If the Lid Fits: An Odyssey

Have you ever wondered what happened to something you donated to Goodwill?

For the past two years I've been looking for a square glass lid to fit a cast iron skillet we have at the cabin.  Every time I went to a thrift store I'd check out the pot lids.  Not only did I rarely see a square lid, when I did, they weren't the right size.

Then one day a month or so ago when I was in the Goodwill in Longmont.... (Since this is an odyssey, I've created some travel stickers.  The photo below is of Long's Peak after which Longmont is named.  I wanted to credit the photographer, but didn't make note of the name when I inserted the photo and have been unable to find it again)...
...I found a lid that appeared to be the perfect fit...but it had no price tag.  So the lid's odyssey started almost immediately, inside Goodwill!...I took it to check-out and the clerk on duty thought it probably was the top to a casserole.  She called for assistance and I stepped aside and allowed another customer or two to go through check-out while another clerk looked to see if she could find the casserole.  Soon, she returned, indicating the lid had been put out alone and she'd need to get it priced. Off she went, into the back room, finally returning with the lid priced $6.99!  


The check-out clerk commented that it was a ridiculous price and she was only going to charge me $3.99.  I said that sounded great and I'd take my senior discount as well.  So I paid $3 and happily took the lid back to Boulder.... (These are the Flatirons, below, a Boulder landmark, about which I've blogged before.  This photo is by Charles Pfiel and can be located at the Arrowphotos site)...

My sister and her husband had been vacationing at the cabin during this time and the day she came to Boulder to launder bedding before they left to return to Missouri I gave her the lid, still in its Goodwill bag, and asked her to take it back up to the cabin and see if it fit the skillet.  So the lid took its first drive up Boulder Canyon to Eldora. (This old photo of Chittenden Mountain west of Eldora, taken by Donald Campbell Kemp in approximately 1938, is part of the Photographic Collection of the Denver Public Library).

Here are Legs 1 and 2 of the pot lid's sojourn from the time I purchased it...

Several days later I got an e-mail from my sister indicating she had forgotten to take the lid out of her van and had taken it back to Missouri with her! 



Here are Legs 3, 4 and 5 of the lid's odyssey... (My sister e-mailed me that they made it to Goodland, Kansas, the evening they left)....

 ...then drove it on in to Blue Springs, Missouri, the next day....(This photo of the entrance to Burrus Old Mill Park, located where the City of Blue Springs was founded, is from the City of Blue Springs web site).

So this makes Leg 6...

I can only surmise what occurred to the skillet lid at my sister's.  I'm sure it got brought into her house when they unpacked their van...then boxed up and probably taken to the Blue Springs post office (I noted on the internet, plans were announced late last summer to close the downtown Blue Springs post office, so I don't know if it was still open) where it was probably trucked to the Kansas City Airport.  Then I'm assuming it flew to Denver....So, if the trip to the Blue Springs Post Office was Leg 7 and being trucked to the Kansas City Airport was Leg 8, this was Leg 9....

I forgot to note how much my sister paid for postage, but the lid was heavy, so I expect it was quite a bit....but not nearly as much as a coach seat for the same flight!  This lid was having quite the little adventure.  

I'm assuming it was trucked from the Denver International Airport to Boulder and from the Boulder post office to my apartment building, so let's make those Legs 10 and 11.

The last time I was at the cabin, I took the lid with me, Leg 12, and the second time the lid had been driven up Boulder Canyon to Eldora and its potential home!...

Would it fit and get to stay?...

Yes!  It fit!...

Like the original, this odyssey had a happy ending.  

I sure hope I'm not the one to break this lid!  Maybe I should just build a shrine!  Teddee

The Color of Fall

I went to the cabin last Saturday afternoon just for an overnight.  NOAA was predicting a week of rain for both Boulder and the high country.  I thought if I wanted to get any photos of the aspens in full fall regalia I'd better make a quick trip up.  

By Sunday afternoon I had taken two walks and 127 photos.  Having read the latest Vanity Fair from cover to cover and finished this book (If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.  Filming of a movie based on the book and starring Jeremy Irons, started this spring.  I will go see this one),

I couldn't wait to get back to the computer to see what I'd actually captured on film.  I spent almost three hours editing photos.  Here are a few...






















I snapped this just about two blocks west of the cabin.  The "leaf peepers" were parked almost bumper-to-bumper along the south side of Eldorado, the street on which the cabin is located, when I returned from Sunday's walk.  This was the eye-catcher...

The locals hate anything that brings more traffic to Eldora, so now I can't decide if I'm a local or a "leaf peeper"!  

Someone had even driven as far in as they could on the access road along the south side of the creek, usually used only by residents, and parked just a few feet from one of my favorite photography subjects...

this old rusty mining auger...

I guess, based on the way this made me feel, I consider myself a local!

