Whew!

What's that in my driveway you say? One ton of Colorado flat cobble 4"-12" delivered in the morning. I have been dreading this, but decided the weather would be a little milder this Tuesday. I started moving rock at 8:30am and had moved all of them to the back and placed most of them by noon. By 1:30pm I had placed all of the rocks and had a beer. Mission accomplished. The pond is now cloudy with dust and dirt from the rocks and it looks like it will take a few days to clear, but the project looks good and I think I am done. I placed the rocks without anything to "glue" them together so I have to be careful until the settle in a bit. I did try some foam designed for use in waterfalls thinking it would allow me to set rock on the edge of the pond. No such luck that stuff may work for directing the flow of water in waterfalls but it is not adhesive (except on fingers). All of the pots and plants around the pond now have irrigation in place and hooked to the rest of the back yard irrigation. The plants get about 40 minutes of water every other day and everything looks to be thriving. Sharon planted lettuce and beets. The lettuce is sprouting and looking good. No beets sighted yet. (A complaint here. I have recently noted online that more and more people are using "site" in place of "sight". They are different words with different meanings.)

Pond fish update. Once the waterfall was rearranged, the Shubunkins were unable to jump out. Did I write about that earlier? We now have four Shubunkins and all seem happy. I've got a couple of water lettuce which are growing and multiplying and once the water clears I should have a lovely pond. 

Last Thursday, August 11, I visited my new oncologist at the University of Colorado Hospital Anshutz Cancer Pavilion Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic. Wow that is a mouthful! The drive took about an hour and I avoided the worst of Denver traffic by taking the tollway north of Denver and then coming back to Aurora on The road to the airport and then I70. Quite an adventure. The University of Colorado Hospital Campus is HUGE! But, following instructions they sent me, I went to valet parking, was asked if I could walk or not and was directed to the proper area to turn in my car and keys. Then it was a short walk to the hospital entrance, a stop at the information desk, a walk to an elevator, another stop for directions, then down a long hallway to the clinic door. After lots of paperwork I headed back for labs. I knew I was in trouble when the technician did not like my suggestion of using my hand for the blood draw. She attempted my left hand over my right and had failure #1. She could not hit the vein. Then she got a device that allows you to view veins. With that she finally went to my suggested vein but had issues getting into it, finally blood flowed but eventually stopped resulting in her trying another vein and failure #2. So we are up to three attempts, she has not bandaged any of them, and she calls in help. This technician looks at my arms, picks a spot, inserts a needle, gets a good blood flow, and finishes. Four holes, one capable technician, one who needs more experience and should not be in the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic. I finally got to see the oncologist. She was up on my diagnosis, knew my history, explained lymphomas from top to bottom, described my options, poked around my lymph nodes, determined a course of action, and told me to come back in four months. I liked her,. She is a straight shooter. I've since made an appointment with an internal medicine doctor who will hopefully become my general doctor here. Dr. Kamdar, the oncologist, is going to make me finally have a colonoscopy.

Now more fun stuff! After my workout on Tuesday moving and placing 21 wheelbarrow loads of rock (207 rocks) I took the day off on Wednesday. I ran a couple of errands then wen t to our local fly shop to get a fishing license. I was excited to be getting a resident fishing license for $1. Foiled. It seems I have to be a resident for six months to get a resident fishing license. Damn. With that news I headed for the mountains. I went west on 66 to Lyons and then onto 7 toward Estes Park. It was a very nice drive along the St. Vrain River - the north fork I think - and I ended up in the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park. I had to put my top up because of dust rising from traffic on the road and headed to the parking area. It was full. I went back about 1/2 mile of so and found a parking spot. It was right along the river and I walked downstream along the river for about 1/2 mile. Very relaxing. Sharon and Peg hiked here two years ago, and I suspect Sharon would like to come back.

 

Landscaping!

Our landscapers are finished. All that remains is pond construction (they did the hard work, the hole) and large pots/planters which we have to purchase and fill with soil. I like the look. Mostly 1 1/2" river rock with on clump of river birch and a half a dozen mugo pines and a few boxwoods. Everything else I want in planters. We have drip irrigation to the plants and I can hook into the irrigation lines to water the planters as we add them.

While the hole for pond is there, much work remains. I am working first on the whole for the skimmer, then I will figure the shape and place e t of the stream. The filter and falls will go at the beginning of that. Then, underlayment, rubber lining, and then rock and planters for the edges. A couple of weeks I think.

This past week I was in Redmond with the family. Not much excitement there but it was good to see John, Kristie, Avery, and Anika.

A couple of weeks ago we traded in our 11 year old, 183,000 mile trusty Volvo on a Cherokee. We call this our Colorado car. Brady named it Snow.

