Birds

Again I am fascinated by birds. They have begun their journey back to the mountains. I love their sounds. The geese, who have not left the area, talk in pairs as they head to and from their chosen dining places. I can just imagine some gander telling the goose how things are done as they fly over my cabin. I love to watch them as they are usually in two's. Paired for life - what a fabulous thing! I wonder if they have divorces or separations among them and if they do, if they are gossiped about and ostracised by all?

I have the pretty little birds with the cherry red chests stocking up on the bird seed. They seem to get more and more tame with each season. I am guessing me and my cabin are becoming part of the landscape for them. They are always flying by with the hope the feeders will be full. Robin Red Breast was in the yard. So much bigger than the other birds, he surveys his surroundings, searching for the night crawlers that are beginning to move.

I have this one huge crow that loves to sit in the tree and laugh at me. Probably not really a laugh but it just sounds so much like one that I always look at him and tell him to be quiet. He actually was sitting out watching me the day I took my half gainer on the ice. And as expected, he laughed!

Promises of spring are everywhere. The birds are trying so hard to pull it on in! I am so ready!

Gunny

Home. What a wonderful sound. I spent a very short part of Saturday hunting for shoes for a wedding. The rest of the day was locked up in a dark room. Rest is a wonderful thing. Over stimulation for someone my age is too much at times. The Concrete jungle is just that. Filled with lions, tigers and all sorts of cougars ects. They come out of the strangest hiding places, waiting, watching. looking for that vulnerable moment to POUNCE. One of my favorite things is the perfume chimp. Usually she is a female. Spraying you as you go by, it is like they are putting their "mark" on you. The male lion (and I have to use that loosely) can be found in most shoe departments. Unable to walk through with a keen eye, the lion stalks me as I look from shoe to shoe. Unable to relax, unsure of when he will actually attack, I walk quickly through the store.
To be honest, my life prior allowed me to learn how to deal with such aggressive jungle animals. Now that I have lived in the calm of this small wonderful town, I have lost a bit of my edge!

Texas

I am in Texas, more specifically Houston. It is so different than the teeny town I live in. The Airport has more than one terminal, more than one plane coming in at one time. People every where! Trying to get to the hotel was a challenge. You should never truly trust a GPS. It does not really know the quickest route to and from places.

The freeway is aptly named. I had forgotten how fast people drive. No wonder I get tickets up there. I was almost run over (gunned down) by women in the slow lane. Now those of you who know me know I have an incredibly heavy lead foot! How I almost got run over is a surprise even to me. I finally arrived at my destination, a bit glowing, a bit relieved to have survived the trip!

The Baylor Bears made it to the sweet 16. That is why I am here. I came alone, knowing my Baylor family would all be here. It was exactly as I expected. I was a pledge class sweetheart for the Sig Eps, and they welcomed me with open arms. We did a tailgate, we had tons of fun. We have tickets for the Elite 8 on Sunday. I will let you know how my day in the concrete jungle goes tomorrow. I will be doing my hunting today. Don't know how it will go-

Great day all!

Snow....again...again...again....

We had multiple white outs yesterday. It is almost like Texas here. If you don't like the weather, wait a second and it will change. Besides the fact that I almost killed myself early yesterday morning on the ice, we had almost a foot of snow. To help make that sentence fit, let me tell you about the morning. I woke up with the plan to drive to Montrose. It is like going to Amarillo from Borger - you know - the big City! Got all dress to go....cowboy boots, hat etc. We had had a light dusting of snow. No big deal of snow. Olive and I went for our usual quick walk down the lane and the ice was covered. Never saw it coming...Shame really... to be that dumb and blind so early...And then the big flakes of snow hit. It came and went through out the day. Monarch pass is our dangerous pass around here. Of course there are other passes, but it is the big meanie.

Most of the snow has already melted. It was a really nice treat for all the Spring Breakers. CB was full of Texans. I really miss those wonderful accents. The Texas hair - the big smiles, every thing is bigger in Texas. Why is that? I really don't know - but I do really love it!

Today we are headed back down the lane. I am going to watch for that mean old patch of ice. I am also wearing my ice friendly shoes (that would not be my cowboy boots). I can not remember if I have described my down the lane outfit. It is something Media (mom) would be so proud of... Camo one piece cover-alls, bog boots, gloves, what ever hat I can find, a wonderful and so fashion forward scarf. I will have to put a pic of that on here someday also...or maybe not!

