The 2 by 4

Just over a week ago two women we knew were killed in a car accident. Like all accidents it was a waste of human life. In this case the women happened to be experts in their fields of nursing, teachers, mentors, friends, sisters, a mother, on and on. As I said, it was a huge waste of all the things they brought to this world.

I knew both of them, but not well. I think that was my great loss. I am reminded of the old joke about the farmer using the 2 by 4 to get the mule's attention. These deaths got my attention. They were an all too vivid reminder of my own mortality and that our days are few. They reminded me that most of the squabbles and disagreements we have are petty. That we should be about mending fences and finding points of agreement, not allowing differences to come between us. To say words of encouragement, to tell our loved ones and friends that we value and love them. To not let the sun set on an argument.

I know these sentiments are trite. I know I will forget what I am feeling now. I hope that it won't take such a horrific event to get my attention when I do.

Crunch Time

Tomorrow at 5:07 AM, I'll rouse G. who said she wanted to greet the solstice by going outside and dancing naked in the snow. She won’t rouse. She’ll just roll over and stay in the warm bed. So, the solstice may go ungreeted, but it won’t arrive unnoticed. The temperature is supposed to be below zero in the morning. The wind is going to drop wind chills to -30 or -40 or -50. It may snow. Winter, which has been here for weeks, will officially arrive. The cold and snow will be around for four or five more months. The only difference is that as days lenghten, we’ll be able to see the weather longer each day.

During the long Wyoming winters rather than sit inside and glower out the window, it’s helpful to find things you like about the season. One of the things we noticed when we moved here from Kansas, where winter is generally cursed and looked upon as something to endure, is that many people look forward to winter. Hunters are eager for snow in hunting season. Snow makes game easier to track. Skiers and boarders of all persuasions can hardly wait for there to be enough snow to get out and play. There are many snow mobiles sold in this area to those who shun using their own power to get out in the mountain snow.

I found there are lots of things I like about winter. I like to snow shoe and cross country ski. Winter sunrises last longer and seem more colorful than those of the other seasons. Sitting in the hot tub while flakes drift down and melt on your face and shoulders is delightful. The fluff we get here is so beautiful when freshly fallen. When there is a full moon and the ground is covered with snow, the light’s almost enough to read outside in the middle of the night. But, one of my favorite things is the sound of snow crunching beneath my boots when it is really cold. I’d noticed the crunching for years, but never thought about just how cold it needed to be to make the right conditions for crunching. It turns out that the temperature has to be 14 degrees or less. The snow should be very crunchy all weekend.

Easy come, easy go

On Wednesday it started to snow. It snowed on and off all day. The fluff mounted up on every flat surface. The wind didn't blow. Temperatures were the lowest of the season. Perfection. The snow gods had smiled and answered the skiers' prayers with the first "Yes" of the season. Friday the winds picked up. The Interstate was closed, then open, then closed, then open. Temperatures shot up into the 40's.
By Saturday the sun had come out. It warmed into the upper 40's and the snow in the valley was 80% gone by sundown.

A report from Happy Jack indicated that there was still good snow up there. The forecast is for warm weather today and snow tomorrow. Maybe it will survive.

The System

They fired Joe Glenn,the UW football coach, this week. It wasn't unexpected. He had four straight losing seasons. The final blow came last Saturday when the Cowboys lost at home to archrival Colorado State.

Joe being fired wasn't unexpected, but it was a shame. Joe Glenn by most accounts is a good man. As a coach, he treated his players well and encourageed them to be good men. He is an affable guy who played the piano and led the singing of "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" for students, alums, fans and players. It was his trademark at UW. It was a winning one.

I don't know why he wasn't successful at producing teams that won football games here. He was very successful at a number of smaller programs. Laramie is a difficult place to recruit players to. My thought is that UW would be better off as a big fish in a small pond rather than trying to compete in the Mountain West Conference. UW is just to small and located in a place where few people want to come.

Winning is the bottom line in NCAA sports. Coaches have to win in order to stay in a place and do the other things which may be the real value of sports. Whichever school hires Joe Glenn next will get those real values.

I believe.

About ten days ago I was in Washington, DC doing some sightseeing. I took the opportunity to visit the National Archives to see the copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that are on display there.
As I stood in the serpentine line in front of the chamber where they are in special, climate controlled cases, I could see that the light in the chamber is dim and has a yellowish cast to protect the documents. No flash photography is allow. When it was my group's turn to view, I went to the Constitution and Bill of Rights first. The writing on the old documents was faint. It was hard to read the words through the tinted glass and dim light for the ink was quite faded. There seemed to be erasures here and there. Those marks were probably copiest's corrections, but as I stood there I had a nearly irrepressable urge to try bring the words on the parchment, and the rights they bestow, back to full vigor by clapping my hands and loudly chanting, "I believe. I believe. I believe."

