Monday, August 28, 2017

Rust ~ Post No.12




My friend Jane sent me this picture. What a marvellous old truck, I thought. Jane said this: 

Seen near Maroon Lake, in the shadow of the Maroon Bells, the most photographed mountains in Colorado. And I took a photo of a truck?

To which I say: Thanks Jane for thinking of me, you are becoming a regular contributor to my Rust posts and I love it! You don't often see a truck like this and I'm so glad you decided to stop and take its picture.

Rusty old things, particularly trucks, are growing on me as I'm posting them here. In a way I feel I'm honoring them. If that makes any sense. 

Finally, thank you for your comments on my Silver Linings post. I am feeling much better now. I said in my other post that I missed Errol when I got ill so suddenly, but everyone in my life stepped up, were concerned, and helped me. I didn't know all this at first, but I do now. So, to quote my blogger friend: Life Is Good!



Maroon Bells, Colorado 



Thursday, August 24, 2017

Silver Linings


It's good to discover silver linings in difficult situations. When I was recovering from my kidney infection, I spent a wonderful day watching the goings on in my own backyard.


After that micro burst that blew the blinds straight into the room, Faith, who is a cautious dog, was worried, keeping an eye on the blinds while still staying with me in the bed. I felt bad for her so I pulled the blinds up. 

And a whole new world opened up in front of me. I was resting in bed that day, feeling better, but not well. With nothing much else to do, I decided to watch through the window. 

One day and one evening as darkness fell:

It was easy to watch the sky and there I saw only one raven the entire day, which is strange since there are so many of them here. 


From Images

Instead I saw a red-tailed hawk fly by overhead, four times. Either one hawk or two maybe, probably not four different ones. I also saw another, smaller hawk that I had seen before. It has a distinct almost square pattern on its belly and chest. Looking it up in my bird books, I realized that the next time I see it, I have to watch the tail. It will help me put it in the right hawk category at least. 


An old picture, but the coyote had a similar reddish coat, usually they are gray here.

Later, a large coyote, with a beautiful red tint to its coat, came strolling down the hill on one of the coyote trails. I know their trails well, they are so straight, nothing at all like the way dogs move around. 

Hearing the warning signals from their lookout squirrel, the ground squirrels dove into their holes as the coyote approached. I had kept an eye on one squirrel and he came back up soon thereafter and sat down in the shade of his juniper tree. I'm sure it was an old grandfather squirrel. He sat there for a long time, straight up, paws at his chest, and seemed to just enjoy his life, taking in the scenery the same way I was. I felt he kept me company that day. Yes, I know, it's so easy to project our feelings on what animals do, but still, it was lovely.


Some day I will get all I need to take better pictures and learn how to do it. I know I have a good eye, but I need the technical knowledge and the camera to go with it. I counted twelve little chicks here, there were many more in the covey behind this family.

Early evening, sun still high in the sky, I heard a clucking sound, and had to stretch my neck to see a covey of California quail move across my backyard. There were at least thirty small, small chickens in this covey. So adorable, I had to get up and try to get a picture. It didn't work very well as you can see. 


Same thing here, this Jack rabbit is just too far away. 

Then at dusk, the rabbits appeared. This has been a grand year for rabbits. I imagine all the rain we had made it so. At dawn and dusk, my road is covered in rabbits, darting from one side of the road to the other. Here in the canyon, we have two kinds: Audubon's cottontail rabbit, the small cute ones with the white round tail. And the much larger and not quite so cute black-tailed Jack rabbits. 

Cottontail Rabbit

Faith loves to go out in the dog yard at dusk to scare them and make them run. Usually, this only works with the tiny young ones. They soon learn that the dogs are fenced in and cannot harm them. When she is loose, she chases them up into the hills, but she never catches one. I bet she would have no idea what to do if she did. Samson is the hunter in the family.

As night came, I was looking forward to seeing stars. My bedroom faces north and there are no lights there, just wilderness. But there was a full moon that first night, so I got to see something else instead: Bats! I had forgotton how many bats live in the canyon. 

It was a fabulous day, a silver lining day, a day, where I once again found myself so grateful for the healing powers of nature. 





Sunday, August 20, 2017

I Chose You, America


"To him in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family." ~ Buddha



Soon after Trump was elected, I sat at my black nephew-in-law's kitchen table with his two daughters, ages six and twelve. Somehow, the election came up and Kenny said he felt we should give Trump a chance. I believe that Jasmine, his eldest daughter, may have rolled her eyes at this suggestion. I immediately slammed my  hand on the table and said, "no way, the man is a racist." 

Kenny still insisted, as I thought later, probably for Jasmine's benefit, that we should be a bit more moderate while discussing this. I would have none of it. "Should Trump become one of our best presidents ever, I will not change my mind about his lack of a moral code," said I. 

The sad story of President Obama's birth certificate should be enough to convince anyone of that truth, but I also took some time to check up on Trump. I found out about the housing discrimination law suits that were settled without him admitting guilt. I read his comments about how he was protecting his white tenants from having to live with lower class, etc., etc., blacks. 