Have a great Saturday!

birds

For some of us this topic brings up Tippy Hendrin (for those out there who can actually spell, I apologize). All will remember the movie by Hitchcock - The Birds. My birds are back. The sun is creeping up. She hates this daylight savings time also. The birds have finally found my bird feeders. I have the shinny black seed out. It can take them one day to go through half of the feeder. Currently they are being very polite, very southern - taking very dainty pieces. Flying off and chatting....Last winter they were tag team wrestling with each other. The feeders would be almost empty each day. Hungry little birdies!

What makes watching them morning after morning so absolutely restful and charming, I am not quite sure. It is something that makes me feel that all is right with the world. I guess it is also like watching the snow melt. Now that is scary just to type. Let's look at that for a second. I like to watch the snow melt.

Well with that I am going to have to go get my Arnold Palmer and maybe add a bit of vodka or something to it...it just sounds way too sad!

sun

Today was such a bright shinny day. You know how a penny shines when it is new- well today was one of those days. My nose is burned. My cheeks are burned. Crazy as it sounds - I love the feeling of it. It takes me back to the days of life guarding at the Borger Country Club. Or even the days of going to the Club and swimming. I loved those care free days. The days of the challenge of diving off the board. The challenge of different dives - of swimming and playing Marco Polo.

The mountain is full of Texans. I hear the accents. I miss my roots. I love the twang. I love memories of main street, of Borger High, Christmas, SF. Funny how all this silly stuff gets brought back to mind with a sun burned nose!

old things

I love old things. Could this have been mentioned before?

My hotel chairs are all rusted and worn so many coats of paint. The green is light, the color of flower leaves as they come out in spring, bunny's nose pink and sometimes Easter white. The blue is still in that sweet early morning softness and then there is a bright fire engine red. It is Layer upon layer. I would love to hear the stories. Some of the chairs have sea shell backs, some have backs with cute little holes in them for ventilation, some have square backs. Seem they all have the same colors. Wonder if the patent office made them all sign a waiver to use only these colors - or sent everyone gallons of them? I am horrible - I love to fleck the paint off as I sit. I wonder if it hurts?

Wish one day as I sit and drink my wine they would all chat and tell me their tales. What hotel they were at - one at the Broadmoor another at a motor court...don't you know they would have such great things to tell? I am sure they had a love hate relationship with the kids!

the worker

I know I keep saying I love my cabin. There are so many aspects of it I love. My exceptional workers - are actually brothers. Both did the remodel of my cabin - which is just absolutely wonderful and now they are doing the shed. I am starting to be able to get another word out of my mouth for the shed - but not totally- so we will just leave it at that. The s...shed.

It was a dilapidated old thing. Not one piece of wood was solid top to bottom. Not one piece was plum top to bottom left to right. The roof was questionably flat. We could really just say the shed was questionable. The first $500 man came in an put an angle about the size of a fist on my already questionable shed roof and called it done. He also used Old freezer panels to cover the dirt of the floor and also covered the freezer panels with thin plywood. Done.

We had vodka on the discovery of the floor day. Now we have concrete pads, a peaked ceiling and roof with a true pitch (yes I can sing) and now we are into the really fun stuff. The character stuff.

The outside will be fashioned with ruffled tin that rusts. It has a barrier that keeps it from rusting all the way through. It will have beautiful new windows (unfortunately the character windows were just too horrid) that will let in both light and air. The chicken coop is surrounded by 30'-50's screen doors. Victorian or just cool. They are the walls for the coop. And then the door is this huge thing that has aged. The frame is wood from the inside of the shed that has also aged to a wonderful reddish brown patina. The color of - well I don't know but I love it. The exposed wood will then be wrapped with barn wood. It also has a front porch. I had found this wonderful old wire swing that will hang on which to sit and sip a great glass of wine.

So some day when this is finished, and I can afford a glass of wine, you will fine me sitting outside, looking at the mountains, talking to my buddies and Olive, loving life!