In the early morning rain...

This morning I saw something new. I was driving back into town from Brooklyn Lake where Gail and I had spent the night at altitude. While driving toward home, I had watched the cloudy sky shift colors as the sun made its way up toward the eastern horizon. As I was coming into town from the west, I passed through a light rain shower. When I pulled up to a stop sign and looked for approaching traffic, what I saw instead, high in the sky, was a rainbow made by the rays of the not yet risen sun.

In the cool, cool, cool of the morning

Weekday mornings, hot and sweaty from my morning workout, I leave the overheated gym. After buckling my helmet and zipping up my jacket, I fumble with the combination lock that is usually upside down. When my bike is free at last, I hop on and peddle toward home. It’s then that the cool, clear morning air hits me. Crisp and refreshing it washes over me as I gather speed. I suck in lungs’ full of the clean, mountain air and rejoice in this small thing that feels so good.

Momma Mia

Despite reading several reviews which gave the movie thumbs down, my daughter and I went to see Momma Mia while she was here for a visit. We both loved it. Everyone I have talked to who has seen it loved it. You smile. You laught out loud. You tap your toes. You start to hum, then start to sing along. Others report seeing people dancing in the aisles and singing along en masse.

It was the most fun I have had at a movie in years.

If you haven't seen it, grab your daughter, your mother, your best friend or any other woman you know and go laugh, sing, dance.

Honeydew

One of the nice things about living at this altitude (7,200') is that not many species of insects find it hospitable. We don't have termites, fleas, or many of the other pests which bug people. We do have mosquitoes a few weeks each year, and ants, some spiders, bees, wasps (We have some excellent paper wasp nests in our attic which look just like the ones in the cartoons.) and we have aphids.

Aphids thrive here. They seem to especially love columbine and cottonwoods. When they get started at the Columbine Campgound, there is hardly a vacant space for a hungry aphid to pull up and attach. The columbine go from looking fine one day to looking drained as the life is sucked out of them the next. A spritz of a solution of water with a few drops of dishwashing detergent saves the day for the columbine.

The cottonwoods are a different story. We live in the part of Laramie which abutts the south and west campus. This area is know as the tree area. The people who built houses here 80 or a 100 years ago also planted cottonwood trees. The trees, which have grown huge, line most of the streets in this part of town. Most of the time this is wonderful. During aphid season, it is not. Aphids attach themselves to the leaves in branches of the cottonwoods which overarch the streets, the sidewalks, the yards, houses and everything on their surfaces. The tiny insects then begin the feast. However, as we all know, what goes in must come out. And boy, does it. The billions of aphids produce gallons and gallons of byproduct known as honeydew. This clear, sticky substance first covers the leaves of the trees then the excess begins dripping and gets on the roofs, the grass, the sidewalks, the cars, the lawn furniture. Well, you get the picture, it gets on everythings under the trees. It is as if this entire part of town was sprayed with syrup. During the peak season, honeydew gets so thick on the cars in the streets under the trees that you can't see out without diligent, daily window washing. I took my car to the uwashit car wash yesterday to power spray it with hot soapy water. It is already covered with aphid poop.

We are waiting for a downpour. Hoping that it will wash things off and slow the aphids down. We are in the middle of a drought, so our wait may last until the first hard frost which spells doom for the aphids.

What's blooming at Happy Jack?

The Pole Mountain area received good snowfall this past winter. Besides providing good skiing most of the late winter and early spring, plenty of snow means lots of wild flowers in the summer. Last time I was up there walking with our puppy, Sadie, I tried to notice and remember how many different flowers I saw. This is a list of what I remember. There were more.

miner's candle
geraniums
lupine
dandlions
mule's ears
yarrow
calypso orchids
mountain bluebells
wild strawberries
wild roses
blue-eyed grass
paintbrush
purple pincushions
ladies'tresses
butter and eggs
gay feather
snow drops
larkspur

A friend who has raised cattle said that larkspur is deadly poison to them. Evidently, it works extremely quickly. "Drops them in their tracks," according to her.

