Easter Greetings

Live Red

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.



Find out what it's all about here.

Human Rights Campaign website here.

Be Red

Find out what it's all about here.

Human Rights Campaign website here.

See Red

Find out what it's all about here.

Human Rights Campaign website here.

Wear Red

Find out what it's all about here.

Human Rights Campaign website here.

Did You Get It? Did You Get It?

One of Little Sally Pumpkinhead's greatest pleasures is eating dinner right there on that mat in front of the refrigerator. Unfortunately she can be a sloppy eater and one or two pieces of her dog food can end up ricocheting off the side of her feeding dish and under the refrigerator. Usually she doesn't notice this until after the empty food dish has been picked up and then either my husband or I find her lying on the mat with her nose or paw stuck under the frig. That means one of us has to get the flashlight and the dowel we keep on hand for just this purpose to find and fish the piece of kibble out. As you can see in the photo Little Sally Pumpkinhead focuses intently on this recovery process. Once the tiny piece of food is flipped onto the mat she quickly gobbles it down and then jumps up and goes on about her business.

The Windows of My World Are Covered With Snow

Where is the sunshine we once knew?
-Hal David

Eleven Years Ago Today

My mother in Denver, 1977.
Still missing you.

Happy Vernal Equinox

Here comes the sun
(do, do, do, do)
Here comes the sun
And I say it's all right

Little darling
It's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling
It feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say it's all right

Little darling
The smiles returning to the faces
Little darling
It seems like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Little darling
I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling
It seems like years since it's been clear

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
It's all right

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
It's all right
It's all right

Stress Test

Tension is who you think you should be.  Relaxation is who you are.
-Unknown

I went to the Denver psychic fair this weekend and while walking down one of the aisles a voice call  to me asking me if I was stressed out.  I replied, "No, I just ate." and stopped to look at the speaker.  He turned out to be a smiling young man wearing a red polo shirt.  He then asked me if I wanted to take a stress test.  I hesitated, on the brink of say no, and then said OK. He motioned me to sit down and sat across from me and that is when I noticed the word Dianetics written in black on his shirt right over his heart.  My first instinct was to get up right then and walk away but I thought what the hell and remained seated.  Then I looked in his eyes and what I saw there was a bit disturbing to me. I had seen that look before but could not place it.  Again I suppressed the urge to get up and walk away.

He handed me two aluminum tubes about six to eight inches long that looked like they came from a large wind chime.  Each one was attached to a wire which connected to a machine that I knew was called an e-meter.   I was curious about the e-meter because I knew it played a large part in  Scientology.  I was also very surprised by how cheesy the e-meter looked.  It was made of a 1980s style plastic which reminded me of  a  Texas Instruments hand-held calculator from that time period. The machine itself made me think of the  rock-em-sock-em robots game from the 1960s. I know that doesn't make any sense as the e-meter has gauges and dials but that's what I thought when I first looked at it.

The young man told me to hold the wind chimes lightly and then asked me to think of something that was stressful to me.  I looked at the meter and watched the gauge needle peg out.  The young man asked what I was I thinking about and I said all the people at the fair.
 And that made me stressful?
No, I  was just sensitive to all the energy surrounding me.  He remarked that that was very perceptive of me as he fiddled with one of the knobs on the e-meter.

Through all this I had been kind of playing with the wind chimes, holding them lightly, squeezing them tightly, or lifting them up and moving them around all the while watching the e-meter.  Every time I moved or twitched the gauge needle pegged out.  I banged the tubes  together. The young man asked me to just sit still and hold on to the tubes lightly as he once again fiddled with one of the knobs.  I complied and he asked me to think of anything in my life that was stressful to me.  I thought, could not think of anything,  and looked at the gauge needle.  It did not move.   I looked at the young man and then, still unsettled by the look in his eyes, looked away. 

The young man then asked me to think about something that was stressful at work.  I looked at the gauge needle and, again, it pegged out.  
What about work was stressful?
I told him I did not work. 
He thought a second and then asked, What about not working was stressful?

I stared at him.  Those eyes. I had enough and told him I was getting bored with this and handed the tubes back to him.  He took them with what felt to me like relief and I got up and walked away.   As I did I realized where I had see those eyes before, Tom Cruise.  Tom Cruise had the same look in his eyes.

Oh, Those Small Communities

I just found a "Welcome to the neighborhood" bag from the local chamber of commerce hanging on my storm door handle. All sorts of goodies were in it like pencils, toothbrushes, matches, business cards, coupons and brochures. My favorite was the business card from this company.

I'm Bored

Light Shadows 7

It's Official, We Have A New Pope!

In a stunning display of boldness the Roman Catholic Church's College of Cardinals today picked an old white guy to be the new Pope.

Dust Of Snow

I went to Denver yesterday to hang out with my sister and forgot to post this photo of the tree outside my front window after a surprise quick moving snowstorm the night before. Not the greatest photo but I knew the wind would blow most of the snow of the branches by morning so it was this or nothing. A preview of Spring?

What Do You Think?

Below are two of several photos my husband shot of the concrete foundation poured last week for a home being built in our area. Doesn't look like quality work to me.

