I got started on genealogy research last night... now I don't want to stop - not even to walk the dogs. I hit a goldmine of information about Jeff's great-grandmother's family and am having a wonderful time tracing them back. Now I just have to find out who Joseph Gingell's parents were... I've had my walk this morning, another pretty day in Boulder. Our high yesterday was 56, and we're hoping for 60 today. I've been using Facebook quite a bit lately, but it seems that the more I use it, the more spyware and viruses my computer has to fight off; and with several applications, my computer just shuts down. I don't think I'll be staying on board as an active member for long.
I spoke with one of my clients yesterday, and she informed me that her Mother, Olwen, had entered an Assisted Living home. I will miss seeing Olwen out and about. Olwen will be 100 years old in August, and up until last month was very spry; her mind is still extremely sharp, and she delights in trying to shock me. She was born in the English Embassy in Argentina, and spent most of her life in Argentina and England - and, oh!, the things she's seen!! She's a delight to sit and chat with. Saying that you're interested in history is the best way to get her to seal her mouth, but she loves to trade stories. I will miss seeing her sitting on her patio, sipping wine in the sunshine. The area will lose a treasure when she leaves us.
Lovey has been worrying her tail; and she won't let me look at it. You know how lions have that tuft at the of their tails? She has chewed off the fur around the tip of her tail, so that she has a black tuft at the end. Ah!! She just let me gently examine it, and it looks like Banichi got either a tooth or a claw into her tail. She's got tiny puncture wound there, but it doesn't look infected. I'll clean her off with hydrogen peroxide and then put a dot of calendula cream/gel on it, and that should take care of that. She's generally quite a sensible little critter; and I do love her dearly.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Scenes from the West
McWhinney-Hahn Sculpture Park in Loveland, CO
Boot on barbed wire fence post - Kansas. A scene like this makes me want to ride a horse to the far horizon just to see what's there.
You can see why the old-timers called them "The Badlands"....
Estes Park Cup
Not much going on here... I spent yesterday cleaning and reading. Lovey kept complaining yesterday afternoon and I think the reason was that the wind was very gusty. The winds dropped about midnight, but are scheduled to return this afternoon. There are no clouds in the sky this morning, so there was no colorful sunrise; there is a "mountain wave" cloud sitting just above the Front Range, though. The kits have been running in and out - but no critters have shown up at the feeders yet today. I'll be headed off to walk the Irish kids in a little bit, after picking up my meds.
Yesterday evening a neighbor's fire alarm/smoke detector went off. I was on the telephone and had the TV on as well, so the kits were the ones that alerted me. Seems that the guy across the hall set some water to boil , forgot it, and burned the daylights out of the pan - it certainly stank! The International Space Station was visible to those of us in the greater Denver metro area for four minutes last night. And the Boulder PD are re-opening the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, so be ready to be inundated with all types of suspicions, and, probably, more false claims of guilt. I hope that the guilty party is found just so the family can have closure; but I'm afraid this will turn into a media circus again. - I guess I'm just tired of hearing the same "guesses" over and over.
I need to get back into the work/research mode... but it seems that I really don't care, so I'm going to have to force myself, and then I'll get back in the habit - especially if I find something that I wasn't aware of previously. I was amazed yesterday to see film of the annual Pony Swim from Assateague to Chincoteague spliced into an old Western; it was supposed to show mustangs swimming the Rio Grande into Texas.
The annual Estes Park Cup dog pull competition will take place this weekend. This is sanctioned by the International Weight Pulling Association, which promotes the heritage of the working dog. The dogs are divided into 8 weight classes and are fitted with a special pulling harness. Each dog then has one minute to pull it's weighted sled 16 feet; they will be pulling on snow, which makes it tricky because snow sticks and it's sometimes hard to get the sled moving. The results can be astonishing - in 2008 at the Estes Park Cup, a 60 pound Norwegian Elkhound (named Silver) pulled 510 pounds, and a mixed breed (named King Dukes) weighing in at 150 pounds pulled 1020 pounds!
Yesterday evening a neighbor's fire alarm/smoke detector went off. I was on the telephone and had the TV on as well, so the kits were the ones that alerted me. Seems that the guy across the hall set some water to boil , forgot it, and burned the daylights out of the pan - it certainly stank! The International Space Station was visible to those of us in the greater Denver metro area for four minutes last night. And the Boulder PD are re-opening the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, so be ready to be inundated with all types of suspicions, and, probably, more false claims of guilt. I hope that the guilty party is found just so the family can have closure; but I'm afraid this will turn into a media circus again. - I guess I'm just tired of hearing the same "guesses" over and over.
I need to get back into the work/research mode... but it seems that I really don't care, so I'm going to have to force myself, and then I'll get back in the habit - especially if I find something that I wasn't aware of previously. I was amazed yesterday to see film of the annual Pony Swim from Assateague to Chincoteague spliced into an old Western; it was supposed to show mustangs swimming the Rio Grande into Texas.
