Category Archives: Colorado

Colorado, Minnesota, Mountains, The West, Weather +Climate

Ordinary Things

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Winter                                                                            Settling II Moon

Exactly a month has passed since we got here. A lot of ordinary things have happened: boxes opened, license plates changed and driver’s licenses as well, found a vet, a place to do our business meetings, grocery store and pharmacies, furniture assembled. That sort of thing.

Each one of these and others like them have begun to layer over our Minnesota identities, helped us reorient to Colorado, to the mountains, to our new home. Like those Russian nesting dolls, we will not so much replace the Minnesota identity as overlay it with a new one, pushing the Indiana and Iowa, Wisconsin and Texas identities further down in our psyches. In that sense we are hyphenated so I am an Okie-Hoosier-Badger-Gopher-Coloradan while Kate is a Gopher-Iowa-Texas-Gopher-Coloradan.

Taking Gabe to the National Western Stock Show yesterday (Ruth got sick.) was a not so ordinary part of this process. Though I’ve taken the grandkids to the Stock Show for several years this was the first time I went as a Coloradan and Westerner. When the Westernaires, a precision and trick riding group from Jefferson County, rode out during the rodeo, we cheered. These were the home county kids.

The gestalt of being at the Stock Show was different, too. Before I would look at the rhinestone jeans, the oversized belt buckles, Stetson hats and cowboy boots as evidence of a different tribe, one that lived far from my Scandinavian minimalist home in Minnesota. Now I have to take them as my neighbors, my fellow Coloradans. That means I have to place myself among them, rather than apart from them. The difference may seem subtle, but in sizing up this new, outer layer of the nesting doll that I am, it makes a big difference.

Another gestalt that has a lot psychic friction is geological. Mountains not lakes, pines not deciduous, arid not wet, high not flat, thin dry air not moist heavy air. These are not subtle dialectics that gradually make themselves felt, but insistent, body changing realities that affect daily life. All this frisson enlivens me, makes me wake up to my world. It makes the change worthwhile.

Colorado

Milestone

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book shelfWinter                                                                        Settling Moon

Milestone yesterday. All books unpacked. All my novel manuscripts, research files, other files are still in banker’s boxes, but they are all near the horizontal file cabinet where the research files will live when I get to that task. The novel manuscripts will remain in their banker’s boxes. An easy filing system for bulky material.

 

Colorado, Dogs, Family, Mountains, Our Land and Home

Early On

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Winter                                                                                    Settling Moon

A few photographs

IMAG0897 IMAG0906 IMAG0923_BURST002 1419364036295 1419364035669 1419364037138 1419364036149

 

9358 Black Mountain Drive

Both shots from the small porch off my loft show Black Mountain in the background

I included the disabled parking sign to prove that even the disabled are more fit in Colorado.

Jon and Ruth (with yellow avalanche shovel) came over to push snow the night before the van arrived.

The dogs were still wary when I took these shots: Gertie, Rigel, Kepler, Vega. Well, maybe not Vega.

Colorado, Weather +Climate

Slowly, slowly

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Winter                                                                                 Settling Moon

IMAG0902The wall space necessary for rebuilding the IKEA bookshelves is free. Almost all of the books are deboxed. (well. deplane, detrain) Slowly, slowly. But steadily.

(the loft before any unpacking had begun)

The temperature here, right now, is 56. 56! Apparently not unusual for this period of January it collides directly with my pulling inward as the third week of January approaches. That’s the coldest week of the year on average in Minnesota and often means well below zero readings. And here we are with even the ice preserved by the shade of a lodgepole pine grove melting. In spite of the Minnesota we-will-not-be-stopped-by-the-cold attitude, forty years of fortitude lifted to a civic virtue, this feels pretty good.

from another point of view
from another point of view

Less than 10 book boxes remain, but they will wait until the ones I’ve emptied have been flattened and the bookshelves are up. Then, only then, can I begin the process of creating a library especially for my current projects. The classics and their supporting literature will get their own area, so will all of my art books, poetry, books related to Colorado and the West. Once those areas are in place, then the remainder of the books will find homes: Asia, Islam, travel, depth psychology, the Renaissance, Modernism, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, history, Celtic studies, Scandinavian studies, Lake Superior, environmental matters and others.

Colorado

A Pile of Cardboard Measures Progress

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Winter                                                                             Settling Moon

IMAG0927_BURST002The changes keep coming. Today the Colorado plates go on the Rav4. They complement the Colorado Driver’s license already in my wallet. The boxes have begun to diminish in number as the pile outside, Kate’s measure of our progress grows. We use the window as a cardboard portal, opening it and shoving emptied, flattened boxes through it.

In the loft perhaps 80% of the book boxes are empty, flattened and downstairs. They are not on the pile shown here.

Certain rhythms have reasserted themselves. The dogs are in their crates now over night. With the exception, usually, of Kepler. Kate and I watch an episode of Midsomer Murders before she goes to bed. We’re in the 14th of 15 seasons. Our business meetings continue, before they were at Key’s on University in Spring Lake Park, now they’re at the Wildwood Cafe in Evergreen.

Others have not. My treadmill and weights and pull-up bar are in the loft, but not yet ready because the most important component of my work-outs, the television, remains in the house. It’s too heavy for even Jon and me to move, a 50″ plasma, and will require some outside help to get up the stairs and into place on its stand. I know this seems like an odd reason, but I find weights and treadmill work boring. The TV distracts me while I do them. Of course, right now, during the acclimatizing process, a lot of the work we’ve been doing unpacking is also aerobic.

