Life on the High Plains

Jillian and Brian are away for a long weekend in Vegas.  That means we get to keep the grand "kids" while they're gone. This is Diesel.  A sweet and VERY large German Shephard/Heeler mix.  He's a very sweet puppy, but he doesn't realize how big he is.  He likes to sit on laps and his feelings get hurt if he can't sleep on the bed. His first night here he just paced around the house and cried ALL NIGHT LONG.   I finally got up and moved into the guestroom so he could get in bed which calmed him down a little, but not long after we got in bed the alarm went off.  Needless to say, yesterday was a very long day at work. This is Diesel's sister, Little Kitten.  Nothing sweet about her.  She may look like she wants to be friends, but watch out--she'll rip your arm off if you try to touch her.  The only time she's friendly is when she wants a drink of fresh water from the bathroom sink. She pretty much likes to hang out on the back of t...

What a beautiful weekend!  The wind was blowing a little bit, but not too bad so we got to spend some time outdoors. (This blog features photos from guest photographer, Mr. Beans.) Saturday morning we got up and went to an auction.  A guy Irv works with is also an auctioneer and he has several auctions each year out at his place.  This auction contained a lot of horse stuff so I was on the hunt for some corral panels.  There were over 40 of them for sale and I wanted all of them so Irv and Brian could build me a real arena.  Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one there who wanted the panels and we came home empty handed.  That was okay though because we ran into lots of old friends. I've found that people sometimes get carried away at auctions and pay way more for items than they're worth.  I know it's fun to raise your hand and bid on things, but when you can buy something brand new that is less than what it's going for at the auction, ...

What to blog about...how about nothing?  I'm too tired to think of an interesting subject, but I don't want to become one of those stale bloggers who never update their blog (aka Dana and Jillian). So, this week has been exhausting and it's only Wednesday.  My partner and I spent a couple days in Lamar and La Junta installing new computers.  Nothing exciting there except for the wind.  Whew, I thought we were going to get blown away! Then I got back to work and was reminded there aren't enough hours in the day.  Sometimes being the person who "can do it all" isn't so great.  Everyone wants a piece of my time, but the only problem is that I can't be pulled ten directions at once.  I have to try and plan every minute of my day so that I can make everyone happy.  I'm not sure I can do it much longer.  I'm tired.  Oh well, it's nice to be needed and it's better than the alternative. To top it all off, I went to a surgeon today who I...

Yesterday was a beautiful day!  We decided to head downtown to the St. Patrick's Day parade.  I think everyone else in Colorado Springs had the same idea.  I've never seen so many people downtown for a parade.  Maybe it was because there was a 5K run and a bicycle race beforehand.  Irv and I wanted to enter the 5K, but we didn't think about it until the day before.  By that time all the t-shirts were gone and they were out of numbers, but they would still let us pay our $30 and run.   No thanks.  If I'm going to enter a race, I have to have the t-shirt as a souvenir.  Next year we'll have to think about it sooner. The best entry in the parade was the bagpipes.  I just love them. Of course there were horses.  Here's my friend Pam on her horse.  Such a brave woman!  I shudder to think how our horses would behave on a crowded city street with all kinds of strange sights and sounds. There were good ...

Today I attended the funeral of a U.S. Marine. I never met him, but I work with his father-in-law.  I went to the funeral to show support for my co-worker. This young man took his own life last week. 23 years old. There is nothing more solemn than the flag draped coffin of a young man who has served his country. It was incredibly sad.  My heart breaks for the families. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.   Romans 14:8

Look what has popped up on the prairie. For years we've had oil and gas companies trying to lease our land, but we haven't signed with any of them yet.  Now it looks like they're drilling right down the road. This thing is lit up like the Eiffel Tower at night. I'm not sure how I feel about this...what is the impact going to be on the land which as you may be able to tell is already suffering from a drought. Do you think if they find oil or gas they will come back and offer us another lease?  I'd hate to think we missed out on that $10 an acre.

Is it wrong to blog about your own birthday?  No, I don't think so. Here I am on my 2nd birthday--March 14, 1962.  Wow, that's 50 years ago.  I am really getting old!

For Christmas all the dogs got embroidered collars that had their name and phone number on them. Keira's collar came up missing a few days ago.  You can kind of see it in this picture of her with her new rubber chicken. Keira is a sweet dog, but she likes to have fun and can be a bit mischievious. When we got Keira the vet told us to expect her to be puppy-like for at least five years. Keira is eight and is still a puppy at heart. I searched through the house, took a glance through the yard and couldn't find the collar.  I knew it had to be stuck on something somewhere. Then Irv looked around.  Guess where he found it! See the glimmer of pink in this picture?  This is a giant hole that she is apparently digging under the deck.  There was probably a rabbit under the deck that she was after and got her head stuck. She wouldn't even come outside when she realized the collar had been found.  She knew she was in trouble...

Something very exciting happened at my work this week. We finally broke ground for our new building! Our business has really expanded in the last couple years and our current building is filled to the brim.  We even had to convert half of our lobby into office space.  There isn't room for even one more person! It's a nice problem to have. Anyway, we had a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday.  Everyone was there--the Board of Directors, the staff, the project managers, contractors, etc. I mostly enjoyed the equipment. Although I grieved for the trees that had to bulldozed down to make way for the building.  (I come from the treeless prairie where trees are few and far between.) Some day maybe this will be the view from my new office.  Okay, the truth is that this will probably never be the view from my office, but it will be view from someone's office.  I'm not complaining though because I will have an office ...

I spent a lot of time in the car today.  I met a co-worker at 6:00 this morning so we could get on the road and be in our Burlington office (near the Kansas border) by 9:00.  We did our annual IT security training and a little computer maintenance, then hit the road to our Limon office where we did the same thing all over again. When I got home around 4:00 Irv and I jumped back in the car to go pick up our annual supply of beef from the butcher.  Our trip was made a little more pleasant by an unexpected surprise on the radio. You may be wondering why MMM Bop gets a mention on the blog. Well, you have to know Jillian.  She was, and still is, the biggest Hanson fan of all time.  MMM Bop was a regular tune around our house. She knew everything about them and by default, I did too. She and a friend even flew to Kansas City to see them in concert several years ago when they were in middle school, or was it high school?  Those Hanson, Brittany Sp...

To celebrate the end of my eight-week Java class that gave me an unheard of stress level, I decided it was time to redo the master bath. Poor Irv.  He hates it when I get ideas in my head. Anyway, my color scheme was purple, brown, and beige. I forgot to take a "before" picture, but here's an "in-midst-of" picture. I wouldn't let him take a picture of me in my painting outfit. Why is it that preparing to paint takes twice as long as the actual painting?  It would be a lot more fun if you could just throw the paint on instead of having to tape and all that other stuff. What would I do if I didn't have Irv to climb up in places like this to paint areas that nobody, except for me, can see? I slept better last night than I have in ages, apparently physical labor makes you really, really tired.  I think Irv and I are getting too old for these projects. We did take time off this morning to go to church and a movie--An Act of ...