 

Adventures In Moving

This week was moving week. After a weekend of hectic last minute packing and purging and a couple of last get together with friends, the movers arrived on May 31 to load us out. We were supposed to see a driver, Eddie, and two helpers. One help was a no show which meant that for the first three hour, two guys were doing it all. That and heavy rain at around 2:00 meant that our load out lasted from 8:00 to 6:45. Sharon and Katie loaded up the cats and headed out early on their way to Davenport. I hung at the house, adding lat minute things to the Miata, taking apart the hutch, and an entertainment center and watching the loading. I was a long day.

 

I met Sharon and Katie in Davenport and we spent the evening and the next morning with Kathy and Kevin and Brady before starting our drive. Destination: Kearney Nebraska. For us is was an uneventful straight shot across Iowa and Nebraska. By the way, you can have Omaha! Yikes, the traffic there is terrible. The cats did fine and handled their stay in the hotel in Kearney without too much fussing.

 

June 2 and off to Davenport! Our last leg was only about five hours of driving. The weather was beautiful traffic was light and except for an erratic woman in an SUV who tried to run me off the road, uneventful. As we crossed the Colorado state line I said to myself, "We're home!" We had a nice brunch in Sterling Nebraska around 10:30 and made it to Longmont at about 12:45. IT was quite a sight when we crossed the ridge and could suddenly see the mountains. Stan met us at 1527 Otis and let us in, gave us keys, and took off the lock box. Scott Von met us with garage door openers and we were in our new home. We unpacked the cars, blew up air mattresses, and Sharon and Katie did some basic shopping while I waited on our refrigerator delivery and set up our internet connection.

 

 

 

Last stop of the day was in Niwot where we met Chuck and Joan for dinner at Ajuaa. A good time was had by all and we went home to crash. Sleeping on the air mattresses is another story.

 

 

On The Road

We left Longmont this morning and headed east. This evening we are at a New Victorian Inn in Lincoln, Nebraska. They allow pets and it is a comfortable place. Shelby is very content here though L.C. is under the bed.

The cats did pretty well on the drive, settling down after about an hour. They were ready to get out of the car at end of the day though. I think eight hours is enough for them and for us too.

 

The trip was uneventful though traffic picked up quite a bit the last 100 miles or so into Lincoln. High point might have been our bald eagle sighting out near Kearney. Oh, and coming into Lincoln, Lola our GPS, took us right through downtown Lincoln. She is so enterprising.

We are in our room after a Friday night dinner at the local Red Lobster. We ate at the bar rather than wait for a table. Friday night, Lent, what are you gonna do? Are there a lot of Catlickers in Lincoln? While we drove we talked about our new home and life in Longmont Colorado, and we are happy and content with our choices. Yes, we are making major changes in our lives, and leaving friends behind in Chicago, but we will be building new friendships and will still see and visit with old friends. Sometimes change is good and this is one of those times.

Watching Clouds

Last night the wind picked up and it is still windy today. I can see snow over the mountains, but it seems to be staying there. Longs Peak is not visible today. I can see the front range but nothing beyond. It is still darn pretty though! I learned on the Denver weather this evening tghat there is a name for this bank of clouds and associated downslope winds over the front range - a foehn wind or a chinook. There were high winds in Longmont last night, and over 30 mph today. There were reported winds over 60 mph in Lyons.

 

I visted a Longmont fly shop today - Laughing Grizzly Fly Shop. I talked with the owner, Mike, and he said tghis was the heart of great fishing country. Locally it is small waters, and I am more used to bigger waters, but I can adapt. I don't think I'll have a problem finding good fishing here. By March all the ice will be gone and fishing will be good. Lyons, where forks of the Saint Vrain river meet is just a few miles from here and Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park are less than 30 miles from here. I drove up through Lyons today and then a few miles beyond on Highway 36 toward Estes PArk. Pretty. I'll have to get my fly fishing gear from John because I left it in Redmond when I was there last.

 

On the real estate front, I have come to the conclusion that there are no bargains in Longmont, nor most of Boulder County. For example, I just told Zillow to show me everything for sale in Boulder County from $100,000 to $225,000. I got eight results. If I go from $300,000 to $400,000 threre are 102 results. Go up to $500,000 and there are 201 results. When we sell our house in Glen Ellyn, we are going to have to put all of our proceeds in to a house here.

 

We won a whopping $8 with Powerball last night. Not a very good return. We spent $40 to make $8.

 

One Week In Longmont

Today marks one week since we arrived in Longmont. We rolled into town las Saturday shortly after noon. Weather wise we had sun each day until yesterday - though it tried to poke through the clouds over by Denver International Airport while we were there. We had snow Tursday night inbto Friday - per our local retired weather man we had 4.5" here. He also said we unusually got more snow than Boulder. This morning I woke up to heavy fog but the weather forcast says we should have sun by mid day. It is also cold this morning at 18º. I have enjoyed uppper 40º days until Friday. I have to say that for the past week, weather wise Longmont has been good to us.

