Back to Unreality

I spent a long weekend at the cabin....from Friday afternoon through Tuesday morning...but am now back at the apartment in Boulder and 94F degree temps!  

I had to drive to Longmont yesterday afternoon to the chiropractor.  The chiropractor's office is about a block from the Longmont Goodwill so, although I avoided last Saturday's 50% off sale by driving to the mountains, I just had to stop by the Longmont store after my appointment to see what they had.  

Actually I am quite practical these days and, because of the temperatures, purchased this cute little fan and some interesting ice cube trays...

I only had two ice cube trays and thought long rectangular fingers of ice might be a fun addition to my lemonade.  Hey, it's the little things that make life bearable and I got both of these for 99 cents less my senior discount.  

The fan sort of has that "in" industrial look and I've been wanting another fan to supplement the box fan I bought from my friend Olive earlier in the summer, something I could actually have blowing right on me at night that wouldn't be as forceful as either the box fan or the fan on the window A/C unit but would still lull me into thinking there was some air circulating in the bedroom.  

Why I didn't plug the fan in at the store, I don't know, but I got it home, plugged it in and saw the blades turning so thought everything was a go.  Later in the evening I went back in the bedroom, put my hand in front of it and there was no air movement being generated at all.  I even put my hand behind the fan thinking maybe they had the blades in backward!  A rodent on a treadmill could have moved more air.  

I thought the clerk at Goodwill might have had a little smirk when she told me to leave the tag on anything marked E&M (electrical and mechanical?) until I was sure it worked.  I wonder how many times this thing has been purchased and returned.  It was only $3.99 and I got my everyday senior discount, so it wasn't a huge expense, but I'll return it and get a toaster instead, which was something else I was looking at and they had several that were this same price.  I'd rather have a more versatile toaster oven, but haven't seen one of those at a thrift shop recently.

I had hoped these temps in the 90s were over for the summer and I was spoiled because the temperatures at the cabin are about 20 degrees cooler.  It was in the 70s during the day and the 40s at night the entire time I was there.  

It seems as if the temperature on what is called the Diagonal Highway between Boulder and Longmont...you see the start of it here in the upper right hand corner of this map...
 
Map courtesy of AaccessMaps.com

...is at least ten degrees hotter than either Boulder or Longmont, both of which are old towns with lots of big shade trees. 

This highway, which follows a busy railroad track, cuts through prairie that looks like the prairie in every Western movie you've ever seen.  Think Cheyenne in a wool cavalry uniform.  And, of course, I have no air conditioning in my car. 

Inevitably, on my return from these afternoon chiropractic appointments, I hit Boulder and every red light just at rush hour, my car starts overheating and I have to turn on the heater to bleed off some of the heat.  I was really glad to get back to the apartment.  Even though it wasn't that cool, it was a lot better than a car with the heater blasting in an ambient temperature of 94F degrees.

I had a productive few days at the cabin.  I'm finally almost finished with all of the little decorator touches I'd wanted to make before my sister and her husband come out if they finally decide to.  They've been doing a lot of traveling since spring so aren't that anxious to leave home again I guess.  I still want to make the draperies for the bunk area and paint the floor, but both of those will take some funds I don't have available right now so I'm contenting myself with small projects that cost nothing.  

I knew when I decided to paint the interior of the cabin dark charcoal brown that the color would hide any damage from the blow-back smoke from the wood stove that's such a problem when the winds are high in the winter and would provide a great backdrop for my thrift store porcelain finds, but would also require lots of reflective surfaces to keep it from being too oppressive.  I had several mirrors in that storage unit I cleared out when I moved into the apartment and one that had been in the cabin from the beginning in 1939 I think.  I finally figured out during this last visit where I wanted all of them.  

I hung this thrift store find...

...on the east wall.  The frame is a very heavy metal and I like the oak leaf and acorn motif.

I hung this frameless, probably a five-and-dime, mirror from the 30s on the west wall next to the secretary/hutch....

There's nothing like enlarged photos to reveal every wart and pimple.  I see I need to have another go at this with the Windex.  I was going to hang the rectangular mirror here, but decided it and the hutch were too much the same shape.  Oh, and the little dials?  Well, they turned out to be kind of a fun solution to this...

