Plain Vanilla

I took a carload of stuff to the apartment in Boulder yesterday morning.  Luckily, because this building I'm moving into caters to the elderly (who, me?) and truly disabled, they have some grocery carts that remain on site and I was able to roll one of these to my car, load it up, push it into the elevator and all the way to my unit and unload it...

...which made it so much easier with this injured arm.  It took three trips from the car to the apartment, after which I took the long awaited hot shower, drove home, took a pain pill and took to my bed.


This morning I awoke to this...

It's melting and blowing off fairly rapidly.  It's about 40F degrees, but we're going to have lows in the 30F degrees off and on through Sunday so we might get even more snow.  NOAA predicts a high of 59F degrees on Monday, Memorial Day, however.


Yesterday I took some photos of what my brother called my "plain vanilla" apartment after I described it to him in a phone conversation.  And it is, but I've rented so much of my life that the white walls and beige carpet don't bother me.  They are just neutrals against which to display your owns tastes. 


So, here is the kitchen...

I was told these are new appliances and they appear to be.  The tote bag on the pass-through contains some plates I had yet to determine what to do with here in the cabin so they and some matching mugs are going to a new home.  Not too happy about the exposed concrete block and trying to think how I'll hang anything from that.


This is the bathroom...

 

I managed to get the shower curtain up with my left arm...

 

There's plenty of storage.  Thank goodness they had not replaced the sink with a pedestal sink and there is open shelf storage in the bathroom...

 

 

...and this entire little room which, knowing me, I'll have packed to the gills...

 

 The above photo refuses to center.  Wonder why?

This is the bedroom.  Small, but with a decent-sized closet, especially when you have had no closet for two years...

 

This cord hanging from the switch at the left is an emergency call button.  There's another one in the bathroom exactly where I'd expect the light switch to be.  I wonder how many times I'm going to mistakenly flip these before I get accustomed to them?

Here's the dining/living room.  More than adequate lighting and I don't abhor ceiling lights like some people do... 

And my most favorite part...

...the view from the tiny balcony.

So, that's it.  Here's my eye update...

...Day Three. The actual point of impact above my eyebrow is more obvious now.  I don't know if my eye looks better or worse.  I know my body feels worse today than it did yesterday.  I think it must be like over-exercising.  You are always sorer two days later than you are the very next day.  I'm going on the assumption it's not that I'm continuing trying to move piecemeal.  I figure if I avoid doing anything that hurts, I'll be OK, and so far, the things that hurt are rolling over and getting out of bed, trying to rearrange the bed clothes at night, getting dressed, inserting and turning the car key in the ignition and shifting gears.  I seem to be able to lift if I don't go over waist high, but reaching, or reaching and lifting, with my right arm are totally out of the question. I was having trouble getting my camera up at the right level to take photos and even keyboarding is a little difficult.

Well, it's still spitting snow, but most of the snow has melted off.  There is still a little on the deck.  I've fed the fox.  I missed her last evening so that's one thing off my mind.  I'm trying not to think about not being here daily to feed her, but hope I've seen her through a rough patch and that she'll go back to hunting when I can't be here on a regular basis.  I took the hummingbird feeder down on the west side of the cabin yesterday evening and don't think I had a bear visitation last night, but it was raining heavily, then snowing, so if it had any sense it just didn't venture out.

I've loaded several tote bags full of small numbers of books and magazines (heavy) into the car and will add a few more things, then make another run to Boulder today.  More later, Teddee

Eclipsed

Do you live in an area where the solar eclipse was supposed to be visible this evening?  Did you get your eclipse glasses?  I did last week when I stopped at McGuckin Hardware, a famous independent Boulder hardware store....

They were selling them for $2 a pop at all their cash registers.  I wonder how much money they made?  Especially because it appears it is going to be so overcast the eclipse is not going to be visible.  There are a couple of hours to go.  It has been cloudy most of the day.  This is what the western sky looks like right now...

