Sculpture, Art and Other Things

Here is a sculpture Merle made. It's rocks. It's very interesting and cool.

After visiting Santa Fe in the fall and seeing the art of Woods Davy, we both thought it might be good idea to try making our own since we wouldn't be able to fork up the $14,000+ it would take to own one of his. Merle took up the task and if I say so myself, he did a pretty darn good job. It's not as big as a Woods Davy, but we have to be able to move it ourselves and this is about as big as we can go. Now, we have to find a base to mount it to that will hold it upright. It will have to be mighty sturdy. I won't give out the secret for how it is assembled, but suffice to say, it is very sturdy and will not fall apart.

So, we have a new area of interest that may or may not expand depending upon Merle's enthusiasm. I would like to see him make a few more that I can try to sell at an art show along with my paintings. However, it won't be long before he starts a new radio controlled airplane project and at that point, the rock sculpture thing will probably fade into oblivion unless I want to take it up. This one is going to reside somewhere on our home premises. I'd like some more of them to put around our property.

In other creative news. I've learned how to create a very basic GIF animation using my Corel PHOTO-Paint software. Basic being the key word here. It's quite primitive looking. However, I plan to try harder and do better over time. Here it is. I'm going to work this little segment into a bigger video that I plan to give to my nephew (the bouncing underweared dude) for Christmas.

As you can see, we are just busting out with creative creativeness. I'm painting paintings too and struggling with that. They are just not turning out as well as I would like them to - which is perfect or at least almost perfect. I may take a break and design our annual Christmas card. That would be fun, something not so serious.......

Our little grandson, Keir, is turning into a little person that is now aware of cause and effect. Like, scream and someone will pick me up. So, the training begins where he screams and someone doesn't pick him up. This is not as easy as it sounds. Partly because you don't want to listen to him scream or cry and then also because you aren't sure if maybe he really is hurting or something OR if you let him scream, will his psyche might be scarred for life. I guess the clue to that is if you pick him up and he immediately stops crying/screaming and smiles, you probably know you are being duped by the diaper beast.

Being Nana. Fall

I'm besotted by my grandson. There's really no other way to say it. He is just the best and yes, I know most grandmothers feel the same way. But there it is - I'm beside myself with besottedness.

Tonight is our first overnight babysitting. It's about 8:30 and he is asleep in the next room after entertaining Merle and I with his bright smiling face for a bit. I'm afraid that we are both besotted.

Besotted. I just looked it up and it says, using it in this type of context, that I am stupefied or infatuated. I'm good with that...............

Since we returned from vacation, we have not been doing anything particularly exciting. Last weekend we camped, probably for the last time this season, but who knows..... I saw a couple of campers headed up to the high country today, so if this mild weather keeps up, we or just me, with maybe a sister, will go again.

It was an uplifting experience that made us thankful that we live in this wonderful state of Colorado and especially because we live in close proximity to the mountains. Our campsite was situated looking over a little valley of golden aspen and buttery colored grasses with tassels. These were staged artfully in front of an evergreen covered hillside. Wherever we turned our eyes, we saw something beautiful. The first evening, we built a big campfire and just sat, huddled toward it's warmth, giving it the occasional stir with our fire stick and staring into it. Those coals that live at the bottom of a jumble of burning wood look like nuggets of hot gold. As we watched them, they seemed alive with fiery pulsing hearts. The second evening, we also built a big campfire, but to our consternation, the wind came up and just as we would get settled, the smoke would find us and we would have to move. This is the camper's cross to bear - wind that blows the smoke in your eyes, nose, throat. We decided that if someone could invent a lazy susan type seating arrangement for a campfire, it would be very nice. - you could just rotate to a different position instead of having to stand up, move your chair and sit back down. A bit ridiculous, perhaps, but nevertheless handy.

We hiked to the top of Kruger Rock about 2.5 miles (5 round trip). From it's pinnacle we were able to see our mountain ranges from this new perspective. It was impressive. Long's Peak seemed very close. Neither of us has ever climbed that 14er and don't really have the urge to do it. It's a very strenuous hike that I'm sure we could do, but at 16 miles round trip, it's probably more than we should try to bite off. There are so many beautiful and invigorating hikes in our Rocky Mountains, that I'm sure we won't suffer much for not trying to scale this popular peak.

