Category Archives: Colorado

Colorado, Dogs

Starting the New Year Tired

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Winter                                                                         Settling Moon

Realized this morning that we’ve been pushing, pushing, pushing since the week before the movers came to Andover on December 15th, spent time on the road getting here, had a day of rest, then the two day unloading with its associated drama and have been, since then, in cardboard liberation mode. All this while acclimatizing to 8,800 feet. No wonder we’re both tired today, January 1.

At no point, or at least at only a few temporary points, have I experienced stress beyond what a major change like this produces. Even at that our stress levels have remained more than manageable thanks to pre-planning, good friends and a solid relationship.

Settling in occupies our minds with many boxes still to open and little thought possible yet about where to position things. There are, too, those other matters that just take time: driver’s license, car registration, find a Medicare advantage plan, find a doctor, dentist, vet.

We’re both taking a day off today, resting, maybe tomorrow, too. A holiday, a holiday weekend? Maybe. There is no pressure here, no race, only the desire to have our home a place of nurture as we know it can and will be.

The dogs have adapted, running to the garage door to get in the truck and go home much less often. They treed something yesterday, probably a squirrel. Lots of tracks in the snow. They’ve been acclimatizing too, of course. A lot to absorb for them.

Colorado, Holidays

Earth’s Chariot Passes the Post Again

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Winter           New Year’s Eve                                   Settling Moon

2014 has run its course. The earth returning, again, to its spot on the orbit around the sun when we marked another successful voyage. Of course, the new year could be celebrated from any point, and different dates and seasons of its observance often mark off one culture from another.

The one I prefer, the Celtic, sees the new year begin on October 31st, the beginning of the fallow season. This one, January 1st, seems odd, at least here, since it falls in bleak mid-winter, with the days preceding it and the ones after often similarly cold and snowy.

It is though the prevalent one here and the one with the most resonance, the most memories for me. So, it matters and it matters this new year that 2015 will be our first full year here in Colorado. Our mutual resolution is to be fully settled, at least physically, this year. In the short term that means ridding our house of card board.

In the longer term it means new friends, new rhythms, adventure based from the mountain home rather than the northern midwest. It also means getting back to productive work. My Latin has lapsed as has my writing. I want to get back to thinking and writing again. But not before we have our home fitted out.

If you’re going to make it to midnight, good for you. As for me, the new year will enter during my dreams.

 

Colorado

Tangible Progress

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Winter                                                                          Settling Moon

The reading room, dining area is clear of boxes! This represents tangible progress. Kate got the Swedish shelving up so there is plenty of space to unload kitchen boxes. We’re both less stressed by exertion, though not fully acclimated.

We’re working through the common areas first, then we’ll work on our own private Colorado’s.

A rite of passage this morning. Colorado drivers license. More than anything other cultural marker than license plates this one says where you’re from. Also, Blizzaks. May be too cautious, but on these mountain roads with lots of snow, better cautious than down the ravine.

Stuff to do. Talk to you all later.

Colorado, Minnesota, Weather +Climate

Cold

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Winter                                                          Settling Moon

Got my whole Minnesota persona on this afternoon. Mad bomber hat, Sorels, an extra layer under my Cowboy Cut Wranglers. Wheeled that bright yellow Cub Cadet two-stage snow blower out of the garage and got rid of last night’s snow. -14 windchill.

We had a washer/dryer to be delivered today. They canceled because of the weather. The cold weather.

Snow, lots of snow, is familiar here. Cold, really cold, and snow that remains is not.

Tomorrow Colorado driver’s license, car registration and picking up our Blizzaks at TireRack.com’s regional warehouse.

Then, a new year’s celebration in a new house, a new state. 2015, the first Colorado year.

Colorado, Memories, Minnesota

Sign Posts of Living in a New Place

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Winter                                                                        Settling Moon

A few sign posts of living in a new place.

Wearing: cowboy cut wranglers. Only thing the Big R store had in my size. They’re generous in the leg and around the cuff, better to fit over cowboy boots. I’m wearing them now and I recognize the slightly puffed out legs, the break of the cuff on the shoe. Looks cowboy.

Language: Both Mike (Fence Guy) and Eric (electrician) referred casually to back East. This was different in subtle ways from other times I have heard it. First, they included me. There was Mike, Eric and me, here in Colorado and all that rest was back East. Second, they meant everything east of Colorado including the plains states and what I know as the Midwest. Third, I think they also meant treed, watered, agricultural. We’re here now, out West and we came here from back East.

Terrain: Right at our house, which is on a level area several hundred feet in width and depth, maybe a couple of thousand, you couldn’t really tell visually that we are on a mountain. Right now, of course, shortness of breath though less than a week ago, is a signal. That will recede. Up here in the loft I can see Black Mountain and gain sense of our location. What will really tells we’re living in the mountains is that once we leave the Denver metro we start climbing. The climbing continues into the retail center at Aspen

Park and then, beyond that we climb again going up Shadow Mountain Drive. In reverse, when we go out, we go down, down into Aspen Park or Evergreen, down into Denver. These are not the flat lands on which I grew up, gridded in square miles, a neat definition of a section of land. Here mother earth has folded herself, upthrust young rock and made mountains.

