A day at the museum

I spent Monday afternooon at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, taking in my favorite displays. Here are a few examples:
An example of Navajo weaving.

Pacific Native American artwork.

Totem poles.

A large beer making jar from the Amazon area of Peru.

A new mummy box, made by museum employees, to demonstrate skills needed to create one.

Coastal Wyoming...what a concept!

Prehistoric piggish dude...

T Rex pursuing a stegosaurus beyond the grave.

House and Garden Projects

My house is beginning to come together. I had some months of feeling depressed every time I walked in, but I think I'm making progress, at least in my attitude toward it. The upstairs bathroom is still not operative, but the living room now looks like a living room. The bedroom is almost finished and so is the kitchen. All I lack for the 3 rooms is baseboard trim. The bathroom - well, I can't hold the 2-piece pedestal sink together and bolt it to the wall all at the same time, so I need some help with that and I don't know how to install a toilet. But not much else is needed aside from those two key pieces. I need to sew up a couple of sets of curtains and find a couple of area rugs for the bedrooms.

One of my greatest pleasures is to spend time in my own home. It's my escape from the insanity of what's "out there." I have always made my home, wherever I was, my sanctuary. I was looking at a recent copy of "The Herb Quarterly", and it had an article about making an outdoor "room" with some blinds to create "walls", potted plants, maybe an indoor/outdoor carpet, and lawn furniture. I have the perfect space for that! I already have the lawn furniture in my dad's shed, so I'm halfway there. It's not that I don't like my neighbors - I do - but I like my privacy, too. This might be my summer project!

I want something like this, in my dreaming mind...I'll never have a pergola since I already have a nice roof over my patio, but I think I could dress it up a bit and make a nice space anyway.

In my backyard, I have the old bathtub from my bathroom renovation. It's languishing back there, waiting for me to paint it some pretty color instead of it's current chipped, ugly yellow. I think I could paint it lavender or green, and paint little flowers on the side, to make it look like a garden, even if the live garden fails. I plan to fill it with compost and soil, then plant herbs and flowers in it. I also need to replant one end of my clothes line. Argh. Leftovers from the renters. I also need to cut the tallish stump of the dead tree very short, and replant another tree somewhere. I want a shade tree out there. I wonder if I'll live long enough to see one actually provide shade. My roses are recovering nicely, and all summer they tried to spread.

We had a little wedding...

Yes, just after Christmas we had a little wedding. My nephew Andrew, and his girlfriend of 10 years, Randee, finally broke down and tied the knot.

The proud mama, Woolyworks.

My daughter and her new beau, center dance floor. And below, Andrew and Randee taking their vows.

Randee and her dad, walking down the aisle:

My side of the family (yeah, that would be the WOOLY side of the fambly, heh):

Here's the official wedding cake:

...and here's the unofficial one:

I think we've got some tears here....

But not here:

Heheheheh... :o) We had fun!

A little Christmas cheer...better late than never

Porter and I worked this Christmas, so we went to the boss's house for Christmas dinner.
Lucky for me, the boss is my sister, Woolyworks, so all the neices and nephews were there, too. (She's still a bit wooly.)


Porter had a great time and a bride to be got a wedding shawl, knitted by none other than the mother-in-law, Woolyworks.
After dinner, I retired across the yard to my dad's house, and enjoyed this:
A very nice, quiet ending to a fun evening.

Oh no. Don't let it snow snow snow.....

So everyone was bemoaning the lack of snow for Christmas. Guess what happened yesterday...mega snow. WE HAVE SNOW. More snow than we needed or wanted. The news expected up to 10 inches of accumulation. We may have gotten that, but with the wind as it is, most of it has blown off to parts unknown. And it didn't come alone. Wind came with it. They are pretty close companions around here. Their best friends are Mayhem and Road Rage.

