Green

We've been home a week and spent most of the
week waiting for a landscaper to come and
hydro- seed the blackened earth around the
house. He finally came on Friday. We now are
surrounded by bright green instead of black!
I prefer that. The green contains 10 different
kinds of short grasses,wheat being the tallest.
It also contains about 10 different varieties
of wildflowers including columbine, penstemon,
black-eyed susans and vetch. I don't remember
the rest and of many I was not familiar. In
any case it'll be fun to see what comes up
in the spring!

I met Jo in town for coffee on Wednesday.
We always have much to talk about and this day
was no exception. It was an enjoyable hour or so.















After having leaving Jo, I ran errands, one of
which was to go to JoAnn's fabric shop and get
plastic rings to sew on four of the tie- backs for
the living room curtains that returned from the
cleaner without them. I also brought black ribbon
to use as a tie- back for the missing one. This
was Jeanne's suggestion. The black in honor
or memory of the fire. Finally, the living room
is complete.

Robert was pleased with his driving day this week.
He drove ten (10) cars!!! He has a new boss, Steve,
whom started as a volunteer driver some time ago.
Robert and Steve got along right from the git go and
shared ideas on how the operation could be run more
efficiently. While we were gone Steve took over
and has already implemented several of the ideas
they had discussed. Hence, Robert was able to drive
10 cars instead of the 2-5 that have been the norm.


















I'm still hoping the curtains for the upstairs hall will
show up. I've looked at replacements, but the windows are
an odd size so replacements are hard to find. Viki made the
living room curtains, but I don't think she is feeling the
financial pinch she felt then so probably wouldn't be
interested in making curtains the upstairs hall.

My cleaning women showed up. They said they were coming at
7:30 so by 8:10 I was sure they weren't coming, but they did
show up. I won't expect them before 8 next time. They are
so good, a mother and daughter team! They are in and out
of here in less than 3 hours and do a fantastic job!

An addition to Monday's post.

Tuesday, October 25th, the wind must really have
been going wild. Viki had mentioned that when
she phoned and left a message on Robert's
birthday. She didn't mention the fire. Perhaps
it hadn't started yet. In any case all our
window sills are covered with black soot!

Fortunately we were at Robyn's and quite
comfortable when we heard of the new fire
in our canyon. Had we tried to go home we
would have found Boulder Canyon closed.

No buildings were lost and no one was hurt
during this latest fire although a number of
people were evacuated. The fire is now
contained and I believe everyone has
returned home.

It is a glorious fall day here; almost summer
warm. There is a slight breeze, but I took
a chance and hung the laundry outside.

A trip to Arches, Canyon Lands and Robyn

Landscape Arch at Arches National Park


Oct 25, 2010

We left home, later than anticipated, about 1 PM Sunday
afternoon. The weather was pretty good except it was very windy
with blowing snow over the passes and hard rain in several
places.

We arrived in New Castle to visit our friends Betty and Jack
Wilson. Jack is 94 now and not doing well at all which then
stresses Betty. Their daughter, Janice, is there for two weeks
and that helps a lot. Their son Chip is to show up soon and then
they are planning to find Home Care to come in to give Betty some
needed relief.

We had dinner with them and then Robert went to the Van to play
with his computer..the new Dell7 which has Windows7 operating
system. He is very frustrated with the operating system. Opening
a command window puts you into a directory that doesn't seem to
allow you to add files to it?!?

Betty and I had about an hour to just talk. She really needs
some relief from the 24/7 care of Jack. He's always been a bit
difficult and age has not improved that.

At about 6:30 AM the next morning there was a terrific
wind and hail storm. We got up about 7:30 and went to have
breakfast with them, but it was dark in the house so we returned
to our Van and had breakfast there. Afterwards we went again
to the house and discovered their power had been out and
just came on. We stayed about an hour and then left for Moab.

As we headed west the weather improved such that by the time we
got to Moab the sun was shining. It is still chilly though. In
Moab we fueled up, both with diesel and propane and then went to
Arches. By that time the campground was full.

We went on toward Canyon lands and Horse Thief Campground, where
we are now. This camp ground has 58 sites and probably less than
a dozen are occupied.

October 26, 2010


We ended up at Horse Thief campground last night and it was
almost empty. However, at 3:30 AM it was only 35 F. inside the
Van. We both worried about our freezing up (the water tanks and
plumbing, not ourselves) over night. Fortunately, that did not
happen.

We got up late and had a big breakfast because we didn't plan on
having lunch.

After breakfast we headed for Arches and this time we were
successful in finding a place. It turns out they were not full
last night. All sites may now be reserved but not everyone turns
up to claim their site. For future reference I have a map of the
campground so we can reserve ahead and know where we want to be.

