I'm home for good, for a while, for now.

Since I haven't been really attached to a job for a year +, I forget why it is that I need to come back to Boulder to live. Today, I'm remembering why. Who else would keep the grasses from taking over the yard, make sure that sticky viney weed doesn't take over the roses, prune the dead branches from the old plum tree, find the birds' watering dish in the bushes and fill it with water, plant those drought-resistant plants along the front walk, find the milk delivery on the front porch instead of the back, fill the fountains and set up the solar sprays, notice the pee spots made by the neighbor boy dog and clean them, get all the lint out of the laundry room, egg the boys on toward painting the house, and all the other mighty and powerful things I do?

And more important, who would provide a lap for Hansel's chin to rest on and who would clean off Roxie's eye boogers and rub their special secret places that only we know about?

Yesterday I spent some time engrossed in the offerings at Jon's. There is a whole aisle of foods from countries that I can't figure out. I know there is the usual Mexican and Asian group. There's also Russian and Mid-Eastern and some others. This isn't considered a gourmet aisle, either - they appear to be staples in local diets. The store is filled with non-English speaking families picking up daily vegetables like a marketplace. Yesterday, I noticed frozen cactus leaves and guava paste. It's really run down looking - not your suburban bleached grocery - but I realized yesterday that there are always lines when I go there. The store must be a real money-maker for the chain.

The air is pretty soupy. I hope I'm breathing in June Gloom and not smog.

If you can get through Boulder winters, the Springs are great. It's not that they are so harsh (except maybe this year), it's that they get so bleak - dry, brown, silent except for a handful of birds that overwinter. But now the grass is growing so fast that it's hard to keep up with the mowing and the first flowers have survived the recent cold snap so I think we are really on our way.

I hear it's snowing in Boulder but it's definitely not in Orange Beach, AL. We've had 80º weather and a little foggy mornings but glorious afternoons. The pictures don't do it justice - the colors are all shades of deep blues and greens. Dophins and pelicans and warm sea breezes. And Jimmy Buffet's sister's place (Lulu's) and Sea 'n Suds and all those purple red bud trees all along the highway, chasing Spring along the way ( and losing it on the way back), and wild turkeys in So Illinois. Oh, and gorgeous, huge azaleas and dogwoods (flowers I haven't seen for decades).

Finally the business is coming back to life after a long, quiet winter. In November, we purposely chose to take a lot of time off, fairly shutting it down except for the few dribbles that came in that could be handled by the remaining crew. Then the snow started and didn't stop for months which froze that down to a trickle. I wondered if the business would come back to life at all but now I see it has.

There is nothing like having your own small business. We are lucky to be able to make a decent living and still have time to live and enjoy our lives - but you do have to create the thing over and over and over again. "Hustle" is the word.

Whoa - it was winterwinterwinter and now I'm seeing little crocuses (croci?) everywhere. The last snow just melted last week and I still have to get some of the Christmas stuff out of the yard. Suddenly all the projects that went on hold at the beginning of winter are evident everywhere and I don't have my excuses anymore. We have to finish the gutters and pruning the big elm and cut up all the branches, get the leaves into the compost heap really, jumpstart the house painting and start looking at what we are going to do with the back yard so we can easily snow shovel when another winter like this one comes.

It's really quiet in this town after a month in LA. I miss the sirens and helicopters.

Back when she was a wee lass

Damn!

I woke up early to see the sunrise on the Hollywood Hills and noticed the tiny bit of fog on the window. This is a long-sleeved shirt day in East Hollywood. Still, birds sing and fly around so I'm sure it will warm up by the time I leave for Union Station to take the train home. The problem is: it's snowing again at home! Holy Moly! Is this ever going to end? Ok, I have nothing to complain about after 30 days of beautiful blue skies, abundant floral and some fauna around (remember the dead skunk on my arrival?), a trip to the Blue Pacific, and days filled with lots of interesting people from around the world. My bucket has been filled so I can probably weather the next 30 or so days till Spring arrives in Colorado.

What a gorgeous day! The sky is really blue and it'll be in the 70's later on. In fact, it's been pretty clear most of the days I've been here. I'm going to head to Los Feliz and over to Hillhurst to Yuca's Hut for lunch. Not sure if I'll be productive today or just blow it off looking for local treasures.

So glad to be out of the cold and the blowing snow advisories of home.

It's been a little slow getting started so I've been walking around the neighborhood. I found a beautiful little street, Dracena Ct., between Franklin and Finley. That's where the 6' tall blooming poinsettia bush stood.

Today I went see "Pan's Labyrinth" at the Vista Theater. It was a good escape but I wouldn't have gone to see it if I had known more about it. BUT! the theater itself is worth the visit.

