Summertime

According to NOAA we were supposed to have a high of 58F degrees today.  It's 6 p.m. and it's still 70F degrees on the thermometer installed outside the north cabin window.  It was sunny and hot.  I've got the top panel of the door open--that pesky door that caused so much trouble all winter and on which I had taped shut the panels covering the screens--to keep the wind and snow out.

The other windows have screens that are still in storage and need to be installed, but even my neighbors who have lived here for years are skeptical this is the end of winter.  We all keep remembering it snowed regularly throughout April and May last year and we had our last significant snowfall on Memorial Day.  I downloaded the photo below on June 9 last year!

Today, I decided to start moving the woodpile.  Even though I'm the one setting the task, this always makes me feel as if I were in military boot camp and just being given make work.  Move that wood from there to here..then move it from there to here...

I didn't keep track of the number of trips I made, but the cord against the privacy fence is starting to take shape...

Dixie was certain each time I made a trip toward the woodpile that we were going to get in the car and go someplace...

...so finally I put her in the car and we went to the post office...still no check from Sears...and dropped off a couple of books I'd finished at the library.  It was such a pretty day and I knew she wasn't ready to go back to the cabin yet and neither was I, so we drove over to Rollinsville, the next mountain town south of Nederland.  There was a pull-out where I was able to park and get a pretty good shot of the Eldora Mountain Resort ski runs.  I don't know when they're scheduled to close.  Because they are in the Roosevelt National Forest they must close on a specific date even if they have ample snow.  It must have been really frustrating last year when we had wonderful snow and lots of it so late. 

I knew that a couple of years ago there had been what was really just a junk shop in Rollinsville.  I'd been there once and it was so bad I'd never been back.  It now has a new owner, Tim Underwood, who has really cleaned it up and it is now The Wild West Mercantile Co.  He takes things on consignment, thank you, thank you, and only takes 35%!  I'm heading down to my storage unit in Boulder next week and dragging some of the stuff out of there and taking it to new friend Tim.  This may be the answer to my prayers since I have been unable to open my own store.

While I was in Rollinsville, I took some photos of this wondrous pie-shaped abandoned building that I would love to have a shop in.
I wonder if its odd shape would be bad feng shui?  When I return with my consignment items I'll have to ask Tim about its history.

Train tracks go right through Rollinsville heading west toward the Moffat Tunnel.  I remember my folks taking us to the tunnel to watch the train enter the tunnel when I was a child so decided I'd drive over there.  It's about a 10-mile drive and the road eventually gets pretty rough.  This is what Wikipedia has to say about the tunnel:

The Moffat Tunnel is a railroad and water tunnel that cuts through the Continental Divide in north-central Colorado. Named after Colorado railroad pioneer David Moffat, the tunnel's first railroad traffic passed through in February 1928.

Fifty miles (80 km) west of Denver, Colorado is the East Portal in the Front Range, about 10 miles (16 km) west of the town of Rollinsville, Colorado at 39°54′08″N 105°38′46″WCoordinates: 39°54′08″N 105°38′46″W. The West Portal is near the Winter Park Resort ski area at 39°53′15″N 105°45′41″W. The railroad tunnel is 24 feet (7.3 m) high, 18 feet (5.5 m) wide, and 6.2 miles (10.0 km) long. The apex of the tunnel is at 9,239 feet (2,816 m) above sea level. The Moffat Tunnel finally provided Denver with a western link through the continental divide, as both Cheyenne, Wyoming to the north and Pueblo, Colorado to the south already enjoyed rail access to the West Coast. It follows the right-of-way laid out by Moffat in 1902 while he was seeking a better and shorter route from Denver to Salt Lake City. The water tunnel and the railroad tunnel parallel each other; the water tunnel delivers a portion of Denver's water supply.

This is what it's going under or through:

I got all the way to the tunnel, got out to take a photo and my camera battery had died!  So here's a photo off the internet:

Photo by Ian Stehbens for Google Earth on Panoramio.

I remember when I was a child we got close enough to the tunnel entrance that we could feel the wind from the train, but they have obviously improved security and this is as close as a person can get now.

Since I did this on the spur of the moment, I had no idea what the train schedule was and, in fact, did not see one....I can sometimes hear the whistle from the cabin deck on a quiet evening...so next time I'll try to time my visit with the train and be sure my camera battery is fully charged.

Did you have a traveling companion that led you to take an interesting drive today?  Teddee

What a Day!