We decided to walk to Delicate Arch and did so. I took one
picture. We were late in the day so the light wasn't great, but
the arch, as always, is spectacular. The walk is only a mile
one-way, but that was enough. We returned to our campsite and
worked on trying to de-mystify Windows7 operating system. Why
each operating system of Microsoft is a little worse than the last
one beats me. By now it seems that computers should be easier to
use than 20 years ago, but I certainly found the CRAY
Supercomputer was more user-friendly than this new laptop. Of
course, the CRAY was front-ended with a UNIX operating system so
there was nothing of the Bill Gates system I had to deal with

October 27, 2010

This morning we took care of dumping the grey/black water from
the Van's tanks. We had a list of places where we could do this
and the one that was "free" was where we decided to go. This
turned out to be an old trailer park at the front of the grounds
and spaces for RV's in the rear. It didn't look great from
the trailer park side, but the RV side had everything and was
neat and quite respectable. We had been directed to "the office"
and as we walked up to the trailer containing said "office" a
big guy in a pickup showed up and said, "I'm the office." Robert
told him what we wanted and he said, "Why, sure" and preceded to
give us directions to the dump-site. We decided if we needed an
RV spot in the future we would show-up and Pack Creek Camp Ground.

Eventually we headed toward Squaw Flats and the Canyon lands. It
was a gorgeous day. We stopped at Newspaper Rock Newspaper Rock
for lunch and after admiring the Rock art we drove on to Squaw Flats campground.

It was not full, had about 6 empty sites. We found an ideal site which was shielded by a rock overhang, would get the morning sun, but before noon the picnic table would be shaded. That didn't matter much to us at this time, but it was good to know for the future. This is site 18.

October 28, 2010

Robert's 85th birthday.

We had planned on staying two nights at Squaw Flats, but decided instead to head over to Dove
Creek and see what Vernon and Dan have done
to the house there. As the crow flies we were
very close, but it took a little longer by road.
En route, at Monticello, I mailed the Halloween
cards to the Salina kids. I asked the Post
Mistress if she could hand cancel the stamps. She
complained that was a lot of work. I asked if
she didn't have a hand stamp she could just stamp
them with. She wanted to know why I wanted her
to do this so I explained that the cards were going
to my neighbor kids and I wanted them to see
they had been mailed from Monticello...well, that
made all the difference. She said that she could do
that, "But, it'll take a lot of time." I thanked her
and left.

We called Vernon, but he didn't answer the Dove Creek
phone. We went on anyway. Shortly after we arrived a
couple showed up who turned out to be Dan's mother
and her husband. We talked with them for about an
hour and then they were off to visit her sister. She
had Dan's cell number, so called him before she left
and reported they were out hunting and should be
back before dark. We made ourselves comfortable
in the yard and I fixed dinner. Vernon showed up
in the Van about 7 O'clock. He stayed until Dan also
showed up and then we all went in to inspect the
house. They have done a lot of work on it, but
plenty more to do. The house had been lived in for
30 years by a local farmer, but even though he
never paid rent, he never did anything to keep
the house in order. Vernon has already replaced
the roof which is one of the more noticeable things
he has done. But, even the yard looks 100% better
than the last time we were there. It is
an attractive little house, built by Dan's grandfather.

We spent the night in the Van in the yard and the
guys had left by the time we got up at 7:30AM.

October 29, 2010

Connie's birthday.

After breakfast we left Dove Creek and headed for Crested Butte
where Robyn has rented a house. She has assured us that it is a
very nice house and plenty of room for guests. With the Van we
don't worry about guest rooms anyhow.

We were amazed when we arrived at Robyn's house. It is gigantic!
It has three full stories and is a duplex. She has one side and
that is plenty big enough for a family of 4 or even 6! She
admits to rattling around a bit there by herself, but the price
was right and it is very comfortable although about 30 minutes
from Gothic, where she works most of the time. Of course, come
winter and Gothic will be unavailable and she'll work from home
or the Crested Butte office of RMBL.

RMBL, with help from Robyn and others has obtained a
$1.7 million grant from the NSF to build a modern lab
building. That is what she has been working on most of
the summer and this fall, in addition toher regular work.
It's been a very busy time for her and she's still pushing
to get things done before real winter sets in which
may be any day now.


October 31, 2010

We had a very pleasant time with Robyn and she fed us mightily.
It's nice to know your children are all good cooks among their
many other worthy attributes.

We left there this morning and had good weather all the way home.
There was snow at the top of Monarch Pass, but for only about a
mile, then wet and by the time we were at 9000 feet the pavement
was dry. We arrived home about 4 PM. We unpacked the Van and
had a late supper. Michelle Grainger came over to welcome us
home and gave us a great chocolate bar as a coming home present.

It's always good to get home, but this time it was especially
nice because the house is so clean.






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