Erma Bombeck

Does anyone remember the book, the grass is always greener over the septic tank?

It's been a while since last I thought about some of the more pernicious details associated with buying our house.

Over all the process wasn't all that bad and we love the house, where we live, where we work. However, and it's hopefully just a small case however, today is the day I take my first foot steps into home septic care.  The company that handled the septic inspection and we subsequently scheduled a pump out of our tanks with, has been putting us off for 3 weeks. Citing emergency's and bad weather putting them behind schedule.  Calls made were answered but not in a timely fashion, excuses ran from the kind of thing that could be called friendly banter to a long litany about just how busy they are. This has been going on for three weeks! We were initially told we'd be serviced the first week in May.

This past week was to have been the week I would have an answer as to when we would be scheduled for service.  I was told they (Sewer Sucking Service) would be free by Tuesday and I would hear from them by Wednesday.  By Monday I still had not heard from them so I called to get the "straight poop" right from the source.  I called and I did hear them say, once again, how very busy they were, I told them I had been in touch with several competitors who could schedule something, in one case, less than 24 hours.  The reply was "that is your right" which concluded our conversation with my saying thank you. No, really! I said thank you.

We were not present for the inspection, and we did not have a representative present either.  It's my guess due to the nature of my dealings with the company that they did not do an inspection, they may not have emptied one tank as they assured our broker they did (in February) and they have not submitted a bill. They can eat *&%# and die and I am off in search of my Muck boots and snow goggles with visions of flaming bags of crap on my door step, dancing in head.

Danny Glover ain't got nothing on me.

Bob Villa Ain't Got Nuthin' on Me!

Today was a light honey do day, Tripped in to Gunnison for potting soil and flowers for Sarah's spring yard beautification plans.  Followed up with some preparatory yard clean up, the lawn mower arrives later this week.  It's one of those old fashioned push (no motor) jobs just right for the postage stamp size area that I need to maintain.

Got out the power tools and some re purposed lumber to fix a stair plank that rotted out this past winter.  Removal and prep, check.  Installation and clean up, check.  It's now officially beer-thirty in the Rockies and I'm more than ready.

My new favorite mammal.  I've named this one P. D. Woodhouse.

  

The week that was

Crested Butte After school science club members Oliver, Chase, Grace, and Nola embark on a wild flower hunt.

Ben visited our club this week, he found the wild crocus first.

The first butter cup of spring.

Crocus

this weeks ID challenge

There's a little patch of open ground in Gunnison right next to the five points thrift store.  These Prairie dogs are everywhere.

Mule deer are a regular along the road that leads home.

Alone with my thoughts about a cat

It's still snowing in the Rockies, not a major storm, more a shower to bring alpine flowers.  I have plans to visit Gunnison that may change into swim trunks and take a right turn to our Jacuzzi.  I've food and libation aplenty, plenty of firewood.

O is traveling with a friend from Nantucket to NOLA for the Jazz Fest.  This is not a complaint about her being away, it's more a precursor to my soon to be homicidal feelings for her cat complaining about her being away.

We have a big house, an A frame.  The ceilings can really ring with a howling banshee losing her cat damned mind and I've reached the rim of my gorge as I reach for her tail on the second day.  The windmill in my left hand window sits muted, covered in snow.  Suggests a peaceful resolution no matter how satisfying a kitty rocket could be. Swegen at my feet feels a shift in my weight, thinks it means a walk is imminent and I say no buddy, not just yet.  

Snow and Crocus

May 29th and the snow fall has been continuous since yesterday afternoon. Not much in the way of accumulation as the temperature has been above freezing.  Most of the new snow should be gone by later this afternoon as the temp. should get into the 40's.

Sarah is in New Orleans with our friend Amy from Nantucket, they are at the Jazz festival where it has been raining.  Not to worry they are intrepid travelers and have chosen the venues wisely that they are attending, all have tents and they've managed to stay dry.

I've begun working with the Crested Butte public schools offering an after school science club that highlights the Ranger program that I'll be offering at RMBL this summer.  I have 7 students, all are smart, engaged, and inquisitive and I'm having a blast with them.

I've gotten  the go ahead to start a writers group for poets at the Crested Butte library and that will begin in June and I will be attending a writers group in Gunnison beginning next month.  I have submission guidelines for several local publications and I'll be sending them work soon.

The animals have settled in to the new home and are very happy, as our we, with our new surroundings.

These are wild Crocus and they are popping up in the scrub areas all around us.  Yesterday my students and I went looking for them across the street from the school, I await their written report on the discovery this weekend.  Several of them are very good writers and inventive,  I look forward to some fun reading later this week.

An Auspicious Start

I finally began working here in Colorado.  I'm conducting an after school science club at the Crested Butte Public School and I started this past Thursday, yep, the day Prince died.  As momentous as that was I will mark it clearly as a day in green  for Sir Gawain, as purple as the first crocus bloom.  We photographed and Id'd a butterfly, began tracking the life cycle of an Aspen, we talked about the eating habits of Magpies.  It was a good day, there was music, laughter, and a sense of accomplishment that adds up to past tense.

Tonight I’m Gonna Party

I wore a purple scarf

The day Clemens died

Remembered it was

Sandy Denny’s departure date

As well

Rode into Gunnison

With Swegen in the backseat

His head out the window

His hair blowing

The way I feel

                About death

The big horn sheep

On the side of the road

Indifferent and diffident

To everything

Save the task at hand

Look up as the pup

Says hello

To another round of

Purple rain

Let’s go crazy

Rain

It's raining right now, the first rain we've had since moving here.  I'm in our upstairs office and the sound is wonderful.  The kind of noise that says get a book, go curl up somewhere.  Count your lucky stars you have a roof overhead.  Both the cats have declared peace, this is usually a time of day for chasing each other around the house.  They sit across from each other, close enough to my ears that I can hear them purr.  It's a low sounding throaty affirmation that they' happy.

Swegen, having been well walked (twice) and after a highly spirited sessions of catch, sleeps in the library, all four legs pointing straight up at the ceiling.

It's time for some south sea stories for Somerset Maugham I think.