This morning we had to shovel our van out of a snow drift...the driver tried several times before she finally got it stuck really well. The guys in my house made me so proud by working till we got it loose. The driver jumped in, backed out of the drift area, gunned the engine, and promptly buried it in a different drift. Grrr...
but wemanaged to extract her from that one, too.

Aside from that, we've have below zero temperatures and terrible wind chill. We stayed inside for the majority of the day, and are beginning the weekend with movies and popcorn. I'll be going home for FOUR DAYS!!!...if I don't get stuck in a snow drift myself somewhere.

Merry Christmas to All!

I've got to work this Christmas week, starting tonight, so I'll do my posting now. I'm finished with gift wrapping and shopping, and if I missed anyone, I'll try to catch up for birthdays.

O called me this morning, and we wished each other a happy Christmas. I miss him. But we are both well and happy and employed, so those are blessings to be thankful for this year. I have a home that is nearly paid for, too, with a payment low enough to be made even in the event that I become unemployed. Porter is snoozing on my bed with the electric blanket turned on LOW, and he's not even snoring. So, YEAY! Life is good!

My daughter will be coming out on the 26th to attend the wedding of one of my nephews on the 28th, and bringing the boyfriend who apparently is so excited to come he is beside himself. I'll be glad to see and - really - happy to meet him. I will probably only see them at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding (damn those 24-hour shifts!), but that will be alright. I have no vacation yet, but am free to attend both events, as long as I take my "loquitos" (little crazies, as O calls them) with me. Luckily, the little crazies are invited to both events too.

We haven't had snow yet, but I'm okay with that while I'm driving the 50 miles to work. After I get there for the week, it can snow, snow, snow! So I hope you all have a beautiful white Christmas if your're hoping for one, and drive safely if you're traveling!

Step into my china cabinet

I love my china cabinet. It's not an old family heirloom or an antique. I think it's just a cheap copy of something more expensive. But I have a few significant things in there that hold sentimental value.

You've seen some of them before - the little Peruvian dudes (there's another one over to the right)...

...and maybe some you haven't seen, like the tall celebratory glass (I once read that the taller and thinner the glass, the more you think you're drinking, but you really are not. I think it has more to do with the taste of the drink than anything else for me. But that's what the psychologists and diet experts say anyway). Anyway, O and I had a set of very similar glasses that we drank our champagne from when we got married in Trujillo. They were stolen from the table immediately after we drank our wedding toast to each other. Everything was stolen. we have nothing to remember our wedding, except a video tape and 3 photographs. Seven years later, I discovered the cake topper from our wedding cake on the coffee table of one of O's friends. It still had our names written on the bottom of it. Aaaaah yes, life in Peru...
...the green glass creamer that my dad gave me from my mom's stuff and the teapot that I saw in Pier One and just had to have although I have only had one cup of tea from it since I got it 5 months ago...
...the tea pot and little set that came with it that I bought from a lady at the farmer's market this summer when I had money burning a hole in my pocket, and the souvenir wine glass from my daughter's high school graduation party...
...the cardinal ornament from Hobby Lobby that I bought because "Cardinals Rule" when I should have been shopping for someone else, and the dishes that my parents found for me in a flea market on the south end of College in Ft. Collins, because they knew I loved the pattern and it had been discontinued. They said it was fun to find them...I think the hunt is often
more fun than the actual find. They found enough of them that my daughter now has almost a complete set, too!

There's an incense burner that my daughter sent me for my first Christmas in Lima, and a stick of my favorite incense, Drrrragon's Blood (affecting an Irish brogue).

If you enlarge the last photo, you'll see a little pink petal dish; I think it's meant to hold a tea light. That's also from my mom's stuff that my dad couldn't look at without crying after she died. And the last little item is a tiny, lidded pottery dish that I found in a second hand store after I returned to Cheyenne and discovered that I needed clothes but had no money to speak of. I splurged and bought it for 50 cents.

