Journal: Editing Photos, & Excitement in Town

The other day, a quilting friend posted pictures of a beautiful quilt she is making, in colors reminiscent of her wedding colors:  apricot and brown.

I was surprised, as apricot (or peach) and brown were my colors, too, 39 years ago.  I’ve never known anyone else, until now, who had those colors. 

There’s a reason why I wound up with peach and brown for my wedding.  They weren’t even close to being my favorite colors... but... you see, a few months earlier, I’d purchased peach and brown satin to make a king-sized puff quilt for my room.  But soon we were making wedding plans.  I, trying to keep costs down, decided to use that satin for bridesmaids’ dresses.  Larry got a brown western suit, the groomsmen got ivory suits, and a friend made me a bouquet with peach-colored roses, a variety of other flowers – and peacock feathers (which nearly offended her sensibilities, haha).  It all looked so pretty... and everyone was convinced my favorite color was peach.  I got gifts of all sorts in apricot, peach, orange, salmon, and other similar hues for years.  😄  Actually, my favorite colors are brilliant blues, reds, and purples.  But... I still have a number of those peach-hued things!

A couple of weeks ago, when we were in Colorado, most of the aspens were glowing bright gold.  They have not yet lost their leaves, like I thought they might.  Rather, half of them have turned brilliant orange!  Whether or not the leaves stay on the trees long enough to turn orange or even red has to do with the weather.  Sometimes an early snow and/or ice storm can take the leaves off the trees before they have a chance to get very colorful at all.

This coming week, parts of southern Colorado are expecting storms, and, toward the end of the week, snow.  The leaves will probably be gone with the wind.

I spent several days last week editing photos from our vacation.  Here are the ones of day two of our trip:  Photos from McCook, Nebraska, to Creede, Colorado

Or if you prefer Facebook format:  McCook to Creede (Facebook)

Here’s a cloud we saw in southeastern Colorado.  What does it look like to you?

I see a big white goose...  or maybe a swan.  It’s flying, coming toward us, wings outstretched... and in the center is its head and neck, and its head is turned toward the left, so that its beak points left.

If you still don’t see it, ... well ... I’ll forgive you.  It’s allll right.  ((pat pat pat pat pat))

I asked Larry if he saw it, and he politely agreed that, yes, he did, “if it had been sucked through a jet engine.”  😄😆

Several saw a bird... or an eagle... Victoria saw a pterodactyl.  🤣😂

Isn’t it funny, the different things people see (or don’t see) in clouds?  One time when I was little, maybe three or four years old, people were pointing out shapes in the clouds.  I stared at the clouds so long I got a crick in my neck, and I saw nothing but clouds.  Maybe I was looking for the real thing up there!  😃

On another note (heh, accidental pun, which is the only kind of puns I’m capable of), do you know what totally boggles my fingers?

It’s when I play the piano, and then come directly back to my typing keyboard.  My fingers are completely corn-fused.  (That’s when a Nebraskan is mixed up.)

Tuesday afternoon, I managed to play octaves with my left hand!  First time in months.  It hurts, and I could only do about half of a run, but that’s a definite improvement.

That evening, I posted photos from the second day of our Colorado trip, including the Mountain Views RV Park, and Creede, Colorado; and an ATV Ride over Bachelor’s Loop.

We admired several lovely little log cabins a little way up in the canyon north of Creede, noting the cut and split wood stacked neatly outside.  Made me wish I could be there in the wintertime.  (So long as the larder was full, of course.)  😉

We saw generators behind or beside most of the homes and cabins.  But... many of those houses weren’t big enough for a grand piano or a quilting frame!  The Bernina Artista would fit somewhere, though. 

If the electricity went out and the supply of gas for the generator ran out, I would just have to cross-stitch and learn to use snowshoes (in order to get outside and take pictures), wouldn’t I? 

“Well, one more thing,” replied a friend.  “You need chewin’ tobacky.”

Haha  That made me laugh right out loud.  The cats both opened their eyes and looked at me.

Wednesday, Larry didn’t get home from work in time to go to church.  I got all ready, then emptied out my old purse (a hand-me-down from Victoria) and put my things into the new purse I’d gotten at a truck stop somewhere in the mountains west of Colorado Springs.  The purse has a gazillion pockets – just how I like them.

Hester sent picture of Keira.  She has the sweetest little smile.  And she always looks so bright and inquisitive.  We are very thankful for this baby.  Of course we are thankful for all our grandchildren, and love them equally; but this little one had a rough debut.

That evening, I posted pictures I took at the Silver Threads Quilt Show in Creede, Colorado.

If you prefer the Facebook format, you can see them here.

Saturday morning, I ordered pjs and nightgowns for the grandchildren for Christmas, then got back to the photo editing.