I am reading Centennial by James Michener - again. I think this is about the 3rd time. It's been awhile, though, so I'm totally enjoying it - again. It is particularly interesting because he wrote about this area, actually farther east from where we live, but nevertheless, it's locales are familiar. I think I read one other book of his - The Covenant. If I remember correctly, it was also a good read. However, because his books are very thick, I haven't tackled all of them and there are several. Maybe some day...

That's all for tonight. I'm going to checked on my grandson - the one that I'm stupefied over and infatuated with.

Oh. The grandson's parents went to a Halloween party. Mario and Princess Peach. Mario and Princess Peach are video game characters, in case you do not know. I knew about Mario and was only vaguely aware of Princess Peach.

VACATION - FALL '08'

We've been back for over a week and it's taken me this long to get a keepsake video made of our trip (it's down the page). I take lots of digital footage and have to first download it, then look through and sort it, then convert it to a format that can be used in Windows Movie Maker and then proceed to find the music to accompany it and finally put it all together. I love doing it, though. So, not only am I able to create some digital memories, but also have fun.
This vacation was 1-1/2 weeks long. We traveled around 2,000 miles total and that was probably too much. Especially when you consider that gas was the biggest ticket item by far. It's also too much time spent, well, driving. I think for future driving trips we'll see if we can stick to a 500 +/- miles radius from home. There's lots to see in this area and surrounding states within those miles - Yellowstone (550 miles), Grand Canyon (690 miles, but worth it), Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower, too much to mention in southern Utah, the same for Colorado. I think we are ideally situated to be able to have driving vacations that won't break the bank - at least at this point. If gas prices continue to spiral out of control, who knows.................
Enjoy the video. The music soundtrack starts a couple of frames into the video and it has a couple of spots where I transitioned the subject matter and soundtrack, so don't think it's over when you come to those quieter segments. It's 6 minutes and 11 seconds long.

Crazy Four Wheel Drive

OK. For those of you who are not into 4WD, I understand. I myself, find it sometimes a bit much, particularly some of the craziness that can accompany it with some individuals. However, they have a good time and as long as they don't hurt anyone (including themselves), what they choose to do their vehicle is their business. Believe me, they are having a good time.

There are some rigged out rigs shown on the video that are doing body damaging things. This is the purpose of those vehicles. They are built to sustain body and undercarriage damage, for the most part. Pretty much their sole purpose in life is to drive over ridiculously big boulders, fall over and sometimes roll over.

Merle and I both have Jeep Wranglers and yes, I have and still occasionally drive 4WD trails, mostly in Moab, Utah. I have also driven through and over some difficult obtstacles there. At other times, I've driven around them as they tended to scare the behooties out of me (yes, behooties is a real word - at least in my vocabulary).

Hope you enjoy the video. I really like the U2 soundtrack.

Somebody's Prayin'

Nana, Keir, Joyas Volardores & Lance

I've posted this video on Keir's Place too. He is a smiley little grandson sort of guy. We sat under the pergola on the deck earlier today and I fed him his bottle and read him a book although I'm not at all sure he understands much of it at this particular time. However, he looks at the pictures. We both kind of laid back for awhile and looked up into the blue sea of sky afloat with cotton clouds and I'm looking forward to doing the cloud shape thing with him someday.

Listen to the swell soundtrack.

A hummingbird drama at the feeder provided us with some entertainment. I love to watch them hover and dart. They are amazing little birds. New world Spanish explorers called them Joyas Volardores. It means "flying jewels" - what a perfect name. I obtained that tidbit of information from this website, Hummingbirds Forever. It has some cool factoids about these little creatures.

After Papa came and picked Keir up, Merle and I watched a video about Lance Armstrong. There is stuff about professional cycling of which I had not the slightest clue. It's so.......scientific and.......amazing. Check it out here. It lasts almost an hour and parts are geared to high school students, but stick with it because you will learn some amazing things about Lance Armstrong, his team, his physical makeup, his bikes.

