A touch of spring

Spring was a little more advanced in Colorado. More flowers, more buds on the trees. This one was outside the bridge between the new and old parts of our hotel. I took it through the glass.


It was quite nice in Minnesota today. Low 40s for my walk, but 60s in the afternoon. A great day for a birthday, wasn't it J?

(Mostly) Sunny Colorado

Went to Colorado last week, hoping for warm weather and sunshine. It was sunny when we got in and we spent the day just wandering around, then had dinner with friends. Friday morning, we took a walk on the High Line canal path.


Then we had lunch with another friend and saw some terrific photos from her Africa trip. After lunch, we headed to Boulder. Our hotel was the Boulderado, which opened in 1909. It's been renovated often since, but still keeps the flavor of the original.

On Saturday, we had quite a variety of weather. It started out sunny, but chilly. Then the clouds rolled in. This is the Flatirons from our hotel window:

The clouds didn't last long, though. It snowed a bit in the early afternoon, but by then the clouds were almost gone. This view is the late afternoon light on the Flatirons, again from our hotel window.
So all in all, we did get the Colorado sun I really wanted. I took a lot of pictures, so there will probably be more over the next few days...

Why cross the road?

This morning when I took Bravo out, I saw a group of geese crossing a busy road. I've always wondered why they walk across, rather than fly. But walk they did, honking every step of the way. One wonders if the cars would have stopped for another noise, or if it was just a conditioned response to honking, but they did stop, and the group crossed safely. Once they were all across, the honking stopped.

Why did they cross the road? To get to the other pond.

Mallards

It's great to see the mallards swimming on open water again. No more ice. I heard that there were quite a few loons stopping over in the Twin Cities in the last week, but I didn't see any.

It was a lovely day. Blue sky, and warm enough that I wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt to walk Bravo to the lake this evening. I could get used to this.

Thunderstorms

It's thundering tonight. A long time ago, thunderstorms didn't bother me. Now, though, I find it hard to go to sleep during a storm. It's not even a bad storm, but here I am at my computer, when I probably should get some sleep. Russ was reminding me that Karis used to like to sit on the porch while he read to her during a rainstorm. But it just makes me edgy.

A beautiful day!

After days of snow, rain, sleet, hail and general grayness, today was sunny and relatively warm. Bravo and I enjoyed it greatly.

Tiptoeing or skidding?

A few years back I got a T-shirt that said I do not intend to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death.

The other day I was reading a post about a friend's recuperation and she included the following quote:
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, a cup of hot tea in the other, your body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "Woo-hoo! What a ride!"

I think I need to learn to skid...

Rare opportunity

We in the Twin Cities have a rare opportunity today. There is a plant in the Como Conservatory that is blooming right now, and it only blooms once every 15 years. And then only for two days. Sorry, Karis, I doubt you will make it back in time. Too bad.

So anyone want to go? Well, I guess in the interest of full disclosure I should mention that this plant from Sumatra is called the corpse flower and smells extremely repulsive. It's not really pretty, either. So are you interested?

Nah, me neither.

It's Spring!

Many people mark spring by robins or crocuses. Not me. I know it is spring when the street cleaners come through my neighborhood, as they did last night. Have a great day!

Fortune cookie of the day:
There are lessons to be learned by listening to others.

So Bravo had tons of fun

Just got back from our first agility trial. It was a really long day. Since Bravo had never been measured before, we had to be there between 7 and 7:30 am. Naturally, I was 20 minutes early. And measuring did not start on time. And then our first class wasn't until about 10 am.

As the title says, Bravo had a lot of fun in that class. It was on dirt, which apparently fascinated him. I thought that, like in class, he could be left before the start and jump two jumps that were directly in front of him to get to me. Not in his plan. He decided to go around the first jump. So I went closer to him. And he went around the jump again. After I got closer still, he finally did make those first couple of jumps and another obstacle or two before going off course again. Then he settled in to do a few obstacles just fine. I was worried about the dog walk because it was a little rickety. He wobbled a little, but then coming down decided enough was enough and jumped before he got to the contact area. He still did hit the contact area - his back feet landed on it. So no, we did not qualify on that one. Surprisingly, even though we had to back track a little to get him to take all the jumps, he did come in more than 3 minutes under time. But that doesn't count the time before he took the first jump, because that is what starts the clock.

After that it was a LOT of waiting - our next class ended up starting about 4 pm. In the meantime, I chatted with a number of nice people. I had some people comment on how much fun Bravo had in that first class. I had a 32-year-old tell me she wouldn't have thought I was over 40 (we were having a nice long chat about our lives). I met a Golden owner and her 2 gorgeous dogs and another Golden owner with the lightest Golden I have ever seen - almost white. I bought two jumps for practice at home. I met a very nice Sheltie owner who made a point of watching my class, and made sure I knew how to get my scores and where to enter the raffles. I met a Pomeranian owner who had a black-and-tan Pom - rather rare.

I was very glad I had a metal crate, even though it was awkward to manage. He did not like being left in it - scratched at it sometimes when being left, and when I thought I was coming to get him, he did his very excited wiggle all over thing. I think a soft-sided crate would have been trashed.

Finally it was time for the next class. This was Colors - two small courses that overlapped each other, and you had to choose which color course you were going to run before you started. I chose one that was all jumps and tunnels. This time Bravo mostly paid attention to me. He did go around one jump, but then went back and took it and finished the course beautifully. And even with that mistake, he was flying - finished the course in just over 20 seconds, when the allowable time was 34. So for that class, he DID qualify, and he also placed first in his category.

It was a great first trial. Very low pressure, very nice people. There was nobody there I knew - which was probably good. I met people I will definitely look for again. There's another one May 10. I haven't decided yet if I will go - that's right after Karis gets back from college...

So Bravo had tons of fun. And I did as well.

Can a salesman be too good?

Today Russ and I went shopping for a recliner. We walked into the store and ambled back to the back corner where all the recliners are, and I stopped to sit in one very large, very comfortable recliner that was more than we really wanted to spend. At that point a salesman arrived. We told him we were looking for a recliner, and gave him our price range. And I mentioned that it the seat shouldn't be too deep, since I'm not very tall. He took us back to the recliner area and pointed to one in particular.

I sat down in it and it fit perfectly. Right seat depth, perfect back support. Back support was terrific in all positions from upright to fully reclined. It fit Russ, too. A LaZBoy, so decent quality. The price was exactly what we had said. The only thing that might have been better would be slightly cushier arms.

Well, we sat in two other chairs and went back and bought the first one. Afterwards, though, I felt a little let down. I usually like to shop around, try a lot (even if only in one store), and finally be satisfied that my purchase was the best one. This time, the shopping was more Russ' style - find one that suits and just buy it. I can't help feeling a little cheated.

I have to keep reminding myself - it's a really nice chair.

Showered with good luck

You will be showered with good luck before your next birthday.


That was my fortune cookie today. I guess I should buy that lottery ticket - there is not much time to make good on this promise.