Chapter 2 begins

This is the beginning of Chapter 2. Tomorrow morning I head out for Bankhead National Forest in Alabama. I'm re-provisioned, repaired, and re-packed. I hope to head back south, then drift west, ending up in SoCal by mid-May. There's a couple things that could change that idea, but I'll write about those in due course.

I'd better finish up the last storyline, though, eh? I pulled several 10-12 hour days all week while in Boulder, but was able to finish most of what needed doing. The weeds are cut, fences repaired, pasture leased, and the optics are aligned. I left on Saturday, gambling the shop would be done with the car by the time I got to Colby, KS, since the last update was that they were still working on it. They called when I was halfway there - "we've hit a problem". Turns out the timing belt was too old and slack, and jumped a cog while the transmission was going in, and nobody in town had a replacement part. Could I buy one along the way? Well, I'd give it a shot, but there was only one town of significance between me and Colby, at that point. This made me nervous, but it worked out very well in the end. 15 minutes later I saw a NAPA in Flager, CO. Turns out they had one belt in stock! Perfect! They guys at the shop stayed until 7:30, on a Saturday - to finish the job. One advantage of doing business in a small town - everybody lives close to work, and they own the business, so they can work whenever they want to! Woo-hoo! After leaving a enough tip to get those fellows smashed a couple times over, I headed down the road. I didn't quite make it in one shot, stopped for some rest at one point, but pulled up to my parents house at 7:30 this morning!

So there you have it! It's another busy week coming up - I expect at least two good adventures to write about - stay tuned!

Busy days

Woooo-eee.! I am tired, but wired at the same time. What a busy week this is shaping up to be! Why's that, you say? Well, okay, I'll tell you:

After two weeks of luxurious high life with my parents (good food, desserts-a-plenty, all the sleep you want and almost unlimited projects for entertainment) I set out for CO. It is springtime, and with the season comes chores - lots and lots of chores, and they usually involve digging, pushing, pulling, and/or lot's of walking. More on that in a minute.

I decided to come to CO for a week, to do work on my property; preparing the field and fencing for lease, and, as it turns out, a fews days of stuff for my former company. Great! And swapping cars with my parents meant I'd cut the fuel costs in half! Everything was going great - I was even going to make the Monday racquetball game, until I reached the western edge of Kansas. There, at mile marker 1 on I-70W, the transmission gave out. Poof, gone - no gear grip whatsoever! Fortunately, my parents subscribe to a roadside assistance plan, so I was able to get that # and call for a tow-truck. I had some fun taking pictures of trucks driving by the stranded car from my waiting spot down in the ditch next to the interstate.

After 30 mintues on the phone (it seems the roadside assistance people don't have many registered repair shops in west Kansas/east Colorado), and 60 miles back the other way, I would up in Colby Kansas. Turns out the car shop owner has a buddy who is in the business of used car sales and rental, so I got a rental car, and drove the rest of the way to Boulder that night. ON the good side, the delay made it so my drive was timed just right to have the sun setting directly in front of me. I got a decent picture of the scene through the windshield:

BTW - it turns out the tranny came apart - requiring complete replacement!

No rest for weary - today I got up and dove out to my place for a full day of farm work. Dig out those culvert junctions, string up that hot-wire, mow down the half acre of waist-high grass with a push mower! I capped the day off with a phone interview for a Senior Optical Design Engineer position with a company near Portland, OR, from a side street, on the cell phone, in a rental car, in dirty farm work clothes, after eating sinner from Sonic in about 10 minutes. All in a day's work!

Finally, I am camping out in a nearby State Park ($24/night! - outrageous!, but there is Wi-Fi here!), tired, sleepy, a little hungry, but still there is a smile on my face, go figure!

Spring is life (and death)

I do so enjoy Springtime - especially the very start of it. I like seeing the new buds on the trees and plants, the grass coming back to life, the birds and animals coming out of woodwork singing and dancing, essentially. But I was reminded today of how Spring is life, but as is always the case with nature, also death.

I was mowing down the weeds and a pasture area I had left overgrown last year, to try and give the grass seed underneath a better chance of getting established. It worked! As I mowed down the weeds, a beautiful green carpet of fine blades of new grass was left. I was feeling so happy with myself, when I noticed a strange, reddish spot in that new grass. It did not look like trash...Now, last year, a fox had made here den in the culvert (drainpipe - for you city-slickers) under my driveway. When the kits came out last summer, they were super-cute, and not afraid! They would even pose for pictures! Eventually, the foxes moved out, but it turns out one of those kits never made it past my north pasture. I found it curled up in some of the softest grass there was out there. I thought for a second that maybe it was still asleep (even though I had just run a lawnmower 3 feet away). It had not decomposed yet, or been found by anything that would eat it. It looks like the poor little fox just went to sleep there, tired, cold, hungry, and alone. And it stayed down for good. I wanted to protect the fox from being scavenged, so I stopped mowing and dug a grave for it in one of the remaining barren patches of the field. There I laid the fox to rest, with a little prayer that it rest easy now, and that it's body will help the new life that will cover the bare earth above it.

I've dug a lot of graves at this place, I hope maybe this will be the last, but I say that every time...

Cast the nets!

I feel like a fisherman who took the boat out scouting for some new spots, because his normal catch had dwindled to small numbers. But he didn't find any good new fishing grounds on the voyage, and nor can he return to port empty-handed - his creditors will be waiting. And so, he sails back to the familiar places he knows there will be some fish. But as the sun sinks low into the sky, these waters too, look unfamiliar and uncertain. And in some ways, this gives him hope - maybe the change he sees will signal a change in his catch as well. It also creates worry, as the change might not be for the better. I untangle my old net - it's frayed and thin now, but it will hold, and I cast it, with hope, into the water.

Let's see what's out there. . .

GPS gee-whiz

I am now in Washington, DC - visiting friends and waiting for my interview on Monday. Rainy and cold outside, so I'm doing some inside stuff today...

This has been a while in the works, but I have it working now! I can take my GPS tracks, plot them overlaid on a Google Map, and post them here on my blog. It takes a combination of two software tools, independent website, and a google account! For kicks , here is the track from my summer ascent of Long's Peak in Colorado (thanks to Matt Tucker for showing me the way!) - the only 14'er under my belt, and the highest ground I've ever stood on.

A new day in Colorado

So, if you live on the front range in Colorado, the weather forecasting system is not taken for granted, because without it, you go to bed after a sunny 70 degree day, and when it is snowing an 30 the next morning - it would be a surprise! Check out the picture and weather observations for this new day in Colorado....

A good day in Colorado

It was a good day to be in Colorado. Sunny, 70 degrees, all around beautiful! I got my new tenants checked in, my good neighbors agreed to lease the pasture, I took a hike, a bike ride, and the cool panorama you see above. Don't be jealous - tomorrow's high is 35, with snow and wind most of the day. Almost done here - leaving for MO and DC Monday or Tuesday!

I'd tell the story of the last minute countertop and sink install, but it's not that great - suffice to say, it went about par for the course. A couple unexpected turns involving the plumbing (it's ALWAYS the plumbing!), but I finished it just in time.

Cheers!