Missing the First Snow

Last year I missed the first snow at the cabin because I was stuck in Longmont after the Sears Automotive Center there, since closed, ruined my car then threw up their hands and said they had no idea why, after they installed a brand new thermostat, that my car blew up in the canyon on the way back up to the cabin at 9:30 at night, or why, after they installed a new radiator because the previous one ruptured when the car exploded, the car started boiling almost immediately after leaving their premises.  They couldn't run diagnostics and the diagnostic center they recommended couldn't take me until the next day so I had to cripple my way to a motel.  In the night, while this huge snow blew in from the plains, I decided I'd have my car towed back to Peak-to-Peak Motors in Nederland for the necessary repairs to the Sears repairs.  Here's a photo bringing back that entire debacle...

This was about October 26.

Here is a photo I took through the tow truck window while the driver had stopped part way up the canyon to put on chains...

And here's what the cabin looked like when I finally got home...

Well, here it is only October 5 and this is what I saw to my surprise when I opened the drapes this morning here at the apartment in Boulder...

Just the lightest dusting of snow.  My friend Olive didn't feel like walking this morning so I took Kooky the Pomeranian out for a quick walk and could tell from the cars coming down from the mountains on Canyon Boulevard that they'd had a lot more snow up there.  I thought I could almost pick out the vehicles from Eldora because some of them had as much as one to two inches of snow on the roofs and hoods and we always got more than Nederland.

So, I've missed the first snow again this year.  This web cam photo from the Eldora Mountain Resort (ski area) is as close as I'm going to get, I guess...

 

...or this NOAA on-line forecast...

I feel as if I'm missing baby's first steps.

I had planned to post some fall photos so, even though it looks as if winter is upon us, I guess I'll proceed.  Perhaps we'll have some Indian Summer after this cold snap.  That Columbus Day forecast of Sunny with a high of 55F degrees sounds likely.  

 

A chrysanthemum my sister purchased when she was visiting what, three weeks ago?  Loaded with buds that just won't flower...

I've brought this inside and will move it out on the balcony again when the night temps get above freezing to see if it will do anything else.

 

Here are some fall touches I've added to the balcony...

 

I've also been working on some Halloween crafts.  This "wreath with a story"...

I'm not exactly sure what that story is...It's up to the viewer...but I bought this skeleton arm and hand at Michael's last weekend when all their Halloween products were 40% off and I had a 25% off, including sale items, coupon....

I dug into my jewelry box and added the ring, made a sort of Victorian looking cuff out of some wonderful trim I'd bought at a Goodwill when I was still living in Phoenix, painted some cheesecloth black and made a rotting sleeve and wired in the little bell, which I'd bought at a thrift shop sometime over the past two years, reminiscent of those "grave bells" that were sometimes used to give those buried alive the ability to signal their reawakening to those above ground.  

I had one crow and purchased another at Michael's when I bought the skeleton hand.  I had the Victorian door knocker and just included it to the mix for atmosphere.  I added the cottonwood twigs because I'd thought, since I found them in a shopping cart outside the Boulder Savers last year, that they looked like finger bones, and the sueded brown leaves I'd saved from some fall stems last year.  I believe I'd found the white bleeding heart at the Golden Community Garage Sale.  The white pheasant feathers were another Michael's find when their stems were 50% off a couple of weeks ago. 

The nest was something I'd purchased back in 2010 at a shop in Blue Springs, Missouri.  Have forgotten the name.  The nest looked empty, so I decided, knowing crows have a proclivity for collecting treasures, to add this little ceramic heart box that I'd bought last year at the Golden Community Garage Sale.

After I added it, I decided to print off an on-line photo of a Victorian woman and insert it into the "locket."  

Is it the deceased?  Perhaps...

I plan on hanging this on the outside of my apartment door closer to Halloween and hope it won't be too disturbing to my neighbors.

Perhaps the crazy print below will offer some comic relief...

I had purchased, at a Goodwill in Phoenix several years ago, this already rather weird print of an oil painting of these two men in Victorian evening dress...I had been referring to them as The Twins.  Ironically, it was one of the framed prints my sister selected, sight unseen from my storage, since all were wrapped in bubble wrap, to bring out when she visited a few weeks back. In addition to sticking on the googly eyes, I painted the frame black and draped it with "mourning crepe," some black spider-web-pattern fabric, and another piece of the trim identical to that used for the cuff on the skeleton arm.  It will take its place outside on the wall next to the wreath.  Did these creepy men have something to do with the deceased's demise?  You decide! 


More later, Teddee

Bird Woman of Canyon Pointe

I'm at the apartment in Boulder and am starting to have some appreciation for the Birdman of Alcatraz.  Confined to the shrinking world of this box (I'm able to rent the box, which leaves me with little money for anything else), I find my focus shrinking as well.  Goodbye Rocky Mountain vistas, hello world as seen from my balcony.  

I brought the small hummingbird feeder down from the cabin, hung it from the balcony railing and have been gratified to have hummingbirds of at least two varieties feeding almost from day one.  But, boy, they are hard to photograph with the equipment I have.  The feeder is very close to where I sit so I can't blame them for being gun shy, but their movements are so sporadic and quick that it's almost impossible to guess what they're going to do next and in which direction they're going to do it.  These are the best shots I've come up with so far...back half or back three quarters...

...and front quarter...

 This one looks almost ethereal...

I had my camera set to capture movement for this last one, but apparently it's not enough to freeze the hummingbird's rapid wing motion.  I'm not sure what kind of hummingbird this is, but there has also been a spectacularly colored Rufous coming to feed.  He is really flighty, so to speak, and I just haven't been able to get even a bad shot of him.

