Life on the High Plains

Last week I finished my "red door" painting.  It may not look it, but it was really difficult especially those tiles on the steps.  They got painted, painted over, and repainted at least three times before I finally decided to be satisfied with them. So now I'm on to my  next painting.  This is my inspiration. I snapped this photo early one morning while we were in Yellowstone this summer.  This is one good looking, healthy coyote so he's my next subject.     I'm painting this guy on my biggest canvas yet--24x36".  I have to admit that I cheated.  I used a projector to trace his image onto the canvas.  This is much easier than me trying to get his proportions correct...after all I'm a painter, not a sketcher.       So here it is.  I'm ready to go--this is my most courageous endeavor yet.  It doesn't look like much yet, but give me a palette of colors and a few months and it will be fa...

Irv and Doc got to live the dream on Saturday.  Our neighbor called and asked if we would mind closing our gate because he was going to drive his longhorns down the road from their pasture to his house. The next thing I knew Irv was out saddling up Doc.  Jillian happened to be at our house and we both thought "this is not going to turn out well".  When I say longhorns, I mean longhorns.  Some of these bad boys (and girls) have several feet of very pointy horns.  Our prissy little show horse hasn't had much, if any, experience with cattle other than a calf dobbing class at the county fair many years ago. Oh well, at the very least I thought I would have a great photo opp.  The only problem was that I had to leave for my painting lesson at about the same time that they got moving down the road so these are the only pictures I got.  (Doc is the buckskin cutie on the far left.) I'm glad to report that the thousands and thousands of dollars we i...

Well, I'm all moved into my new office and the decorating is done (as well as it's going to be). It's a nice office, feels homey now with some of my personal items. I brought my dad's spurs in.  Love them!   My favorite horse painting of all time is still with me! I still have my three monitors so that I can keep an eye on three things at a time. I have a little conference table now and yes, more horse stuff.  The best part is the nice big window. Do you think I've overdone the horse stuff?  Oh well, that's what makes me happy--I am horse crazy! Home sweet home!

You know you're married to a really good man when he goes above and beyond the call of duty. We recently got a new dishwasher just because I wanted stainless steel appliances.  I suggested to Irv that we give our old dishwasher,  which was in perfect working order, to our daughter.  So yesterday he loaded it up and took it to her house to install. Easy enough, wouldn't you think? He got it all hooked up and turned it on just in time to hear a fizzle and a pop, and smoke!  Yikes!  So much for that dishwasher. Now he was faced with a dilemma...two worthless dishwashers and a great big empty spot in her kitchen where the dishwasher should be. Lowes to the rescue...a brand new dishwasher!  Luckily, Mary has been hoarding Lowe's gift cards in preparation for this day that has come sooner than expected. A few more frustrations, a ##@$%&! word here and there, and finally it was done.  We ate pizza and watched for leaks as the first load of d...

Believe it or not, I'm still number 1 in the Family Fantasy Football League.  This is quite amazing since I lost to the last place team last week.  By the way Dana, thank you for choosing the week you play me to actually fix your team!  I'm hanging in there, but I have three teams who are eager to take my spot so it's going to be tough to remain at the top.   Wish me luck!  I'm going to need it. (Nobody is getting that trophy from me without a fight!)

On Sunday we made our annual pilgrimage to the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert.  This is always a great way to start the holiday season.  Unfortunately, this year we didn't make the decision to attend the concert until a couple days beforehand.  We ended up with the top of the nosebleed section...and I do mean the top.  Once we got to our seats we were afraid to move because it was so steep. Lots of lights, lasers, fireworks, and noise (I meant music). In other words...sensory overload. I will admit that we were a little disappointed.  They have a new show this year called "The Christmas Attic".  It was hard to understand and quite frankly, a little boring at times.  After the concert we all compared notes on what we thought the story was about...none of us had the same idea.  My favorite part of the show was when the story ended and they played their "old" hits.  Flight of the Bumble Bee, Christmas Eve Sarajevo, Beethoven's...

Do you know what's worse than a week of sub-freezing temperatures and snow? A dirty car. Seriously...I cannot tolerate a dirty car which is a bad OCD trait to have when you live out in the boondocks which requires driving on several miles of dirt road every day.  The snow and ice from this last week further compounded the problem. Since we will have a few days until the next snow storm, my Pathfinder and I (and the rest of Colorado Springs) made our way to the nearest drive through car wash. So what do you do while you're riding through the car wash?  I've been know to clean out my purse, or balance my checkbook, or lots of other things, but today I took a picture.  I think the above would make a really cool abstract painting. Back to work with a nice clean car (for a few hours anyway). Going back into the office I made my way along the frozen walkway into the back door.  Our new building has heated sidewalks, but it only melts two little ...

Three days ago Jillian and I enjoyed a beautiful fall day at Fort Carson while we participated in the Veteran's Day 5K color run.     Notice the beautiful autumn colors and the short-sleeves.   We had fun throwing color on each other.     We ran through several stations where these young soldiers threw red and blue color at us.  Jillian says they probably didn't volunteer for this job, they were probably told they had to be there.  Sorry guys. Today is the actual Veteran's Day and it looks quite a bit different from Saturday.   We had the most dramatic weather change late yesterday afternoon.  It was almost 70 degrees at lunchtime and then the wind started.  Not long afterwards the snow started flying and when I left work at 4:30 it was 17 degrees.  Yes, 17 degrees.  Today's high is forecast at 22.  How can fall leave us so quickly? Ugh! Since I'm the only one in the family who has the...

Golden Handcuffs = Held Hostage By Pay & Benefits I did it. Today I cut those golden handcuffs. How do I feel?  Betrayed, injured, like I've been in a battle...and I lost. In two weeks I start the next stage of my life.  I'm scared, I'm sad, I feel like I've lost part of my family--but you know what?  I'm okay.  I'm going out on my terms.  Part of me feels relieved...like I've had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.  No longer will I have to go to work each morning and wonder what kind of mood someone is in.  No longer will I have to dumb myself down just to make someone else feel better about themselves.  No longer will I have to pray that no one compliments me on a job I've done well so that she won't fly into a rage.  No longer will I have a paycheck (yikes...scary thought after 25 years in the workforce). Life is good.  I have the most wonderful husband who doesn't mind if I become an unemployed bum who sp...

We've had an extended Fall this year.  It's the first week in November and here in the Front Range of Colorado we're still in the 70s.  All of that comes to an end next week when winter looks like it's finally going to arrive. I already miss the warm days of summer.  One of our summer trips was to Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico.  Beautiful skies to share on Skywatch Friday .

For all the people who said I only won the Family Fantasy Football League last year because I had Peyton Manning, I have just one thing to say...look who's in first place now!   And I've done it with a less than ideal team.  Watch out my fellow league players--I plan to keep that trophy for another year!