Mosquito season

Every month there is a fee on my city utility bill for mosquito control. Laramie is in a river valley. The mighty Laramie River rises with the snow melt, flowing into low lying areas, forming perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Late spring rains and snows leave enough water everywhere the water can pool even far from the flood plain. When the nights warm up enough, the billions of eggs laid by the industrious insects hatch. The blood letting begins. Now is the time to buy stock in insect repellent the smell of which replaces he scent of lilacs.

When the human and other warm blooded residents of the area are sufficiently drained, the city begins its spraying program. Late at night you can hear the drone and whoosh of the sprayers as they drive he streets fogging the city with chemicals which kill the mosquitoes. God only knows what they do to the rest of us.

grumpy

People in Laramie are getting grumpy. After a long, cold winter, we are traditionally rewarded for our grit by a sweet summer. This summer has yet to come. We have barely had spring. The lilacs have just started blooming. The trees have finally leafed...most of them anyway. The winds stripped the crabapples of most of their blossems. The greenhouses are full of yet to be purchased bedding plants. Porches here and there harbor cartons of plants purchased in optimism and waiting in caution. The caution is warrented. It snowed yesterday. People are advised not to drive unless it is necessary on the roads around the mountains just west of here. We are ready for some warm weather.

Lunch Talk

Today at lunch our friend Jane told us about the Bullock’s Oriole http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Bullocks_Oriole.html
which she spotted in her yard and how she put out orange halves for it and went to Ace Hardware to get a special Bullock’s oriole feeder in the hope of attracting more of the species. I was amazed by two things. One was that she found having a beautiful bird in her yard was a wonderful thing worth reporting to friends. The other was that there was such a thing as a Bullock’s oriole feeder.
It does amaze me when people find interesting and worthy of note things I find interesting and worthy of note. I have long since assumed that I have weird and arcane interests. So Jane’s report on her backyard birds was a pleasant surprise.
Jane also told us she had put up her hummingbird feeder as they were back. Gail and I had heard one fly by just the other day so we were able to substantiate that fact.
I don’t dote on birds, but do enjoy seeing them and noticing them. I like to know their names and recognize their calls. I have two acquaintances here who know a great deal more about birds than I want to. Beth and Tim are wonderful resources whom I can ask about birds I see or hear.

Six little words

Earlier this week a friend sent me a review of a book entitled Not Quite What I Was Planning with a challenge to write my own six word memoir. I thought it sounded like fun and sent the challenge along to some friends. Only one of them, Naomi,took it up. I have received several efforts from her (Life's journal penned in disappearing ink., I didn't bargain for all this.) She's still playing with it. I imagine I'll be getting some more from her.

My first effort was: Sounds like fun; let me think.

I really like the idea of trying to condense parts of your life into such an economical statement. It's fun to try to find very few words to represent pieces of what you've experienced. Gail is leaving for Tacoma today for an interview. I can sum up these past few months of our lives, when we've been trying to decide whether to stay in Laramie or leave, with this: You're gone. I am here waiting.

I've written a lot about this winter but what I've written could be condensed into this: It's cold. Will summer ever come?

I know these are riffs on what the original book wanted to do which is take the themes of your life and put them into a few words. Here's another effort at that:
My life isn't what I expected. Which I think really gets at one of life's truths I've come to know.

I invite you to give it a try. See if you can come up with some. Put them in the comments section.

Frozen Fog

Last Saturday I drove from Laramie to Silverthorne, CO to visit my nephew and his family who had come out from Florida to do some skiing. I went the back way, over the Snowies through North Park to Walden then to Kremmling. From there I followed the Blue River valley to Silverthorne. It's about a 3 hour or so trip depending on the weather, of course.

We have had much more snow this year than any year since we have lived out here
(2001). This became very apparent as I got up the grade to the top of the mountains. The cabins along the road had two or three feet of snow on their roofs. Very picturesque. I want to stop and take a couple of shots, but there was no place to pull over. I continued into North Park and into monochromatic splendor. Everything was frosted white from the effects of frozen fog. The thick rime frost was on every surface, weeds, wires, bushes and trees. The sun had broken through, but the frost had not started to melt. Every bend in the road, the crest of every hill brought a new picture just begging me to take it. But there was all that snow, it lay deep across the fields clear up to the road where the plows had left high berms right up to the edge of the road. No place to pull off and I couldn't stop in the middle of the road. All this beauty and now way to capture it to share.

When I got to Muddy Pass which is where you turn north to go to Steamboat and south to go to Kremmling, there was finally a turn lane where I could safely stop. Here's what I saw.



