All in a Day's Work

Yesterday my husband and I drove the 2 plus hours to Denver to my three month visit with my rheumatologist slash pulmonary specialist, Dr. Truong. She takes good care of me and I trust her implicitly.

On the way to the appointment we were listing to KOA out of Denver and heard that there was a snowstorm on A Basin and Love land. Now those two slopes will probably stay open until July 4. Skiing in July? Water skiing maybe....but snow? Only in Colorado, I suppose.

Also on the way to Denver I started thinking about the book. I've been struggling with a name and I really only wanted to use one word titles. It wasn't until we got 3/4 of the way back home last night that the light went on over my head. The first book is all about waiting for results...waiting for the end results. So the title, at least for now, is "Waiting".

So are our lives, I suppose. Always hurrying up to wait, aren't we? Never just going out there and making things happen. For the last 20 years or so I would think and ponder the idea of writing a novel...something fun....even if no one else ever read it. It wasn't until I became physically disabled did I truly start to fulfill this dream. My advice? Don't wait. Live your dream now. Who knows what tomorrow brings!!! Sermon over. Moving on.....

The next entry will be more fun....I promise. I am going to put in a snippet of the book for the readers. Anybody reading?

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Friday Night and It's Really Dark Outside

It's 10 p.m. on Friday night and it is REALLY dark outside. Well, duh, you say? Let me explain.

My husband, Don and I live just outside of Florissant, Colorado on top of a hill in a rural subdivision called Druid Hills. And when it gets dark here....it gets really dark. Nightfall has been the most interesting time of day here for me. Not only is it dark, but all the four-legged creatures come out after dark. We have five deer, two does, two fawns (one male, one female) and a big strapping buck who call our yard their home. They live somewhere at the bottom of our hill during the day, but at night they grace us with their presence. One of the doe, which I have fondly named Molly, has a huge hole in her left ear. Looks like she was tagged by the Forestry Service or whatever to follow her roaming patterns and the gadget fell out or something. The other doe is WAY too friendly for my own good! She waltzes right up to me everyday wanting something to eat. She wants me to pet her, rub her chin, whatever...but it kind of creeps me out. Every one around here refers to me as the Deer Whisperer, because all the deer just gravitate to me, but this one kind of creeps me out. She's cute! She's funny! But I think she'd come right on in the house, if I let her. Uh....no!

The other visiters we get are the occasional black bear who likes our garbage. But the ones I really don't like and who scare the beegeebers out of me are the 5 or 5 coyotes who visit my front yard about every other night...sometimes twice in one night...and have choir practice. It is the lonesomest, weirdest, disturbing sounds I have ever heard. All of them join in at once. All five or six of them and it is so high-pitched it is truly a sound only dogs should hear.

A few months ago I decided to put some of my imaginings down on paper. I have a vivid imagination, so while I was knitting my eBay orders (I knit special orders for people from all over), I would think up dialogue and what I came up with astounded even me...the one who has lived with this creative mind for 54 years. I started writing. Sometimes I would write for five minutes....other times a couple of hours. Now I'm a couple hundred pages into a story that has morphed into a great story of a nonfictional mining community with fictional characters...all set in 1934, right smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression. We are dealing with rheumatic fever, mining accidents, gossips, mystery and romance. Sounds like a soap opera, doesn't it? I'm very excited. Whether or not someone picks up the book to publish wasn't exactly my goal, but it would be fantastic should that happen.

We call this The Miner's Cut. The term Miner's Cut is an old term having to do with the cut of a diamond in the 1800s, but we are using it as a play on words. My own engagement ring was bought in this Colorado town, Ouray, and is a miner's cut. It is over a hundred years old and we bought it in an antique store and have had it appraised. Don and I wanted to write this story and it is growing into our brainchild.

The main characters are twin sisters, Hattie and Mattie Wright, who live in a beautiful Queen Anne home left to them by their miner father. Their story is one that not too many people talked about in those days. Mr. Wright's mother was Cherokee and walked the Trail of Tears as a child and lived on the reservation in Oklahoma. The girls' father, Mr. Wright became interested in mining when visiting Colorado Springs and befriending some successful miners who helped him get started. He married, moved the family to Ouray and made his fortune there, leaving it all to the girls in his Will. The family was ostracized because of their Native American roots, often being the butt of jokes and what we now call hate crimes. Neither married...and now are living together, wealthy middle-aged women who are seen as gossipers, but are really do-gooders. Except someone is out to get them and sends letters threatening them and signs the letters "The Miner's Cut".

Their faith sustains them; however, there are moments when they are petrified with fear. It will be fun to see how they go about their day-to-day activities all the while believing someone, an anonymous crazy person, if following and watching their every move, just waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

Tooby Magruder Strikes Again

When I was growing up I had this friend named Tooby...Tooby Magruder, to be exact. What a name, huh?

Well, Tooby loved cookies. All kinds, really, but mostly chocolate chips. He decided early on in life that when he grew up he would become a cookie "chef". Time went by and I lost touch with Tooby until just recently when he came to me and asked me to help him get his cookie business going.

So I did.....

