Beautiful Places

"I love to surround myself with beautiful things because it delights my eye and uplifts my soul." -- Maya Angelou

I heard her say this line in an interview, and it expresses exactly what I feel and why I love my home, now homes, plural, and why I love to remodel and decorate. Maybe at one time it was to impress others, but long ago that changed and I wanted a beautiful home for myself only. Now, I would extend that sentiment to beautiful places.

One of the most beautiful places on Earth, surely, has to be the Grand Tetons. I have seen them in person in May, still snowy. But I have seen the in photographs in other seasons, and the loveliness is still there. This has to be the place that is meant in the line "purple mountains majesty." Pictures I have from our trip there still inspire the awe I felt seeing them. Any one of the photos I took would make a gorgeous postcard.

But there is beauty in our little place here in Texas, too. More subtle, but still there in the mass of birds that winter here. We almost can't keep enough seed in the feeders at this time of year. Also, in the deer that venture into the yard nightly and leave their tracks all over the driveway and in the yard. We have beautiful old live oaks that shade the house and most of this three acres -- they make the view from the road seem like an oasis.

It has been cold here, for Texas, since we've been home. My SO is the one now complaining. He says the humid cold, even though the temperatures aren't as low, chills him to the bone. I don't seem as affected for some reason. To me, there's a great difference between 35 degrees and 5, which were some of the temperatures we experienced in New Mexico. I do notice how loud it is here, even though we live outside any city. When I go for the paper in the morning, it's the noise from the highway, from the trains going by, the airplanes overhead that assault me, after the absolute quiet of the mountains. I do miss that quiet.

But I love our home here. It's comfortable and the things I have collected over the years please me. I have slept like a baby each night since we've been home. It would be hard to leave this place forever. Our animals are happiest here.

There's lettuce growing in the greenhouse. I would plant more vegetables but I'm in flux about where we will be during their season. This back and forth will take some getting used to, but I'm happy now to be home.

Onward ....

Home, a WWII Memoir, and a Downed Electric Line

Got home Saturday about 4:30. The cat had done extremely well this time on the trip, including the night we spent in the hotel in Big Spring. Funny, though, when we would turn off the audio book we were listening to, he would yowl until we turned it back on -- guess he was "into" the story as much as we were.

We listened to GOODBYE DARKNESS by William Manchester, an older WWII memoir but a classic one. I had read it years ago and knew my SO would enjoy it since his dad was in the Pacific theater and was one of those veterans who had seen brutal combat and never spoke of it afterwards. His dad has been gone for 30 years and now SO wishes he had found out more about his dad's war record. He can't get enough of these books suddenly. We listened to FLYBOYS by James Bradley last year on one of these trips. You just have to read or listen to one of these books to understand why we fought in that war. I can't help but wonder how different the war memoirs will be that come out of the wars our soldiers are fighting now.

The first thing we did when we got home was water the plants we had put inside the sunroom. A few of the dryest ones have not yet recovered and are probably beyond saving, but my beautiful grape ivy fared well, as did the palms and ferns. Oddly, the pothos ivies didn't do well, and the Chinese evergreen left from my ex-father-in-law's funeral (he was not an ex when he died, so is he now?) is stressed. I want to save that one especially. I might have to cut it to the bottom to get it to come back. I'll watch it for now.

Yesterday we just sat around most of the day staring at the football play-offs. Making that long two-day drive back from the mountains really takes it out of us both. The animals are both delighted to be back, though. The dog ran her traps outside before she ever came in for the first time. She remembered the last time she was here that there were lizards around the lawn mower shed, so that was her first stop on her rounds. Then she discovered a new armadillo hole under a big live oak, and she worried that for a while, before moving on to the gopher mound out along the driveway.

We'd had some strong wind storms while we were gone, and an electric line was down across the driveway. I called the electric company and they came out to pick it up -- neither of us was going to touch it and we fretted about the dog running around it. The thing was not "live," and even though we were pretty certain of that, we wanted to the electric company to take the risks. The man said it was the line that used to go out to the abandoned water well in the Front Forty. When the previous owner had the meter pulled from that well, they should've taken down the line but instead, the windstorm did the job. Now we have a needless pole sticking up out there, with nothing on it. I'm hoping that will be on my SO's future to-do list.

