What A Difference A Day Makes

Yesterday with 40 MPH winds and over-tilled soil.

Today.

Every Morning I Make Three Beds

Before

After

Every Dog Is A Lion At Home

-Henry George Bohn (1797 - 1884)

I have told my husband time and time again that he is a pushover for the dogs. The other night I walked into the kitchen to find my husband wiping down the counter tops and Belle licking the plates in the dishwasher. I pointed out to him that Belle doesn't do this when I'm cleaning up the kitchen, because when I tell her to stay out of the kitchen, she stays out of the kitchen since she knows I mean it.  My husband said Belle does what he tells her to do, too, and then very sternly said, "Belle! Get out of the kitchen!" 

This is the look she gave him. 

I rest my case.

Yaaaa, Spring Is Almost Here

The Red-winged Blackbirds are back. (Photo from the Audubon Society.)

WOOF!

Yesterday morning, Belle is sitting it the front window barking at something I couldn't see.

Loudly, "WOOF!"

"Belle, no."

Loudly, "WOOF!"

"Belle, no."

Loudly, "WOOF!"

"Belle. No!"

(Silence for 10 seconds.)

Softly, "Woof."

Stop Hunting? Never!

My husband took our dogs to a hunting preserve Tuesday and let them each hunt one bird.  Then he staked them out by his guide's truck and hunted some more with the guide's dogs.  After they finished they came back to the truck and put their guns in the back.  That is when the guide's dogs went on point almost right next to the truck.  The guide hesitated, saying, "I think I know what this is about," pulled his gun out of of the truck and walked over to where his dogs were pointing.  He found nothing.  When he came back to the truck he told my husband that sometimes his dogs do not want to stop looking for birds so they pretend there birds hiding in the grass near the truck just so they can continue hunting.  Those dogs sure love their job.

Eclipse August 2017

Birdbath viewer- the best for watching. I had to wear my sunglasses over two pair of clip-on sunglasses to cut down the glare. Unfortunately, I was not able to photograph the sun in the birdbath as the moon moved in front of it because the glare was just too bright for the camera.

Three pairs of clilp-ons worked as well but really not good for taking photos. What I saw through the clip-ons was not seen by the camera.

 

 

 

 

Hundreds of tiny crescent moons under the trees.

Tiny suns appeared when I used a colander.

Binoculars, large lenses pointed at the sun, projected the clearest images. I also made a eclipse viewer out of a shoebox but gave that to the little girl who lives across the street. It works but it was a bit of a pain to use.

BBJ

Baby Bluejays on the backyard patio.

Belle, very interested in the baby Bluejays on the backyard patio.

The View From The Passenger's Seat

I've Been Away From Blogging For So Long I Forgot What I Do Around Here 5

And finally,  I had a great birthday which included a trip to the Loveland Museum.

As some of you know, Loveland (The Sweetheart City) is known for its Valentine Re-mailing Program. Every year hundreds of thousands of people send valentines to be stamped with the Loveland postmark and a Loveland cachet:

So when we got to the museum there was one thing we knew we had to do:

Become Miss LOVELAND VALENTINE of 1961.

And it would not have been as much fun without my partner in crime joining in.

I've Been Away From Blogging For So Long I Forgot What I Do Around Here 4

Fourth, grieving the loss of the Ash tree in the back yard due to heavy and wet snow on May eighteenth.

First limb down.

By the next morning the rest of the tree had collapsed.

The yard after the remains of the tree had been removed. 

Today, things got better when our new tree arrived.

Our new Winter King Hawthorn with a row of Fern Leaf Buckthorns behind it.  The Buckthorns will grow to 2 feet above the fence giving us privacy until the Hawthorn is tall and wide enough to do the job.

I've Been Away From Blogging For So Long I Forgot What I Do Around Here 3

Third, I started sewing again and finally finished the chair cushion for the slipcover project I had been working on.

From this-

To this.

I've Been Away From Blogging For So Long I Forgot What I Do Around Here

It's almost four months since my husband had his knee replacement surgery and he is doing better than expected.  In fact, he is doing so well that, when his therapy sessions were over,  his physical therapist gave him a certificate praising him for his commitment and for being the best client he (the therapist) had ever worked with.  Getting there took a long and stressful three months for the both of us.  So, as my husband continued healing and getting even stronger, I spent the last month getting back on track. 



First, like Dusty here, I caught up on sleep.

(to be continued)

Trash Day

When It Hasn't Been Your Day, Your Week, Your Month Or Even Your Year

An another long break between blog posts.  The last 12 months as been busy with heath matters in our household.  In that time period my husband has had three surgeries, all to do with quality of life repairs.  The last one, a partial- knee replacement that due to complications turned into a full knee replacement, was two weeks ago so blogging is way down on my list right now.   Will be back when my husband becomes more mobile.  

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Six to eight inches of snow on the ground by the time we woke up today. Got it all shoveled off the driveway, backyard patio, and the sidewalks. My husband even snowblowed the sidewalks in front of the houses on either side of us. Then we took the dogs for a couple laps around the neighborhood. Had to walk in the street because everyone is just getting out to clean their walkway so we talked to neighbors we have never really met before. It was a fun morning.

