Keatng leaves and gearing up for an Obama party

Where has the month gone? It is almost over and I feel
like it hasn't yet started.

Keating left on Wednesday morning to visit with a friend
of her mother's before she was to take off on Thusday.

It was a good visit. She is a lovely young woman and
certainly has her life goals in mind and is pursuing
them. She'll be off to the UK in the fall for her
year at the U. of Nottingham. She then hopes to gain
employment in the UK for a couple of years. Her
student visa allows her to work for two years after
she gets out of school. What happens after that, time
will tell.

Since she left I have been on the phone a lot. I'm
having an Obama party this coming Wednesday. It is
hard to catch people at home, or else it is hard to
get them to answer the phone. Perhaps both. Many
people have had it to the eyeballs with politics. It
has gone on way too long. Even a political junky, like
me is tired of the election and it is still more than
3 months off.

Jared's fate will probably be sealed with the Primary on
August 12th. I hope he wins, but have many doubts.
He has very stiff competition.


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Keating's visit

On Thursday, the 17th I put in several hours at Obama
headquarters stuffing envelopes.

In the late afternoon Keating arrived having flown over
from the UK where she had made her final plans for her
year at Nottingham University and spent time with her
boyfriend, Lee.

On Friday I had Ariel for the day so Robert and I picked
her up at 8 AM in Boulder. Returning, Keating was having
breakfast and she and Ariel got acquainted. At about
10 we three ladies went to town, first to REI where I
bought Keating lightweight SmartWool long underwear for
those chilly-damp English winters. They didn't have
enough in stock, this time of year, to buy two sets
so we bought those on-line later and bought them direct
from the SmartWool company. For those of you readers
who live in cold climates I urge you to try them out
next winter. They are machine washable and I find
that even though I am allergic to wool, I can wear
the SmartWool without itching!

After shopping we went on to the East Boulder Rec
Center where the girls went swimming. I indulged
myself with a book.

It has been hot all the time Keating has been here,
staying hot in the evenings.

Saturday we drove in the truck up to the gate at
Big Horn Mountain. It was too hot to walk up
the road, so it was really a luxury to ride up
in the truck. The view from the top, as usual
was spectacular. It was hazy toward the east
so we couldn't see DIA, but to the west we
got a good view of the mountains which still have
snow on them.

Today we walked up the road a way, but it was too
hot to go far. We're just being lazy. Tomorrow
we are going shopping; we both want shoes and on
Tuesday Robert goes to the VA and Keating and I
are going to the Art Museum.

She leaves on Wednesday.

Rocky Mountain National Park

We had a grand time at Rocky Mountain National Park
last weekend. I'm hoping to get some pictures from
Carl to add to this entry, but decided it was time
I updated despite not pictures. I managed to delete
mine in my camera. Embarrassing, to say the least.

We arrived there Friday afternoon and set up camp.
For us it meant parking the RV and taking out the
lawn chairs. Carl and Martha had a tent to
set up and a screened shade cover to erect over
the picnic table.

When that was finished they walked over to the
stable to make reservations for Martha and Ariel
to go riding the next morning. I started putting
supper together.

The next day Martha and Ariel had their two-hour
ride. We all walked to the stable and took
pictures of them and the horses and their start
out on the trail...we returned to pick them
up in the car two hours later. It was about
3/4 of a mile to the stable from our campsite
and my the time they came back it was really
hot; also part of the hike back was up 112
steps (Ariel counted them) and we called them
them either the stair to heaven or hell depending
on the mood and the heat at the campsite. We
had only the shade of the screen-shade over
the table and that got hot too mid day.

On Sunday Robert suggested we would take
Ariel for the day if Carl and Martha wanted
to go off on their own to hike or whatever.
They opted to take a mid-length hike (3-4 miles).
It turned out to be more than 7 miles and included
the hike up the 110 stairs at the end! They were
hot, sore and tired, but I think had had a good
time and hopefully we'll get to see some pictures.
I'm sure Martha was really sore, between hiking
and riding she'd had a lot of work out on muscles
you don't use for biking. They do a lot of
bike riding.

Monday we drove over Trail Ridge Road and had a
picnic on the other side. That is always fun.
We saw lots of elk and marmots and two moose.

Tuesday we got up early and all took a short
hike while it was cool, hoping to see some
more moose. We didn't, but it was a nice walk.

We came back and had breakfast, packed up and
headed home.