After I got into town (an hour early on Amtrak), I asked Victor if I could ride with him to his next pick-up. He was happy to have the company so we went out Ventura Hwy to the San Fernando Valley and cut south at some point. I saw the Getty Museum and now have an understanding of what an outing that will be. Went into a Ralph's for the first time, very much like spiffy King Sooper's at home. On the way back, we dropped some people off in Pasadena and I saw something called 'Bungalow Row", a street that is cared about and preserved by the owners. We saw a cool bridge going into Pasadena that I'll have to investigate and we went by a park near the Rose Bowl which gave me the strongest deja vu I've had in a long time.

Ok, this is all fine, but this is funny to me:

We cut through Atwater Village and ended up on Franklin Avenue over the Shakespeare Bridge (I've wanted to see that for some time) and right after the bridge, we passed a dead skunk in the road. And this is all funny because I've learned about this area from reading "Franklin Avenue" and "Atwater Village Newbie" and the now defunct "Skunks of Los Feliz", blogs. You had to be there in my head - yes, the skunk wasn't on Los Feliz but so what.

And another funny thing is that the other passengers in the car going out and coming back were from Boulder. Small world, indeed.

He Kicked Him...

A little boy explains what he saw while watching a movie with his mom.

I was so looking forward to the opening of Twenty-Ninth Street but now that it's here, I only really use it for a handy cut-through from 30th to 28th Street. Riding by today, I noticed that our new movie theater walls are going up and that is good new since the marquee for the one on Arapahoe is gone.

The one place I have been to (twice now) is Pei Wei, both times just for the minced chicken wrapped in iceberg lettuce which is pretty tasty. Today we sat at the bar and watched the cooks slamming the food through the line. Lots of big flames and steam impressed me and took my mind off all this friggin' cold and snow.

From the local newspaper: "While Sunday brought only about 3 inches of snow to downtown Boulder, the storm marked the fifth week in a row that Boulder County and the Front Range have received measurable snowfall. Since the blizzard on Dec. 20-21, 63 inches of snow have fallen on Boulder, according to the National Weather Service."

And the Saints didn't win yesterday, but they did a great job of getting so far.

I have this son who is turning 22 tomorrow and with that, he is on the road to 30. This is the first year that I've not had the feeling, "If he's that old, I must be getting old." There's a disconnect. Yes, I know I made his body and raised him but he's over there and I'm over here now; from momandson to mom and son. I value his friendship and attention.

Oh, I forgot to crab about Flat Iron Subaru. I took our Outback in for a winterizing tuneup and ended up paying $1500 for all this necessary crap. Yes, brakes need fixing and the timing belt does shred after 105,000 miles, but you know, I could have used some better customer service. We took it in at 10am, found out at noon that the timing belt would need replacing ($400), called at 3:30 to find out that it would be ready at 5:45. At 5:30, I found out we needed the brakes and pump replaced and they hadn't done diddly squat. The service manager did give me a loaner after I ramped up into low level hysteria. All I'm saying is, when the bill is $1200 over what I expected and the work isn't even started by the time I come to pick it up, don't get defensive, ok? Since then, we found out that Pete Dinstuhl does Subaru so that's where we'll go next time.

The two main routes out of town to the south are closed because of ground blizzards with up to 100 mph gusts These chinooks are supposed to continue all day long.

Sweetie and a friend were going to hike up to the Arestua Hut, five miles in from the trailhead, in knee deep snow with two dogs but decided to wait till tomorrow. One good thing about having grown children is the vicarious pleasure in hearing about adventures without having to trudge up the mountain myself.

At least it's beautiful. This was taken in between blizzards. There are 2' tall bushes next to that little fence.

The last blizzard was dry and fluffy powder but this one is made up of big, wet flakes. This one, I'm resigned to. Before it started, I made sure to give the dogs a nice long walk this morning and covered up some grassy areas.

I'm annoyed with the city for not even making one snowplow run through our neighborhood. The problem area is the hill that slopes down to the north and doesn't get the solar melt-off like the other streets. We've been driving in snow ruts for the last several days and this will just make it worse. Still, I would rather this mess than a whole winter of dry and brown. One drought is enough for me.

We started our day by going to Eldora so Honey and Sweetie could snowboard. Nice day up there, sunny and beautiful after last week's blizzard, but Windy! Windy enough to close the lifts by lunchtime. We headed back down and put the turkey in the oven. For some reason, it wouldn't finish cooking so we ended up at the table with some raspberry wine and some Fat Tire that Elvar left behind. What a sweet way to pass some time with real conversation, not just talk that happens on the fly. We ended the evening watching "Pride and Prejudice" on our brand new super-duper 32" flat screened LCD TV.

The blizzard itself was one thing. The meltdown is quite another. The general rule here is that the city doesn't plow the side streets, leaving the job to the sun. Usually that works when we've had just a few inches - but it will take several days for our street to clear off this time. The yard is going to be muddy long after the last snow has melted. My poor dogs got their first real walk this morning after being cooped up the house/porch/backyard run area.

I wonder. If I lived near a beach, would I be dreaming about being near the mountains as much as I dream about being near an ocean? I don't even need an ocean - a gulf would do.