OK. I think I'm just about finished for now. The weather is suddenly fallish (cold and wet) and looks like it going to be that way for the weekend. Glad we didn't go camping. It'll be a good time for the movies and popcorn. Maybe we'll go see the X-File movie on Saturday.

Ciao for Niao

Frito Pie, Hummingbirds, Handy Dandy Husband

Camping with Mom. My Mom is in her mid seventies and has been hinting around about "seeing the stars at night in the mountains" ever since the start of the camping season. So, I made us reservations at a nice campground about half an hour's drive away (I live very close to the mountains) and we spent a couple of days doing the camping thing. We ate, read a lot, watched an old movie, ate, took a drive, sat around the campfire several times, hunted for wood, ate, watched the ever delightful hummingbirds at the feeder we had set up, read some more and slept in our respective sleeping quarters. Merle came up with us the first evening and helped us set things up. Now, let me make it clear. I can set things up, I've done it on my own before. However, the day had been a long one including working at my part time job in the morning. By the time we were ready to drive to the campground, I was pretty bushed. So, my handy dandy husband suggested that maybe he should come along, help us a bit and go back home (poor guy has to go to work to finance these outings, you know). The campground is that close. He also came up for dinner on Tuesday evening. We made Frito Pie for dinner. I had forgotten about it and Mom suggested we make it.
FRITO PIE
Canned chili with or without beans (2 cans for 3 people)
Old style Fritos
Shredded cheese (or sinful Velveeta)
Chopped onion
Heat the chili. Layer ingredients in a large bowls as follows: Fritos, cheese, hot chili, a little chopped onion and then repeat the layering until the ingredients are exhausted. We had two layers each. Shovel it in your pie hole with a spoon. This is very tasty even when you eat it without the campsite.

Nothing particularly exciting happened, but we had a good time. I carried my bear spray, had a knife in the camper and the axe. Just in case some nasty critters tried to mess with us............but, nothing like that happened. Just one agressive chipmunk or two was all.

Later.

Camping

Hey, there. It's been awhile. I've been occupied with summertime activitiies including a big art show in Boulder last weekend. I did well, selling a couple of paintings, some prints of paintings and some greeting cards. Lots of people picked up my business cards.

We camped this weekend (got back about 2p earlier today) up the Poudre Canyon at Chambers Lake campground. I made a little video. We missed some prime photographic opportunities, but I managed to scrape together some footage. It made me realize that no matter what, the rules are: 1. Always take the camera 2. Always have it close at hand. 3. Be sure it has power (batteries). Hope you enjoy it - it's a short one with a lively music soundtrack. Roly Poly by The Quebe Sisters Band. I do believe Roly Poly is referring to a fat little boy and although that has nothing to do with this video other than we ate too much, it is great music. The first part is just the campfire - yeah, just the campfire. Think of it as sitting around the campfire listening to music. If I could do animation (and I'm going to give it a try one of these days, I would add dancing chipmunks or something.

CRITTER - CHAPTER 3

BUTTERFLY

CRITTER - CHAPTER 2

If you haven't seen Chapter 1 - watch it first (post below this one)

Videos have music soundtracks

CRITTER - CHAPTER 1

Has a music soundtrack

The Itsy Bitsy Spider..................

Last week as I was sitting at our little dining counter, I noticed a grouping of small pieces of something on one area of the counter. I turned on the overhead lights and looked closely. What I saw were little pieces of ants. Tiny ant pieces, all scattered within about a 6 inch area.

I didn't think too much about it and proceeded to vacuum them up with my handy little Dusbuster. A couple of hours later when I started to put down our placemats for dinner, I noticed that there were some more pieces that had appeared. This was strange.
When Merle got home, he climbed up on a ladder and looked in the cabinet directly above the ant parts. We don't use those cabinets. Inside, there were a few more pieces and a very tiny web in one corner of the cabinet. We had already figured out that a spider was probably at work, but this confirmed it although we never did actually see a spider. Apparently, the itsy bitsy spider was finding ants somewhere up there (we have no idea where) and after dining on them would drop the remains through the small opening at the bottom of the cabinet door. He was keeping his house clean at the expense of ours.


