First Snow

The temperatures have been dipping into the low 20's at night time.  Being mid-November, the locals have been commenting about the lack of snow.  Last year, it snowed in September.  This year, nothing so far.

I enthusiastically watch the weather.  I have no idea why, but weather fascinates me.  It's probably because we never really had weather in California.  It was nearly always 78 degrees and sunny.  In the winter, it rained some.  But it never really seemed like "weather" to me.  But I'm always checking www.wunderground.com or www.weather.com.  I know, weird, huh?

Here the weather is really something interesting.  It's changing and diverse.  We get rain in the summer.  It snows in the winter.  Fall is actually a season here!  Can you imagine??

So I watched as the weather websites were calling for snow and/or rain last night and today.  I couldn't help myself but to drive up to the property to see the clouds for myself last night just before dusk.  There was a bright glowing spot where the sun was setting and it was giving off brilliant hues of yellow and gold.  And to the north of that you could clearly see that it was snowing on the Sangre de Cristo range.  Finally, the snow was on its way.

I awoke this morning at 7:00.  Got dressed and opened the door to take the dogs for their walk.  And it was snowing!  Big fluffy flakes falling to the ground.  Schultz didn't pay much attention to it, but Mindy was wondering what the heck was going on!

We walked our usual walk down by the river.  I could feel the snowflakes softly fall upon my face.  There was only a tiny bit of accumulation on the ground, but I didn't care.  It was snowing.  The trees are starting their long winter sleep.  The landscape is changing.

I know that all too soon I'll be longing for spring.  But for now, I want to just enjoy the snow.

Halloween

All Hallows' Eve is a big thing in this quaint little Colorado town.  I think it's just because these people like to party.  It seems like there's always something going on.

This year Halloween landed on a Sunday.  The town, however, celebrated the entire weekend.

Earlier in the week I noticed yellow notices on each of the lamp posts on Main Street and on Commercial Street.  Where these streets intersect is the heart of downtown Trinidad and is the oldest and busiest part of the town.  These yellow notices told of the closure of the streets on Friday in order to celebrate Halloween and have a safe haven for the kids to trick-or-treat downtown.

So on Friday at precisely 2:00 in the afternoon, the two busiest streets in the town were blocked off and the celebration started.  Children and their parents were happily collecting candy and treats from the local merchants. 

But one thing I noticed among all of the smiling faces.  Most of the kids' costumes were home-made.  And these home-made costumes by far outshone the cheesy masks I was used to seeing the kids wear. 

There was a young man wearing a box on his torso and his head.  He wore aluminum ducting on his arms and legs and aluminum foil on his hands and shoes.  He made the perfect little robot.

Another youngster was dressed as a refrigerator.  Her head was in the freezer part of the fridge along with a package of Hot Pockets, Kid Cuisine and a severed hand neatly wrapped in a grocery store meat package.  On the front of the fridge was a child's drawing held by magnets.

Cat Woman made a brief appearance as did Mr. T's youngest protege. 

In the street and every 10 minutes, a group of kids made up like zombies danced to Michael Jackson's "Thriller."  What a huge party!

At 5:00 the bank held the costume contest.  The lobby of the bank was absolutely packed with kids and their parents.  The winners landed on the front page of the local newspaper.

The following night was for the adults.  A costume party benefit was held at one of the local art galleries.  But before that was a "Pre-party party" at a different art gallery.  DJ was here for the weekend and we just decided to stay home and watch a movie, though.  I'm such a fuddy-duddy sometimes!

Halloween night I stayed in.  I did not turn on my front light as our stairs from the street are old and steep.  I didn't want any children to chance going up or down the stairs with their masks on.

All in all, it was a fun weekend.  This is such a lively -- and lovely place.