2011

Today is New Year's Eve.  It is bright outside.  Les and the girls and I went up to the property this morning -- as we always do.  It was fun to hear Les's chuckle as we stopped before turning onto Main Street.  No cars... no activity.

We took a walk on one of my favorite trails.  Les built this trail earlier this year.  Now the deer and other woodland creatures use the trail, too.  The snow was still pretty deep and it was that crusty snow that was hard to walk in.  I love walking in new snow.  It's just like powder and is soft and cool.  I'm not complaining about crusty snow -- it's just that it's harder to walk in.

By the end of the trail I was so out of breath.  My asthma has been flaring up again this winter.  But I keep my medicine in the car and before too long I was able to breathe again.  Asthma feels so claustrophobic.

But the day is so beautiful.  It was already 50 degrees by 9:00 this morning.  Odd.  The snow is melting.  The road crews can finally clean up the roads from the storms last week.  There was so much ice and snow on the roads I was afraid my little Subaru would bottom out.

And speaking of Subarus... our friend Jim just bought a 2012 Outback.  We rave about ours so much he thought he'd get one for himself.  I'm sure he's going to love it.  Les went with him up to Colorado Springs this week to help him find one that he wanted.  Les probably had even more fun than Jim.  But then again I guess it's always fun to spend someone else's money.  LOL!

Tonight we're meeting most of our "gang" at Happy House.  The place is really named the Wonderful House.  It's a Chinese restaurant and is probably one of the best places in town.  Good food - good prices - nice staff.  And I'm always happy there so I call it the Happy House.

Then after dinner, we're going over to Jim & Joelle's to bring in the New Year.  Tonight just happens to be the 30th anniversary of our first date.  I've always enjoyed New Year's Eve just for that reason.  I love Les so much...

Goofy Lucy

You know how everyone always tells you how smart their dog is?  I'm usually one of those people, too.  Schultz was amazing.  I could convey my thoughts to him in just a look or a few words.  And he could convey his thoughts to me in his body language or his eyes.  We knew... we had a connection.

Mindy is amazingly smart.  She will sit and watch TV.  She loves animal movies.  She's a little aloof -- doesn't cuddle much.  But her eyes are clear and bright and she can be taught anything.  Whether or not she'll do it is another story because she's very independent, but she will learn.

Then there's Lucy.

She was adopted just 4 months ago and we figured she was around 2 years old -- at the most.  She loves to play.  But I think she was one of those sad creatures that was left out in the yard on a chain prior to her Byington life.  That happens a lot here in Trinidad.

She'll stand on her back legs and just kind of paw the air in front of her.  I can just imagine the chain holding her there.  And then there's the sitting and staring.  Lucy is really good at that.  She will just sit and stare at you.  We wonder what's going on in that head sometimes.

She's a big cuddler.  She'll sleep in my lap in my chair.  She loves to be petted.  That's often what some of the staring is all about.  She could sit there and be petted all day long.  And I really love the 50 pounds of furry warmth in my lap on a cold winter's night.

She's just not the sharpest tool in the shed.  Goofy -- but very lovable.  She has learned many things since being in the house.  Sit, "Out of the Kitchen", Off, Wait, Stay, Shake... things like that.  (Not to mention that peeing and pooping in the house is absolutely unacceptable.)  But some of the things that Mindy is so easily taught, like "Touch", Lucy just give you that blank stare.  And then there was the other day when we met our new neighbors and they invited us into their house.  Lucy jumped up on their coffee table!  What the....!

But what's not to love?

Let it Snow

Monday morning brought with it the start of a big snow storm.  We went up to the property to get a hike in before we got snowed in.  It was just starting to snow and it was just gorgeous.

On the way down from the mountain we decided to stop by Safeway to get a few things -- knowing we wouldn't be going outside for at least a day or two.  It seemed like everyone else in Trinidad had the same thoughts as Safeway was really crowded.

We put a few things in our cart and I said to Les, "As much as I loathe Walmart, what we need is so much less expensive there."  So we trekked on over to Walmart.  There are only 2 places to buy groceries in this little town... Safeway and Walmart.  I absolutely refuse to buy meat at Walmart.  Ever since the Beef Stroganoff incident when I bought some beef at Walmart and made my usually delicious Stroganoff.  The meat had a plastic-y texture and didn't even taste like beef.  I have no idea what we were eating, but we couldn't go past a couple of bites when we had to throw the whole thing away.