The other thing I've been focusing down on are some plant tendrils growing up from the hanging baskets on the balcony below mine...

I snagged this morning glory tendril early this week, barely had enough to wrap around my balcony railing a couple of times and have been watching it rapidly climb this upright.  Now I'm waiting to see if plants, like baboons, can teach other plants to follow suit!  Here's one that's trying to make up its mind...

It isn't long enough yet for me to help it along.  I'll try again each day.

Now if that isn't exciting enough for you, here's a view of the street out here in front of my balcony...

There's a nice curve here and it is especially pleasant at night when the lights from the gardens around this apartment building make these trees look as if the trunks had been painted white up a few feet like the citrus trees in Arizona.  I tried to capture that last evening to no avail.   There is something rather "boulevardy" and European about this bit of street, and there's always the anticipation of a head-on collision since there are no center line markings and the drivers, from both directions, tend to drive right down the middle, over-correcting when they see a vehicle coming from the other direction.

What else?  Here is a candle holder that I spray painted when I was at the cabin the last time...

It had been white and I painted it that Rubbed Bronze I like so much.  It provides a nice decorative screen effect hanging from the balcony railing.  I need to clip off the prongs so I can use battery powered candles.  The candle holders themselves are hinged and flip up which, of course, was one of the reasons this appealed to me.  I love furniture and decorative objects that fold even though I can think of no practical reason for these to do so unless it would be so they didn't collect rain if, as I am, you were using this outside.

I think I blogged about these brown bottles with the lights in them in one of my last posts.  Here they are illuminated....

I love this look.  I've been plugging these in most evenings along with the grapevine lights I have draped on the back of the settee...

You can see I've left a space for my back.  This is where I sit each evening.

Well, that's about it.  I did, obviously, get my internet up and running here at the apartment on Monday.  CenturyLink gave me a great deal--$29.99 a month for a full year and threw in the modem plus $50 toward installation--so I'm really happy about that.  

I also took my car in for an oil and air filter change today and had them check to determine why the car had been making an increasingly horrible sound when I turned right and found that the power steering pump, another thing that had been installed by that inept mechanic at the now-closed Longmont Sears store, was leaking, but I should be able to go for at least some time just topping off the fluid.  That will enable me to get my share of some of these medical bills that are filtering in from that fall I had back in May paid off.  Still have heard nothing back from Boulder Housing Partners' insurance company following my meeting with their representative about three weeks ago.  

I have started physical therapy for my shoulder, but neither the therapist nor the patient are happy with how it's progressing.  She did tell me I needed to quit doing basically anything that could further stress the shoulder, so that has really put a crimp in some of my planned decorating projects here and at the cabin.  I'm reading a lot and helping an elderly resident,  who herself had a bad fall about three weeks ago, walk her dog Kooky, the cutest little Pomeranian.  If you aren't familiar with the breed, they look like stuffed toys.  I haven't taken Kooky's photo for some reason.  I'll try to do that tomorrow although we're taking him in for a final summer shave next Tuesday and he'll be even cuter after that.  


More later...Teddee

Thank You Gorilla Glue and Walmart

About seven years ago when I was still living in the desert heat of Phoenix, Arizona, a piece of trim that went around my left front wheel well started coming loose.  I glued it back on with Gorilla Glue and used a binder clip to keep it in place until it dried.  It wasn't pretty but it held tight.

About two weeks ago I noticed the only thing holding my front bumper on was this piece of trim...

I could see what appeared to be a hole for a bolt and I could feel there was a matching hole above, but I kept putting off doing anything further figuring I'd have to get down on back on the ground to see what needed to be done. 

I think the road I take to the spring may be at least partly responsible for shaking anything loose that can be shaken loose...

Washboard almost all the way.  You can't drive slowly enough to prevent it from rattling your teeth.

Today I had to go to Longmont.  I had a shopping list I'd been adding to for about two weeks and I prefer either of the Longmont Walmarts over the one in Erie.  I got an early start.  I knew it would be too hot down below to leave Dixie in the car and I wanted to be gone before she got here so I didn't have to drive off an leave her.  As I was driving down the canyon and hoping the glue held, the bumper didn't fall off and cause me to either drive over it or drive off the road, down a steep cliff and into Boulder Creek, I decided I'd take it the automotive center at Walmart and see if they could put the car up on the lift and at least provide a temporary fix.  Turns out the newest Walmart in Longmont has no automotive center, so after I'd done my shopping, I drove to the one north of town which does have an automotive center. 

I asked a young technician if he could put a bolt in the bumper.  He said he wasn't sure they could do that, but his older co-worker told him to go ahead.  Here they are making the fix...

Turns out the bumper was originally affixed with two small plastic pieces that snapped together.  The bottom was missing.  This was one still affixed to the top and they had to pry it out...

The bolt doesn't keep the bumper as tight as it should be so I may have to take it to a body shop for a true fix, but at least I know the bumper is not going to fall off.  The best part was that they didn't charge me a thing!  Talk about customer service.  I may just have to go back and see if they can match the two summer tires I managed to wrest from Sears after they a) told me the other two were too worn to put back on, and b) kept the two good ones  "by mistake" resulting in my having to call back and have them dig them out of the recycle pile and hold them for me until I could drive back up there and get them.  Only part of a very, very bad experience at the Longmont Sears Auto Center last fall.

So tomorrow I have to clean out the woodshed because that's where those two tires are stored.  I'm fairly certain we aren't going to have any more major snows--it had to have been in the 80s in Longmont today--so I can get these snow tires off before I put any more wear on them. 

Are you spring cleaning?  Teddee