...Blue Light Special that someone brought out to the cabin.  I kept trying to figure out what to do with this...no White Tails here although I did see my first Mule Deer just as I was leaving Eldora on Tuesday morning...so I popped the three dials out and hung them under the mirror sort of like miniature international clocks.  I'm saving the frame so if someone is absolutely in love with this thing, they can restore it.

The third mirror project had been hanging over my head since last fall when I bought an oval mirror on sale at Hobby Lobby, along with some black velvet ribbon with which to hang it.  I wanted it hung over the wash stand and knew it would have to hang in front of an existing shelf.  The old round mirror had been hung from the shelf and even I had to bend my knees in order to see myself in it.  Hanging the new mirror in front of the shelf would mean hanging it from a ceiling hook and I thought I'd need to drop a plumb line in order to get the hook in the right spot.  

I had purchased the ceiling hook at least two months ago...

...I got the swivel hook because it was the only black one Home Depot had...but still I procrastinated because by that time I'd hurt my arm and the thought of attempting this just seemed daunting.  

Monday I bit the bullet and got it accomplished.  I marked the middle of the shelf and then just put a yard stick flat against the shelf and ran it up to the ceiling to mark the spot for the hook rather than dropping a plumb line.  

Then I started "reading" the instructions for the hook...

...almost no actual verbiage, just illustrations and large X's indicating "do this, NOT this" and showing you how to reinsert the hook to the base, but not how to remove the hook from the base to start with.  

So I did my chimp-being-observed-and-recorded-for-science routine thinking maybe the illustrations were in French since Cobra Anchors Corp. appeared to be in Montreal as well as Temple, PA.  I finally figured out, after starting to screw the provided anchor into the ceiling (shown magically keeling over horizontally after it passes through the surface), that it only needed to be used if the hook was being inserted into dry wall.  Otherwise, the hook base could simply be screwed into "madera" which must be wood in French, something I didn't recall after three semesters of the language.  

The next big challenge was figuring out how to remove the hook from the base and this really did make me feel like a monkey with a puzzle, but I finally deduced that one side of the base was flat and that had to be turned to slide out of the slot that was the same shape.  Yep.  Sure enough, it worked.  So, I screwed the base, sans hook, into the wood ceiling and slid the hook on.  

I decided I didn't want to rely on the ribbon to hold the weight of the mirror, which is fairly heavy, so used some picture wire.   Then I decided I didn't like the look of that so set about making a sleeve for the wire...

I thought I could "turn" this ribbon tube, once I got it doubled over and sewn shut by hand, but absolutely could not get it started.  I could have taken out all the stitching and folded it with the velvet side out, but by that time I was getting pretty well burned out so decided to just leave the flat side out, fed the wire through the sleeve and re-affixed the wire to the mirror.  Then I used the rest of the ribbon and made a little rosette to cover the hook...

  Here's the finished product...

...and I can actually see myself without bending my knees.  If some day someone gets bored, they're free to remove that sleeve and sew it with the velvet side out!

That's it for today.  I took 91 photos while I was at the cabin, so will post some more tomorrow showing additional shots of cabin life and chores, some Rocky Mountains scenery in late August and an update on the foxes.  The latter not good, I'm afraid.  Teddee

Back in My Little Mountain Home

After spending most of last week in Boulder, days making trips back and forth between the storage unit...

 ...after the first load was removed...

...almost there!


...and the apartment building and nights exhausted on the foam mattress on the floor of the very small bedroom, the only room in the apartment that can be kept cool, I'm back in Eldora in the cabin.  I arrived yesterday afternoon after having made the final trip to the storage, leaving it empty for the proprietors to find this morning.  Even though I was paid through July 14, I just wanted to get the task completed and they were anxious to start double dipping since they give no refunds!  

So now, everything is in the one-bedroom apartment.  I've opened all the boxes and unwrapped everything, made some attempt at sorting the items, taken a few things down to the "free table" in the apartment building and will try this week to take a few of the better items that I don't want around the corner to Clutter Consignment to see if they might be interested in attempting to sell them.  I have been on their e-mail list ever since I got my computer and attended their open house last year celebrating their one-year anniversary,  having no idea I'd be living around the corner a year later.  Some of the residents of the apartment building apparently have had good luck selling things through the store when they were downsizing into the small apartments.