So we picked up some soups and bread and snacks for Les.  Then we left and on our way home, we were following a white Toyota pickup.  He turned onto Santa Fe Trail in front of us and I saw how his truck was skidding while going around the corner.  I said to Les, "Wow, he's going way too fast."

The roads were icy and snowy.  It was really cold and the snow was starting to come down harder and harder.  We lost sight of the Toyota as he sped away.  Then when we went over a little hill, sure enough.  He had a head-on collision with a woman in an Escalade.  Both cars were totalled.  The man in the Toyota was bleeding from his forehead, but he couldn't get out of his truck.  The woman in the Escalade was standing out there in just a sweater.  No hat, no gloves, no coat.

We stopped to lend a hand.  Les directed traffic around them while I made the woman take my gloves and put them on.  I insisted that she get her coat out of her car, but most of the doors were jammed from the impact.  She was shaking so badly she could hardly get the gloves on.

It turns out that the man in the Toyota is the man who drove when we took a trolley tour around town this last summer.  A very nice man, but we left our trolley ride suspecting that there was more than a little embellishment to his stories.

We stayed with them until the police and fire department came.  Then we left.  It turned out that both of them were just fine.  Both of their airbags went off so it could have been much worse.

The next day I got a call from their insurance agent thanking us for stopping to help.  (Another sign of small town hospitality.)  We stayed in until Wednesday while we waited for the snow to stop and the roads to be cleared.

I love this place!

Drama

So remember when I was bragging about how sure-footed our new Subaru Outback is?

The weekend before last it snowed all weekend long.  We took the dogs up the dirt road to our property every day, though.  They needed to run and we needed the exercise.  Monday morning as it was still snowing, we drove up as usual.  The road had been freshly plowed but still had a thick layer of snow and ice on it.  Sure enough -- the road turned and we didn't.

As we were getting closer and closer to the edge I thought for sure that berm of plowed snow would stop us.  No way.  Then I thought for sure the rocks underneath from building the road would stop us.  They did -- kind of.  But as we ground to a halt, the excitement was only part of the way through when we started sliding sideways off the roadway and down the steep hillside.

I knew that the trees would stop us sooner or later.  But before they had a chance a big rock caught our left front wheel and stopped our sloppy decent.  I thought for sure we were going to roll over.  The dogs were yipping in fright -- my coffee splashed all over me -- Les was saying something unintelligible to me -- and the reason it was unintelligible was that a whole host of various and sundry words were going through my head.  Not sure if any escaped my lips, but I know they were there.

Les somehow dragged himself out of the car.  He told me to climb out of his door which would have been absolutely impossible as the car was at least at an 80 degree angle.  So he sloshed though knee high snow around the back of the car as I opened up my door and tumbled out.  For some reason I didn't have my gloves on so I was literally climbing through the snow with bare hands trying to get to Les's outstretched hand.  I finally made it and he pulled and pushed and got me back up on the roadway.

Then we let the girls out of the car.  They were standing on the side window in the back of the car.  Can you imagine?

A call for help brought our friend Mike to our rescue with a warm, upright car and a hot cup of coffee.  Then a call to AAA brought a tiny tow truck an hour and a-half later.  It really did seem like a very small tow truck.  The operator put hooks on the front and back of our brand new car and dragged it up the hill and back onto solid ground.

What an adventure!

Snow

It's been snowing this week.  And snowing... and snowing.  I don't mind at all.   We're safe and snug in our little house.  We still go up to the mountain every day -- at least once a day.  Friday and Saturday it snowed all day.  We had blue skies this morning, but they quickly turned gray and it is snowing again today.  We are under a winter storm advisory until 5:00 tomorrow afternoon.  Then we should have blue skies again.

The Subaru makes the drive up the 2.5 miles and 1,000 foot elevation climb on the dirt road and through the snow with no drama what-so-ever.  I'm really glad we made the switch from our gas-guzzling Jeep.

Les is watching football today.  I've been working on a client.  And Andrew is playing on his X-Box.  Andy's friend, Ben, finally came through with a move forward for Andy.  He'll be leaving us on the 13th to move to Seattle.  There is a music production school there that Andy intends to attend.  In the meantime, he'll find a job.  Since he now has some construction experience, hopefully he won't have a hard time finding meaningful employment.

I'm glad we were able to help him out.  I've always heard that kids come back to the nest once or twice after they leave.  DJ, of course, never did as he's in the Army.  But he's expecting to get out in about a year.  After that... who knows?

But for now... the girls and I are just enjoying the snow.