On my part I have figured out my grocery shopping spots and my house cleaning chores and my cooking. Thursday night we had five guests joiun ujs for dinner. These arfe friends who Sharon met while she was consulting for the Boulder Valley School District. We had a great evening of good convefrsation and food. I made Tamal Azteca, which turned out great, and sangria, and in honor of the Yew Year - black eyed peas. Sharon made a jicima and orange salad and chocolate bread pudding. Our dinner was all vegetarian. The kitties both took to our guests and enjoyed the attention.

Friday afternoon Larry and Dave came in and we picked them up at Denver International Airfport. This was our first drive from Longmont to DIA and even though the roads were a little snowy in Longmont they we pretty clear on the expressway. It took us just under an hour to get there. With clear weather it should be around 45 minutes. If the ExpressToll web site will ever load I will know how much that trip cost. After we dropped the boys luggae off at the house we tried a Longmont Institution for lunch - Cheese Importers. Kind of a funky place but the sandwichs were good.

We went together to look at the townhouse that we saw in October and liked. We still like the plan and the location. The price though has gone up 5% to $420,000. I am not happy with that. If we move to Longmont I think I could be happy with it. Lots of space, a super master bedroom and deck, and a very functional kitchen and living area. Plus a 1,000 square foor basement for my workshop.

For dinner I made my first take on Colorado green chili and pork plus we had left over Tamal Azteca and jicima and orange salad. I think I did a pretty good job on the green chili. I used a recipe I found on The Food Lab. In placed of the traditional Hatch peppers I used a combination of poblano, anaheim, and jalapeno peppers plus some tomatillos.

Today Sharon and Larry are working out at Orange Theory in Boulder and Dave and I are reading and watching TV and blogging while we keep the cats company. The sun is trying to break through the fog. This is going to be a nice day.

 

Longmont After a Couple of Days

Sharon is a working machine. She is helping several clients with ACA reporting and I think in the process is becoming an ACA reporting expert. She has been working with clients in Alaska, Ohio, and Illinois all day yesterday and since 7:00am this morning. I wish we had a better working set up for her. She has got her laptop on an end table and has a dining room chair pulled up next to it. Shelby is on a chair next to her keeping her company.

 

 

I have got my laptop on the dining room table. The dining room chair didn't work for me and I am using an outdoor chair which is more comfortable. The keyboard height is a bit too high but I don't have a need to type nearly as much as Sharon. I am occupied doing other things - sweeping, vacuuming, grocery shopping, fixing meals, cleaning the kitchen, and doing laundry. I have been out on my bike - a little treacherous on the parts of the roads covered with snow and ice. I can navigate if I go slow and make smooth turns and brake carefully; much like driving on snow and ice in a car. I also started reading a book I bought us for Christmas (our only present); Twelve Recipes by Cal Peternell. I am enjoying it and getting a few cooking tips.

 

I have grocery shopped at Safeway, Lucky's, King Soopers, and Sprouts. I think King Soopers is going to be my go to but don't go there on a Sunday afternoon - crowded and picked over. Today it was well stocked, not crowded, and calm. I was able to explore and check out their meat and seafood departments, produce, and general grocery. They even make fresh sushi! Sprouts is good for bulk and organic items plus if you are into supplements, vitamins, aroma therapy etc. they are the place to go.

 

For wine and spirits in Longmont it looks like Wyatt's is the spot, though they are just now opened and the staff is young and inexperienced. In two visits no one was in the wine department, the guys in spirits did not seem to know their stuff, but the male staff all look like beer guys! They do have a well stocked wine department.

 

Last night after getting frustrated on Sunday looking for news on the TV, I found a source of streaming PBS Newshour. It as easier than trying to find it on TV. I hope this is a problem with the setup in this rental house and not indicative of antenna TV in the Denver area. I suppose I am a news junkie, especially for the News Hour.

 

Today has been sunny all day and we got up to 49°. I went outside on the deck and fired up the gas grill to check it out. I am only getting a consistent burn on one side. Research. While out there I had a beer and a cigar and did some reading. Pretty nice for January 5th.

 

Sharon just took a break and got outside for the first time since Sunday. We walked just a short ways to the little shopping center close by. It was my favorite restaurant so far - Cyclhops and also an upscale women's consignment shop - Fabulous Finds Consignment. Sharon got an LL Bean fleece vest and a sweet Cuplo sweater for a total of $34.09. I got a 10% discount because it is Senior Tuesday. Life is good.