Life on the High Plains

 Woohoo!  The day we have been patiently waiting on for nearly a year finally arrived! Our turn for the Covid-19 vaccine was today, at least the first dose anyway.  We had a 10:30 appointment.  We were told to wait in our car until five minutes before the appointment and then come inside.  We knew that wasn't going to be the case when we drove up though.  No place to park and a line that wrapped around the building. Not many people get this kind of view while waiting in a two plus hour line.  Anyway, what happened is that our County Health Department sent over hundreds of walk-ins.  So those of us who had appointments and the walk-ins were all in a long line together. Our attitude was to be grateful that we were getting the chance to have the vaccine today.  Plenty of people were upset and giving the line monitors hell.  I say we're pretty lucky to be getting the vaccine with a mere two hour wait which is much better than the long lines ...

 I know more people who have a birthday on March 1st than any other day of the year.  There is one of them who is more special than any other though. Mr. Beans was born on this day 20 years ago.  As soon as I heard I jumped in the truck and made my way to Kansas--icy roads and all. He was a precious baby. We've had lots of adventures over the years  This is one of my favorite photos taken back in the day when we thought we could turn him into a cowboy. We used to have season tickets for three at the Air Force Academy football games.  I don't think he was every a fan, but he liked watching the flyovers and other military rituals.   Here he is with his cousin, Logan.  They were good buddies, but now hardly ever see each other.  They're both college men now. There was also the phase where he tried every sport that Pappy suggested.  Football was a horrible experience mainly due to very bad coaching. Here he is with his great grandma and anot...

 My father left us the gift of stories of his growing up years during the Great Depression.  You don't really appreciate these stories until you're older. My grandparents, Harry and Bertha, were married in 1926.  My dad always used to say that his dad was a terrible farmer.  After getting married they started as tenant farmers at the Jack Gill Farm.  The usual split for tenant farmers was 3/5 for the farmer and 2/5 for the owner.  Sounds like a heck of a deal for the owner. My grandfather, Harry. Their second farm was The Crow's Nest about a year later.  My dad was born there in 1928, or more accurately at the neighbor's farm during a blizzard on January 2nd.  Only my dad's older sister had the luxury of being born in a hospital. My grandmother, Bertha, with my dad and older sister Bertha in 1928. In 1929 they moved to their third farm, The Adrian Farm.  Both my dad's younger brothers were born at this farm.  My dad talks about his bus r...

 Yesterday I was driving around running errands and can you see how warm it was? Yep, 63 degrees at the end of February on the high plains of Colorado.  This is 83 degrees warmer than the previous week when we got down to -20.  Love, love, love winter days like this. Then, we woke up to about six inches of snow.  Lots of states say "wait five minutes and the weather will change", but this really has to be a Colorado saying.  Today we have six inches of snow and tomorrow it's supposed to be back in the 50s.  I'm not complaining...I love that our snow usually melts on the same day that it falls. My hubby and I had a real snow day today.  My art class was cancelled and then I called and cancelled my PT appointment.  When I retired from my job I also retired from driving on the snow. Instead I baked cookies while the hubby went outside and did some snow throwing.  He even made a path to the barn.  I was going to go outside and get a photo, b...

I had my first knee post-op appointment yesterday.  My physical therapists and doctors are actually amazed at how well I'm doing.  I am also amazed at how much easier the recovery has been so far. They removed the steri-strips yesterday so I actually got a good view of my knee.  Here's a knee selfie. Here's another view from the top.  You can't really see it from these photos, but it's really bruised.  Strange thing is that it didn't turn black and blue until about a week after surgery.  Now it's just ugly brown and yellow plus it's really swollen.  They tell me this is all normal. My doctor gave me a full surgery report yesterday with every step explained in detail.  Let's just say I can't believe how they had to move my leg in so many positions to get in there properly.  Hanging off the table at a 90 degree angle then a 130 degree angle, then straight, and then in a four point position  that I had to google to see what that was.  ...

 Well, we're one cat shorter right now.  Kitten's mother flew over from Germany to take her home.  For almost three months Kitten hid under the bed or under the couch.  She wanted nothing to do with us until the day before she was flying to Germany.  Then she came out and was very friendly and social.  I attribute this to the sedative she was on because she had to go to the vet for her health certificate.  This picture makes her look all sweet, but believe me she can be quite ferocious and has even attacked the vet before.  I guess we should have kept her drugged the whole time. Of course our daughter came here during the coldest days of winter.  Too cold to go outside for anything.  It was a busy few days of getting a health certificate for the cat and a Covid PCR test for my daughter within 48 hours of her arrival back in Germany. Are you aware that the average American can't even fly to Germany right now?  Nope, they and most of ...