That's gray with clouds, not blue with clouds.  The sun bursts forth every once in awhile, but I just heard thunder.  I think it may be coming from the east, though.  This is what the sky looks like over the plains...

...so we wait.  And while I'm waiting I decided to do a little light sanding on some rough areas on the secretary I brought home a week ago from the Longmont Goodwill, remove the hardware, tape off the glass in the doors...

...and settle on a paint color.  I had considered selecting something really splashy since I'd gone so dark with the interior cabin paint.  Shades of marigold are one of the "in" colors right now and I thought about a very dark hue of this color palette...

...but I kept wondering how I'd feel waking up being slammed with what would have been a very eye-catching object in this small space.  Might have been a brave choice, but I backed off and selected this shade of palomino yellow that I still like...

I have an entire shelf unit painted in a similar color in storage in Missouri.  It had been that color for almost two decades and I'd never tired of it.  This thrift store metal basket served as another "inspiration piece."  I have some dark colored paste wax (my purchase at McGuckin last week along with the eclipse shades) and I'll attempt to use that over the painted surface to get a similar antiqued effect.  The long-range forecast is either showers or breezy for all of next week, so I don't know whether I'll be able to even get the primer applied.


And the fox came to eat for the second time today but her little body is still looking the worse for wear...

She gets a cup of kibble and, most recently, after she finishes that she's helping me get rid of an entire package of pork chops that had gone off in the cooler despite the fact that I still have part of a chunk of ice in there.   

She had finished her kibble and come up on the deck for her treat here.  She really was that close...and with her eyes on the prize...what a sweet little face...

In the interim, we got a little rain shower while the sun was shining.  I thought there might be a rainbow...solar eclipse and rainbow...get out the goat entrails...but no rainbow.  So, it's 6 p.m.  According to an "eclipse calculator" I pulled off the internet, the eclipse is supposed to start a 6:22 p.m.  Right now it's hazy, but sunny, so I don't know what we might be seeing.  I'm going to try to take a photo without blinding myself.  Just point and shoot I guess or put on my eclipse glasses and see if I see anything in the viewfinder.

Well, I needn't have worried about sun blindness.  Somewhere behind this veil of clouds miracles were occurring...

I had to settle for this "painterly" shot of a smaller miracle closer to earth...

Have a wonderful week!  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

What Happened to Winter?

Yesterday NOAA was telling those of us living in Eldora, Colorado, that we had a 50% chance of snow during the day, a 60% chance last night and a 20% chance today.  We were supposed to get possibly three inches of new snow total.  It was so foggy yesterday this is what I got when I tried to shoot some photos:

 A view of the mountains to the northwest.

A view of the mountains directly north...the same as the one I use for my blog title...but no snow.

I fell asleep reading last night, woke up and read until 3 a.m. so then overslept this morning and felt like Rip Van Winkle.  No wind for one thing, bright sunshine, not a cloud in the sky...

...and in NOAA's forecast this morning they were acting as if yesterday's forecast for Thursday was a figment of my imagination.  Now they are saying Sunny, high of 32F degrees, Clear tonight although a low of 16F degrees, Sunny Friday with a high of 42F degrees and Mostly Clear and a low Friday night of only 20F degrees, Sunny on Saturday with a high of 41F degrees, Mostly Clear Saturday night with only a low of 21F degrees, Sunny on Sunday with a high of 47F degrees, Partly Cloudy Sunday night but a low of only 28F degrees and Mostly Sunny on Monday with a high of 47F degrees.  I like that gradual warming trend.  Sounds like spring to me.