Then I saw clips from congressional hearings in the 1980s about the right to open casinos. This was the time Trump was into casinos and the hearings were about Indian tribes in New York state and Connecticut that he tried, without success, to discredit so they wouldn't be allowed to build casinos. I heard Trump say he was sure this Federally recognized Connecticut Indian tribe was way too dark-skinned to be Indian at all. I saw congressmen shaking their heads at Trump's comments, probably wishing they could have rolled their eyes as well. 

These things took place in the 1970s and 80s, but his questioning of Obama's birth place, which went on for years, was more current, and just as racist. 

So no doubt in my mind that day last winter. And I didn't even mention all the other issues with this man. Race was enough for me. Racism is the red line in the sand of my moral code.

So now, after his comments on the tragedy in Charlottesville, it's amazing to me how many still feel we should give the man a chance. I listened to Jerry Falwell, Jr. on a Sunday show today. Where was his moral compass, I wondered, as he said Trump was speaking his mind, something he felt was just so much better than Obama's political correctness. 

I wish I could have called in to remind him of President Obama, tearing up, as he sang Amazing Grace at the funeral for victims of that Bible class slaughter.

But, of course, reminding him would not have mattered in the least. 



I don't know why I wrote this. I probably didn't do a very good job, but I felt I had to say something......

I really love this country. I love it because of it's people. And I know for sure that there's no way the people of America will allow our country to regress and slide backwards. I chose you, America, and I'm so glad I did.




Thursday, August 17, 2017

A Longer Blogging Break, Maybe



Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm feeling much better and had planned to get back to blogging by this coming weekend. But Glenn is putting up siding on the west side of the house and will need to unhook all the computer cords and stuff around there, so depending on how that goes, my computer may not work for a while. 


If all goes well with it, I will be seeing you this weekend. 

About the construction around here, this is where we are:

I realized the other day that I will need some concrete in the dogrun, Just a part of it, closest to the house, before I have my new floors installed. The dogs drag in so much dirt and some concrete to run around on would help a lot. Mary knows of something you can attach to it that will help even more. A guy, who lives down the road here in the canyon, was recommended by friends and will come by tomorrow to give an estimate. 


Yesterday, we went to Home Depot for the additional siding and found out that they are having a sale on the installation of flooring from now until the end of September. So next time we go there, I will make arrangements to have someone come and give an estimate for my new floors. 

I'm planning to clean and oil the kitchen cabinets myself and I'm finally finished cleaning the inside of all the lower drawers and cabinets. They are huge and old and I love them, there are four with Lazy Susans, and, after getting rid of a lot of stuff, there is no way I can fill them up. I'm also going to sand and (maybe paint or Glenn will) the moldings and other things where paint is peeling. Even bought some sand paper yesterday. 

So lots going on. The weather has cooled down some and night temps are back in the 40s and I wake up really cold, but it is lovely. Samson is a happy dog and that's basically the most important thing for me right now. He is doing really well.







Monday, August 7, 2017

"Under The Weather"



This is supposed to be the desert mountains and we've had weather much like I remember from New Jersey. There it was just called hot and humid, here, for some reason, it is called a Monsoon! We got some rain, even something I think may be called a microburst. Last week, the wind came down with tremendeous force from the north, my windows were open and the wind blew in not only rain, but sand and mud; blinds blew straight out into the room.  It only lasted a few seconds, but it scared both dogs and me. Faith wouldn't come in the bedroom for a long while. Bathroom window was also open and the toilet was full of mud. Of course, I had just washed the windows the week before. Seriously!


Earlier, as I sat on the couch, I looked up and there was the face of the sweet Guernsey bull looking in my open window! Quite a surprise. I love the cow peeking out from behind my old van that I have given to my BIL. They belong to my neighbor, Joyce. More about them and all her critters in future posts.


I had plans to come back to blogging last week, but life had other plans. On Wednesday, after successfully seeing both my diabetes crew in Bakersfield and my PCP doctor up here, I began to feel terrible. By Thursday, my temperature was climbing up over 103 and my doctor told me I had to go to emergency. When I was married, I so took for granted that Errol would be there and take me, as I would him. I probably didn't appreciate that enough, it was just part of the married deal, we had each other's backs as couples do. 


My nephew-in-law took me. He was on vacation and stopped on the way to buy a lot of food and water. All that water was good as I have a kidney infection. We were in the ER for four hours. Kenny is a wonderful man, so patient. He taught me some things on my cell phone while we waited. 

Samson Says: OK, you big old cows get off my property or I'll come and get you!

I got intravenous antibiotics and was properly hydrated before they let me leave. But everyone was very kind, so it was an OK visit. It was after 10 pm when we got back here and how fun it was to drive down my road in the dark. Nightlife in the canyon is as much fun as that in the big city. Many rabbits and little mice darting about, bats flying around, all kinds of exitement going on. 


I just wanted to let you know why I haven't posted, haven't even opened my computer for a week and probably won't do it again for a few days. Take care, and when I get better I have some fabulous rusty old trucks to post, courtesy of my friend Jane who took a trip to Colorado and found them by the side of country roads, thought of my rust posts, and sent them to me. 









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