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous.  NOAA said a high of 50F degrees but I think it must have been warmer than that.  The red in the sky yesterday evening portended beautiful weather...red sky at night, sailor's delight...

It was warm enough by noon that I was able to shampoo outside on the deck...

...and I read a little at the picnic table, one of my favorite places to read in warm weather...

...and even applied makeup outside...

...then I loaded Dixie into the car and went to Nederland to check the mail.  Still no check from Sears.

It was such a pretty day I decided to drive on down to Boulder.  I went to the Boulder Housing Authority to see if they keep applicants for senior housing apprised of their status.  Unfortunately, the answer was no.  They are short staffed and can't take the time to keep the hundreds of applicants informed.  All I ascertained was that I was in a group of applicants whose paperwork had not even made it to review.  Even if my paperwork had been reviewed and I was in line for an apartment, how quickly I moved to the head of the list would depend on how many people ahead of me either accepted or declined a unit after they viewed it.  Patience is going to be required.

After that news, I decided I needed some retail therapy so drove south on Broadway to Goodwill.  Here are a couple of things I didn't get:

This piece of "Sevres" porcelain was not only chipped and cracked, but I discovered after I processed the photos it had two different price tags and the only one I saw was the one on the front for $12.99.  Had I noticed the $2.99 tag on the back I might have at least taken it the register with me to have the price checked.  I keep thinking I might try making a mosaic on a tray. 

According to the web site Antique China Porcelain & Collectibles...

Sevres Porcelain traces its roots in France to early craftsmen who had small manufacturing operations in such places as Lille, Rouen. St. Cloud, and most notably Chantilly. It is from Chantilly that a cadre of workers migrated to the Chateau de Vincennes near Paris to form a larger porcelain manufactory in 1738. French King Louis XV, perhaps inspired by his rumored relationship with mistress Madame de Pompadour, took an intense interest in porcelain and moved the operation in 1756 to even larger quarters in the Paris suburb of Sevres. Sevres was also conveniently near the home of Madame de Pompadour and the King's own Palace at Versailles.

I do not see this particular Sevres marking among those listed on line so it could be fake.

I also did not get this length of burlap...

...for $12.99 even though I had been thinking since last fall that I wanted to enclose the bunk area with burlap.  It has become such a decorating fad that now I'm almost inclined not to go that route...and anyway, I think $12.99 is too much to pay for fabric at a thrift store.  If it's still there a week from Saturday when everything is 50% off I might consider it.

This is what I did get...

...for 99 cents less my15% senior discount.

This porcelain trivet has no markings, but there's no doubt in my mind it's Victorian.  I've read that no markings can actually mean the item is older, pre-dating the1890 McKinley Tariff Act requiring all U.S. imports to indicate "Foreign."  This was eventually amended to allow the actual country of origin. 

I also had been looking for one of these bottle spouts...

...so I could use the larger bottle in this photo...

...for dish washing soap.  Well, the small bottle with spout was $1.99...

...less the 15% daily senior discount...but the spout does not fit the larger bottle.  Darn. 

So that was it.  I headed back to Nederland, dropped Dixie off at the bookstore and came back and took a walk.  I was determined to get back over to the creek through that treacherous snow that is still drifted in between the road and the creek.  Here's a melted-out footprint.  You can see how deep it is...

I managed to navigate it and only fell once...lost my footing when I fell through the crust and grabbed for a branch that broke.  There wasn't anyone around, but I just pretended I was soaking up some high mountain rays while I lay there on my back.

It was worth it.  I got some photos of some of my favorite spots that I haven't seen since last fall...

I decided not to try to navigate these stairs, half of which are still under deep snow....

I'm tempted to take my snow shovel next time and clear a trail or at least scoop off the soft stuff on top so it isn't so treacherous and will melt more quickly.

What did you do today?  Teddee

More Signs of Spring

It is really warming up again, thank goodness.  It was still very cold this morning.  I awoke early, about 5:30 a.m., got up and started the fire in the wood stove.  I read for a while but then got sleepy again and didn't make myself get up and put more wood in the stove.  By the time I got up the fire had gone out.  I had run out of fire starters so had to tear up a cardboard box for kindling.  I finally got a fairly decent fire going about noon and by that time it was starting to warm up.  According to NOAA we were supposed to have a high of  44F degrees today.  It's still 40F degrees at 6 p.m. so it probably got higher than that.