More fun:

This is what I'm talkin' about (my sidewalk):

Man o Man, it's really coming down. They've been talking about this storm for a few days and it finally arrived. When I got up, there was just a dusting, just enough that I could sweep off the walk ways but now it's dumping! Our white Christmas is secured, at least with snow on the ground.

Sweetie and I went to see the Ars Nova Singers last weekend. I was suffering from a bout of ennui so much that when they broke into song, tears welled up in my eyes. I checked around for any sadness or reminders of past then realized they were tears of relief. I forget to keep aesthetics in my life sometimes.

I thought I would write more, but the dogs need walking so I'm outta here.

I took the dogs all the way up to the lake this afternoon after missing the morning walk. Each time I go there I'm surprised at how beautiful it is. The dogs like it, too.

A thin sheet of ice had obviously been melting during this last warm week but it was thick enough to hold the weight of a lone goose that was walking from one side to the other. It was a funny sight - a goose walking on water. I waited to see if he considered himself to be stuck but that didn't seem to be the case. He just took his time moving toward his friends. I left before he got there.

I found this Scottie at The Pet Set . Pretty darn cute. More Scotties in the new Bark magazine on the Amanda Jones ad.

Most of the snow has melted in town but it's still on the ground at home. This is the last year I'm going to struggle with the back walkway - it's going to be paved somehow by next winter, either with flagstone or concrete or something.

Plans for the rest of the year include 1) finishing the end of the year promo for the biz 2) getting all tax stuff in order 3) using up my Rec Center pass 4) reading "State of Fear" by M Crichton 5) reading 2 books about edible gardening 6) working on the house-painting project if the air warms up 7)continuing to dekludge.

Holiday plans include: The Boulder Piano Quartet at the Library; Ars Nova, also at the Library (ok, it's free); finding a Wii for Sweetie; getting Honey's Ipod; party at the Mission; and our annual Christmas Eve Chinese Feast and Christmas Day at Eldora.

The lights and tree are up since I followed my neighbor's lead and started the day after Thanksgiving. It sure is a lot easier when not much is done.

2 more weeks to go till the Earth starts tilting back to normal.

Yeah, we got some snow. The pile on the barbeque is about a third higher than this and it's still coming down. I'm fine with winter if there is some snow.

We went to see "For Your Consideration" yesterday at the Landmark theater. Pretty good with some really good laugh-out-loud parts to it ( loved the Entertainment Tonight spoofers). It was a rare outing with all the pack, minus the dogs. I found out that the Landmark got a 3-month extension to their lease before Barnes and Noble moves in to renovate before Whole Foods moves into their space.

Ok, back to work with a trip to Lafayette that allowed me to see the snow-capped mountains on the way back into town. This is a relief since there hasn't been any moisture for a while and it's been warmish. Dillon Reservoir was full on Tuesday when we drove past, but there just wasn't much snow before or after Vail Pass.

Gardening is all over for the year but I've been collecting leaves for composting. Leaf mold is something that I took for granted, growing up in the South, something I have to assist in causing here in this dry state. Attention has moved to the house painting project which I imagine will take us several months with the changing weather and all.


I stopped by Pier One and picked up a tree. It's not quite the aluminum tree with colored lights that Mama had, but it's my first aluminum tree.

Sugar and I are home again just in time for Thanksgiving with Honey and Sweetie.

We took a 10 day trip to LA: drove the southern route through NM and AZ to avoid a snow storm in the mountains. That route is much better on the train for me, though I did enjoy the leg from Flagstaff into Hollywood. This trip was short but intense in terms of moving leaps and bounds toward where I want to go. I could spend half my time in East Hollywood at ASHO, but going back and forth is really a pleasure. We drove back via NV and UT and UT was spectacular. It wasn't too long ago that I thought it was all just brown dirt. Was I ever wrong.

Roxie and Hansel were thrilled to see us when we got back and I was thrilled to see how clean the house was and how well my sons handled everything while were were gone. We celebrated Thanksgiving at the Hotel Boulderado big buffet which was very nice for all. Honey went on to work the T'giving feast at his resturant, the rest of us strolled the Pearl Street Mall for a bit. Then we came back home for sleeping (for the guys) and struggling with the new Blogger Beta version for a blog for the Scientology Mission in Boulder. A little Broncos/Chief football, some "Grey's Anatomy" and now Hansel is saying it's time for some lap time.

Nice to be home

I found this on Yahoo photos.

This time I voted, early again, but I really wasn't into it. I'm the kind of voter who votes for the individual issue or candidate so I'm not sure if I make that much difference. Some Dems, some Republicans, a couple of Libs. I pretty much voted against any amendments in an effort to keep the Constitution de-kludged. Term Limits for Judges - yes. No more money to the school districts (though it was hard to decipher those questions). I was going to vote for Ritter but at the last minute decided Beauprez, just to keep a balance between party control the State Legislature and the Executive Branch. I don't really see a lot of difference in the candidates and I'm fine with Ritter winning.
On the federal level, I'm looking forward to seeing how the Dems tidy up now that they have power.