I had gone to Nederland late yesterday afternoon to get gas and groceries and drop Dixie, the three-legged dog who had spent the day with me, at her owner's bookshop so her owner wouldn't have to walk through the snow to the cabin to retrieve her.  When I got back, the moon was just rising and I had left my camera in the cabin.  No sooner had I got out of the car than both foxes appeared.  They smelled the broasted chicken that I had purchased on special.  The supermarket sells these chickens on Wednesday late afternoon only for $4.99 each.  I had never been there on Wednesday to take advantage of the special before so I was happy and so were the foxes.  Since they were both hovering, I first opened a can of the cat food I had intentionally purchased for them right at the car and dug some of that out on the snow.  Then after I got the groceries ferried into the cabin--I wasn't sure they wouldn't grab the chicken out of the car and carry it off--I cut off a big piece of breast meat and gave it to the tamest one that was still flitting around out in the meadow.  They don't sit still long so it is hard to get a photo...and you seem to have a choice between red eye and white eye.

 
 In between I was frantically taking pictures of the moon.

I took some after it got higher in the sky but there were no clouds--what happened to that threatening cloud bank in the west I had seen when I was in Nederland?--so there is nothing to provide perspective.

 Wouldn't it be great to have a camera attached to a telescope so a person could get shots like this?

Photo of Super Moon by Tim McCord, Entiat, WA, March 19, 2011, taken when the moon was at perigee (pěr'ə-jē), the closest point to Earth in its orbit.

I researched the Native American name for the March full moon--January had been the Full Wolf Moon and February the Full Snow Moon.  I was disappointed to learn that the full moon in my birthday month was the Full Worm Moon.  Apparently this is a reference to the fact that the earthworms start coming up to the surface of the soil this time of year which then bring the birds.

What is the name of your birth month moon?  See below thanks to Farmer's Almanac.  Teddee

Full Wolf Moon – January Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
Full Snow Moon – February Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February’s full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.
Full Worm Moon – March As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.
Full Pink Moon – April This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
Full Flower Moon – May In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.
Full Strawberry Moon – June This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!
The Full Buck Moon – July July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.
Full Sturgeon Moon – August The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.
Full Corn Moon or Full Harvest Moon – September This full moon’s name is attributed to Native Americans because it marked when corn was supposed to be harvested. Most often, the September full moon is actually the Harvest Moon, which is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.
Full Hunter’s Moon or Full Harvest Moon – October This full Moon is often referred to as the Full Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon, or Sanguine Moon. Many moons ago, Native Americans named this bright moon for obvious reasons. The leaves are falling from trees, the deer are fattened, and it’s time to begin storing up meat for the long winter ahead. Because the fields were traditionally reaped in late September or early October, hunters could easily see fox and other animals that come out to glean from the fallen grains. Probably because of the threat of winter looming close, the Hunter’s Moon is generally accorded with special honor, historically serving as an important feast day in both Western Europe and among many Native American tribes.
Full Beaver Moon – November This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.

The Full Cold Moon; or the Full Long Nights Moon – December During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.

Well, That Was Disappointing

What a crazy day.  The weather NOAA had predicted for yesterday never transpired so I elected to stay at the cabin last night rather than take a room at the Golden Buff Lodge in Boulder, which I considered to insure I would make my appointment at the senior center to have my taxes done by the AARP volunteer service. 

Got up this morning at 7 a.m.  Lifted the curtain.  No snow overnight, no wind.  Great.  I made the right decision.  Forty-five minutes later it is snowing so hard I can't see across the road.  It keeps on snowing.  I decide I'm going to have to cancel my appointment.  I try to call the West Side Senior Center and keep getting rerouted to the East Side Senior Center.  After three attempts, I give up and the snow stops.  Must be meant to be. 

By this time, the water, which has been heating on the wood stove, is almost warm enough to wash in so I clean up, shampoo, decide what to wear, get dressed, get bundled up and head to the car.  The wind is starting to pick up. 

I get to Boulder an hour early, so make a quick trip to the bank and then circle back to the senior center.  I'm asked to complete a form with some basic information for the tax preparer and after about a 20-minute wait, during which I read, I'm called in.  The tax preparer assigned to do my taxes verifies that I've started a little editing business and informs me that filing a Schedule C is not within the purview of the AARP volunteers. 