Angry Middle Aged White Men

There was never an angry man that thought his anger unjust
-St. Francis De Sales, An Introduction To the Devout Life


I came up against two angry middle aged white men at the Rec Center this week and all I can ask is, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

The first man was in the steam room on Sunday.  Let me tell you about the stream room before I tell you about what happened. The steam room is small and can almost comfortably seat 10 full grown men.  We had a problem at the beginning of the year with people doing their stretching and other exercises  in there but that was finally stopped in March. 

Sunday I walked into the steam room after swimming and found 3 men sitting on the top of the build-in double tiered tile benches straight across from the door and one man sitting at the end of the top of the benches to the right of the door.   In the corner where the benches met was a middle aged white man standing on the bottom bench doing stretching exercises.  He was doing things like holding his arms out at should level and leaning against the back walls and bending forward with his eyes closed and touching his toes- all while standing on the bench.   The only place for me to sit was between this guy and the man sitting to the right of the door.  This put me close enough to the guy standing up for his hand  to comes close to me whenever he reached his arms out.  I looked at him and said, "You are really not supposed to do exercises in here."

His head snapped around and he glared down at me and said he was doing his stretches. I then said that stretches were not allowed in the steam room either. He walked over to me (still standing on the bench) and put his face right in front of mine- close enough that all I could see were his eyes- and said furiously, "I'm a fitness instructor and a PT instructor and I can do what I want!"

I got up and walked out. After getting dressed I found the Rec Center supervisor and told him what had happened. He seemed to know exactly who I was talking about and said he thought the man I was talking about was sitting in the hot tub and asked if I was willing to come with him to see if this was the same man.  I said yes.  It was the same man and the supervisor said he would talk to him.  I went and sat in the lobby and after a few minutes the supervisor came back and apologized for the man's behavior and asked me to report any other problems I may have with the man.  He also said that he understood that sitting in the steam room was supposed to be a relaxing experience and  again apologized for the man's behavior.  I agreeded that the steam room was supposed to be a relaxing experience and  added that for women having some man looming over them in a small place was disconcerting and could even feel threatening.

Monday night I was back at the Rec Center for my dance class and  I was waiting outside the studio where the class was being held when another middle aged white man, this one wearing a martial arts uniform, walked up to me and asked if the Tia Chi class was going to be in this classroom.  I said no.   He asked if I knew where the Tia Chi class was.  I said no.  He ask what class was being held.  I said a dance class. This upset him.  He asked if the Tia Chi class was going to be in the room with the dance class.  I said no. This upset him more.  He turned around and walked into the studio as the students from the class before were leaving.  I thought he was going to ask the instructor if she knew where his Tia Chi class was but discovered this was not the case when I walked into the room and saw the man standing at the back of the studio doing Tia Chi movements.

I walked across the room to where he was standing, since that was my spot during the dance class, and stood beside him. I figured once the class started and he saw it wasn't his Tia Chi class he would leave.  He did not.  He stayed though out our warms-ups as loud rock and roll played and did his Tia Chi moves.  I was hesitant to speak to him after what happened in the steam room the day before but I knew in a few minutes he was going to be in my way so I spoke up.

"Sir, we are going to be using all space in the room now."

Not looking at me, he turned, yanked his backpack up off the floor, stormed off, and made his way around the back of the room and then out the door.

Two observations.

First, when the man in the steam room overreacted and  stood looming over me with his face inches from my face I was shocked.  Shocked because this was the kind of thing my father would do.  Then I was surprised to find I felt no fear.  In fact, I was thinking about the best way to hurt him if he dared to touch me.  I felt totally in control and left because I knew breaking off contact and walking away was the best way to handle this. 

Second,  I was more worried about speaking to the second man because of the first man but knew I was done being afraid to speak up for myself when dealing with angry men who think they had the right to vent their anger any time they wanted to without consequences.

I guess what I am saying is that I am through with putting up with bullies.

Where I Was Yesterday At 2:30 PM

Sitting on the front porch of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO enjoying the view.

Did you know that one of the TV channels at the Stanley Hotel continuously shows Stanley Kubrick's  The Shining, 24/7?

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
-October by Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

Beautiful evening walk with the dogs yesterday.

Twilight Drops Her Curtain Down

and pins it with a star.
-Lucy Maud Montgomery (Canadian author of Anne of Green Gables)


While out walking the dogs Saturday night my husband and I saw someone we know standing on the sidewalk down a side street and strolled over to say hello. Seems he was waiting for the space station to fly over. Since it is the third brightest object in the sky it is easy to see- if you know where to look. Our friend knew where to look so we got to watch it streak across the night sky. Most of the time you can observe the space station traveling inside the thermosphere (the second-highest layer of Earth's atmosphere) for 1 to 3 minutes but Friday night it was visible for 6 minutes. We were so lucky to be walking by a couple of minutes before it passed overhead. What an astronomical treat.