Before dinner that evening we place a white paper towel on the counter under the cabinet. We ate at the counter well away from the little ant morgue and watched. First one piece appeared, then another and another. We actually only saw about two of them drop on the paper towel, the others would just suddenly be there. By the time we had finished eating and cleaned up the dishes, there were seventeen pieces of ant on the paper towel. (Yeah, it is kind of gross, but also interesting.)


Clearly, it was time to try to eliminate this problem. However, we had experienced some enjoyment out of the mystery for awhile and felt somewhat reluctant to kill our industrious little houseguest. But, you never know if the houseguest is pregnant or is a biter, so we picked up spray at Lowe's and Merle did the deed. We then placed another clean paper towel down again what might happen, but it remained unsullied.

Now, we hope that the ant population Itsy Bitsy was controlling doesn't start taking over...........................

A Day at the Museum

Last week I visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with my sister and her little boy. Here's the video.

Home Again...

We made it back. It was a wonderful week in Canyon Country. Although we've been to Moab, Utah every year for the past 8 years or so, we always see something new. There is so much to do and so much to see that it would take a lifetime to see it all. Here's a video I made. It doesn't begin to depict all of the things we did - we hiked, biked, took many scenic drives, sat on rocky pinnacles with magnificent 360 degree views, saw wildlife, ate, slept and got up in the middle of the night to look at the stars. Buckshot the Pony had a good time and we were glad we took him along as you will see in this video.

Buckshot

So, at the last minute, Buckshot started pitching a fit, whinnying and stomping - he made it pretty clear that he wanted to go with us. As it turns out, he'll make a good mascot for our trip and will surely provide us with some interesting blog fodder. Now, when I asked Woody if he also wanted to go, he declined and said he looked forward to a week without smelling horse farts. If you are not familiar with a past adventure with these two fine fellows, check out my prior post entitled "They're Alive.....".

VACATION

We're heading to Moab, Utah for a few days. It's Friday and we're getting things ready.

Spring forward and Stuff

It's almost 6:30 p.m. and still quite light outside as opposed to last evening when it was totally dark at 6:30 p.m.. I love Spring Forward day. It's a sign that winter is on it's way out and that's good. We've been outside a lot today trying to soak up as many sun rays as possible.

Hope you enjoyed that. I wish I had a better zoom on my camera, though. It's a little hard to make out the deer at times until they move, but they are there - were there. Actually, we have an older video camera that has better zoom, but it's so BIG - it makes me feel like I'm the Channel Nine News Team camera person.

We're headed to our favorite stomping grounds in the Moab, Utah area for a week where we'll camp in our little RV (you can see it in the video), relax, enjoy the gorgeous scenery, ride our bikes, hike some, eat, play and four wheel drive, etc. Hopefully, we won't freeze as this is one of the only pre-spring visits we've made there. We'll be camping at Dead Horse Point State Park. It's our favorite campground with nicely maintained, large, well spaced apart campsites including electricity for our camper. There are no stores or restaurants close by (Moab is about 20 miles away), so I'm already planning our menus for the week. We'll likely go to town for at least one meal. This next weekend starts the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab. The Red Rock 4-Wheelers club in Moab run the show. They organize trail rides and all sorts of activities. One of the activities in which are are participating, is a drawing for a new Jeep 4 door Rubicon - for me. Now that would be a kick if we won it - but the chances are pretty small. Easter Jeep Safari is a crazy time and that's why we won't be staying in town. There are lots of Jeeps, lots of people and the campgrounds are crowded and noisy. However, it's fun to go and see all of the variously outlandish modifications to vehicles. We've been to the Jeep Safari once before. We're mostly just looking forward to getting away for a bit.

Here's a picture of our rig at the campground from a couple of years back.

As soon as I get the camper organized, I'll make a video tour of it and post it.