Media: In the Brooks Forest Inn pub where Kate and I ate on Sunday, it was the Broncos on TV and Bronco jerseys that dotted the tables and bar. The excitement and eagerness was for a different regional champion than the Vikings.

Body: This process of acclimatization constantly reminds both Kate and me that this place is different. We can’t feel our lightness, but we are just a touch lighter up here. We notice most the difference in available oxygen, that most necessary of elements. Air hunger, which I experienced a couple of nights, is a fear primal and terrible. The body wants to flee, get safe, back when it can breathe. If it can’t flee, then, it can and will adapt. That’s happening now.

Colorado, Health, Our Land and Home

Miracles

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Winter                                                           Settling Moon

The half settling moon is in the sky. We’re not half done, but the reading room, living room and the two bathrooms resemble their future counterparts. The kitchen though remains mostly with king cardboard, as does Kate’s sewing room, my loft, the garage, the dining room, the home office, the grandkids room and the guest room.  We’re both excited about our progress, steady and considerable, especially given altitude acclimatization.

The body, our bodies, the dog’s bodies, are miracles. Here we are living where the available oxygen is, at first, inadequate for our needs. After several days with lack of adequate oxygen though, these mammal bodies say, huh. We need to do something here. We need to produce more red blood cells so we can take in more oxygen with each breath.

And so it is that we’re not quite as winded as we were this last week, our sleep is not quite as disturbed. Both of us can feel our bodies changing, adapting to this semi-alien environment. Amazing. All part of the adventure.

 

 

Colorado

A Measure of Progress

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Winter                                                            Settling Moon

The cardboard pile out front, Kate’s measure of our progress, continues to grow. Details get taken care of. Two bids on Blizzaks (snow tire) are coming in; the electrician, Eric, was here to discuss installing our generator; the Adam’s Plumbing Company will come out to inspect our boiler and two gas heaters.

Snow has been falling since morning. The snow blower has to be fed. Kate got another two gallons of gas on her errand run about town, plus a pair of new jeans for me: black and cowboy cut. That’s all they had in my size. Comes with a lariat and a free coupon to ride an ornery bull.

The most exciting news for us, though, is the Tuesday arrival of a washer and dryer. We’ve been wearing down the cache of clean clothes packed in Andover.

Now, I have to cut up cardboard. More progress!

 

Colorado, Mountains

Closest Restaurant

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Winter                                                      Settling Moon

Kate and I ate an early dinner at Brooks Forest Inn in their pub where the Broncos were on TV and several jerseys were worn: the gray haired bartender with a large blue comb in her hair, the owner, an ex-rodeo star, and a blonde on the arm of a man with a stetson and a black western shirt.

I mentioned this place a few weeks back, founded by Swiss immigrants who found the place like home. It’s been in continuous operation since 1907.

The road there, Black Mountain Drive (our road), becomes Brook Forest Road, but it’s always Colorado 78. A narrow two-lane it winds through the Arapaho National Forest. Its curves, especially going down, are dangerous and force a reasonable rate of speed.

I have a feeling the Brooks Forest Inn will become a regular place for us, a place where we will get to know folks and get to be known.

Colorado

The Circus Is In Conifer

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Winter                                                  Settling Moon

The fireplace and the entire mantel, including side cabinets is visible. This is progress. We can turn the he and she chairs toward the fireplace, then begin the seasoning of the refractory glass.

Kate continues putting together the Swedish shelves, banging and whacking. Leaves the dogs anxious. Gertie, our German shorthair, stuck by my side as I emptied boxes. At one point I got down on the floor to access a drawer. She scooted forward and put her paw on my leg.

The circus has two tents dismantled, folded, put on the train and now deployed in Colorado.  The roustabouts have laid down stakes, got out pulleys and are hoisting the heavy canvas. The circus is in Conifer.

Colorado

A Not So Pleasant Job

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Winter                                                            Settling Moon

Bright blue sky, lodgepole pines still heavy with snow, brilliant sunshine. And cold. We’ve now been here a full week. More boxes unpacked, more utilitarian tasks accomplished, many more still to go.

Unpacking seems like a job, a not so pleasant job. You know, a job you need to do to pay the rent, but that you don’t enjoy very much. Although when I get to unpacking my books, that will change. I love rearranging my books and this is a once this decade chance to do it for all my books not culled in the move.

The common areas come first. Living room, bathrooms, reading room, kitchen. Unpacking for them is a chore, no way it’s not, but the result when done is very satisfying. I’m excited about getting our two reading chairs set up facing the fireplace.

I have to season the refractory glass, six small fires separated by at least half an hour, then we’ll have a fire, a cup of coffee and a book. A key new spot in our house. (this is, of course, after I get all the boxes unpacked that are in front of the fireplace.)

The living room, on the basement level, has the couch, coffee table, leather bench and, right now, the TV sitting on two pieces of styrofoam on a furniture pad on the floor. Together we’re not strong enough to position it on its mount and lift both of those into the cabinet where it will reside.

We paid Mike the Fence Guy his final chunk. I’m pleased with his work.