Join me on my favorite walk...

Not everything colorful is up...

 

One stalwart harebell hanging in...

At least this "peeper" came by un-motorized conveyance...

It was so dry earlier in the year that there are few rose hips...

...no rose hip syrup for gifts this Christmas.  Remember last fall?...

I love the way decades of heavy Rocky Mountain snows have, gently, molded this metal over this boulder like chocolate fondant over nougat...

Nature's frame...

That's all for today.  Tomorrow...Fire on the Mountain.  Teddee

Escape to the City

NOAA is predicting 40 mph wind gusts for Eldora, and it feels as if they are stronger than that already, so I'm taking my very loaded car to the apartment in Boulder and after unloading will plan to stay overnight.  One of the items in my car is this foam mattress...

...which is going to have to suffice for a bed at the new digs for the time being.  The original offer of a double bed from a cabin here in Eldora whose owners were replacing it with a queen evaporated when they decided to put it in their guest bedroom in their Boulder home.  So, I'm taking bed linens, pillow, etc. and will try to turn this baby into a passable bed for the near future.

Much of the rest of this is dirty laundry.  I feel like a college student in reverse.  I'd been putting off doing laundry until the good old S.S. check came through and probably have $20 worth even with the slightly less expensive coin machines at the apartment building.  It will be nice to be able to do other chores upstairs in the apartment simultaneously.

This coming week I'm going to concentrate on removing everything from the storage unit I have in Boulder.  That's going to be a challenge with this bum arm, but I'm taking a little step stool that will give me another ten inches in height, so I won't have to lift things up so high.  We'll see how it goes.  My plan to is to take boxes back to the apartment and sort through them there.  I'm going to see if the apartment management has any objections to my putting any rejects in the common room for other residents to pick over if they want.  The idea is just to get out from under the monthly rent at Boulder Bins so I can give it to Boulder Housing Partners.  The shell game.

I've got everything battened down here so it won't blow away, I've given Vixen her "last breakfast" and I'll be off line for at least a couple of days.  More later.  Teddee

The New Hood

I've managed to take one carload of belongings down to the new apartment each day this week since I signed the lease on Tuesday.  I find it takes about three trips using the handy grocery carts kept on site to unload the car.  Then I shower, maybe do an errand or two in Boulder, drive back to the cabin, take a pain pill and fall into bed.  These injuries, especially the chipped shoulder bone, have really taken the starch out of me, but I'm making real progress. 

Today I'm unloading this steamer trunk...

...so when my neighbors get ready to take it and a few other large items down to the apartment for me in their pickup truck they won't have to worry about anything being inside.

I just found out day before yesterday that there is another cabin owner here in Eldora who has a practically new full-sized mattress and box springs they want to replace with a queen and it's mine free if I want it.  I've been assured by my neighbors I don't have to worry about its cleanliness, so, after determining yesterday that the bedroom is 9 feet wide, I have decided to take it.  I now have a bed and have also agreed to take a computer stand as well as a chest of drawers.  These odds and sods may not be what I'd pick if I had a choice, but you can't beat the price and I know I can make them work.


I thought I'd post a few photos of the exterior of the apartment building I'm moving into and the surrounding neighborhood...how all-American does Walnut and 7th sound?  Love the deciduous trees which I've not had in my environment since leaving Chicago for Phoenix in 1993!

...my balcony is the nice empty one.  I hope I don't get mine junked up over time...

The day I looked at my apartment there was all of this very loud construction going on in this lot directly to the west of the apartment building...

 ...I thought someone was constructing a house or office building and figured I would have construction noise for months.  The good news...

...a new park!

I think when the leaves drop off the trees in the fall, I'll be able to see this wonderful house from my living room...

...the bright sunshine was not only obliterating my view in the viewfinder, but I was having trouble raising my right arm.  I love this roof on the cupola...mansard?  Here's what Wikipedia says about mansard roofs...

Early use

The style was popularized in France by architect François Mansart (1598–1666). Although he was not the inventor of the style, his extensive and prominent use of it in his designs gave rise to the term "mansard roof", an adulteration of his name.^[11] The design tradition was continued by numerous architects, including Jules Hardouin-Mansart, (1675–1683), his great nephew, who is responsible for Château de Dampierre in Dampierre-en-Yvelines.

Second Empire

The mansard roof became popular once again during Haussmann's renovation of Paris beginning in the 1850s, in an architectural movement known as "Second Empire style".
Second Empire influence spread throughout the world, frequently adopted for large civic structures such as government administration buildings and city halls, as well as hotels and train stations. In the United States and Canada, and especially in New England, the Second Empire influence spread to family residences and mansions, often corrupted with Italianate and Gothic Revival elements. A mansard-topped tower became a popular element incorporated into many designs.^[19][20][21]

There are numerous similar buildings in this neighborhood, what appears to be referred to as the West End (of Pearl Street).  I wonder what they dozed to construct the apartment building?  I don't even want to think about it.