That evening, Amy brought us some beef and vegetable stew and a loaf of fresh-baked bread.  Warren, who’s three and a half, carried in the wrapped loaf, still warm, and handed it to me with a pleased little smile. 

I thanked him and asked, “Does it smell good?”

“Yes,” he told me.

“Did you smell all the yummy smell out of it before you got here?” I further queried.

“Yes,” he answered in his soft, sincere tone, smiling sweetly.  hee hee

Victoria sent some pictures of Carolyn.  In one, she was sitting in the little rocking chair we gave her for her birthday.  Their neighbors put up a privacy fence, and it’s the perfect backdrop for photos.  Also, it keeps their unruly dogs out of Victoria’s yard, finally, so they finally have a clean yard to enjoy.

That night, I posted pictures of our drive from Creede to Lake City, Colorado.  The Facebook version is here:  Creede to Lake City

This is Mt. Baldy Cinco.  Originally that name referred to the entire group of five peaks, all over 13,000 feet; and the ‘Baldy’ is because they are above treeline.

Sunday morning as I curled my hair before church, I thought how nice it would be if my hair was like it was when I was in my mid-to-late teens.  It was wavy, and I never curled it.  After Keith was born, it went straight.  It was just starting to get wavy again when Hannah was born.  Once more, it went straight, and never got wavy again.  And yes, I know it’s the style to have straight hair.  But since I’m the pinhead of all pinheads, I’ll keep curling my hair as long as I can reach my head and have my wits about me.

As I’ve mentioned last week, Teensy lost his voice while we were gone.  For several days after we got home, he’d try to ‘talk’ to us as he does, but usually no noise came out.  Now and then he managed a tiny squeak.  He acted like he felt okay, and he still had a voracious appetite.

However, in the last couple of days, his voice has returned.  It’s a little odd-sounding, but at least he can meow.  He’s put on a little weight, too, and isn’t so awfully skinny.

While Hannah was caring for him, she did some research on the medication we’re giving him (Felimazole, Methimazole for cats), and discovered that it must be handled with extreme care, and one shouldn’t get any of it on one’s self, or if one does, one must wash immediately under running water.  Expectant mothers should not handle it at all, or even pet the cat that’s taking the medicine!  That, after Victoria had come out and taken care of him twice.  😲 

Everything I read tells me that if one even gets a little bit of it in one’s bloodstream, one’s thyroid gland will go berserk, and one will doubtless be relegated to taking some type of Methimazole for rest of one’s life.  Good grief, why didn’t our veterinarian tell us this cheery news??! 

I’m glad that I’m a gotta-be-clean sort who always washes my hands thoroughly after feeding the cats (we put the medicine into Teensy’s food) – and I imagine both Hannah and Victoria did the same, all before knowing the dire effects of the stuff.  He actually gobbled down that tiny pill all right when I simply plopped it into the middle of his soft Fancy Feast for the first couple of times, but then he left it behind once, so I got a little marble pestle and mortar, and use the pestle to scrunch the pill to bits and mix it into the food.  I thoroughly wash the pestle after each use.

But! – I wonder how many times Tiger has licked off Teensy’s saucer after I feed them??  Tiger needs whatever the opposite of Felimazole is!  Cats will gobble up food on their own plate pell-mell, then leave a few crumbs behind in order to hurry over to the other guy’s plate and finish his food.  However, Teensy with his ravenous appetite invariably gets his saucer thoroughly clean by the time Tiger gets only part of his small helping downed, and Teensy then rudely sticks his head into Tiger’s saucer to finish his.  Tiger glances soulfully over at Teensy’s empty plate, then waddles to the dry food dish and crunches down a few morsels.  I let this go, because Tiger truly doesn’t need any soft Fancy Feast; I only give him a small spoonful so he doesn’t think we like Teensy better than him.  😉

So maybe Tiger will be all right; maybe he hasn’t consumed any of that medicine.

Kurt and Victoria invited us over for lunch after our church service last night.  We had roast beef sandwiches, along with potatoes, carrots, and onions that had been cooked with the roast in the slow cooker.  Yummy.

Carolyn is starting to walk now.  She gets so excited, she practically runs, gleefully tumbling into the arms of whoever is at the other end of her short flight.

We stopped at Hy-Vee for cat food, and Larry grabbed a bag of green grapes, too.  Wow, they’re huge! – and crisp and sweet and juicy.  Perfect.

And then didn’t we have an interesting drive home.  We’d just rounded the corner on 14^th Street as it comes onto Howard Boulevard, driving in the right lane, with a big pickup beside us, and I complained, because so often people in the left lane like to cut the corner right there.  So Larry slowed down ------ and then he hit the brakes hard, because a Toyota Corolla came backing out of an alley right smack-dab in front of us. 