I missed many wonderful shots because there just was no safe way to stop. Those shots are in my head. But here is one more. There were pull outs that had been plowed by a lake.

Still, while looking at these pictures, I know the limitations of photography and what I have pictures of is not what I saw.

Something for the gray days of February

I read in the paper this morning that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shawdow yesterday. Shoot, he should have been in Laramie. It was cold, gray and snowy all day. If he had managed to poke his nose out of the solidly frozen ground here, winter would be over soon. As it is we won't see spring until May.

Winter has been howling here. The roads west have been closed on and off for most of the last week due to white out conditions. WYDot has been trying to keep I 80 plowed, but the wind covers the pavement up almost as soon as the plows pass by.
The winds have been awful. Steady winds of 30 to 40 with gusts of 60+ have been blowing most days. Coupled with temperatures which haven't been above freezing and you have a really dangerous situation. The forecast is stuck on wind and blowing snow.

Everyone here is complaining about the gloomy weather and whining about how tired of winter they are. We have had more gray days than sunny ones which is unusual for here. Flu season has arrived and lots of people are sick.

I will spend the entire month grant writing which means long hours and working weekends. UGH

February has little to recommend itself except for one thing.


This is one of the amarylisses that I planted before Christmas. The other is like an reluctant groundhog and apparently doesn't want to poke its nose out. This one however, is glorious and well worth the wait.

Sunrise, sunset.

As I sit here watching the sunrise, it seems like a good metaphor for this entry. Or maybe it is just a good way to spend a little time early in the morning before the day really gets started. I thought this sunrise was going to be a spectacular one and it still may be. There are a few clouds in the east which had started to pink up, but they have faded back to gray and it is still a while before the sun crosses the horizon. I’ll keep you posted as I continue to write.

I have thought a lot about what I would like to do with all that time which may comprise the next phase of my life, retirement. I have a plan. I am smart enough to know that I do need to have some idea, some goals for myself, otherwise I will just fritter the time away in frustration, boredom and futility.

Ah, now this sunrise is showing some promise. The clouds have gotten rosy, deep rose at the bottom shading to a coral at the top. The colors area deepening steadily and now are all brightening as the sun approaches. Very nice. I think I’ll just watch for a few minutes. It’s wonderful how sunrises work. They start as a tiny patch of color and grow to fill the whole sky staining clouds you didn’t even know were there. It changes constantly. Blink, it’s different. Look away, look back, it’s changed.

One thing I do want to do is take more time to observe and think about things. My life to this point has been one of generalities and dabbling. I have rarely taken the time to really explore anything deeply. I knit a little, but not very well. I write a little, but not very well. I cook a bit, but am not expert. I want to take the time to get really, really good at a few things instead of being sort of good at a lot of things.

It’s really fading now. All the clouds are the lightest pink shading back to gray.

What are you going to do with yourself?

Sometimes, when I talk about retiring, people ask me what I am going to do with all that time. Because they seem to imply that retirement is a bad thing, I usually infer that these are people who so identify with their jobs that they see having no job as a condition to be avoided. I don’t think that way.

I grew up thinking that retirement was something to eagerly anticipate. My father talked about retiring early and going to Florida for as long as I can remember. That was his goal. He achieved it by retiring when he was 55 and moving to Florida. His father and mother had retired to Florida in the 1940’s. Their choice of a place to spend their “golden years” had a great influence on him and on me. Unlike many people, I had two generations of successful retirees as examples.

When I got my first “real job”, I was lucky enough to be approached by an agent who sold annuities for an insurance company. I made the decision to start investing in my retirement at that early age. I did this not because I was wise, but because of the examples of my father and grandfather. Retirement was something a long way off, but it was something I knew would eventually arrive. I steadily saved. Now I have the means to consider a life without a steady job and the income one provides.

All this doesn't address what I am going to do with myself. While I was teaching, I had three months in the summer of miniretirement. I often didn't do well with filling that time. I often found myself bored and grouchy. I've learned from those summers. One factor which contributed to the boreddom was often it was too hot and too humid in Kansas, where I lived at the time, to do much outside, so I had to contend with summertime cabin fever not unlike what I have been experiencing here in Laramie this winter. I realize now I have choices. I can find meaningful occupation when the weather is bad. I can bundle up and go out anyway. I can go elsewhere. Each of these options has merit. I suspect I will counter cabin fever with a combination of the three. The key is to avoid the mindset which beings on the funk of feeling trapped by the weather.

More the next post....