I wonder if the owners of this wonderful house would let me stay in their gatehouse?...

...even without gingerbread trim it's as cute as a button.  They also have a lovely English-style garden of which, again, I took poor photos because of my arm.  Is that a peach tree?...

I took these after unloading the car and I am so exhausted and in such pain afterward that I feel a little as if I had the flu, so I'll try to take more and better photos of some of the wonderful houses in the area the next time I make a trip down and do it before I unload.

In the meantime, I'm deliberately missing the half-off Saturday at all Colorado Goodwill stores.  There's nothing like packing, to  make you question your "junqueing" habit.  More later, Teddee

Well, That Was Neat

When Dixie and I got back from our outing today, the fox was relaxing in the front yard waiting for our return just like a domestic pet.  Of course, I was so taken aback that I forgot to take any photos.  I drove about halfway in toward the cabin and she wasn't even afraid of the car.  I kept Dixie shut in the car and fed the fox, but the dog Apollo from across the road east came over after a bit, scared her away and ate one of the chicken drumsticks I'd put out for her.  She'd eaten one and I salvaged the other before he ate it.  I'll put it out later tonight after people have taken their dogs in.

I've found that raw eggs in the shell work great because the dogs don't know what to do with them. The fox carries them off, so I guess she's breaking into them and sucking the egg out just like she would if she got into a chicken house. 

I did get some photos earlier in the day.  We had this much snow overnight and although it was over 40F degrees this morning, the wind was really blowing and it was cold...

After I'd done my stint on the computer and Dixie and I had our breakfast...

...I'm calling this photo "My Skillet!"  I let her clean the scrambled eggs out of this pan or try to.  I'd run out of Pam so they really stuck and she'd finally given up and was just enjoying the heat from the stove...we piled in the car and went to Boulder and Lafayette.

I hadn't planned to go down because I didn't think Goodwill was having a 50% off sale today--I hadn't received my usual e-mail--and I had promised myself no more thrifting this month, but I wasn't in the mood to be kept prisoner in the cabin because of the winds, so put Dixie in the car and headed down. 

Rock climbing is a big sport here and anytime the weather permits, there will be climbers all over the rocks in the canyon.  Today I pulled over and took some photos.

I couldn't see anything in my viewfinder, so was interested to see what I'd managed to capture.  I played around with the contrast and color on the computer and can't get anything better than this.  Next time I'll spend more time and make better use of my 5x magnification.

I first went to Savers in Boulder because I have another filled punch card for 30% off, but found absolutely nothing.  I didn't even stop at the Boulder Goodwill, thinking there wasn't a sale, and drove east, not really knowing what my destination was, but ended up turning south to Lafayette and the Goodwill there.  I discovered just as I was leaving, having only found one top, that everything was 50% off.  No big signs in the windows of any of their stores, just little signs on top of the racks.  I wonder what has prompted the change?  At any rate, since I'm having so much trouble finding a market for my small decor items, I'm now in the market for furniture with doors and drawers for the cabin to replace some of the things that are here now.  I can't fit anything very big in my car.  I had seen and rejected this piece because it was $30. 

After I realized things were half off, I returned to the back of the store and got it.  I haven't decided exactly where it will go--since it has a place for a rod, probably replace the shelf over the wash stand-- but wherever it ends up, those drawers will come in handy.

Now I need a really skinny chest with fairly deep drawers for sheets and towels to go between the end of the bunk and the hide-a-bed I'm keeping.

Do you have storage challenges?  Teddee

Finally, Real Rain

We finally got a real rain last night.  I don't know how much we received.  I need to get a rain gauge.  But it was the first measurable rain we've had in some time.  After an the initial rainfall around bedtime, it rained off and on much of the night I think.  Now we're having sunshine, but 70 mph winds and snow showers! 

I tried to use the camera setting to capture motion, but these don't really do justice to the lashing tree branches...and dog ears...blowing violently in the wind...

Jimmy usually just comes in, gets his hug and goes on his way, leaving Dixie behind.  Today the weather was so extreme he actually returned and came back in the cabin for a bit.

I think Dixie and I are going to go to Boulder just to get out of this.  I'm getting a lot of blow-back smoke from the wood stove because of the wind, which is supposed to continue on through tonight and tomorrow.

Since I've lived here I've read two funny comments about the winds in the Nederland weekly, the Mountain-Ear.  In one letter to the editor, a resident responding to concerns from some old-timers that Nederland's improvements were going to turn it into another Aspen, said there was little chance of that unless someone could design a giant wind screen to plant on the Continental Divide.  More recently, candidates for Nederland's City Council were being interviewed about how to keep the young people from moving away and one candidate said they left because of the wind!  I can see that.

Teddee