The driver then couldn’t seem to find Forward March, and when he finally did, he lollygagged along at 5 mph.  We couldn’t see anyone at the wheel.  Larry went around him, and I saw that the driver was quite slumped over the wheel.

We turned around and went back to see where the guy had gone, as we’d seen in our rear-view mirror that he had pulled off the Boulevard, maybe onto 15^th Street. 

We found him on 15^th halfway between 35^th and 36^th Avenue, sitting mostly in the east-going lane and partly in the parking lane, lights on, and he was still lopped over the steering wheel.  We passed him, went around the block, and he hadn’t moved.  I called the police, and we parked on the corner of 36^th Avenue to make sure the guy didn’t skedaddle while we were waiting for the police to arrive.

By the time two cruisers got there, the car’s lights were off; we couldn’t tell if the motor was still running or not.  The police gave him a long, drawn-out sobriety test, then walked him back to one of the cruisers.  After another lengthy wait, they came back to his car, opened the doors, extracted several bottles, and took them to one of the police cars.

While we sat there watching Barney and Gomer practicing law on Otis, someone rode east on Howard Boulevard on a bicycle with bright blue glowing wheels, like those lighted necklaces kids have at the Fourth of July.  After some time, he came back the other way, walking the bike this time, with someone walking with him.  Now that the bike was moving slowly, we could tell that the blue circles were actually individual blue lights attached to inside of the tire rims.  We’d never seen anything like that before.

Then an ambulance went by on Howard Boulevard, followed shortly by a fire truck, both with lights flashing.  We took the opportunity to start up the Jeep and flee the scene, hoping the hubbub of Grand Central would camouflage our Grand Getaway. 

At least, that’s what Larry acted like.  I asked, “Why are you acting so guilty?  What crime did you commit, crim-in-al?!”  (à la Opie Taylor, the sheriff’s son)  (Larry laughed, of course.)

We found the ambulance and firetruck shortly, at a run-down apartment place that used to be a motel.  We didn’t see any flames or smoke; just a few loiterers staring from their front porches while they puffed on cigarettes. 

“Someone’s meth lab probably blew up,” surmised Larry.

Anyway, we learned that the neighborhood is every bit as busy as it was when we lived in town. 

This is Lake San Cristobal, taken from an overhead scenic view as we traveled over Slumgullion Pass on Highway 149, also known as Silver Thread Scenic Byway.

Slumgullion Pass has an elevation of 11,530 feet above the sea level.  The north side has the steepest grade of any continuously paved and maintained road in Colorado – 9%.  This narrow two-lane road has a few switchbacks and tight spots, but mostly it’s a fairly easy, scenic route.  It’s one of the highest mountain roads in Colorado, but it’s usually open all year because snowplows clear the route regularly during this season.  

Starting from Lake City, the ascent is 7 miles long.  Over this distance, the elevation gain is 2,569 feet.  The climb starts out immediately with near 10% grades and other than a false flat in the middle for about half a mile, the grade never really lets up.

The Slumgullion Earthflow National Natural Landmark is a rare example of an earthflow.  About 700 years ago, an area of Mesa Seco, composed of partially decomposed volcanic rock, slid down the mountain and blocked the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River.  This natural dam formed what is now known as Lake San Cristobal, second largest natural lake in Colorado.  The earthflow is about 4 miles long and covers over 1000 acres.

A second earthflow began about 300 years ago and is still active today.  The United States Geologic Survey (USGS) tracks the movement of the slide, which in some places moves as much as 20 feet per year.  It covers some of the original slide, and can be detected by observing the trees growing on it that are tipped at odd angles.

A good view of the Slumgullion Slide, as is it locally known, can be seen from highway 149 south of Lake City as one ascends Slumgullion Pass.  There is a pull-off at mile marker 67.  Also, the Windy Point Overlook offers great views of the Slide and of the San Juan Mountains that surround Lake City.

We took this photo at Windy Point.

The Slumgullion Slide was likely named by early settlers of Lake City who noted that the yellowy color of the soils resembled Slumgullion Stew.  ‘Slum’, as it was also called, was generally a watery stew made from beef, potatoes, carrots, and onions, or whatever leftovers could be found.  Also, miners of the 1800s referred to the leftover mud in gold sluices as slumgullion.

Why did the pot of coffee I just made come out as mostly hot water, clear and flavorless?  I think I made Slumgullion Coffee.

I put a twisty on the filter full of coffee grounds and pitched the whole thing into the pot.  It’s from a brand-new bag of San Marcos coffee beans, Banana Nut.

Maybe it’ll be better in a few minutes.  Odd.  (And yes, I most certainly did put new coffee grounds into a new filter.)

It’s only 49° here, overcast and damp.

Our niece Olivia is getting married in a couple of weeks.  I’ve just learned what color her kitchen is going to be.  So off I go to start making her something!

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn         ,,,>^..^<,,,