Dixie and Jimmy visited and, as usual, Jimmy left and Dixie stayed.  It was warm enough she was able to sleep on the floor.  About 3 p.m. I decided I needed to get water at the spring in Caribou Canyon so I cleaned up, loaded my water jugs and Dixie into the car.  First I went to the post office.  If you've followed my blog from the beginning you know I've been fighting with Sears since before Halloween trying to get them to make things right for some failed auto repairs made at their Longmont, Colorado, auto service center.  We had finally settled on a dollar amount and I had signed the release form February 17.  I've been waiting for the check since and was most recently told it would arrive today.  I was not surprised to find it was not there.  I'll give it another couple of days then start rattling their cage again.

Returned a book to the library and picked up two more, then went on to the spring.  Saw a fox on the way.  It is so nice to be able to actually set my jugs down and allow them to fill now that all the ice has thawed from around the spring.

One day I'll follow that pipe and see how it's rigged up to the water source.

On the way back to Nederland I saw a startlingly blue Mountain Jay.  I noticed it was a complementary color to the orange willow branches toward which it was flying.

I stopped at Ace and got fire starters then dropped Dixie off at the Blue Owl Bookstore.  I think the proprietor noticed I was wearing one of the new scarves I had purchased at her store last week.  I know.  I was only going to get one, but she did give me a reduced price.  Here's the one I wore today.

I think I'm going to have to touch up my scarf model's imperfections.  They are somewhat distracting.

I stopped at the supermarket and got one of the Wednesday night special broasted chickens for $4.99.  What a deal!

When I got home I unloaded the car.  I think I can start keeping some of this water outside.  It's supposed to get down to 25F degrees tonight, but with the highs in the high 40s and 50s coming up, I'm going for it.  It will be nice not to have this taking space up inside.

After that, I picked up the little trash wood left where my first wood pile was last fall.  It's wet now, but will dry quickly once inside by the stove and will make great kindling.

Apollo came to visit while I was unloading the car.  I think he smelled the chicken and, yes, he got some and, a first, he allowed me to pet him and scratch around his ears today.  Second breakthrough of the week with him.

Have you had a breakthrough recently?  Teddee

Spring?

It was 17F degrees on my thermometer again this morning and I think the high was 32F degrees.  It's been a beautiful sunny day but we've had a stiff breeze off and on all day.  This seems a lot less like spring than last week.

[Are we still getting those sun flares or have I been hacked?  About two hours ago KUVO stopped streaming and I wasn't able to get it back and I've been fighting now for about the last hour with Blogger trying to download my photos.  First it just wouldn't happen.  Then I sent feedback.  Now it's just sloooow...and now I can't Preview].

After my stint on the computer this morning, I did nothing but read.  Dixie and Jimmy came about 9:30 a.m.

This photo was taken last fall.  It's the only one I have of them together.  Jimmy departed but Dixie stayed and eventually she and I ended up back on the bunk and I fell asleep trying to finish this book.

Do not bother to read these Robert Ludlum books that aren't written by the now-deceased Mr. Ludlum.  Even Jimmy agrees this one is a dog.  At least they're not working for me.  I plowed my way through the second one of these, this one by Eric Van Lustbader, but won't check out another.  I've now started this Black Water Rising by a woman author named Attica Locke who doesn't write like a woman. That's a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

I've just read a few pages, but it's going to keep me up tonight I can tell.  It is about a struggling black attorney in 1980s Houston.  According to the dust jacket, Ms. Locke is a "screenwriter who has worked in both film and television.  A former fellow at the Sundance Institute, she is currently at work on an HBO miniseries about the civil rights movement.  A native of Houston, Texas, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter."  [Would someone tell me why Blogger spell check doesn't recognize Los Angeles?].
Since this seems to be a dogs-and-books blog, I've made a breakthrough with Black Dog or Macho Macho Man or, as it turns out, Apollo.  I discovered yesterday after I got back from Boulder that Macho Macho likes to chase thrown sticks.  I actually took this photo today.   I was trying to give him the stick with one hand,  focus in the bright sun and snap the photo with the other so this is a bit fuzzy.