In two more weeks.....

the money pit

Starring....Me!
I loved the movie. Tom Hanks, Shelly Long...... Laughed until I cried. Until I starred in the remake. I have always been very hard headed. Make note - this will be the only time I will actually admit to this wonderful trait. It has been 50...years since my last confession....

I have a shed. It was falling down. It needed help. What was I to do?

Ok. Stop. Rewind. I was bored, I needed a project. There. It is out.

I am a fixer. I love to fix things. EVERYTHING.

It started innocent enough. $500. to fix the roof. I was suckered in on that. Yes it was Christmas. Yes it was the first one I was going to be alone. Yes, I was feeling a bit misty. So Yes, I said yes.
And our story begins here.

Paul is an interesting fellow. Olive is afraid of him. Tail tucked running the other way afraid. Paul painted the cabin and is still not finished...kind of painter. Which is fine. But Paul is who I hired to do the shed. Should give you some sort of idea of where I am headed on the shed. It started out ok.

Then enter Nathan and Casey. Both big strapping handsome young men that had remodeled the cabin a few years back. I had them look at what Paul had done....Let's just say they were gracious. Now Paul is gone and we have redone everything. Last week we pulled out the floor - and pulled out the vodka ...at 9am.

And again it is 2 more weeks.

The funny/strange thing is that I trust these guys. They are like family. And I love my place. It was built in 1932. Can you believe that? Something is still working from 1932? I was built in 1957 and I am not working all that well. I have to have lots of my parts worked on a lot. Thinking about having some of them remodeled...We have found old bottles - broken glass. Families, farmers have lived here. The road has been here since the mid 1800's. I love the history. The area was settled by the army in the 1800's and then miners. I may actually have that backwards.

I will take pictures today and try my best to get some interesting inside and out looks at my paradise.

have a great day!

Mud

The sun is up, again it is cold. Not an earth shattering, nose hair freezing cold, but more of an eye tear dropping kind of morning. The colors are crisp, if colors can be crisp. They are along the lines of orange, red, yellow as they hurry through my trees. Momma sunshine is in such a hurry this morning to get up! She must have a huge list of things to do today.

Olive and I had a long night. We have not had such a long night in a while. I must admit a friend has been helping me sleep - friend Ambien has been at my house since my hip surgery. Unfortunately, friend Ambien had to go home. I am so sad and am considering asking him to move in with me. Do you think it sordid to ask him to stay? I just sleep so much better when he is here! Olive heard noises last night. I am sure it was the horses next door. They get restless on occasion. I would get cold too or my legs would get so tired if I had to stand so long in my steel dance shoes. I'd be looking for a hammer! (or a gun....) just saying...

Have I mentioned the redo of the shed anywhere? That will be the next subject. I don't think I can bring myself to start that now...I need my Starbucks first. If I don't have it first and start on that project discussion...well it will definitely bring on the vapors and ...well...Olive just can't bring me out of the vapors without help.

Morning all!

again

Today I realized someone might actually like to read about my thoughts! Who knew? I am excited and thrilled. So I am going to start writing DAILY.

It has been a long and cold winter. All my friends had told me we would get tired of the cold and wet. I had listened and heard their words but in my heart I had known it would never happen for me. How could it? I love it here! I could never get tired of it! Today, I am tired of the snow. I am tired of the yuk of the melted snow! Snow Snow go away!

So I got my old pouty self up and had a couple of M & M's to put myself into my right mind and decided I can do a couple more months of sort of this yucky melty mess. And here we go. The sky is still so amazing. The stars are still so bright. Olive is still loving to go out running.

The eagles are sitting close to the road now. I saw one of the huge birds fly down to catch a fish. I almost had a wreck trying to watch it. It was so amazing. They are just so majestic!

Tonight the air has swarovsky crystals in it. They are floating down from the sky slowly, daintily. Catching the moonlight here and there. It is cold but not the negative cold. It is spring break. All the Texans are starting to drift up. The grocery store is full, Crested Butte is full.

I have not written about the shed much on here. I will try to get some pictures on here. I have fired one man and hired the guys that did my redo of the cabin. It is like having my kids here - or family here or old friends here. How they can work out in this weather is beyond me. I am guessing part of it is the need for work. It is starting to take shape. They are used to my crazy requests - and my love for old wood. I wonder if I love old wood because I am old? We will ponder that at another time...

Good night all