Tooby Magruder has started making cookie mixes in decorative packaging and selling them for a steal! I tried one of these mixes and was AMAZED and FERHOODLED at how moist and tasty they were. So we started going to farmer's markets and they sold like hotcakes at IHOP! Then we placed them in our store in Colorado Springs and people come back time after time after time to buy these crazy cookie mixes. I feel like banging myself on the head and saying "You coulda had a cookie mix!"

So we started selling them on our online store www.pikespeakgeneralstore.com and on bonanzle.com and ecrater and, oh, yes, we must never forget etsy and ebay. (As a matter of fact, I do spend all day on the computer!)

As for Tooby? Well it surprises me that some gal has not grabbed him up and claimed him for her own with his incredible culinary skills, but his mission in life is to make people happy, if only for a moment, with his cookies.

I'm Officially a Slug

The definition of a slug is this: a slow-moving, slimy creature. Well, I am not slimy in the true sense of the word, but I HAVE BEEN slow-moving. Yeah...the last time I blogged was Christmas Eve 2008.

My apologies.....

Since then? Well, since then I have knit many prayer shawls, made many new friends, found a new doctor at National Jewish in Denver, CO to manage my rheumatoid arthritis, and found a new church in Woodland Park, Colorado....Woodland Park Community Church.

Life is good, even though I am moving in slow motion these days. I haven't felt well for quite some time, but my doctors are on the move and things are looking up. Will probably start on Orencia soon, that replacing Humira.

Please forgive me for being so slow. My intentions were good, but you know what they say about good intentions......

We are having a blizzard here today so I will close the store early and go home. It is one of those days when you make a pot of your favorite soup, curl up with one of those afghans you knitted and watch a chick flick.

Until next time,



Hazel

Today is Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve...my son is home from Virginia...my husband is out shopping...we are going to Christmas Eve services tonight with our closest friends..and it snowed. There's only one thing missing. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL...God Bless Us Every One.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY

Well, it's been quite a while since I wrote anything, and so much has happened that I don't quite know where to begin, but I do have something that I want to share that is so important in these uncertain times.

Promises: what is the definition of a promise? I was listening to a radio interview a couple of days ago by an author who wrote a book by the name of "The Promises of God". She said that when she first decided to write this book she found an old Webster's Dictionary from the 1800s and here's what she found the definition of a promise to be: "a binding oath or contract". In this day and age when there are internet scams, terrorist threats, etc., etc., etc., one never knows whom one can believe anymore. I pray that when I tell my husband, for example, that I promise to love him in sickness and health, until death do us part that he can believe me. I want my solemn promise to be a binding contract with the person I am promising. After all, we are only as good as our word. Since that interview this week, I have thought long and hard about my core values and what it really means when a promise is broken. It literally means that a contract has been broken.

During this Christmas season we are reminded of the greatest promise of all: one that we can literally take with us for eternity. The baby born in a manger over 2000 years ago was born so that we might have life and have it to the fullest. Jesus promised us life; he didn't promise us a rose garden. He promised us his presence. The greatest gift of all was wrapped up in a manger in Bethlehem all those years ago.Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, peace and good will to all men.

The Vacation of a Lifetime

My husband and I just got back from our end-of-summer vacation. We had a blast! We are timeshare owners, having a great one in Breckenridge, Colorado. We opted to trade our week for another we had never been to before. We chose Lake Tahoe and we were NOT disappointed. We landed in San Francisco on Saturday, September 6 and immediately I began to take it all in. I reminded myself of Johnny Five in the movie "Short Circuit". He always said he needed more "input". Well, I got enough input to last me until at least next vacation. I had such a great time that I cried ontakeoff when we got in the air coming back to Colorado. But I am WAY ahead of myself.

Let me begin by saying I had never been to California before this vacation so I didn't know what all the fuss was about. We have a lot of California transplants here in Colorado who always talk about how wonderful it is "back home", etc., etc., etc. I had no idea that I was about to become the next spokesperson for vacationing in Northern California.

We picked up our rental car at Fox Rentals, which was, by the way, the most awesome experience I ever had at a rental car store IN MY LIFE. We even got an upgrade because of the length of time we were spending. (10 days total).

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a mental checklist of things I needed to see and do while there. The first thing was to drive down that curvy little street you always see on television when people go on high speed chases in San Francisco, but we had not eaten since about 5 a.m. so our stomachs had other plans. We drove past Chinatown and into the Gaylord District and stopped at this little dive of a pizza shop. Never judge a book by its cover. This place had fantastic pizza (and it wasn't judge because we were starving and ready to pass out from low blood sugar) and the slices were so HUGE I couldn't even finish ONE.

After lunch we drove around and, yes....we drove down Lombard Street. How cool was that!?!?! We got in line behind several other cars because if you come to San Francisco you have to drive down that curvy little road. My life is complete! Well, maybe not totally complete, but it was on my to do list. Something must have been going on because everywhere we went there were huge crowds. Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square were so crowded we just couldn't get too close, but at least I got to do a drive by.

