Vacation . . . Start!

Yay! I'm in Colorado, chilling at my sister's place. We'll leave for Utah tomorrow, but she's working today so I'm being a slob and simply enjoying not working. I'm also checking all our supplies for the 100 millionth time. Who me? Anal retentive? Obsessive-compulsive? Of course not! I just like to be prepared. Right.

I thought my i-pod had somehow fried on the drive up here and was going to be very sad, but after some back and forth it seems to have managed to revive itself. I wouldn't have been totally music-less because I brought a bunch of CDs. My sister doesn't have an appreciation for my anime music on the i-pod, so I brought 'normal' music for her. I would have been a tiny bit distressed to have to listen to only 'normal' music on this vacation. Luckily, that seems to have been averted, although I'm fairly nervous about plugging the i-pod back into my car system.

I ran into a fair amount of construction on I-25 in Colorado. That's normal though. Summer + Colorado = road construction/repair. It's a given. I did get to take a scenic tour of Walsenburg since they had I-25 closed there and detoured traffic through the city. I had to laugh though. All the "expect delays" signs had me worried. I forgot that this was semi-rural Colorado. Their delays can't hold a candle to big metroplex delays for construction or wrecks. Plus it was mid-afternoon on a weekday. I took a scenic tour, but I wasn't really delayed much.

I've already gotten to see some interesting wildlife on this trip. In the Texas panhandle I saw a roadrunner adult with a young one come across the road. In Colorado in the Wilkerson Pass area a coyote ran across the road in front of my car. And of course here I've seen all sorts of deer with spotted fawns. For a basic city-girl, these are fun wildlife to spot. I'm looking forward to seeing more on the rest of the trip.

My sister's place is an ideal place to chill. It's so beautiful and scenic, and yesterday was one of those perfect days. Gorgeous, without a cloud in the sky, warm enough at this altitude that even I stayed in the shade. Partly that's because I burn easily at this altitude, but also it probably was upper 70's here yesterday. Quite a change from 100+, so of course I had my jacket handy to slip on when the breeze came up later in the afternoon.

I'm finally getting into the swing of being on vacation. By the time we hit Utah it should be real to me, although I'm already thoroughly enjoying being lazy. I'll try to have pictures the next time I post.

Pre-Vacation

That's not quite true. I'm actually in my vacation, rather than pre-vacation, but I'm busily running all the errands and doing all the chores necessary before a camping trip so it doesn't feel like vacation yet. I've been so busy that it's a good thing I have a couple of days free before taking off for points north and west. Yesterday I had all the maintenance work done on my car and did massive grocery shopping. I also dragged out all the camping/hiking gear, packed food boxes and just generally amassed all the stuff that needs to go with me. I'm taking more cold-weather clothes this year since word is that Colorado has been cold in the mornings already. Cold for this warm-weather person anyway.

Today I plan on accomplishing three main tasks: 1) doing major yard work. The grass in my yard is LONG, but I've put off mowing until today because it's going to have to go for two weeks now. So I'll be struggling to get it mowed and edged today (temps are still close to 100!) 2) get the topper installed on my car and the car packed except for essentials and ice chests. This will be the first year I've put the topper on by myself so we'll see how that goes. It's not particularly heavy ... just awkwardly bulky. I want to leave early in the morning, so I'll do as much as possible today. and 3) get the cats set. Really good cleaning of the cat boxes and extra attention for the cat kids. Addy started moping as soon as I started pulling camping gear out, and has been sticking to my side like glue. And of course, Zoe's eye started weeping last night. Zoe has periodic allergies in her eyes and one or both will start weeping and get all red and inflamed. Plus her little face is all dirty from the weeping. It usually resolves by itself, occasionally needs eye drops. Naturally it would start this right before I leave. I met with the pet sitter, and she should be fine with the cats. She didn't actually get to meet them because they disappeared while she was over. Not her fault. My cat kids are schtizy anyway, and I also had three door-to-door sales people ring the bell during the time she was here. Of course the cats were nowhere to be found.

So it's 6:00 am and I'm waiting for it to be light enough to start mowing. I had planned to sleep a little later this morning since I'm planning on getting up really early tomorrow, but I was awake at 4:50 am. That's about 20 minutes later than my alarm usually goes off, but I really intended to sleep later than that. It's hard for me to sleep late. I'll probably start mowing around 9:00 am, rather than when it gets light. That'll give all the responsible neighbors time to get up and be gone for work. Damp morning grass isn't a problem because it's been so dry here. Any moisture in my lawn is pretty much due to me watering. I hope we get some rain while I'm gone or my lawn and shrubbery are going to be drought-stressed.

This is a picture of part of the trail from the first hike we plan to do, Angels' Landing. It's one of my favorite hikes, partly due to this section of trail. It's almost more of a climb than a hike, what I like to call a scramble. They placed chains strategically to help you with the steep and slick places. It's really fun, but definitely not a hike you want to do it you have issues with heights. We've seen nesting peregrine falcons along this hike and last year we saw condors. I'm hoping to see the condors again this year.

Okay, can't get to reminiscing about past trips. I've still got a fair amount to accomplish before this one, and it's light enough to let the cats out and start some things. I hope to post during the trip, but if not I'll definitely post when I get back.

Yo!

To say that I'm behind in my blogging would be an understatement of epic proportions. This summer has been even worse than I expected, as far as time to blog. It's a week into August already!

This picture is my sage out in front of my house. It's been blooming this week because of the soaking rain we got last weekend. It seems to bloom randomly, but usually after a dry spell followed by a good rain. It's gorgeous when it's covered with these purple blossoms, and the honeybees love it. It's usually covered with them as well.

I taught my last biochemistry lecture this last week, so next week is the final exam and then I'm done. I've already even figured out all the grades, minus the final. After this next week I'm on vacation for three weeks and I am soooooo ready. It's been a long and busy summer, and I'm more than ready for a break. I'm headed back to Utah and Colorado. I haven't even started thinking in terms of vacation yet .... what I need to take, what I need to buy, food supplies, camping supplies, etc, etc. I'm not planning on leaving town immediately though. I'll have a couple free days to get my act together. Usually I go to Utah first and then hit my sister's place in Colorado on the way back. This year I'll be going to Colorado first to pick her up. We'll head for Utah for some camping and hiking, then come back and visit my nephew, niece and great-niece in Denver. It should be amazing fun.


I've been searching for a pet sitter. My friends who usually keep an eye on the spoiled cat-kids are both going to be out of town the same time I am. The cat girls are too old and set in their ways and schitzy around strangers for me to board them for an extended time. I have a week left to find someone I'm comfortable with leaving my house and my cat-kids with. Wish me luck.

Anyway, not much of a blog but better than nothing. I'll be working on getting back to this more often.