Last Chance for Meaning

Well, here is my last chance to get a post in and say something meaningful before the end of the year. It's my opportunity to bring some deep seeded insight into the realm of this discourse of a Bloggery Fashion. Never again will I have this forum to talk about the things that really matter. And instead, I waste it with all this useless gibberish.


I shall dedicate today's Blog of useless gibberish to my friend and former High School classmate, Doug Richardson. Doug died today after a major heart attack. He is se7en days older than me, although you might think se7en years to look at him. He hasn't treated himself very well in the last few years and it finally caught up with him.


So I guess I have se7en days to get my affairs in order. Good thing I don't have many affairs.


Later: This is kind of cheating but the clock has just ticked over to 2012. I am hearing a ton of fireworks going of all around us. So the old year is past and we soldier on to new adventures in Twenty Twelve.

The Last 200 Miles

We have arrived home. 


The weather slowly started to turn to crap on us shortly after we pulled out of Bozeman. 


We stopped there for an hour to hang out, have a bite and top off the tank. Unleaded Regular is $3.03 in Bozeman. I haven't looked since we got back but I think gas in Spokane is at about $3.50-something.


It was raining. It rained off and on until Missoula and then it really broke open for the drive through the passes. It was really coming down. It was very dark and I thought it would turn to snow by the time we topped Lookout Pass. But it was raining hard which was tough when you hit one of the ruts in the highway.


Susan wasn't thrilled with my decision to drive on. But I think we were glad to get through it and make it home.


I've been milling about the house doing a few chores while Susan went off to work. I drained the hot tub and then over filled it. It's draining again now. I hope I won't have to refill.

Buffalo, Wyoming

Yesterday was our first travel day for the return trip. We made it to Buffalo, Wyoming. That's where we are right now. I am writing this on the new Mac Susan got for Christmas. 


Yesterday we drove 11 and a half hours. 


Shortly after leaving, we got a text from Margaret saying she found an unfamiliar suit bag in the closet. I had forgotten my jacket and shirts along with my good shoes. Dumb Ass!


Margaret said she would send them along.


We made a stop in Sturgis for gas and dinner. While gassing up, Susan came walking out of the store and saw a red pick up over on the next island. She said there was something leaking out of the guy's truck. I looked over and saw gas spilling out all over the pavement. I ran over and turned off the nozzle. It had stuck and the driver sitting in the truck hadn't noticed. It gushed a lot of gas onto the ground. I knocked on his door and he came out.


I stepped into a big puddle of gas as I shut off the nozzle and it got all over my shoes.


We went to this giant bar called the Knuckle. I'll bet it's a fun place during the rally but it was empty when we pulled in. The drive over was difficult as the car filled with gas fumes. I dug out my slippers and put my shoes into a plastic bag the bartender gave us. Unfortunately, I didn't have my extra shoes.

The Day After Christmas

Christmas has come and gone and all is right with the world. We are coming to the end of our visit here in Des Moines and will be hitting the road for home tomorrow.


We both got lots of great presents and we gave some good ones too.

The weather continues to be sunny and warm. That bodes well for driving ahead but I have no idea how far the good weather extends. I guess we'll find out soon enough.


We will probably spend a good portion of the day trying to get the car ready to go. I would like to leave as early as possible in order to get as far as we can. I'm thinking maybe as far a Billings, Mt. That's a good 15 hours away.


In the meantime, we shall enjoy our last day here with whatever we end up doing. This laying about with nothing to do is quite attractive to me.

Twas the Day before

We woke up this morning with a bit of a hangover, or as Susan likes to refer to it, "feeling Small".


We went out to a local music pub called the Gas Lamp to listen to the band that Susan's nephew Neil plays in. They didn't go on until 10:30 so we had to listen to a horrible band that was on before them. Very young and loud. Thankfully, Phil had earplugs for us.

Anyway, it is a bright sunny day in Des Moines and there is no chance it will be snowy anytime soon. Bad for Christmas but good for our return trip.


On Thursday, we went to Amana, Iowa. It's about a 90 minute trip near Iowa City. The Amanas are known for their hand crafted crafts. It's not Amish, but very close.

One of the best things about the visit was lunch. We ate at this restaurant called the Ox Yoke (I think) and they serve food "Family Style". I guess that means that you eat a lot of food cuz that was definitely what we did. Fabulous mashed potatoes and even more fabulous gravy...and plenty of it.

During the trip we passed a wrecking yard for combines. I've never seen that before or even conceived of it. But of course, there has to be a wrecking yard for combines. They get old. They wear out. They get into high speed collisions during harvest.


I ordered Susan a laptop on line for Christmas. I was getting very tense because it was very difficult to communicate with the shipper about sending it to Iowa while all my billing information was in Spokane. Fortunately, it arrived yesterday and it looks to be a nice computer. I'll find out more about it once Susan opens it.


We are decorating cookies today so I guess I had better get prepared for that holiday fun.

Our Christmas Trip

I haven't written recently because we have been away from home on a trip to Iowa to spend the holiday with Susan's sister, Margaret and her family, husband Phil and son Neil. It did not seem prudent to announce the emptiness of our house here and allow the scumbags of the InterWeb to come and rip us off. But then again, that assumes that there are people reading this and you and I both know the truth there.


Anyway, I decided to start a post and get some of the Holiday fun reported before it all slips away from my feeble mind, but not publish it until we return.