The annual Estes Park Cup dog pull competition will take place this weekend. This is sanctioned by the International Weight Pulling Association, which promotes the heritage of the working dog. The dogs are divided into 8 weight classes and are fitted with a special pulling harness. Each dog then has one minute to pull it's weighted sled 16 feet; they will be pulling on snow, which makes it tricky because snow sticks and it's sometimes hard to get the sled moving. The results can be astonishing - in 2008 at the Estes Park Cup, a 60 pound Norwegian Elkhound (named Silver) pulled 510 pounds, and a mixed breed (named King Dukes) weighing in at 150 pounds pulled 1020 pounds!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Youngsters
3-week-old colt - a Morgan-Trakhener cross: 2002, Vermont
Clydesdale mare and foal: St. Louis, 2003
Sunday's Super Stuff
It's the second of February; the groundhog has seen his shadow, predicting another 6 weeks of winter, and yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. It's 25 degrees outside (and -11 in Gunnison), the sun is shining and there are light layers of cirrus clouds up in the sky. If I look west, the mountains closest to me are brown and green with patches of white snow; the crowns of the back range are a gleaming white today, as opposed to yesterday's brown. We did not receive any snow here in Boulder or Denver yesterday or last night, even though the weather folks predicted it. They are saying that we'll have wind gusts of 30 to 50 mph this afternoon...
I finished reading The Gate to Women's Country yesterday; and I began The Apostate's Tale. The first book is an extremely thought-provoking novel. I am still turning over in my mind all of the stones that the book over-turned - and once one is over-turned, it seems to over-turn yet another.... it is a very interesting book by Sheri S. Tepper. I recommend it highly! Lovey hadn't played with her favorite ball toys recently, so I spent 45 minutes doing nothing but playing with her and her favorite yellow ball yesterday afternoon. Then I played with Banichi and his strings for the same amount of time; after finishing, I gave both of them a large pinch of catnip, which both of them inhaled and ate immediately.
The football game turned out to be thrilling - and I cheered on the Steelers, because they have a couple of players from UF and because I like Troy Polamalu. I was excited when James Harrison, a defensive back, scored the 100-yard touchdown, after picking off a pass just before half-time. I was alarmed when the Cardinals came back, making up a 13 point deficient, and then pulling ahead. I was ecstatic when Santonio Holmes grabbed the winning touchdown pass.
I did laugh at the beginning of the game when I saw some of the players say, rather incredulously, that Jennifer Hudson had lip-synched the National Anthem. Of course, Faith Hill had also lip-synched her rendition of America the Beautiful. The local media had announced proudly that John Elway would perform the coin-toss at the beginning of the game, so I was rather surprised when General David Petreaus did so.
Ah, yes.... the commercials. I absolutely loathed the Career Builders ad with the repetitions of a woman screaming in her car, a man crying, etc. After the second repetition of the woman screaming, I said, "Enough already! " and turned off the sound. I also disliked the E*Trade commercial where the talking baby told the African-American baby he couldn't sing. My favorites? The Doritos crystal ball ad; the Budweiser Clydesdale great-grandfather ad; the Coca-Cola retro bugs and butterflies ad; the Budweiser Clydesdale-dancing horse love ad; the Budweiser Clydesdale "fetch" ad; the Bob Dylan/rapper Pepsi ad; and the MacGyver/PepSuber Pepsi ad. I wonder what would have happened if NBC had allowed the PETA commercials with their sensual "eat vegetarian" themes? Oh, well.... Have a good week!
I finished reading The Gate to Women's Country yesterday; and I began The Apostate's Tale. The first book is an extremely thought-provoking novel. I am still turning over in my mind all of the stones that the book over-turned - and once one is over-turned, it seems to over-turn yet another.... it is a very interesting book by Sheri S. Tepper. I recommend it highly! Lovey hadn't played with her favorite ball toys recently, so I spent 45 minutes doing nothing but playing with her and her favorite yellow ball yesterday afternoon. Then I played with Banichi and his strings for the same amount of time; after finishing, I gave both of them a large pinch of catnip, which both of them inhaled and ate immediately.
The football game turned out to be thrilling - and I cheered on the Steelers, because they have a couple of players from UF and because I like Troy Polamalu. I was excited when James Harrison, a defensive back, scored the 100-yard touchdown, after picking off a pass just before half-time. I was alarmed when the Cardinals came back, making up a 13 point deficient, and then pulling ahead. I was ecstatic when Santonio Holmes grabbed the winning touchdown pass.
