I haven’t written for quite a
while. It has been quite a busy time
with planting trees, shrubs asters and mums (at least 80 of these items). The ground is so hard to dig that my right
hand actually swelled up. My time
schedule included the recommendation of the landscaping expert that the latest
planting should not be past September 20th. Well I met that date and my master plan is
taking shape. Since this time, a
Welcoming lady came over and gave me the name of a fellow who is in business
for himself. He does just about any kind
of job, except painting and I have him set up to come over in January 2000 to
give us a quote for digging holes for additional trees and shrubs and putting
up a fence to further separate the front lawn from the wild flower (weed patch)
in the front yard.
Must mention at this point
that I discovered 3 Colorado Blue Spruce in this wild
flower patch that were over grown with wild flowers and weeds. These little trees were only 1 ½ ft tall, so
the first owner must have put them in as twigs, since they evidently have had 4
years of growth. Well after they were
discovered, I ripped out the weeds and flowers that were choking them out and
gave them some breathing space. They
love it.
At the end of August two
grandchildren came out to visit. One is
Ken’s oldest daughter’s 13-year-old son and the second is John’s 13-year-old
son. (John and Melanie live together
with the 5 children.) Ken had warned the
boys that they must drink water because of the altitude, but you know 13 year
olds, they think grandparents are just talking.
Well a day after arriving, Jason had to be brought into the hospital
where they inserted an IV for about 6 hours.
He was dehydrated, had a migraine and was vomiting. He did not have to stay overnight and came
home and immediately fell sound asleep.
Ken was worried that he would not drink the fluids he needed and I said
he will, just remind him of the IV he had to
have. Needless to say, he drank his
fluids and the remainder of the vacation.
We attended a Mozart concert
at
Prior to the concert we had
dinner at the Chautauqua Dining Hall, a place that was the elegant rage 100
years ago. The dinner was very good and
the old photographs were quite interesting.
There were women with their long dresses hiking up to Royal Arch. It must have been quite warm in those dresses
and the trail must have muddied them up quite a bit.
Ken and I hiked up to Royal
Arch in September. It is quite
exertive. At the arch itself we must a
couple with a golden retriever just getting ready for their descent. You are wondering why I’m telling you this,
as it does not seem to out of the ordinary.
The out of the ordinary was they this woman was 8 months pregnant and in
very good shape. We also met a fellow
and his family. He had just quit his
job. Was not worried
about becoming employed. He
evidently had good qualifications as a programmer and had two interviews since
quitting without even actively looking.
You are probably wondering
what happened when we took Zeus to the Animal Behaviorist. Well after giving her information for an hour
about Zeus, who his parents were, his zeisure, etc.
she gave us some excersises to do with him.
Well, as far as this goes, I have him sitting when I have dog biscuits
in hand. We are supposed to have Ken
dress up in disguise and ring the doorbell, which had not been done and train
him on a gentle leash, which has not been done.
What we have done is greet people outside, Fed Ex man, the trash
collector, I try to bring them out whenever anyone comes over and, the greeting
is lots of barking at first, but calming down very quickly. In the literature the Psychiatrist gave us,
it seems that a lot of Zeus’ problems stem from fear that he feels in various
situations. We’ll just keep working at
having them greet people, etc. and hope he can overcome some of these fears.
In September and neighbor and
member of Boulder Art Association and I traveled into
Friends of ours from
Ken recently had business in
I continue to hike with Ande
and Lucretia. Two weeks ago Ande and I
hiked up to
An
interesting note. On 9/24, Sarah (from the Sarahland property)
stopped by as she said to be a good neighbor.
We did not discuss the pond and water issue. I will let Ken handle this, as he is the
negotiator on this subject. I told her
it was my birthday and that I was intending on taking the dogs out with me to
dinner. Actually, they would come along
for the ride and I would have the dinner.
She invited me to have brunch with her on Saturday, 9/25 in
Also while in
Five nights out of the week I
manage to get in some
“hot tub” time. This is a
wonderful soothing experience. Well sort
of! Last Thursday while in the hot tub I
noticed one of
the great horned owls sitting on the telephone pole at the end of the driveway.
I watched this bird for sometime and at one point he/she dove to the left (out
of sight) and in a couple of seconds came flying over a portion of our backyard
at a low altitude about 25 to 30 ft from the hot tub. I thought, well it has caught some prey and
is off to eat it. The following Sunday
night while in the hot tub again I noticed the owl on the telephone pole (same
place). At this point let me explain
that before getting into the hot tub, I secure my hair in back and pin it up on
the top of my head. It’s like a fluff
ball on top of my head. Well after
watching the bird for a while, he/she swooped to the left and within moments
was at the back stairs just above ground level coming straight at me. The only thing I could think to do was to
give 4 sharp whistles. Well the creature
then started ascending and flew about 10 ft. over my head. That was a bit unnerving. I do believe it thought I was a bunny, or
some such prey. I related this story to
our neighbor, Steven Miller, who is also a doctor. His comment was that the bird could fracture
my skull. They are very powerful and
come in at a speed and angle that breaks the back of their prey. Now I do not want to let this creature
frighten me from using my hot tub, so I now use one of Ken’s old bicycle
helmets to protect my head. It also
covers my hair and camouflages my bunny tail.
This is the latest in what’s
happening here in
Love, Diane and Ken