We left town bright and early last Saturday and left pretty close to the time we planned on...7:30AM instead of 7:00. We took it easy this trip and didn't do the marathon drive through the night to get here. We made it as far as Gillette, Wyoming the first day. That was twelve hours and 776 miles. We drove another 761 miles the next day and arrived in Des Moines about 9:45PM.


The drive was uneventful and easy as the weather favored us the whole way, except for some slight fogginess for the first 100 miles.


Now we are here and enjoying festive Holiday festiveness with family and friends. We have enjoyed many traditional activities that Susan and Margaret have planned like touring the Salisbury House, seeing the Jolly Holiday Lights, going to the Art Center to see art and things that are called art but really aren't, and drinking beer.


Today, we are traveling to the Amana's and Amish Land to see how they build refrigerators. I'll have a more detailed report later.


While it is cold here in Des Moines, we have no snow. In fact, we saw very little evidence of snow the whole way here.  There was a huge snow storm a couple days ago that spread from New Mexico to Kansas. It shut down freeways and stranded travelers. The storm stopped short of effecting Iowa or any of our return travel route. I am hoping for clear sailing when we return home but I would also enjoy a white Christmas.

2011 Carriage Ride

Last night was the Annual Corbin Park Carriage Ride. We invited a couple over we know from church and had a lovely evening. It was chilly and there was no snow on the ground. Somehow, I think that added to the small turn out.

I didn't get many pictures and the ones I got shall win no prizes.


And so, another tradition of our Christmas Season has come and gone. Onward!

Fabulous Saturday

I could easily get used to these Saturdays where there is no pressure to do ANYthing...except for the things you want to do.


For example, Susan chose to spend the day in her kitchen making Christmas treats to delight and enchant. I had some Christmas recon to perform and that is all I have to say about that.


I spent a portion of my reconning downtown, which was very busy. If the economy is suffering, it's not apparent downtown...or anywhere out there today. While downtown I came across what is fast becoming a major pet peeve of mine.


People who can't park! 


Look at this picture.

There are three cars in three parking spaces and not one of them is even close to being within the boundaries of the space. I see this all the time. It seems as though they are unable to properly place their vehicle into the space clearly delineated by lines...OR...they just don't care.


Either way, I don't want those people out there. But they are out there. They are everywhere! Mr. I don't use signals or Mrs. I don't scrap my windows or Ms. I have to text.


It comes down to this, which I have said many times. 
EVERYONE OUT THERE IS IN MY WAY!


It was a full moon last night and I tried to get some stunning house pictures with moon in fullness. But it was to no avail. The position of the moon did not complement the position of the house and so all I got were shots like these.

I like that last one just for the starkness of the trees. I suppose I could Photoshop the moon a bit lower. I may have to give that a try.

In the meantime, it is time for us to make merry and go to a Christmas Party. 

Moonlight Photo Session

I attempted to take some more pictures of the house last night with the moon up above. Unfortunately, the moon appears to have a mind of its own and was not cooperating as far as positioning itself in a reasonable area. I got some early shots but wanted to wait until it was more overhead. I didn't realize it would go so high overhead.

I may have to wait until later in the night. Or I could get home earlier. My research tells me the waxing Gibbous moon will be fully replete this Saturday. Also, I believe the little star down and to the right of the moon is Venus. I am planning another photo session for Saturday.

I'll have to work this out with the clouds too.

A Perfect Day

We skipped church today and had a luxurious morning lounging about. Susan is now out shopping and I have promised to clean the upstairs bathroom, which is starting to grow micro-stuff. 


It's a nice day but cold, currently 31 degrees. A good day to be indoors cleaning grout. 


And since I don't really have much else to say about today, let's look at some pictures from the past few days.

Here is another snowman picture from Skywalkarama. I don't think I showed this one in any previous posts so here it is now.

Here is a good shot of T.J. napping. I've never caught him with his had hanging through the hole there so this one is unique and perhaps historic.

Even more historic is the annual re-creation of the village. I don't even take part in this ritual because it is steeped in tradition and a rich story line for every building in the town of Winter Park Village. I will admit that the name of the town is my one contribution.

And finally, a lovely picture of the house dressed up in Holiday Style. And what is that up above? Could it be the Star of Bethlehem that those wise guys followed all those many years ago? 


I'm going to try and get more pictures of the star in days to come as it waxes to full brightness. 

A Day of Calm

It is a rare day for us to have a day where the day is ours to do the day as we see the day to be fitted into the days activities of the day. Today is such a day. 


We are both going about our business of doing a variety of things with no sense of urgency or panic. It is quite pleasant and I could find myself getting used to days such as this. But then again, a day where one experiences no stress is often referred to as one's funeral. And we are not ready for that yet.


I have some lights to install out front but I have not yet found a suitable replacement for our outside tree that goes on the balcony. We have decided the old tree is toast and it is time to start from scratch.


But, there is still tomorrow. 


Another thing I have to get on is finishing our Christmas Card. The design duty falls to me this year and of course, I keep pushing it off. But there is still tomorrow.

It is Finished!

Our long Christmas Nightmare is over. We have completed all the sky walks we had set up to paint. We did a total of of se7en sky walks and five office buildings. And it is only december second.
We could probably do more but we are happy with what we have gotten and very happy that the shadow of the skywalks hanging over us has lifted.

Last night was another snowman theme. I tried to come up with snow persons of every gender in new and inteeresting situations.

So I have Lazyboy Snowman, an Artist Snowman, A Sea Captain Snowman, Volley Ball Snowmen, and a CycleSnowman.

But my favorite was my depiction of Snomeo and Juliet.

And here is Susan painting the last snow flake of the sky walk painting season.

Yea!