Next time I'll post pictures of some mittens that I've been working on for my daughter's boyfriend. He's from Houston and has never seen snow. They're coming out for a wedding at the end of the month. It's December and freezing here every night and most mornings. His thought is, "How cold can it be?" Well, let me tell you, dear man... :o)

Adult conversation, please...

Me: Okay! Everyone, let's go get groceries. Hop into the white van!

Them: The white van? This one is a little dark, but maybe it's white under the brown paint.

Me: The white van, everyone! Follow me to the WHITE VAN.

Them: Follow you? I thought you said to go to the white van.

Me: Yes, follow me. I'm going to the white van.

Them: I thought WE were supposed to go to the white van.

Me: Yes! Go to the white van.

Them: Then what?

Me: Then we're going to get groceries.

Them: Groceries?! Hey I want to get groceries, too! Can I go?

Me: Yes you can.

Them: Are the groceries in the white van? Where are we going? Are you going with us?

Me: See the white van? Go get in there.

Them: Are we going somewhere?

Me: Yes, we're going to get groceries.

Them: Which van should we get in?

Me: Get in the white van.

Them: The white van is a Ford. The brown van is a Chevy.

Me: You're right.

Them: Soooo, what are we doing today? Do you think that brown van is a Chevy?

Me: Yes, the brown van is a Chevy, but go get in the white van.

Them: Don't you like Chevy vans?

needle felting madness

Here are a few pictures of my latest experiment - needle felting. I took a piece of old felt, not a very good one really, and began to play with whatever came into my mind. It's a little like using colored pencils and doodling. Just a random floral pattern. I love doing it, but I wish the piece of felt didn't look so much like a piece of ragged cowhide. I think I might make this piece into a wall hanging, since the fiber is really not evenly felted. It's really heavy in some places and has spots so thin that a hole could appear with the least bit of wear. The piece was felted by the residents here at the ranch, so I think it must be one of their first efforts.

The Bad and The Good of it.

One of my guys here at work turned violent a couple of days ago, during a temper tantrum, and hurt one of the staff members here at the ranch. You see, mentally, neither one of them is more than 12 years old. The one who had the tantrum is more like 6 years old most of the time. He talks about himself and others as if they were all kids, and he watches the QUBO channels, which is all cartoons all day. In reality, he's 48 chronological years old. When he has a tantrum, he goes through all the motions and emotions that a little boy has. The big problem is that he hits, kicks, and throws things just like a little boy, but he's a stout, strong guy and hitting and kicking and throwing stuff gets dangerous for anyone around him. He's hurt 2 staff members in the last 6 months and is on notice that next time gets him on lockdown in the psych ward at the hospital till he gets a psychiatric eval. He honestly didn't get the seriousness of it until I told him that next time I'll call the sheriff. He knows that means that he might have to spend a night in a place where criminals have to stay, which is not where he wants to be.

One of the results of this vocal, physical, and emotional uproar from this person is that Porter is reacting. Not necessarily in a bad way, but in a more forceful way than before. He's barking at people who come in the door and rushing the door to see who's not stopping to wait to be invited in. People here tend to knock once and walk in, and Porter is all about checking them before they enter. Another thing is that he has been sounding the alarm at nothing...and then getting embarrassed about it. His hair trigger is too hairy and goes off for no good reason really.

One of the benefits of working here at the ranch is that we have several angora goats and a couple of alpacas here that are strictly kept for fiber. So I have been learning a lot about the end of fiber working that I have never really had much experience with - the shearing, skirting, picking, and carding of fleeces. And there are lots of scraps of dyed fiber that are used for needle felting or thrown in the trash, so I've been playing around with blending colors and fibers on the carder and also the needle felting. I'll have to get some photos of what I've been doing...it's so much fun! I end up doing a lot of it at night, after all the residents have gone to their rooms. I tell them I'm working on my secret projects, so they don't try to follow me around. Remember, my guys here have the mentality of little boys between 8 and 12 years old. They think I'm a secret agent right now, working on my secret projects down in the basement. Hope I don't get to carding too fast and blow the house off it's foundation!