All the first night and into the next morning, the cat walked sentry around the house -- staying next to the wall, padding through the laundry room and the mud room, into our bedroom, checking out all the closets and the cubbyhole where my SO's desk sits, through the kitchen, pacing along the cabinets and baseboards, into the sunroom, the dining room, the living room, along the fireplace hearth, the fish tank, into the foyer, up the stairs, round and round, repeating the trek over and over. I guess he was making sure everything was the same as it had been when he left a month ago. Or maybe he was thinking to himself that he thought we had left this place forever. He was obviously happy to be back home, and his poop has already returned to normal. My SO thinks maybe the kitty was just homesick. Could be. But I'm keeping the vet appointment I made for him tomorrow.

So we are home, and we are happy to be here. It's humid, but it's cool. I slept so soundly last night. Nothing like being in your own familiar bed with your own familiar pillows and blanket. Now, we have a busy week to get through, and maybe things will settle down our old routine.

Onward ....

Snow Morning

Woke up this morning just before dawn. Weather forecast had been predicting snow and 19 degrees, but it had been a beautiful, clear, full-moon night when we went to bed. Still, I when I got up, I peeked out the curtains, still dark, but I thought I could see snow. As soon as there was the least bit of light, I looked again. Everything was covered in a blanket of white. When my SO got up, he was as surprised as I was by it. We figure it was about four inches making a total of 16 inches this winter so far.

We spent the morning throwing out the food we knew wouldn't last until we are back. Put a couple of things in the freezer. I got my clothes sorted out. My SO stoked up the fire. It was hard to make ourselves bundle up and go out to shovel the driveway, but we needed to hook up the utility trailer we brought with us full of things for the cabin. We're taking it back to Texas to fill up again.

Learned a big lesson -- after my SO drove the truck and trailer around -- and that is to shovel first before you pack down the snow in your tire tracks. We didn't do that, and when my SO got ready to back the trailer into place, the truck was skidding and sliding so much, it became a huge job, even after we had shoveled the snow away. We resorted to a bucket of kitty litter to melt the ice left in the tire tracks. Worked. SO was able to get the trailer backed near the door, so we can load easier. We had a snowball fight, then played with the dog in the snow-filled pasture, which is the name my SO has given the rest of the property. The dog gets so frisky out there in the white stuff. It's powdery and dry, looks like diamonds or cake dust with the sun coming down through the trees. The silly dog thought there was a critter in the wall when she heard the snow melting off the roof and dripping in the downspout. She barked and jumped around, cocked her head. Exuberant.

We discussed it last night and have about decided to come back in March for a couple of weeks. Neither of us is really excited about leaving, but we know we have obligations. My SO's post office didn't forward last week's mail up here, and he feels like he needs to get back for that and other things. Funny, when we left Texas, we thought it would be my mail that wouldn't make it because my post office is so skitzy. But my mail has come as regular as clockwork.

So, we will go over to the Lodge tonight to eat. It's pizza night. They have these wonderful gourmet pizzas they make. One of our neighbors has said she would be there, and we will probably share a table. Then tomorrow early, we will finish loading the trailer, and head out homeward bound. Dread the 15 hours and 2 days on the road. But since we don't own an airplane ... well anyway.

Onward ....

Back to the Real World

Cozy cabin. Fire cracking in the fireplace. Wine on the deck chilling in the cold night. Full moon. Mountain winds. Snow on the way. Pot roast cooking on the stove. Dog tired from a long walk. Kitty on his chair cat-napping. All is good in the New Mexico mountains.

But the day approaches when we have agreed to leave and go back to Texas. We have one more full day and then we shall depart. I have mixed feelings. I'm ready to go back and check on things, see how Daddy's doing, if the fish survived, how much rain we got while we've been gone. I think the animals will be happy to be home. Time to pay bills and come back to reality. But we won't be back here until April at the earliest, and that makes me sad. I do love it here. Don't know if I'm ready to say I want to live here full time. The winter is pretty raw, and from what locals tell us, the worst is February and March, so what we've had so far is nothing.

There are lots of things I want to do here, though, to make it more homey, more aesthetically pleasing, at least to me -- updating mostly. Paint and some better furniture. One day a new kitchen. But all that will come in due time.

My SO's son called yesterday. Think they want to come up when we're here again in Spring. And my son wants to come in June, my aunt in late summer. Seems we'll be having lots of company for the next few visits. But I will bet that ends after a while. Nobody will enjoy it here as much as we do. It's a kind of out of time feeling, a relaxation that's hard to explain. No outside interference besides the television, and even that's channels from far-off California.

So we will leave, but we'll be back. And maybe I will bring a manuscript with me next time.

Onward ....

