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