Week's end update

Back at work today for the start of a long week. It's Friday, and I work until next Friday. Luckily, I'll get the next weekend off.

So, I came back and the furnace was sending out cold air, and wouldn't you know, this is the first week we've had frost at night every night. My two guys will be grumpy and cold tomorrow. One of them gets to go home tomorrow for the whole weekend, so that's good. If it gets too cold, the other one will go spend the night in one of the other houses tomorrow. the maintenance man said he thought he could get it fixed tomorrow, so I have my fingers crossed for a warmer house sometime tomorrow afternoon. I had planned to take my two to the movies tomorrow afternoon, but since I went full time, I have the whole weekend as the "Staff on Duty", which means I have to take everyone - all 10 of the residents - wherever I go...so no movies this weekend, I guess. Maybe I can work in an afternoon matinee for my two sometime during the week. They want to see the movie about the owls - "The Guardians" or something like that.

My two days off were yesterday and today, and I worked on a sweater. I've got one going here at work and one going at home. Hopefully, I'll have two sweaters pretty soon. There is a little yarn shop going out of business in Cheyenne, called "Georgette's", and I bought a good amount of Lopi wool yarn to start in making my hats again. And, I want to make some felted mittens, too. Hopefully, I'll get motivated and photograph the couple of hats that I've already finished, and get them into my Etsy shop.


Here's the one you've seen before...I have a couple more that are languishing in the cabinet at home.

I've got one sock done for a friend's Christmas present, and I'm suffering from SSS...second sock syndrome. I love the first one, but have lost my go power for getting the second one done. And I've promised myself that I'll do a pair for my daughter - and a pair of mittens for her, too. Those sweaters might have to be put off for a couple of weeks while I catch up on my Christmas commitments.

A walk in the neighborhood

Despite a slow start...


...Porter and I went out walking this afternoon around the neighborhood. We took pictures, enjoyed the sun, and walked along the bike path.
Decorative kales
The urban jungle
my magical windchimes that lift my spirits whenever I listen to the wind playing them
the tour guide takes a sit-down break
okay, and another break...
fall foliage in Cheyenne
more colors flying!
Pretty!

Oh my gosh! The sun is SOOO bright!
The cookie jar
The homestead

Ranch, Knit, Dog

So I'm full time now at the ranch. There are only two guys in my house, but there is a third that could possibly move in. This guy is not retarded (he had a traumatic head injury) as the other two are, and he doesn't want to admit that he is disabled. Consequently, he is nasty and short tempered nearly all the time. according to his parents, he was kind of a bad guy before his accident, and now he is much less of that. Wow. I can't imagine. So, I'm not really looking forward to him moving into the house I work in. I'm hoping that someone else will come onto the ranch, if that is to be an all-guys house.

In other news, I've just about finished my first ever super-chunky sweater project. It's done in Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn on size 17 knitting needles...giant ones! It's gone realy fast, though, and I'm at the stage where I have to sew the pieces together, then do some finishing work. Yeay! I should have a new sweater by this afternoon!

The more I get to know Porter, the more I think he was abused by someone. He has begun barking at people when they come to the house, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but the other day, when the maintenance man, Larry, came to check the fire extinguishers at the ranch house, Porter had a little problem. When Larry picked up a fire extinguisher in both hands, and came walking over to where we were, Porter came unglued. When Larry backed off and put the fire extinguisher down by his side, it was ok, but Porter still kept his eye on Larry and did a few little "grr woof" grumblings under his breath. So I'm not sure what's going on there, but I think something bad happened to Mr. P. in the past. I'm going to continue to do some detective work and figure out what sets him off, at least.

more on life (moron life?)

So how intelligent was I in taking this job? I have been struggling with that since I started here. This is the first job I've had that hasn't really gotten better for me with experience. It's become more scary and difficult as I've become more familiar with the people who I deal with. Maybe I wasn't too smart...