Back at the Cabin

Left Denver yesterday morning about 9:15. Took six long hours to finally get back to the cabin. It was snowing up on Elk Mountain, but in the Valley it was 51 degrees. However once the sun goes behind the mountains, it chills down pretty quickly. I kept a fire going until bedtime.

This morning I put together the shelving unit I bought in Denver. I have the office just about done now, and I really feel that I could write here. Unfortunately, we're leaving in a few days so there won't be time to get anything sustained going, but it's good to feel the urge anyway. I might want to come up here by myself some time soon and just SEE if any writing might happen.

Meanwhile, on the Kindle front -- got the proofs from the people doing the conversion. They scan the book, then turn it into a WORD file. From there they format to Kindle, and the other e-readers. Anyway, I really didn't like it that the final WORD doc has a space between each and every paragraph in the book. I was under the impression that the Kindle version would look just like the hardcover pages, and that spacing bothered me. Primarily, as I tried to explain to the man I've been dealing with, because there are quite a few intentional spaces for time transitions within the text and they don't stand out a bit with all this spacing that has been put in with this conversion. I've requested that they take out all the paragraph spacing and he said that they would, although he didn't sound happy about having to do it. I guess I'm just too picky, don't know. But I figure if I'm paying for it, I want it done right.

Speaking of Kindle, I finished reading the first book I downloaded onto mine - A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Eagan. I had read a review of the book in TIME and it sounded intriguing. The novel was written in a weird, non-linear way that I really liked, almost like a jumble of characters thrown into stand-alone short stories, but that all had connecting threads. These kind of innovative books always make me want to write again. I think it's the endless possibilities, the opportunity to try something new, that always tugs at me.

Last night, since I was here alone, I rewatched "Sixth Sense," that old movie with Bruce Willis and Tony Collette. I had seen it before -- who hadn't? -- but since my SO likes it so much, I thought I should give it a second chance. I did like it more this time than I did the first time. But I still didn't think it was worthy of an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Pluuueeese! Must've been an off year.

The cat was very happy to see me. The dog wasn't as happy to see the cat. They had a little altercation, with the cat dominating, of course. I seem to spend all my time when I'm alone with the two of them, trying to make each of them feel they're special. They are, of course, but they're just so damned jealous.

Onward ....

Denver Again and Kindle

Drove to Denver on Thursday. I had no map and no trouble until five miles before my destination. The traffic is really bad here, and it's the second year in a row that I've noticed how smoggy it's become. I think the mountains hold the C2O in more than normal, but it causes my SO upper respiratory distress nearly every time we come here.

So the market is going on, and I'm already bored, after only a day and a half. I'm thinking about going over to this good mall that's near our hotel. I need to look at something besides boots and saddles. In all honesty, I did find some things yesterday for the cabin: a nice framed print of a teepee camp for $75 and a $20 ceramic plaque of Kokopelli for the bathroom. Stuff is lots cheaper than out in the world, and I think I'll buy a Mayan rug I've seen. We both like it and we'll hang it on the wall above our easy chairs, also at the cabin.

Last night we had dinner with the people who have started a new clothing line they want my SO to represent. There were two other reps there and the most obnoxious couple I've met at one of these things so far. The woman was absolutely combative about Mexican food, really got her hackles up when we said we hadn't yet found any Mexican food in New Mexico that we liked. She was just incensed by that, and tried to argue us down in the most shrill voice. My diplomatic SO kept saying that it was all in what you're used to, but that just wasn't good enough for her. She wanted us to take it back, and of course, we would not. We tried to explain, laughingly, that Texans are just really snobby about Mexican food and barbecue, but she would have none of it, and became so abrasive, I finally stopped talking to her. People are really so damned odd. Anyway, there's one more dinner on Sunday night, and that one should be less stressful. People we know well, and whom we like, the ones who own the boot company which is my SO's primary line.

The dog is even more bored with the whole thing than I am. I feel sorry for her having to be cooped up all day, but there's just nothing that can be done for it. I will at least be taking her home early with me on Monday. I got a call from the cat sitter, and kitty is having stomach issues again. She wanted to know if she should take him to the vet. I would feel better to wait until I'm back and can do it myself. I'm worried about my old kitty. I'm afraid we could be looking at his last year with us. It will crush my heart if that's so. He has been such a good, loving little fellow for all these 14 years that I he's been with me. I've never felt as special of a bond with an animal as I do with this cat. H's been my funny and wonderful companion through lots of ugly times.