It's very cute and cozy with comfortable sleeping arrangements. Although pretty small, it works for us. We have lights, heat, a/c, stove top, a sink with running water, a refrigerator and adequate storage. There are plugs for a little toaster oven and our DVD player. The only thing missing is a bathroom, but we always stay in a place where we have access to one and if we are really lucky, even showers.

I feel like a bear coming out of hibernation. I see I haven't posted anything since late last February. I'll try to do better...........

Spring is a herky jerky affair............

Ah yes, Spring in Colorado. We're all sitting on the edges of our seats (as it were) waiting for it to start. It starts, we jump up. It stops, we sit down. It starts, we jump up again. It stops, we hunker down again......and so on. Average-wise, the temperatures are slowing increasing, but the average is made up of 20 degree days next to 55 degree days. Sometimes there is snow and sunshine all in the same day - like today. Whatever the case, I am soooooooooooooooo tired of cold weather.

We tried to make the best of it this past weekend by planning a little getaway. It consisted of a ski day at Eldora and a night in Boulder. Eldora is a small, close-by ski resort. Neither Merle or yours truly had been there in many, many years. However, with increasing gas prices and over 4 hours of round trip driving to ski at one of the bigger resorts, we decided to give it a try. It was just OK. I think if the snow had been better, it would have been more enjoyable. However, it was a little melty and made it a little difficult to ski. I'm not the greatest skier anyway and it didn't help my technique. I fell twice. Last time I skied, I didn't fall at all. We still had a good time and got in lots of runs before calling it quits around 2 in the afternoon.

I'd found us a ski and lodging deal that was great. We were able to get two adult all day lift tickets and one night's lodging for $138. The lifts tickets alone for the two of us would have been $60/each, so the lodging included option was too good to pass up. We stayed at Foot of the Mountain Motel at the mouth of the Boulder Canyon. Eldora is only 45 minutes from Boulder, so after returning to the motel, we flopped down on the bed and had naps. After that we walked around a bit and then headed to the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant for their most delicioso chips and salsa and margaritas.

Margaritas at the Rio are an intoxicating experience - literally. (Go to the Rio link. The introduction includes a margarita and it makes my mouth water just looking at it.) They are very good, but we always limit ourselves to one. They have a 3 margarita limit and frankly, we don't know how anyone can drink 3 of them and still be able to function, must less drive anywhere. However, I do know that people drink that many and sadly (dangerously), they do drive. This time, after one apiece, with our better judgement slightly clouded, we decided to indulge again by sharing another one. We ate two bowls of chips with their to-die-for salsa and had our usual entrees of Tacos Al Carbon. It was a totally satisfying experience. We left in a state of margaphoria and went back to the motel. Merle watched bull riding on the tele and I read with my Mp3 player stuck in my ears. Every once in a while I would glance at the television and recoil in horror at the sight of a huge bull and a rag doll looking cowboy engaged in a fairly violent looking dance. I don't think either one of them could have been having a good time.

I had always thought that the bull's testicles were bound by a special strap and that was why it bucked. However, after Googling this topic, I find that the majority of the material says this is not the case. I'm not sure what to believe.

If you ask me, I'd say the rope in this picture is in a testicularly strategic postion but maybe my knowledge of bull anatomy isn't up to par.

Whatever the case, this sport is just a bunch of bull...........

THEY'RE ALIVE!!!

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(Posted for your pleasure through the month of February)

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I recently decided it was time that we had the DVD versions of the Toy Story and Bug's Life movies. We've had the original VHS versions since they came out.

Logging onto Amazon.com, I perused their new and used DVD inventories and ended up buying new ones. I threw in the DVD version of The Day The Earth Stood Still too. As soon as they arrived by mail, we watched them over the course of a week. Yes, there is a big difference in the quality of the picture.

That was a couple of weeks ago.

I had just gotten back from my usual early morning run to Walmart for groceries and had walked from the garage into the mud room. That's when I heard a knocking sound coming from one of the cabinets that line the walls. These are filled with craft supplies, some of Merle's radio controlled paraphernalia, games and mostly assorted knick knacks that used to be displayed, but for which we no longer have space.