Kate’s not sewing yet. I’m not writing or doing Latin. Those rhythms will probably be the last to reassert themselves, evidence that settling in has moved beyond unpacking and shuffling stuff around. In their time.

Colorado, Mountains

Goin’ Down the Mountain

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Winter                                                                         Settling Moon

As we pulled out of our still early morning driveway, Black Mountain had already picked up the rising sun. Its trees, rocks and snow were lit with the onrushing day. We were off to Evergreen, back to the Wildflower Cafe whose cozy warmth and interesting menu charmed us a week ago.

We wound down Black Mountain Drive, through the Arapaho National Forest, past the trail-head for Upper Maxwell Falls and a trail head for Cub Creek. About two miles from home Black Mountain Drive changes names, becoming Brook Forest Drive. In the mountains after that change in name the homes become much more numerous and their asking prices much higher.

The road into Evergreen, like Black Mountain Drive/Brook Forest Drive, has rocky outcroppings that lean forward almost to the asphalt, pines growing out of narrow crevices and a small brook that shows up just before the beginning of the commercial district.

This is our regular business meeting day where we discuss finances, schedule, feelings. Right now we’re in another liminal space, not unlike the original move time. This one is between purchasing Black Mountain Drive and selling 153rd Ave in Andover. It comes with its own struggles, financial and emotional, as we pay two mortgages, two sets of utility bills and the various costs associated with moving in and with preparing a house for sale. The business meetings allow us to have conversations about all this before any one issue becomes a big deal. Very valuable.

 

Colorado, GeekWorld, Weather +Climate

Sun As Snow Remover

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Winter                                                  Settling Moon

Rug down. Chair in place. Many boxes yet to open. But I’m over half done with the initial phase, the unpacking. Putting up bookshelves, then reordering my library still to come.

Colorado plates came today. I’ll put them on tomorrow.

Hunting for the box in which I put many of my usb cables, my webcam, the microphone and headset. Unfortunately no way to distinguish it from all the other boxes.

Coming from Minnesota, I didn’t believe this, but it happened today. The temperature rose and melted the snow off our driveway with no intervention by me at all. Amazing.

Meanwhile in Minnesota it’s been very cold and the flu season has taken a heavy toll, especially among the Woollies.

The painter called today and said he’d finished. This is the repainting of the Andover house. The new carpet goes in tomorrow. Then, a clean-up, staging and the house will go on the market when the weather cooperates. Exciting from our vantage point.

 

 

Aging, Colorado, Family, Feelings, Health

Yikes

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Winter                                                                            Settling Moon

Both Kate and I feel like we’re ahead of what we’d expected in terms of getting stuff liberated, sorted and placed. We’re maybe 60% unpacked in the house, somewhere between 40 and 50% in the loft and very little in the garage, which will probably wait until spring.

Had a bit of a scare last night when the dogs rushed inside ahead of us after we returned from the science fair. The dogs’ feet carried in snow which quickly melted and Kate slipped right at the door and fell. Scared me for her, with two metal hips. Fortunately, she has strong bones, no osteoporosis, and walked away with a skinned shin. Yikes.

This morning I got up and put a new indoor/outdoor rug down in the front of the door. We’ll do that at the other two entrances as well. All tile makes sense with the snowy weather here, part of the charm, but it also makes slipperiness an issue. Part of getting used to a new space, a new climate.

A light snow last night covered the driveway and our small deck. With the temps forecast into the high 40’s or low 50’s tomorrow and the next day, I’m going to see whether it will melt without shoveling. An experiment. Getting used to a new place.

Colorado, Family, GeekWorld

Fair Science

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Winter                                                  Settling Moon

We pulled into the Swigert Elementary School parking lot at around 6:25 pm, parking by coincidence just ahead of Jen, Gabe and Barb. Jen gave me a hug, said she was glad to see me. A bit of a thaw.

The science fair idea seemed tired to me. Some kids obviously put a lot of thought into their entries, others less. One of my favorites in this latter category discovered “how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop.” After dogged experiment, the conclusion: 360, not the 334 hypothesized.

There were more serious entries. One investigated barriers to wifi reception. Another bacteria in meat purchased at King Sooper. The most were in some organic turkey. One kid created a homemade tornado using dry ice and a small exhaust fan.

Perhaps it’s time for a new way to engage children around science projects. Not sure what it would be, but perhaps one limited to children who really wanted to put some time and thought and effort into their work. It was obvious there were kids at Swigert who could have done something more substantial and even more who couldn’t be bothered. Both strike me as ok. Just different.

Colorado, Family

A Rest More Day

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Winter                                                                   Settling Moon

Snow falls softly here among the pines, falling faster now than around 2, an hour and a half ago. Instead of borne on the west wind snow here tends to fall straight down, like snowglobe snow.

A rhythm of work harder one day, rest more the next seems to be emerging. Today was a rest more day.

My current goal here in the loft is to clear enough space to unfurl the big rug, put my chair on it, sit back and stare at Black Mountain or watch the snow. Maybe another day and I’ll be there.

An hour or so from now we’ll head into Denver, to the Stapleton area, where Ruth will stand beside her poster board explaining glucose levels in various fruits and the guesses her classmates had about them. Eight years old. Being there, present. A gift we can give and keep on giving to both Ruth and Gabe.