Colorado

It was snowing for over 24 hours, and cold. We got here after driving for three days in cold, but clear weather. There does not seem to be much traffic, but we did the middle of the week instead of the weekend. It was fairly painless, although our good old Motel 6 seemed to be getting kinda seedy, and had the usual hunters. We got to see the yard without snow, but all the grass was gold, and our trees look like they grew again this summer. I need to stay and see the flowers bloom , come back mid summer and just look at flowers.

We are getting used to the climate and the altitude. We feel a little rummy, and out of breath and tired. Seen most of our neighbors. Now to avoid getting sick. Flu is about us. I hope the cold high place we live will protect us. I have a feeling of isolation here, and I like the hush of the area, only an occasional heifer calling its calf, and now they are gathering down at their collection pen wondering why they have not been taken lower to a better clime. The fox has been seen, and we may have heard an elk. There are porcupines about as our neighbors dog got some quills. Our dog stays close to us, only playing with her buddies when they are near her home. The cat has settled into being incarcerated in the house, disappearing for her nap we don't know where, and coming out blinking, and asking for food.

It is a pretty simple life, just coping with lots of snow and cold, and soon skiing down a hill!Flat landers enjoy what you are given, and send the rain our way!

AAADD

Someone sent me a forward titled AAADD: Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. Well, it can happen, or is it short term memory loss, STML. Or do we just get to the point that trying to organize becomes just too much trouble. Follow the thread, look between the raindrops, allow yourself to be, and for heaven sakes don't take everything too seriously.

We are trying to get organized, and we went to our Insurance Agent to set up automatic payments on our car and house insurance. We had changed to this Agency after our old agent whom we had been with for years died, and his wife took over, and then she decided to give up the agency, and since it was on the island that we used to live on, we changed to the one nearest our home. We had not met the Agent, and so going to set up payments allowed us to meet the nice man. He was by himself, and the women who take care of all such things were not there, he told us, but that he could take care of the change. When we left, we drove up the street about seven blocks to the first stop sign, and then several more to the second stop sign, maybe all of 5 minutes had transpired. As my husband started to go into the intersection and turn left, I yelled stop! I saw a car coming at a good clip, and thought we might collide. Husband does not usually go out in this set of circumstances, he waits, but this time I yelled. As we finally made the turn, he said, 'good heavens, I thought you saw something I didn't, like something crawling out onto the street or something. Like a baby or small person.' And I replied, 'no, no, no, just couldn't believe you were going to try and beat that fast car.'

Well, after that, we started to build a scenario of having to call the Agent we had just met, five minutes after leaving him and telling him that he should come take care of our claim as we had been hit and were lying bleeding on the street and the other car had travelled across a lawn and up onto a porch, and we thought a claim was in the works, but maybe he could get there before the ambulance came to pick us up off the street. Just hurry things along, you know. Sort of a British comedy scenario with the accents and all.

So this is not AAADD, but sort of OIKT or Old Idiots Killing Time. It is best to have a sense of humor about things. And acronyms are so fun, and sometimes they even form a real word. Like OINK-T: Old Idiots Not Killing- Time. I imagine I will now get worked up over creating acronyms.

The rain today was massive and we could hear it on our roof which is composition and not metal, but sounded like it was. I expected to see the old stream that used to run down the property line when we first moved to this place to reappear. It was damp, but no flood. Nice living on a bit of a hill and a huge bay almost in your front yard. There is room for all that water! So we took a nap! It was dark enough to do that, and it felt very good.

So aging can feel quite serious to those of us who have arrived at an age we consider at the top of the hill, looking down. We do have issues, and if we have all our brain cells working, we still need to pay attention. You have to make an effort to realize what is going on around you, and who is around you, and what you are doing to that which is around you. It takes more effort than you would think, this paying attention. So you become a team. And then that doesn't always work if one of you falls asleep on a lengthy drive. Oh, bother, just make sure you pay attention.

I am amazed at how long a lot of people live what with all the things going on around your own place, and your city,and your world. They paid attention. I read the obituaries, and they are really interesting. There are some amazing people who have passed on. And their nice families have shared how they lived their lives with all of us out here reading the Obits. There are sad ones, died suddenly, fought a valiant battle with cancer, or some other disease. Some didn't wake up, and some were in accidents, and the little ones you really don't know what takes them. I had to make up an Obit for my Mother, with help from the family, and discovered no one knew her real first name. I guess she didn't like it. I did an Obit for my oldest daughter who died suddenly in a truck rollover. But so much led up to that ending, and I wanted to convey that maybe she was now at peace, which can probably make some people angry as it really is a cop out. But she knew she did not have long to live as her liver was failing her. She just wanted to go to Maui, lay on the sand in the sun one last time, and she did not make it. We talked the week before she died, and she seemed at peace with her self, and a little weary of my platitudes, but we did get to tell each other we loved each other, and that gives me peace. I do love her and miss her, and think of her often in different places that bring up memories, and I can remember that she was the one who I practiced on as she was my first born. The other two got to benefit from that practice, but my daughter left us with something to remember. She was unique.

Plowing the Road!