Sitting the grocery bag on the kitchen counter, I went back to the mud room and turned on the light. The sound, something between a softish thud and a sort of scrabbling noise, emanated from the most far left cabinet. I slowly moved forward. Not only was there a sound, but with each thud, the cabinet door moved slightly outward and then closed again. By this time, I was wondering if the oatmeal I had for breakfast contained hallucinatory properties. But no, the noise was definitely there and the door was definitely moving with each thud. Suddenly, as the cabinet thudded open again, I was more than shocked to see this.

.....and they were moving. I quickly reached over and opened the door to find this.

Buckshot took one more fierce kick at the door and just missed hitting my fingers. Those hooves might be padded, but they could do some damage, the inside edge of the cabinet door had slight indentations on it.

"OK, enough with the kicking now," I said as I examined the door edge. Buckshot sat up and turned around. In the process, he bumped into the little toy Singer sewing machine.

"Hey, watch out, you big Galumph!" Singer said in a sort of sing-song voice (imagine that).

And all of this time, we've thought those sounds were our furnace..............

Buckshot snorted.

"Hey, Woody," I said as I petted Buckshot.

"Hey." He sat up and stretched.

"So, what's up, guys?" I suddenly realized I was talking to toy creatures with stuffing. I guess there are weirder things in life........

Buckshot turned and looked at Woody.

"Well," said Woody, "Me and Buckshot here heard you playing our movie the other night and we discussed it and decided that we wanted to see it bad enough to raise a ruckus."

"Is that so?" I tried to convey consternation, remembering all of those nights when I had been awake listening to what were now apparently knick knack patty whack partying sounds and thinking my furnace would need to be replaced shortly.

"Yeah, that's so." Woody and Buckshot would have none of it. They were tired of being in the cabinet, tired of no sunshine and tired of not getting to watch movies.

"Well then, I guess we should maybe do something about that." I grabbed them both although Buckshot started to wiggle and I almost dropped him, sat them on the breakfast counter, got the DVD and started it. I didn't have any popcorn, but gave them each some Raisinets from our candy stash. Buckshot proceeded to eat them all, much to Woody's disgust.

"Now you'll have gas all night."

I promised them they could watch the other Toy Story in the next couple of days if they would just keep the noise down.

Down in Dixie.............

I'm reading To Kill A Mockingbird - for the first time. I've seen the movie several times and most recently a week ago after getting it from our local library. After that I realized I had never read the book, so went back to the library and checked it out.

It is the one of the dearest books I've ever read along with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and maybe a couple of others that I can't recall at the moment. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960 and is the only published book by female author, Harper Lee. It is apparently loosely based on her experiences growing up in Alabama. The main characters are Scout (a little tomboy), her older brother Jem, their attorney father, Atticus, and lots of other extremely colorful characters. The story is told in first person by Scout. So many of the references in it reminded me of things in my life while growing up in Texas, all things southern being somewhat similar.

One particular section reminded me of the hand fans we used in church back then. They were paper affairs with elaborate religious scenes (The Garden of Gethsemane in the book) glued to a thin wooden handle. Since there was no air conditioning and in the southern states, the church could get very stuffy during a typical lengthy service, these fans were made available next to the hymnals on the backs of the church pews. This one depicts the Last Supper and I do remember using a Last Supper fan myself. This website, Jewel Antique has several others.

Anyway, I'm about halfway through the book and it's safe to say that there is something delightfully uplifting on almost every page. Included is much humor as in this passage describing the wild imagination of their friend, Dill, who ran away from his home of some distance to their home.

"I finally found my voice. "How'd you get here?"

By an involved route. Refreshed by food, Dill recited this narrative: having been bound in chains and left to die in the basement (there were basements in Meridian) by his new father, who disliked him, and secretly kept alive on raw field peas by a passing farmer who heard his cries for help (the good man poked a bushel pod by pod through the ventilator), Dill worked himself free by pulling the chains from the wall.