I did laugh at the beginning of the game when I saw some of the players say, rather incredulously, that Jennifer Hudson had lip-synched the National Anthem. Of course, Faith Hill had also lip-synched her rendition of America the Beautiful. The local media had announced proudly that John Elway would perform the coin-toss at the beginning of the game, so I was rather surprised when General David Petreaus did so.
Ah, yes.... the commercials. I absolutely loathed the Career Builders ad with the repetitions of a woman screaming in her car, a man crying, etc. After the second repetition of the woman screaming, I said, "Enough already! " and turned off the sound. I also disliked the E*Trade commercial where the talking baby told the African-American baby he couldn't sing. My favorites? The Doritos crystal ball ad; the Budweiser Clydesdale great-grandfather ad; the Coca-Cola retro bugs and butterflies ad; the Budweiser Clydesdale-dancing horse love ad; the Budweiser Clydesdale "fetch" ad; the Bob Dylan/rapper Pepsi ad; and the MacGyver/PepSuber Pepsi ad. I wonder what would have happened if NBC had allowed the PETA commercials with their sensual "eat vegetarian" themes? Oh, well.... Have a good week!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Five of my Favorite TV Cowboys
Norman Eugene "Clint" Walker, portrayed Cheyenne Bodie on Cheyenne. He began work as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi and then was a Merchant Marine in WWII, prior to acting in Hollywood.
Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates and Eric Fleming as Gil Favor in Rawhide.
James Garner, who played Bart Maverick in Maverick.
Robert Fuller, a Key West native, who portrayed Jess Harper in Laramie and Cooper Smith in Wagon Train.Happy February!
Today is Super Bowl Sunday, as well as the first of February... I guess I'll have the TV on as background noise most of the day; but I will be watching the game and the new ads. Who am I rooting for? I have a sneaking suspicion that the Cardinals will win, but I'm rooting for the Steelers, mainly because I like Troy Polamalu. He plays defense, of course.... I always have liked the guys who play defense (and it started 'way back, when I was in love with Jack Youngblood when he played for the Gators!)...
It's 38 degrees outside and the temperature is supposed to fall throughout the day. The colors of the sunrise were brilliant, and, when I turned to the west the clouds above the Rockies were reflecting the same reds and purples. It was beautiful. My walk was brisk, and about the only other things out and moving were some ravens. The squirrels are starting to visit the feeders now, and the kits are having a ball running around like idiots... I think it's the change in air pressure, but I really have no idea. We hit 63 degrees yesterday, which was not a record (that was 70 in 1957), but it is 20 above our usual high for this time of year. After snow this evening, we're supposed to warm back up to the 50 and 60s again. It sure doesn't feel like winter!
I talked to a friend in Florida last night. We hadn't spoken in quite a while, but we've been best buds since first grade... and we picked right back up again. We talked about ourselves, and our families, our work, and our cats. We finally had to hang up so she could crawl into bed - but we promised to keep in touch. One of the things we talked about were our favorite TV shows while growing up - and almost every one was a Western. Among our favorites were: Bonanza, Laramie, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Cheyenne, Maverick, Sugarfoot, Rawhide, Bronco, The Roy Rogers Show, The Gene Autry Show, The High Chaparral, Fury, Sky King, The Tall Man, Death Valley Days, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Have Gun Will Travel, The Cisco Kid, Hopalong Cassidy, The Big Valley and Lancer. So, as a tribute to some of my favorite TV cowboys, my photos preceding today's blog will be my heroes growing up....
It's 38 degrees outside and the temperature is supposed to fall throughout the day. The colors of the sunrise were brilliant, and, when I turned to the west the clouds above the Rockies were reflecting the same reds and purples. It was beautiful. My walk was brisk, and about the only other things out and moving were some ravens. The squirrels are starting to visit the feeders now, and the kits are having a ball running around like idiots... I think it's the change in air pressure, but I really have no idea. We hit 63 degrees yesterday, which was not a record (that was 70 in 1957), but it is 20 above our usual high for this time of year. After snow this evening, we're supposed to warm back up to the 50 and 60s again. It sure doesn't feel like winter!
I talked to a friend in Florida last night. We hadn't spoken in quite a while, but we've been best buds since first grade... and we picked right back up again. We talked about ourselves, and our families, our work, and our cats. We finally had to hang up so she could crawl into bed - but we promised to keep in touch. One of the things we talked about were our favorite TV shows while growing up - and almost every one was a Western. Among our favorites were: Bonanza, Laramie, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Cheyenne, Maverick, Sugarfoot, Rawhide, Bronco, The Roy Rogers Show, The Gene Autry Show, The High Chaparral, Fury, Sky King, The Tall Man, Death Valley Days, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Have Gun Will Travel, The Cisco Kid, Hopalong Cassidy, The Big Valley and Lancer. So, as a tribute to some of my favorite TV cowboys, my photos preceding today's blog will be my heroes growing up....
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