It was obvious last night when we started this game that he was conflicted because he wouldn't bring the sticks back to me but kept carrying them east, closer and closer to his home, with me throwing and fetching.  His owner, a young man, came home from work while we were going through this exercise and I asked him what the dog's name was.  He said, "Apollo, like the boxer in Rocky."  I thought this was slightly amusing.  Why wasn't it just Apollo as in Apollo?  So I looked up all the opposing boxers in Rocky movies and found that in the first Rocky movie, which I actually saw in the theater if I recall, the opponent was a black boxer named Apollo Creed.  So then it made sense.  It was good seeing Apollo with his owner.  He was very excited when the young man arrived,  they obviously have a great relationship and he was very affectionate with the young man.  It seems that just my talking to his owner has made Apollo a little friendlier, but he still won't bring the sticks back to me.

I wanted to end with a little dog cartoon that appears on a bookmark The New Yorker sent with an invitation to subscribe, but it's obviously protected.  You'll just have to picture two dogs chatting on a city street.  The one dog says to the other, "I bit someone once. It tasted like chicken." 

How did you spend the first day of spring?  Teddee

What Is That Piece For?

Peyton Manning is coming to Denver?!  Just heard that on KUVO which I stream most of the time.  Digressing again.  I'm getting ready to go to Boulder to hang around and try to talk to the IRS about their double dipping, so this is going to be quick.

Some time back...I think it was the last 50% off Saturday I attended at Goodwill in Boulder...I found this beverage dispenser.  Since I have no running water and carry water from the spring in the next valley...

...I usually just dispense my water from the jugs into which I catch the water. 

I thought the new dispenser shown at the top of the blog might look a little nicer and would take up less space on the wash stand.

I took the photo at the top when I was washing it the other day when the weather was nice enough to do dishes outside.

As I took it apart to wash it, I discovered this one piece for which I see no purpose.  I'll post the photo again...

Obviously the cone-shaped piece holds ice, which will be nice here in the summer since we have no refrigerator and some people really don't like room temperature water.  I personally don't mind it, but I thought this was an added benefit.  Then there is the primary lid and the smaller lid that enables direct access to the ice container.

I don't understand the bowl-shaped piece on the right, however.  It sits down inside the main container. Does it have something to do with keeping an air lock from forming?  I know with the large jugs I have I must loosen the lids in order for the water to dispense.

Any ideas?  Teddee

Spoke Too Soon

My elation yesterday was premature when I thought the expected worst case scenario had not occurred and the IRA, oops Freudian slip, IRS had not continued to deduct monthly payments for my 2010 taxes following their taking the balance owed out of my 2011 refund.
 

Photo of facade of IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C., courtesy of FotoSearch.


They did, in fact, help themselves to the March monthly payment as well.

Maybe I'm paying for these lovely flowers...

 Photo by John Elswick, AP, on USA Today on-line 1/9/12
 
I called H&R Block today and they told me I could come to their office tomorrow and they would pay for the call if I wanted to try calling again.  I'm going to drive to Boulder and do so even if both the H&R Block representative and I think it won't do any good and I'll just have to wait until it dawns on someone at the IRS that they have wrongly deducted the payment and refund it...or not.

Photo of IRS headquarters sign, Washington, D.C., courtesy of Los Angeles Times/Business/Money & Company, on-line 4/12/11

I suppose now the worst case scenario will be if they continue taking it out month after month despite the fact that it appears in their computers that they have discontinued doing so.  Hmm.  I wonder if I can contact my bank and stop it from that end?  I don't give up easily.  Are you effective at taking on the bureaucracy?  Teddee

My Lucky Day

I didn't post a blog yesterday.  Instead, I met my friend Paula for lunch at the Olive Garden in Boulder.  The restaurant was my choice.  I'd been craving that all-you-can-eat green salad.  The food was great and we had a good visit, but when our waiter brought our checks, things got confusing.  Our orders only differed in that I had iced tea, but he had initially just split the ticket when we asked for separate checks, then realized this was inaccurate and recalculated.  We received a shower of receipts, along with an explanation, but he assured us we would only be charged for the check we signed.  Of course, when I checked my bank account this morning, I had been charged for both amounts.  I called the restaurant and the manager said this often happens with debit cards and she was pretty sure the wrong amount would "fall off" within five days, but I should call her if that didn't occur.  In the meantime she was sending me a gift card.  Thank you Neptune!  (The local astrologer Karen Anderson told me recently that after 144 years, my ruling planet Neptune has entered my sign or whatever and this is like having an ally). 

After lunch I had to pick up my 2010 income tax documents from H&R Block which had been reviewed for free and found accurate. By the way,  after Thursday's rant about the IRS, Uncle Sam was satisfied with deducting the rest of the 2010 taxes I'd been paying on a monthly basis from my 2011 refund and did not take out the monthly payment as well, so I take it all back and I'm a free woman! (Neptune again?).