Back to the North Country. Here we are on the Northernmost Land Post of the U.S., looking out across Poker Creek Gulch to ridges of rocky outcrops and no trees. We walk up to Cat Pass and can look down into Canada, actually we are already in Canada. On the road up to the border, one of the locals mans a grader for the State, smoothing the roads. He is a gold miner, and this is a job that gives him some extra cash for his family. He had three kids, Timber was the oldest, and Cheyenne was the youngest, and I can't remember the middle child's name. We think it had to do with a gun. They lived down in the draw on Poker Creek and ran a sluice for gold. Anyhow, the grader job was a nice addition and no one checked up on him. So a lot of the time there would be a ridge of gravel and dirt down the middle or off sides of the road that stayed there for a week or two. He would always have a reason for the delay in the finishing of the job. One time he said he was off in the trees taking a crap, with his pants down, and one would hope so, and a bear came wandering up to him. So he had to jump out of the woods, get his gun and shoot it. Then he had to put it in his rig, make it to his truck, and then get it home to butcher. We assumed it became food for his dogs. And then there was needing to get the mail, once a week, which meant you showed up at Action Jackson's to shoot the breeze with everyone else, and drink a little beer, and maybe make it back home.

This gentleman used to live out on the Kuskokwim River delta, house sitting, so to speak, which was really care taking, and was married with just Timber in tow. He had married a school teacher, and took her out into the boonies to learn about living off the land. They would also get delivery of staples by airplane. But as the season moved along, the plane did not show up, and they were running out of food and necessities, and finally with the weather changing, decided to walk out. They made up packs, and took turns carrying the young boy. They were walking in muskeg most of the time, looking for some sort of firmer land to walk on, which meant they took and erratic course through the delta, heading for Aniak or Bethel. It took a long time and the boy would get tired and restive. To keep him going they would promise him ice creme when they got to civilization, but Timber finally asked them what ice creme was going to be for him. He had no idea. He had probably chewed on smoked meat most of his short life. I don't think his wife was too keen on repeating that summer.

They next lived down in the gulch, sluicing for gold, with a soddy, a trailer, and an old school bus to call home. The soddy had fireweed sprouting out the top of the sod making a rather attractive scene, but inside was gloomy, dank, and full of one huge bed, piles of clothes, a wood burning stove with a huge pot steaming on it, and dogs in various places. The trailer was locked and not looked into. The bus was out along the creek, which was cloaked in willows, and possibly bears, so that one carried a gun and took the dogs to reach the bus. This is where the sluice was set up, and had plastic carpeting in it dotted with pieces of gold. The bus was an emergency retreat from bears, or the weather. The gold just sat in the carpet, and I asked if they worried about theft. They didn't as everyone who mined down in the gulch respected each others claims and were also armed. When I visited I was told not to stop until I arrived at their claim as I could be shot. Getting to the claim was down a very steep road that I hoped I could get back up when I left.

There was also small cabin along the way with a stove built outside and piped into the building. I was told that someone called Hygrade lived in this sauna one winter, and ever since wore piles of clothes. He would have to go outside to stoke the fire, and it would get so cold down in the gulch that things would freeze instantly. Hygrade was supposed to have out of body experiences. One day I saw him all dressed up and looking clean. I asked him what was up, and he told me he was going over to Whitehorse for a few days of vacating. I wondered why he didn't just go out of body! Although he did look pretty good and it would be a shame to waste the effort.

Action Jackson's had a three seater outhouse to serve the tourists that came through by bus. The experience of having home made pie at the restaurant/cabin would call for a use of said facility. One tourist asked if anyone was in the outhouse, and AJ took out his pistol and shot the building, and when no one came out, said, "no"! It was a reality check for that tourist. AJ's also had the only airstrip for a large area, and the mail would be flown in once a week, weather permitting. The collection of people was worth the trip down to get the mail, and the stories of living in the area worth the listening. A lot of drinking would happen, and maybe no one would get back to their claims. I have more stories, and will write them down soon.

Samoan Tragedy

I cannot conceive of how anyone could survive seeing family members swept out to sea on a tidal tsunami. I cannot believe that after the tsunami stopped its flow, there was nothing left. My daughter in law has a cousin married to a Samoan who got on a plane right away in some of the last few seats and flew to Samoa to help his family cope with the consequences of a tsunami. Three of his sisters children were gone, a grandfather was gone, and who knows what other family members. The resort they built slowly but surely was gone. And then earthquakes in Indonesia. And Malawi is slowly being eaten up by the rising waters from global warming. I will not get into the concept of a grand plan, or the God debate, or wondering what the message could possibly represent. We just have to take in the tragedy of catastrophic events that hurt our hearts and our minds, and maybe hope they will help us to recognize what truly is important in each and everyone's life. I look at the petty arguments concerning Health Care which concern those who only consider profit over lives and health and quality of life. I can understand the philosophical and ideological arguments that go on between political opponents, but do they really have anything to do with running a country? When you get down to it folks, it is day to day, and how we choose to live. We can reach out to each other giving what we can, or we can hole up and isolate ourselves and feel safe. Maybe! If we have something we can share, or contribute that actually does some good, to individuals or to groups, wouldn't that give us some sense of belonging to humanity and adding to our Karmic points? Or is that selfish? In the long run, what has anyone accomplished using up all that he has been given and not sharing at least something. In my mind I want to reach out, with a magic wand and make it all good. In the scheme of things, grasshopper, what does it all mean!

Look through the raindrops and you will see!