I had found a few things as I unpacked boxes that I thought might go in the cabin and also needed to get on the computer, which I've left in the cabin because my internet service here only costs $30 a month and I haven't had the opportunity to determine what it may cost in Boulder.  If it's as expensive as I've heard, I may just have to leave the computer here...a good excuse to return at least weekly!


The foxes are aware when I return and come to be fed.  Vixen came once yesterday and Valentino has been here twice.  I had no chicken, but came prepared with a dozen eggs to augment their kibble as well as some cheese, and they seem to be accepting what I'm able to provide.  The last time I came to the cabin, a third fox was flirting around in the background.  I think it must have been one of their kits.  He (I don't know why I think it was a male) was so cute.  Almost full grown, so healthy looking with a wonderful coat and full tail.  Maybe all that protein his parents have been taking back to the den!

I, on the other hand, have been eating primarily free fresh produce, which appears in the apartment building common room every Friday morning. We've received berries, cherries...

...spinach, artichokes, asparagus, corn on the cob and melon among other things...

...these turnips were wonderful...so mild...and it had been years since I'd shelled peas...

...this was always something my mother, sister and I did as a team.  I invariably pulled my thumbnail away from the nail bed and ended up with a sore thumb afterward, but there weren't enough of these to cause injury.  

When the produce is delivered...between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. each Friday, the early risers descend on the free food like locust.  If you time it right, you can be one of the locust.  If not, you get the leftovers...five blackberries, three strawberries, a couple of beets...and the only sign of the food delivery a few hours later will be a few wilted leaves in the elevators!  

This past Friday, the produce included some over-ripe pears at which most residents were turning up their noses.  I took several, peeled, cored and cooked them with a little Stevia.  They'll be great.  Already the 2nd.  Only nine more days 'til the second Wednesday and the S.S. check!

I must go back to Boulder today.  I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon south of Denver with my glaucoma specialist and didn't even bring a change of clothes with me, plus I need to drop off my rent check.  We have until the 5th to pay, but three days isn't going to make any difference to me.

Now that I have everything centrally located in the apartment I'm hoping I can turn my attention to the exercises I'm supposed to be doing for my rotator cuff strain.  I did them for two days and then they got lost in the process.  I wrote to Boulder Housing Partners last Tuesday inquiring if they had liability insurance that might help with my medical expenses and haven't had a response, so I'm not signing up for the recommended physical therapy until I know the answer.  My arm is getting stronger daily so I hope I regain full use of it, but there are still extreme positions that still cause pain, so I need to do my part. 


What else?  The last time I was at the cabin I thoroughly cleaned the wood stove and blacked the top...

...as I think I mentioned in my last posting, I did get the glass out of the doors of the hutch...

...someone had kindly left an old single-edge razor blade here at the cabin and by very carefully pushing it between the glass the the wooden insert I was able to get glass out, clean it and paint the wood underneath.  So, all done...

...I had fun "styling" the hutch.  Of course there was only half the amount of space I needed...always the case in my case!

I'd like to be painting the floor, but my current budget will not allow for the purchase of the paint and I haven't quite decided yet what color I want to paint it anyway.


I purchased this rug many weeks ago...

...this captures the colors very well.  I'm tempted to go with ebony, as high gloss as I can get floor paint!  Somehow painting the floor the background color of the rug doesn't appeal to me.  I'll have to pick up a few paint swatches and see where they lead me.


Well, I'm heading back down to the heat.  It's going to be 98F degrees in both Boulder and Denver tomorrow and here I am with no a/c in my car for that trip to the eye doctor!  The new clutch is definitely not in the budget.  It will only be 81F degrees in Eldora tomorrow and the high temps are going to be in the 70s with lows in the low 50s for the rest of the week after that.  

My neighbors were busily making homemade "No Fire" signs yesterday to supplement any official signage, concerned about the usual influx of July 4th visitors.  All I can do is keep my fingers crossed.  Every time I depart, leaving my computer behind, I'm anxious.  Here is a photo I took of the smoke from the fire that has been burning up behind the Flatirons in Boulder for the last week...

...no municipalities are having fireworks from what I've been reading.  Hope for a safe and fire-free holiday.  Teddee

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