RIP Claude King (1923-2013)

They say don't go on Wolverton Mountain
If you're looking for a wife
'Cause Clifton Clowers has a pretty young daughter
He's mighty handy with a gun and a knife

Her tender lips are sweeter than honey
And Wolverton Mountain protects her there
The bears and the birds tell Clifton Clowers
If a stranger should enter there

All of my dreams are on Wolverton Mountain
I want his daughter for my wife
I'll take my chances and climb that mountain
Though Clifton Clowers, he might take my life

Her tender lips are sweeter than honey
And Wolverton Mountain protects her there
The bears and the birds tell Clifton Clowers
If a stranger should wander there

I'm going up on Wolverton Mountain
It's too lonesome down here below
It's just not right to hide his daughter
From the one who loves her so

Her tender lips are sweeter than honey
And Wolverton Mountain protects her there
The bears and the birds tell Clifton Clowers
If a stranger should wander there

But I don't care about Clifton Clowers
I'm gonna climb up on his mountain
I'm gonna take the girl I love
I don't care about Clifron Clovers
I'm gonna climb up on that mountain
And I'll get the one I love
I don't care about Clifton Clowers...

(Did you know Clifton Clowers was a real person?)

Claude King's LA Times obituary here.

Rearranging Chairs

My house is still a work in progress as I still find myself looking at my furniture and thinking, "That would be better in...," another bedroom, the living room, or the family room. Sometimes I even find I need more furniture. During a party on Saturday I watched my brother-in-law set his beer on the windowsill only because there wasn't a small table where it was needed at the end of the couch where he was sitting. I'll be looking for one today.

One thing I've always known is that I needed a large painting for one of the walls in my bedroom. I'm not a couch-art type of person so I've been looking, almost since the day we moved in, for the right piece and last week I found it. On Friday a friend and I were touring consignments shops in Fort Collins when I found a landscape tucked behind a chair in one of the stores. That store had an interesting policy of giving each item a series of prices which dropped the longer the item stayed in the store before selling. The price of the painting was a little high for me but I noticed it was due to drop to what I thought was a reasonable price on the 5th of March. I was willing to gamble that the painting would still be there on the following Tuesday since it was almost completely concealed by the chair. On Saturday I started worrying. On Sunday night I had the feeling I shouldn't wait any longer, that I should just pay the higher price and go get the painting the next day.

On Monday morning I woke to a beautiful day with blue skies and sunshine. The forecast predicted a fast moving snowstorm moving though the area soon but I figured it wouldn't be too bad. I was wrong and actually drove into the storm as it moved down the Interstate from Wyoming. The closer I got to Fort Collins the worse it became but I kept plowing forward thinking the roads were too warm to let the snow stick and I was right. What I did not expect was the fog and whiteout conditions. I thought, at several points, that I should turn around and head home but instead I kept going even though visibility was less than 1/4 mile and I was feeling anxious about the whole thing. I kept going, driving slowly and carefully, staying in the right lane and letting all the fools speed by me in the left. When I got to the Fort Collins exit the snow and fog was at its thickest but by the time I reached the store the fog had lifted and big beautiful flakes were slowing drifting down. The storm had turned into a winter wonderland.

I walked into the empty store, said hello to the owner, walked back to where I hoped the painting still sat and sighed with relief. I picked the painting up and walked back to the front of the store. The owner laughed and then said I sure knew what I was looking for. I agreed and set the painting down where she could see. She looked at it, looked at me and asked if I was the person who she had talked to earlier about the painting. I wasn't and I then understood why I had the compulsion to drive to the store during a snowstorm and to keep going even when I really wanted to turn back. As she wrapped the painting up I remarked that if I had waited a day I would have paid less. She waved me off saying she would sell it to me for the lower price. I was delighted and thanked her warmly.

The kicker to all this is I managed to drive right into the thick of the storm on my way home but this time I had no fear. I had my painting and all was right in my the world.

Calling Into The Past

As you already know, I found out my grandfather is buried in New Orleans, LA and, if you have read the comments on my post about finding him, you know I sent away for his death certificate. It came last week and it provided me with three new pieces of information. First, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage, second, he had lived in New Orleans for twelve years before he died, and, third, he was married to someone other than my grandmother when he died.

All of these things were a surprise to me. The first because I was expecting to find out he had killed himself or had an accident while drunk but instead he just dropped dead of a stroke at 8:10 PM one night in 1956. The second because he just disappeared after 1942 and the last address I had for him showed him living in Peoria, IL with his mother. Now I find out he moved to New Orleans sometime in 1945. I went from 14 missing years to only 2 in the blink of an eye. The last bit of information is the most fascinating to me. I found a marriage record for my grandfather listed in the Vital Records of Louisiana so I know he was married to what was either his second or third wife, but it begs the question, had he divorced my grandmother before he remarried or was it a case of like son, like father? Now that I know he had married again I've sent away for that record to see if I can find more information about my new step-grandmama.

As you can surely tell, I find this whole genealogy thing quite captivating. I'm finding the answers to questions I never thought to ask before and in some ways it's like putting a jigsaw puzzle together knowing that some of the piece are missing and will never be found. This is find with me since before all I had was a box full of what I thought were mismatched pieces that would never fit together. How can partially complete picture not be better than that?

Spot The Bunny