Last post I mentioned my Kindle that my SO gave me for Christmas. I have been balking at the idea of having to pay to have my books formatted for e-readers. But after having the Kindle for less than a week, I was online looking for a place that could do the formatting, and found one. I think they are going to turn out to be super good. So far, I've been pleased with all the attention to detail. It's LILY I have given them to convert. Two days ago I was sent the WORD version of it, and have barely had time to look at it because of this Denver show. I'm kind of getting excited at the prospect of having an electronic version of the book, at least it's a way to get it back "in print." If it goes well, I'll have the others done. What I'm confused about, though, is how to promote it, and how to keep it from getting mixed up with books that are just being self-published to Kindle. Books and publishing are in such a transitional phase right now, and it remains to be seen how it will all puzzle out.

Onward ....

Catching Up With the New Year

What a difference a few weeks and a new year can make. I realized this as I read my last post, oh so long ago, it seems.

We have been at the cabin in New Mexico for three weeks now, and have just got hooked up with internet service. I had bought a device to plug into the USB port on my laptop to pick up broadband through the cell signal, which is strong in our valley. But alas, the cell towers were not compatible and that effort flopped miserably. I got a refund at least. So, now we are back to receiving our internet service through satellite, same as back in Texas. Well, at least it works.

The day we arrived here, the 29th of December, we drove into the driveway at the exact same time as a blizzard was arriving. I was upset by it mostly because we were supposed to have a washer and dryer delivered the next day, and I was afraid that wouldn't happen with the bad weather. But the delivery boys braved the mountain and the snow, which was falling hardest just as they got here. Despite the bad weather, they completed the installation, hauled off the old dead machines, and kept their good sense of humor through it all. The people here are all very accommodating and pleasant, we are finding. Might have something to do with living in such a beautiful place.

However, New Year's Eve was pretty miserable. The wind was howling, snow all over the place. We felt cabin-bound, and both of our tempers flared for a moment. I was cold all that day. We did venture down to the restaurant for supper that night, a trip that should take about 3 minutes took 20 because of the slick, snowy road and strong wind. They said we had gusts up to 60 mph that day. Which sent the chill factor plummeting to minus 20, tough conditions for two old South Texas transplants. Hell, I was 14 years old before I ever saw snow for the first time, and have only experienced it down there three times in my whole life. Anyway, we had a good meal, met some more neighbors, had cocktails, and enjoyed the rest of the night.

Next morning we installed our new 42 inch flat screen TV that we had given each other for Christmas. We even get some of the networks this time, although they come to us out of San Francisco -- an odd thing, and we have to keep remembering about the time difference. Jay Leno doesn't come on until 11:30, much to the SO's chagrin. That evening, I made a big meal of ham and black-eyed peas, and we drank the champagne that we hadn't been in the mood for the night before. Tasted good. The wind had quit howling. Our moods had improved. We also discovered the blower on the fireplace, which helps greatly to keep this cabin warm. It's a constant job, tending that fire though. You have to add logs at least two times per hour, and poke them around in between additions. My SO seems not to tire of it, thank god. And we have a good fireplace here, unlike the one in Texas which smokes and doesn't draw properly.

A few days later, the SO's granddaughter and her boyfriend arrived -- our first house guests. They came to ski, and it kept them busy for most of the five days that they were here. One day, we did take them sightseeing around this part of the Sangre de Cristos. We took lots of pictures and enjoyed the day. The place got quiet again after they left.

We've had another snow and more cold weather since then. Was 3 degrees  yesterday morning when we awoke. But somehow, we've acclimated now and it doesn't bother us as much. Or me as much, I should say. I don't think my SO was ever bothered as much as I was, sun bunny that I have always been. It's weird, though, how 20 degrees here feels so much warmer than 20 degrees would feel at home. Humidity can't be the whole of it, because the humidity has been as high as 80 percent here since the first of the year. It just must have to do with the air, that's all I can think of to explain it. The air is just cleaner and fresh, thinner, too.

Anyway, my SO left for Denver this morning, and I will join him tomorrow. I'm loathe to leave the cabin, and I really don't care for Denver much, or Colorado for that matter. I'm one of the only people I know who thinks Colorado is highly overrated. Sorry, to any of my Colorado friends who might read this. But seriously, most of you don't mind stating your contempt for Texas, do you? Of course, I do still love my native state, even though I seem to have, oddly, also fallen hard for New Mexico.

So, I will try to do better about writing here in the future. I have things to share that I haven't touched on this time -- mostly about my Christmas Kindle and how it has inspired me to do certain things. But for now --

Onward ....