She's apologetic and spends quite a bit of time trying to get the contact information for a possible alternative, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA), which operates out of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado in Boulder, but cautions that they also may not be able to help me if I'm filing a Schedule C. 

Since I'm combining this appointment with laundry, I decide to go ahead and do laundry and call the School of Business tomorrow and find out if they can assist m, gratis, or if I'm going to have to bite the bullet and pay to have a tax service prepare my return.  I'd do it myself, but last year, having lived in Arizona for the first four months of the previous year, I had to prepare my Arizona return myself--the Colorado AARP volunteer could not do this either--and got a different result each of five times I did the calculations, picked one, paid it in two payments and decided I was never going to even attempt preparing any tax return ever again.

When I finish doing laundry, I stop to get some cat food for the foxes, and from the supermarket parking lot I look toward the mountains and see this right over Eldora...

Yep, those are clouds. Do they contain snow or just wind?  Do I really want to drive up the canyon into this?  Well, I do it and it's all clear until I get right to the outskirts of Nederland where it is windy with blowing snow, but when I get to the cabin, it's perfectly quiet.  However, there's no visible walkway.  It has totally drifted in and the snow is almost up to my knees.  It's about 15F degrees outside and 32F degrees inside the cabin.  I'd left some coffee unfinished in my rush this morning and it wasn't frozen, but was so cold it hurt my teeth. 

I was glad I came home, though.  Both foxes came to eat at the same time this evening.  And, of course, my camera succumbed before I could get a good photo of the two of them together, but I did get one good shot of one of them.

A wonderful ending to a crazy day.  How was yours?  Teddee

How Wrong Was That?

When I signed off yesterday evening, the dreaded 85 mph winds had not arrived, in fact in was eerily quiet, and I went to sleep expecting them to come up in the night.  Woke up this morning, still no wind and I could tell from the nacreous light coming through the curtains that we'd had snow.  NOAA had said we might get one to two inches.  This was the view from my front door at about 8:30 a.m.:

It snowed lightly all morning, not adding much to the total, then quit, but it started again about 4 p.m and is falling steadily and straight down like rain.  NOAA says maybe 3 inches today with another .5 tonight.  I don't know when NOAA's day ends and night begins, but I'd say they are going to be wrong again.

I did determine, when I read the Denver and Boulder papers on line this morning that those high winds were wreaking havoc at lower elevations all day yesterday or at least yesterday afternoon--18,000 Xcel customers without power and trees uprooted by 93 mph winds, according to the Boulder Camera.

The denverpost.com shows Denver receiving 3.6 inches of snow and Nederland 4.5 inches.  I measured 7 inches this morning on my deck railing.  Eldora Mountain Resort is reporting 12 inches of new snow.  I heard them setting off charges this morning.  I think I counted seven or eight to head off avalanches.  On February 17, 2012, denverpost.com said "Colorado avalanche danger worst in 30 years..."  I believe six people, most expert skiers from what I can determine from the news coverage, have been killed in Colorado avalanches this winter.  This is attributed, in this same denverpost.com article, to "...abundant snowfall...piled atop a very weak foundation.  High winds have built slabs on the older layers, which have created an unstable snowpack."

When we got that really big snow back at the beginning of February, the ski area had to turn skiers away because they couldn't accommodate any more cars in the parking lot.  I expect this weekend is going to be crazy in Nederland.  I'll try not to have a reason to go down there.


Big black dog is loving it and his skillet.  I feed him when his owners come home from work and let him out and then wait 'til he's back inside to put out food for the fox.  With this much snow on the ground I'd think most of the voles and other fox food would be hard to come by.

I have to be dug out and on my way to Boulder tomorrow by 11 a.m. Have to stop at the library, drop off one book and pick up two others they are holding for me then on to a hair appointment.  I'll be advising my hair dresser that I'm going to start letting my hair grow with an eye on the budget so we'll see what she comes up with to get me through the awful stages other than a hat.  After the hair cut it's on to do laundry.  What have you got planned for your Friday?  Teddee