Second on my list was to go across the Golden Gate Bridge. I must be one of those embarrassing kind of tourists because I hang out the windows, yell and scream and get all excited at just the site of something I've waited my whole life to see. When we got close enough I started snapping pictures and didn't stop until we got completely across the bridge. Could it possibly have gotten any better than that?

Well, yes it could have because it did. We then went to Muir Woods, which is a fantastic state park with a wonderful walk through and lots of trails to hike. It is a awesomely beautiful and spiritual redwood forest. Now remember, I had never been to California before. I know there are people who see this stuff everyday and maybe they take it for granted, but I was awestruck at the beauty and complete majesty of the Redwoods. I don't believe I could ever get used to seeing those magnificent testaments to the majesty of God.

After that, we went to Highway 1 and drove to Stinson Beach and I put my feet in the Pacific Ocean and watched the sunset. (See picture) I spent a lot of my time in California crying because of the beauty and splendor of the scenery, the fresh fruits and vegetables unlike anything I had ever tasted and lots of water. Here in Colorado it is stupendously beautiful but we don't have much water to look at.

We stayed in Santa Rosa the first night and got up bright and early and drove over to Luther Burbank's Gardens and House. What an amazing thing he did for us! Horticulture is something that mystifies me and to think one man spent his entire life working with plants, flowers, foods, etc. and we get to reap the benefits.

Santa Rosa is also attributed as being the home of Charles Schultz (Charlie Brown). But did you know that he originally lived in Colorado Springs. Friends of his here say that when they used to get together and play cards or whatever he would always be doodling on a piece of paper making his characters. Anyway, there are statues all over downtown Santa Rosa of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy, etc. It was so much fun to see.

We got back on Highway 1 and headed up the coast and stopped at Bodega Bay. That's where the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" was filmed. It was kind of cold and dreary, but it was fun to see, to get to experience it all. Right on the pier between and fishery and a restaurant there was a huge old jawbone of a whale that someone found about 40 or 45 years ago. I've never seen such a thing! Gross!!!

And it seems that the seagulls love me. I was standing on a cliff a little further up the road feeding gulls some cheese crackers and before I knew it there were about 25 or 30 of them all gathered around. All at once I started hearing this hideous bird-like sound and this huge bird runs right up the middle of them all with his wings all spread out and stopped right at my feet just yelling at me. All the other birds were quiet and were watching that bird and me to see what would happen, I guess. I reached in my cracker box and dropped one in his mouth. He ate and left. Then the others proceeded to talk and push each other out of the way as my husband and I threw crackers up in the air for them to catch. When the box was almost empty, we started back to the car, because it was a little chilly and the wind was cold. Don looked back and said, "Honey, look." I turned around and all those birds were following me. When I stopped they stopped and sort of looked around like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. You know, "what? I didn't do anything." So I started back to the car again and they followed me again. They followed me almost all the way to the car. It was really funny. Something I will always remember.

Next we went to Fort Ross, a little further up the coast. It was an old Russian Fort back in the 1800s. It was awesome to see how well built the buildings were. We picked up some eucalyptus leaves off the ground and put them in our car. It smelled like Vicks Vap-O-Rub in our car for the rest of the trip. Oh, well..at least we didn't get stuffy noses.

After a bit, the fog lifted and the temperature climbed to the mid-seventies and we decided it was time to make our trek to Lake Tahoe. So we followed a road that went along the Russian River and saw beautiful country until it got dark outside. We arrived in Lake Tahoe about 10:30 that night and what a place it was. We stayed at the Olympic Valley International Lodge in Squaw Valley (site of 1960 XVIII Winter Olympics). What a great place. So pristene!

Like I said before, we traded out our timeshare for this lodge and it was the best. There wasn't a coffee shop or restaurant with it, but across the parking lot was the Olympic Village and that was good. We visited a local farmer's market and bought some fruits and veggies to get us through the week (we are vegetarian) and we had a little kitchen in the condo so I was able to cook. I was in heaven! The produce was outstanding.

The lodge, which shall herein be called OVI, because that's what the locals call it, had mountain bikes free of charge for the guests/owners to use. So one day we took bikes and rode the bike path along the Truckee River and had lunch at a local place. Great food. We met a young man at the restaurant who had moved out from Boston less than a year before. He had lost somewhere in the range of 60 pounds since moving there. He was in training for a long distance bike trip and apparently is quite a skier as well. Kudos to him for shaping up. He looked great! He was in love with Tahoe and Squaw Valley and I can certainly understand why.

Lake Tahoe....what can I say about Lake Tahoe? Well there isn't enough I can say about it. I've never seen such beautiful water. And such history! We learned all the history about the Washoe Indians who called it home in the summer way back when. We learned about settlers and early "cosmopolitan" tourists who frequented the area. We saw pictures of Model A vehicles that tried to trudge through 12 foot snow drifts. We learned about the Donner Party. (One night at the resort we had movie night: guess what the movie was! That's right...it was a documentary on the Donner Party! UGH!)
ANYWAY.......

The rest I'll show to you in pictures. We spent a glorious week in Tahoe right after the big summer season ended so it wasn't too crowded. The best vacation of my life.