Still in wrist manacles, he wandered two miles out of Meridian where he discovered a small animal show and was immediately engaged to wash the camel. He traveled with the show all over Mississippi until his infallible sense of direction told him he was in Abbott County, Alabama, just across the river from Maycomb. He walked the rest of the way."

The Dill character is based upon her lifelong friend, Truman Capote.

Almost every page has some wonderful story on it. Many are the life's lessons found on it's pages.

My Mother and "I'll Swan".....

Growing up in Texas, I remember that when my mother was on the telephone, she would repeat the phrase, "I'll swan", in response to some revelation being conveyed by someone on the other end of the line. "Well, I'll swan," she'd say. (Her inflection when speaking this would be similar to saying the phrase, "Well, I'll be darned".) Through the years I've always wondered what it meant, but my interpretation is "I'll swoon". Women were prone to swooning in times past, as was expected from the "frail and more delicate sensibilites" of the "fairer" sex. According to Dictionary. com swoon means: 1. To faint; to lose consciousness 2. To enter into a state of hysterical rapture or ectasy From one southern belle to another, it was a dramatic statement conveying their astonishment and or consternation over certain events of import.

Well, I'll swan...............

Valentine

Remember Valentine's Day when you were a kid? (I'm assuming you are not a kid right now.) I don't know what it is like nowadays, but when I was growing up Valentine's Day was a combination of anticipation, tiny love intrigues and many times, rejection. As the day of national love approached we all brought shoeboxes to school to decorate. These were to be our Valentine mailboxes. The decorating part was always fun for me - Little Miss Creativity. The school provided various materials in the form of the standard pink, red and white construction papers, doilies, crayons and glue. We each then proceeded to cut out hearts and paste them on doilies which in turn were pasted onto our mailbox. A large rectangle opening was cut into the lid of each shoebox as the mailbox slot. Your name was put on the outside. The completed mailboxes were lined up on a table.

Every girl usually had a crush on at least one boy and this was the time of year when you could really let them know how you felt. Boys, at these ages, were not into "love" - it made them throw up. However, they did like girls to love them - they just didn't want to reciprocate. (So, just exactly how have things changed in that regard?)

The days leading up to Valentine's Day were spent in choosing the most effective and prettiest assortment of valentines from the local dime store (see definition below). These came in boxes of around 25, with envelopes. I don't remember what pictures were on them or what they said, but I know that I would sort through them, picking the biggest and most expressive one for the object of my fervent affections. The word "Love" was, of course, essential in the verbiage.

From Wikipedia: The concept of the variety store originated with the five and ten, or nickel and dime or dimestore, a store where everything cost either five cents (a nickel) or ten cents (a dime). The originator of the concept may be Woolworths, which began in 1878 in Watertown, New York. Other five and tens that existed in the USA included W.T. Grant, J.J. Newberry's, McCrory's, Kresge, McClellan's, and Ben Franklin Stores. These stores originally featured merchandise priced at only five cents or ten cents, although later in the century, the price range of merchandise expanded. Inflation eventually dictated that the stores were no longer able to sell any items for five or ten cents, and were then referred to as "variety stores". Given that $0.05 in 1913 when adjusted for inflation is $1.02 in 2006 dollars, this retailing concept has shown remarkable vitality over the years.

We were not required to give Valentine's to each classmate, so naturally, a typically stinky little adolescent is generally not going to consider the long term effects of the rejection experienced from not receving many Valentines. Each mailbox owner was terrified of opening it and finding that they did not have many or any Valentines. It was safest to open your box later at home, in case this was the outcome. ("I just want to be able to savor it in the privacy of my room.") Lord pity the poor unpopular child. As we all know, there were those unfortunate souls that were at a disadvantage in looks (most important acceptance criteria), nice clothes or money. In my case, I wore glasses. Perhaps my choice of glasses may have had something to do with it as you can see below.

Please don't hold this lack of taste against me - maybe cat eyes glasses were the "thing" then. I suspect they might have been. My daughter told me that she can't believe my parents let me wear them...........

