• Category Archives Mountains

  • A Taste of Finality

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samain                                                                                  Moving Moon

    Another day of packing but this one. Is different. It has that taste of finality. The things that I had waited to pack, waited until the last minute, all of those are in boxes except this computer and its accessories like the printer.

    That’s not to say the room is empty. The file cabinet is still here, a bookcase tall and two bookcases short, a cabinet with glass doors, two desks and the disassembled IKEA shelving, a chair, a rug. There are, too, documents related to finishing up a book for the new owners, various papers about Black Mountain Drive, my laptop and its accessories.

    But, if you came in here now you would know the current resident was on his way out.

    Headed, he might say if asked, to the mountains.


    Colorado Mountains The Move

  • What We’re Getting For Christmas

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samain                                                                                Moving Moon

    It’s quiet. Thankfully. Some guys are running cable along the utility easement on our property and the dogs don’t like that. At all. Lots of warning, warning, warning barks. Lots.

    Kate got yet another load of boxes. How many she’s gotten over the course of the last few months I don’t know. A large number. Gives me hope for the AA chapters up here. She also got a barrier for the front seats to prevent the dogs from climbing up for a better view. There’s definitely something better about sitting where the humans are sitting.

    It’s like Christmas is coming only in the form of an A1 moving van. If the driver’s a rotund guy in red with ermine trim, I’ll know holiseason has come on full strength.

    We’re getting a new life for the holidays. Just what we wanted!


    Colorado Holidays Mountains The Move

  • Higher, Dryer, Thinner

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samain                                                                               Moving Moon

    The new header photograph is the King Sooper parking lot in Aspen Park, about four miles away from our house on Black Mountain Drive. This King Sooper has a Lund’s type supermarket feel to it though it’s much larger than any of the Lund’s stores I’ve shopped.

    We’re moving from an Oak Savannah eco-system, one growing on the Great Anoka Sandplain, the remnant of a glacial river Warren, which cut the bed for the Mississippi, to a montane eco-system, growing on pulverized rock and dominated by lodgepole pine, moss and small alpine plants.

    Here the links run east to the Big Woods, north to the Boreal Forest and west to the Great Plains. In the Rockies the eco-systems link north and south along this mountain range, a tall, stone spine which extends far into Canada.

    Our lot in Andover is about 900 feet above sea level and the highest point in our immediate area. Black Mountain Drive is at 8,800 feet on Shadow Mountain, approximately 9,200 feet. So the air will be considerably thinner and the nights cooler year round.

    The West is arid, being west of the line which separates the humid east, 20+ inches of rain a year, from the arid West, less than 20 inches of rain per year. That means water will be a dominant environmental and political issue in Colorado.

    We’ll be in a higher, dryer and far less biologically diverse eco-system. A distinct change.

     


    Colorado Mountains The Move The West

  • Hmmm.

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samain                                                                             Moving Moon

    Here is an interesting conundrum. Should I let my Colorado self emerge out of the casual interactions inherent in moving to a new location: talking to mechanics, visiting the grocery store, dining at the 285 cafe? Or, should I try to shape it, finding like minded folks through obvious clusterings such Sierra Club, the Denver Art Museum, the Democratic party? Sure, it will be a bit of both, I know, but where I should place my emphasis?

    As I have been discussing the move, I’ve emphasized the loss of the Woollies, my docent friends, the sheepshead guys and the thick web of history here after 40 plus years. One straight line of thinking is to investigate the sociology of Denver for nodes of persons whom I might meet with similar tastes and interests. That’s why I’ve mentioned politics and the Sierra Club as likely sources for new friends.

    And yet. Another part of me, reinforced by some reading in Kierkegaard and an article by a professor on why he has left politics behind (politics or productivity in his mind), have given me pause. Not to mention the onrushing reality of the move. No, I don’t have to make a decision soon, or ever for that matter, but I want to.

    Why? Because I don’t want to create a sticky fly trap for my self. I don’t want to make commitments in order to meet people that will result in my needing to pull back later. Right now I’m thinking that politics, though a strong and thrumming wire wound throughout my life, is just such a fly trap. As would be volunteering at one of the museums. Long drives. Winter weather. I dropped both Sierra Club and the MIA for those reasons and, to underscore the professor’s logic, to enable my productivity.

    A Colorado, a mountain, a western, a grandpop self will come into being if I live my life, flowing from here to there as events take me. I want the productivity that I find so dependent on having my own time and my own space. Guess that’s my answer for right now.

     


    Colorado Faith and Spirituality Mountains Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant. The Move The West

  • Leave the Viking in Minnesota. (seems right, eh?)

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samain                                                                                    Closing Moon

    Breakfast at Keys, then over to Sears Outlet to talk ourselves out of taking our Viking stove with us. Looked at Warner-Stellian for a bit, stoves like Thermador and Viking are tres expensive! Considering an induction cooktop and a wall mounted electric oven for Black Mountain Drive. The point is we decided to go for more flexibility in Colorado.

    Back for an early nap. Then, more packing. I’m really close on the study, but packing the smaller stuff is harder than the books. Books I’ve packed so often that I understand them intuitively. Smaller things I have to think about some, make sure things are secure and don’t rattle around.

    Mike the Fence guy called for the code for the garage door. Good idea, but I didn’t know it. So I contacted Ann Beck, the realtor. Turns out I never got the code because it was never activated. Don’t know where Mike’s going to store his concrete now. He’ll have to figure something else out.

    Things feel chaotic, not out of control, but easy to tip over in that direction. Then, there’s the I can see the other side from here feeling and things tip back into balance, or as much balance as this part of the move allows.. Shadow Mountain looms closer and closer each day, becomes more tactile.

     

     


    Colorado Mountains The Move

  • Leaving the Leaves

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samain                                                                             Closing Moon

    Outside today, mulching with fallen leaves the beds on which I spread the broadcast yesterday. As I dispersed the leaves, enjoying their rich smell reminiscent of hay lofts and the old days of burning the leaves by the curb, it came to me that Colorado, especially at 8,800 feet has mostly conifers. No leaves. There are aspen, but they are the more scarce tree, the only deciduous one that I know in the front range at that altitude. Leaving behind working with fallen leaves in the autumn. Another mark of the move.

    Both Kate and I remarked that though this place has been good to us and for us, it’s time to let someone with fresh vigor take it over. On Black Mountain Drive we’ll have two, maybe three raised beds, no yard, no perennial flower beds. I will have to blow snow again, but I’m ready for that. The amount of outdoor maintenance will be significantly less. There will be some added interior work since at least until we sell this house (Andover) we’ll be doing our own weekly housecleaning, but that’s well within our capabilities.

    It’s true there will again be a fence and inside the fence dogs. That means inevitable fence work. We’re going to try a combination of 2×4’s nailed between posts at the bottom of the no-climb wire fence and invisible fence run at its middle. The fence itself will be five feet high. This might work. I’m cautious because I’ve experienced a jail break from every combination I’ve used. The prisoners have all day everyday to figure a way out.

    It looks like we’re going to get our first major snow event here well before Conifer, which is unusual. Every one I talked to out there shook their head wondering where the snow was. I’m sure it will come. Probably around December 18th.


    Colorado Memories Minnesota Mountains The Move