Then I stopped in Savers which is just next door.  I got a couple of cardigan sweaters with part of the $20 my friend Cindy sent me for my birthday.  Thank you Cindy! (Neptune was on duty.  Cindy actually sent $20 in cash, silly girl, and the post office equipment had tried to eat the card, but the $20 bill was unscathed).

Here are the sweaters.  Identical, but one black and one brown.  They are a little large under the arms but these pleats flatter my "figger," as one of my grandmothers used to say.  No discount (Savers is a notoriously stingy thrift store), but the sweaters were only $6.99 each and I filled a punch card which translates into 30% off my next purchase.



There may be need for those sweaters by tomorrow.  Our unseasonably warm weather which, I believe, is setting records, is ending.  Today it was supposed to be 59F degrees here in the mountains (my thermometer says 60F degrees at 5:30 p.m., so I think it was warmer than that).  NOAA predicted  77F degrees in Boulder.  The Eldora forecast is 30% chance of rain/snow tomorrow with 38 mph winds, 60% chance of snow tomorrow night, 50% chance of snow Monday and a 40% chance of snow Monday night with a low of 17F degrees.  I'm not sure we'll be able to adjust. 

Goodwill was having a 50% off Saturday today, but I decided to forgo the pleasure.  I needed to tote some wood from that pileout by the car in preparation for the return of cold weather...

 
...and I'm saving myself for the Beautiful Junk Sale next Saturday in Golden, Colorado. 

I think this is my third visit.  The subtitle is "Jefferson County's largest bargain sale with 10,500 square feet of discount treasures."  It's held inside at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds' Exhibit Hall.  Admission is $3 and they deduct $1 if you bring two cans of food.  I didn't think the last sale was as much fun as the two previous events, but it's always fun to see what they have and there's never a bad community garage sale.

After Savers I finally got out to the Walmart in Erie where I needed to purchase a gift card for my great niece.  I've given my great nieces and nephews (or is it grand nieces and nephews?) these gift cards for their birthdays and at Christmas for years and they really seem to enjoy them.  I also needed ink cartridges for my printer and those aren't cheap even at Walmart ($32.97 for a Kodak color/black and white combo).  My shopping list had grown considerably waiting for the second Wednesday of March to arrive.  Those of us who receive our Social Security checks on the second Wednesday of the month had one of those months in which that was not until the 14th.  The second Wednesday in February was the 8th.  Those extra days can really make a difference.  Paula and I agreed yesterday that having the government issue these checks on a specific Wednesday each month instead of a specific date really causes hardship.  Why don't they just always issue them on the 10th?  Maybe I'll start a campaign. 

My grand total at Walmart added considerably to their bottom line.  Walmart's owners are among the richest of the rich who just get richer as pointed out in that book I just finished and blogged about, Winner-Take-All Politics:  How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class.  (I'm still waiting to hear back from the authors).

According to a December 14, 2011, on-line Forbes article, the "six members of the Walton Family...have more wealth than the bottom 30% of Americans."  "...they are collectively worth about $93 billion."   According to an MSN on-line article dated 8/12/2009, they were worth only $23 billion when founder Sam Walton died in 1992.  In the intervening nineteen years, their wealth had increased by $70 billion!

In a way, it's too bad their prices can make such a big difference in how far a Social Security check goes, let alone the convenience of finding almost everything one needs in one store--I had been wondering where I could find a cobbler (do they even exist anymore?) for some of those sticky traction things you can put on the soles of shoes and boots to keep them from slipping and, lo and behold, there they were among the shoe polishes.  My shopping list went from toothpaste to needles, cat food for the foxes to drill bits, the gift card to the ink cartridges, rubber gloves to poster mount (which I hope I can use like Quake Hold to keep things from vibrating off these shelves next to the cabin door) and I found it all as well as a few groceries. 

I didn't get back until dark.  I have a porch light, but had forgotten to leave it on, so had to leave the car door open for the bit of light the overhead interior light provided, pick my way across the meadow to the cabin, turn on the porch light, grab the flashlight and make numerous trips to unload the car.  My neighbor across the road drove up the canyon behind me and, I think, deliberately left his multiple very bright back porch lights on until I got my car unloaded.  I've only chatted briefly with him once.  Maybe it was coincidence.  If so, it was nice coincidence.

So that's my good luck story.  What's yours?  Teddee