Apparently, this has all changed now and everyone must give a Valentine to each classmate - this is assuming that Valentine's Day is still celebrated with mailboxes in the classroom. Whatever the case, I do imagine that our latest batch of adolescents is just as mean sometimes.

In closing, give Valentines, especially to those you do not like. It's the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Baby, Baby......

Turn up the volume.

Now we can start shopping for those little boy clothes. Little button down collared flannel shirts, tiny jeans, teeny hiking boots - what fun!

CABIN FEVER

I've got it - no doubt about it. Dreaded cabin fever with full blown symptoms. First there's the horrible "being stuck in the house and you can't open the windows" thing. I'm a fresh air person and a day without it takes it's toll on my psyche. So, at various points throughout the day, I stick my head outside and take some deep breaths. Right now the temperatures during the day are hovering around mid teens, so standing out there for very long isn't advisable. OK. Yes, I could bundle up and go for a walk. Yes I could and you know what - that's what I'm going to do - starting tomorrow. I'm not going to let Old Man Winter sock it to me anymore. I'm going to put on lots of layers and head over to the city path for a vigorous jaunt. I'll let you know how that goes..........
Then there are the long evenings that drag interminably on and on and on... I find myself in my pj's around 7 p.m. clutching my latest library acquisition. I gather my various pillows and my soft blankie then plop down on the couch for a good read. If I make it 30 minutes without conking out, it's unusual. Most folks watch television, but that isn't an option here as we don't pay for it, and have no antenna. We do rent the occasional movie, though, and that might keep me up until 9p.
I'm an artist, so I should be doing art, right? Well, if only it were that easy. Due to the lack of fresh air which in turn fuels my creativity and also the fact that I feel like the day is over when the sun goes down, I find it terribly hard to create this time of year. That's a real shame since I have so much time to create right now. In addition, the holidays took the stuffing out of me with all of the usual stresses and I find that I have to recuperate for a month or more before I can really get on with life.
Blogging. I can do that - like right now. It's dark out, has been for several hours now and I've spent the time in the fairly useless activity of blogging. I made a fairly useless movie for this blog too. Here it is (it has music).

Lest you are wondering about the picture at the beginning of this post, let me explain. Merle and I were simultaneously suffering the effects of cabin fever earlier today, so we decided to go for a drive. We headed up in the hills, went to Starbucks in Estes Park where we each indulged in our favorite pricey caffeinated hot beverage and then drove around in a somewhat aimless fashion. Off one side road we drove by the above pictured tableau consisting of an old diningroom set in the forest.

I call it "Dining with Old Cold Ghosts".

Very Belated Happy New Year!

I have been very negligent about blogging so far this year but will be working on correcting that in the future.

OUR FRIENDS, THE GENTLE MULE DEER.
(Turn up the volume, this is my first video with music.)

This is one of several small groups of mule deer that come and go in our neighborhood. It's been fun as we've observed them through the years. We have seen some that are lame probably from either being chased and bitten or by injuring themselves when jumping over barbed wire fencing. We had a partial skeleton on the property one time and other day there was a mule deer leg in the middle of the street. It disappeared the next day and then showed up again the next. I just realized that it may have been a different leg. So, there are also predators around, We haven't seen those. I imagine that drama takes places in darkness. It's either coyotes or a mountain lion. I think we would hear coyotes, so it makes me wonder if there is a mountain lion in the vicinity.

Yesterday, the little herd nestled down in a protected grassy spot on our hillside. I was able to clearly see the head of one of them as it studiously chewed it's cud. Yes, deer have multiple stomachs, like cows. Chewing the cud is how cud chewers are able to get the maximum amount of nutrients from their vegetative meals. This link provides a lot of good information about mule deer. After living with these gentle creatures for so many years, I finally know something about them. It would be so cool to see a fawn sometime, but we never do although we do see them after they are more like in the juvenile stage.

Well, this is a short one. Merle went to get us Subway meatball salads and we are going to watch "3:10 to Yuma" - again. We already saw it at the theatre. It's a good movie - pretty violent in parts, but nevertheless very entertaining.

Be a "deer" and come back for a visit................