Home Again

Yes, this little cabin still feels like home.  I spent all of the past week at the apartment in Boulder during some of the hottest weather the city had suffered through so far this summer.  And I thought I'd seen the last of triple digit temps when I happily departed Phoenix!  Unfortunately, the apartments are very hot.  They only have one unit air conditioner in the bedroom and there is absolutely no air circulation out into the living room and kitchen.  I looked for a fan at the thrift stores last week but, of course, in the midst of a heat wave, found none.  The unit a/c does keep the bedroom cool enough for sleeping, but is totally insufficient for cooling the rest of the apartment.  Other residents have told me that until a year ago they had no a/c unless they purchased a window unit and installed it themselves!  I don't know how they managed.

I made one trip to my storage unit on Sunday and two on Monday and I think one on Tuesday.  I've lost track.  I did finally remember to take some photos after taking out the first--and worst--load, but just realized this morning I'd left the power cord for my camera at the apartment so am unable to post any of the photos I've taken since I left here last week.  Just to break the monotony, I'll post a few shots I took here in Eldora last June...

It is quite hot and dry here in the mountains as well, and as I reviewed and edited these photos from a year ago, I'm impressed with how much further along all the blooming flowers are this year as a result.  The wild roses are in full bloom already, something I missed last year when I spent July in Tacoma.  The high in Eldora today is predicted to be 84F degrees.  I'm showing about 82F degrees at 2:30 p.m.  My neighbor said Eldora had received no rain during the days I was in Boulder and the grasses in the meadow are sounding crunchy.  One can only keep one's fingers crossed that no one thoughtlessly drops a cigarette.  It's predicted to be 102F degrees in Boulder today, tapering off to 96F degrees by Wednesday.  The high here in Eldora on Wednesday will be 77F degrees.

I think I have possibly five or six more carloads of stuff to remove from my storage unit.  I have until July 14 and have already alerted management that I'm vacating.  Once I got the first (or last) layer out of the front of the unit, I found I actually did have things stored in pretty good order in behind that.  

Loading the car at the storage unit is easy.  I can park right by the unit.  But at the apartment I have to take things up to the third floor using the grocery carts available and that usually takes three trips.  

I've been pleasantly surprised at how the ample kitchen cupboard space in the apartment...

as well as the small storage room...

...which is actually about twice as big as this photo reveals...have easily swallowed up a great quantity of dishes, decorative items, craft materials and the few pots and pans I had purchased after I moved into the cabin.

My neighbor here in Eldora had to come to Boulder for a rehearsal on Thursday...he plays clarinet in a small orchestra that, among other things, accompanies silent movies presented all over the country...so he brought the adjustable table that had been sitting out on the deck for the last several weeks and the rest of the baker's rack to the apartment.  I spent the day sorting all of the things I'd brought from storage up to that point, which were all over the living room, and had space cleared for both pieces when he arrived.  I took three lots of items down to the common room and put them on the "free table" and they disappeared quickly.  I had a lot of fun staging the baker's rack that evening and will post some photos of that later.

Well, it's 4:45 p.m. and almost 90F degrees.  A breeze has just come up thankfully.  It was quite still here for much of the afternoon.  Each one of these photos has taken at least 15 minutes to upload.  I have no idea what's causing this, but while I've waited on each one I cleared off the couch, put some clean linens in the trunk we use both as storage and as a coffee table, put all my painting tools and materials in a plastic storage box I brought back up with me from the apartment and got that wall where those two shelves had been removed painted.  

Now I can move the secretary and hutch back against the wall, put the drawers back in the base, put the hardware back on and affix the drop-down desk.  I purchased a bottle of gold enamel paint at Hobby Lobby in Longmont last week with a 40% off coupon on one of two trips to the chiropractor and will attempt to obscure the back of that insert on the hutch doors.  I was going to see if the paint would release with heat so I could get the glass out, but forgot the hair dryer so think I'll just go directly to the paint fix.

Vixen came last night about dark, ate every bit of kibble and egg I put out and took off with two chicken legs back to the den.  I haven't seen her today.  She seemed very subdued and I didn't think she looked well.  I fear she may not make it through next winter.


More later...Teddee