is Soot on my lap during one such event:
Soot the cat on Jerry’s lap
The cats know when Pam is going to get their dinner ready:
Cats congregating for dinner
Dinner sure tastes good
Other Things: All the holiday lights are down and packed away until next year. It is kind of sad to say this final goodbye to Christmas 2014.
Football playoffs are on and both our favorite college teams, Oregon and Wisconsin, had good seasons. The final college game between Oregon and Ohio State — for the national championship — should be a good one. On the professional football side, the Broncos may or may not move on…game is later today and we’ll be watching.
Pam is progressing on her guitar…even played a whole song yesterday! As part of the renewed effort to have music in the house, I picked up a pair of small “book shelf” speakers (Klipsch B-10) and connected them to the stereo system. The system has been non-functional for quite a while, as the cats liked to claw up the speakers when they were sitting on the floor (rest of system is on our armoire) so I had to move the previous speakers to the garage. The new speakers fit into the armoire’s top shelf and are safe from the cats. While not the same sound as my old Bose 301s, the sound is not bad and it’s nice to have the house system functional again. (The system includes a turntable – vinyl is coming back!) Next I’ll pick up an adapter and put the TV on the stereo system; the TV’s built in speakers leave something to be desired in terms of sound quality.
We started the process of getting a well permit for the Sanderling property. In Colorado all water belongs to the state; this means we first have to get permission from the state to legally pump water out of the ground. It turns out the lot is in Water District 1 so we had to send a form to the Water Court, along with $5.00, to get a “docket receipt” that enables us to use water from a well for household purposes. We sent this in a few days ago and probably won’t hear back for a while, but the first step has been taken.
Next step, to be taken after we get the water court docket receipt, is to file a well permit application ($100.00) with the state. A permit will let us drill a well, and the docket receipt will let us pump water from it. Two forms, two different agencies, two different fees, just to get a well drilled.
The well will cost around $10,000.00 and will be, we expect, about 300 feet deep. I spoke to a Fairplay well drilling company and we’ll start looking at potential well sites in March or April. More on this endeavor in a couple months.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Two Cents Worth:
Woo hoo, aren’t y’all thrilled to hear of my progress playing the guitar? The song in question has two chords, both chords use three fingers, and are close to each other on the neck of the guitar. Callouses have started to form on the fingers of my left hand. My right thumb started bleeding when the skin cracked; guess I’ll need to get with the program and use that dang guitar pick for strumming.
Happy Trails.
Oregon/Ohio State tonight, as I write — unfortunately, Denver’s season is over…
(Our) week of “uncomfortable weather” is over, with a slight warm-up occurring just before the Packer/Cowboy game. Snow/ice on the roads finally melted — ’twas dangerous driving…
Ideally you stop practicing before the bleeding — strumming with pick & band-aid can get uncomfortable.
First you strum w/pick, strengthening & gaining flexibility on your left hand as you build calluses.
Second, you occasionally put down the pick, “finger-picking” individual strings, which gives you many more options on chords.
Third, you realize you don’t always need full chords, and try different combinations on the frets for a different sound.
Fourth, you combine (three) with finger picking, thumb with “bass”, other fingers with chord-combinations, etc.
wow–all that well stuff sounds like a pia!
all the hoops you have to jump through–good thing you are so good at such affairs!
cats look like they are preparing for some sort of circus act–perhaps pam should start encorporationg tricks into the dinner routine!
the guitar injuries
i can understand that
dessa had an archery fundraiser that i got cajoled into participating in.
thanks to that dang bow string i no longer have full feeling in my middle finger
very annoying!