One of the things that makes this job hard for me is that it's set up to be like a family, with the "coach" being in a parental role and there all the time, except 2 days a week. There are 2 other coaches here besides me, and they have more or less made these residents like their own families. Unfortunately, I see this as a job, and I don't love the residents of this place. I do care about them, and I want them to have a good life. I want them to be safe and happy, however I do not love them. They are not a part of my family and I do not want them to be. I have difficulty with a lot of their behaviors. When we do something nice for them, like taking all of them out to eat, instead of appreciating it, they are more likely to throw a tantrum because they had to drink a Pepsi instead of a Coke, or something similar. They are likely to steal things as part of their compulsions and most of them are habitual liars. Some of them are like little spoiled children in adult bodies. Most are nasty and arrogant when they are caught in a lie or theft. Some throw things and others hurt themselves in tantrums.

None of this is their fault and I recognise that. I've had some major problems accepting their behaviors and being understanding with them. Some have mild retardation, others have had traumatic head injuries and most have seizure disorder. Life coaches only last an average of 2 years...I'll probaby be one of them, if another opportunity comes by. Sometimes one of the residents will say something like "You don't make me happy." I'm not here to make them happy. I'm here to help them make the right decision, to keep them safe, and to provide security while trying to help them live as normal a life as possible. I'm here to give them their medications and perform CPR and first aid when necessary. I'm here to wipe their noses and try to teach them skills that will help them interact with the rest of the population.

There is so much about the human brain and intellect that I don't understand. I had a lot of misconceptions about disabilities and retardation that have since been dispelled. I think there is a lot I don't WANT to know. I hope that if something terrible happens to me, if I should have a horrific accident, I hope that no one in my family will revive me and make me live a life like these people have.

Well yes, I have been overcome by my life recently. Could you tell?

This job I have as a relief Life Coach for cognitively challenged adults is a challenge for me. I look at it as a ministry. I have to. The pay is small, the hours long, and the residents are a total challenge every day. They can be charms individually, but collectively they are sometimes a nightmare for me. Each has his or her strengths, weaknesses, and totally "out there" moments...and sometimes hours. Still, I am learning skills that will benefit me in the future. Aside from being a Qualified Medicine Administration Person (QMAP), I am being re-certified in CPR. My pay will increase when all my training is done, which is a plus, but so will my hours, which is not such a plus in my estimation. Five 24-hour shifts pulled consecutively is a LOT. I'm completely wiped out when I get home.

The greatest benefit I have is that I can take Porter to work with me. He is sometimes the single sane mind that I can turn to when things get to be too much for me. But even he gets to the point when he's had enough. Last week, Porter went to the car 3 times before Friday, and our shift work didn't end until Sunday afternoon. He was ready to go home. This week is better. Things are on a more even keel, but next week I look for some insanity on a larger scale. Some of the residents will be moving and I will be taking over a house and going full time. GAH. I'm so not sure I can or want to handle that.

I have applied for a job with the sheriff's department in Cheyenne. Emergency communications dispatcher is the position. I so want it. It has regular hours, competetive pay, and vacation time. I so need this job.

Pray for me.

On a happier note, I love being back in my house. The one thing that would make it perfect would be for O and Celeste to be here. He says he'll be here (legally, yes, legally) in May. Then we have to work on getting his green card. And I have a sock done!

From a Friend

Created by Judith Angel Meyer, Greeley Colorado.

Like this print? Check out Judy's art blog here

Porter

I finally got a picture of Porter. He's not as exuberant as Celeste is, but he's still a happy dog. I'm hoping he'll really open up and show his personality as we get to know each other. Anyway, I really love those big-nosed shots, so I included one here. I love his BBN! (big black nose) And he doesn't give me a mad face when I point the camera at him, just a bored one, so I have to be quick with him and get the shot.