Fresh

Once again, I'm feeling sad for our community.  The rains came yesterday.  Boy, did the rains ever come yesterday.

Our little friendly neighbor town of Manitou Springs was flooded and is a total shambles today.  Manitou is just "downstream" from the Waldo Canyon burn scar.  There is little to no vegetation on the burn scar, so nothing to slow the waters.  In addition to that, the ground is mostly ash, and hydrophobic - incapable of absorbing water.

When it rains, it floods.  Flash floods of thick black muddy water.

We've already had two or three bad flood days this summer, but yesterday was the worst.  Homes were washed off of their foundations, cars were swept away like leaves in a stream. 

One confirmed death, three missing people so far.

Manitou Springs is just a little hippie town that gets most of its income from tourism.  There are quaint little shops and cafes to relax in, a couple of small parks for frolicking, a fun outdoor arcade.  It is the home of the cog railway that takes visitors to the top of Pikes Peak, and it's also home to The Incline.

The residents of Manitou Springs are of the friendliest I've ever met.  Seriously, they are so laid back and easy going and hospitable.  It really is known for being home to hippies, it was recently voted one of the top hippie towns in the country.


But they aren't smelly panhandling hippies.  Just friendly don't-sweat-the-small-stuff hippies in tie dye and dreadlocks, always up for a fun time.

As its name suggests, it sports many natural mineral springs, each spring has a structure built around it so that people can learn a little about it and sample the water as it spouts fresh.  I accompanied both Chaco and Wolfgang as their middle school classes did the annual field trips to Manitou, to take in the culture and learn about the springs.  To make it "sciencey", we analyzed the water characteristics from each spring.  Meego's class is scheduled for this year, and I plan to go again.  

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is "fresh" and I did this ink drawing of the current structure surrounding the Shoshone Spring.  

In my opinion, the water tastes awful.  

But I still love Manitou.

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justice rides a tank and wears lip gloss

Well, here we go.  School starts for Meego in a week and a half, right about the time Wolfgang moves into his dorm, right about the time Chaco moves into his apartment/dorm.  I've said it before, I'll say it again.  I'm no Helicopter Mom.  

My parenting style is more... Tank Girl

Today was Grizzled Jumpstart day at Meego's middle school.  It's just a (pseudo)nym for go-to-the-school-among-the-throngs-and-find-your-schedule-and-locker-and-then-get-back-out-alive.  So we did that.  

I'm so glad I have boys.  It took us all of about 10 minutes to take care of business.  In the meantime I saw countless girls cutting and primping and getting their lockers all just so very One Direction-esque.  There were a few Helicopter Moms standing in the middle of the hallways - comparing schedules and conniving to optimize everything around their kids - as efficient people had to flow around to accomodate their static bodies.  

I believe that one of my main goals as a parent is to work myself out of a job, and for the most part, that seems to be going about right.  It sometimes seems, though, that their brains go on vacation during these school breaks.  Like they're almost toddlers again, dependent.  This is a testing time of year, but I'm staying out of the helicopter.  

Yesterday, Chaco negotiated his way into using the Civic for two days to go camping with some other carless friends.  He'd made sure that Wolfgang didn't need it for work, they'd gas it up, etc. etc.  I gave the okay.

So this morning, Wolfgang leaves on his bicycle and then Magnum takes off for work.  There went the Civic, down the street.  And then I'm all, "Wait a min... wasn't Chaco...?"  *sigh*

I start thinking.  Maybe (a) Chaco and his friends changed their plans, (b) Magnum forgot, or (c) Chaco never mentioned anything to Magnum.  Should I quick call Magnum?  But then I think, no.  That's what Helicopter Mom would do, and I'm Tank Girl.  Let them swim their way out of it.

Magnum carpools to work.  His office is about a 30-minute drive from home.  Heck if I had an hour laying around to go swap out the Civic because of something with which I had nothing to do.  Plus, I had Grizzled Jumpstart followed by a tutor girl today.  

There was a chance, however, that it wasn't Magnum's turn to drive the carpool, in which case the Civic would be happily resting at the nearby Park 'n' Ride.  I would happily help make the exchange there, but I would leave it to Chaco to find out.  I wipe my hands at the whole thing until then!  (All this ruminating in my head as Chaco slept.)  Then I made myself stop fretting over it anymore.

I was good.  I was a good Tank Girl.  I busied myself with my own stuff.

Turns out it was a combination of (a), (b), and (c).  The camping wasn't quite coming together, Chaco forgot to mention anything to Magnum.  Fine, they'd just use the Civic tomorrow and hang out in Manitou.  

Works for me.  Now, I've just got to last a couple of more weeks, fighting the urge to...

Wish me luck.

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I wore a hideous bonnet

We were cast as lovers in the school's production.  Young lovers.  Planning a future together.

He looked so dashing.  His clean hair just so beneath the bowler hat.  His mustache neatly groomed.  He wore a garter on one of his ample biceps, over his crisp button-down shirt.

Frank.

As the also-rans sang "A Bicycle Built for Two", Frank pedaled onto the stage, me situated behind him.  Our number was a roaring success, the audience completely ate it up.  We were just so believable.

Of course we were.  We were so believable because, off-stage, we were actual lovers.  Well, as much as a couple of first graders could be anyways.

Frank was my first crush.  We even got married later that year during a lovely afternoon recess affair.  Another friend served as Chaplain and also provided the punch - saved from lunchtime for the occasion.   Alas, it turned out our friend wasn't an actual ordained minister, so my marriage to Frank was never official.  It was annulled by the afternoon bell.

But we'll always have that magical bicycle ride - which was actually on a tricycle that I had to stand on the back of - around the stage.

The story of Frank and me isn't very unique.  Many of our first budding "romances" happened shortly after we went out into the big world of elementary school.  Several crushes later, I made it to the halls of higher education where I met Magnum.  The rest is history, and our 23rd anniversary is this week.

I have not, however, remained immune to the assorted celebrity crush.  As someone has said - who was it that said it? - we can't choose whom we fall in love with.

I mention this now for another of Mama Kat's prompts:  5.) First crush.     And since I felt my own first crush was pretty run-of-the-mill, I'm taking the next step.

Magnum is aware of each of my post-marital crushes.  I confess to them on the blog now, knowing that readers will refrain from going all tabloid on me.


In the early '90s, I fell for Marky Mark.  The rapper with the rap sheet to go along, and those baggy jeans.  Of course, it wouldn't work out between us.  I was married to a good responsible man who left his shirt on when outside the house.

When it ended, Marky Mark transformed to the responsible, clothing wearing, no more Boston accent, Mark Wahlberg.

Oh well, we'll always have our underwear pictures.

This may come as a surprise to many, but I later developed a crush on Johnny Depp.  Yeah, I know.  Strange.

We managed to keep things platonic, however.  I do occasionally accompany him to awards shows because he has a hard time finding any other women that want to go with him.







I may have mentioned here before, my cougar crush on Shia Labeouf.  He's obviously too young for me.  Is he even out of his 20's yet??

That's okay.  I still let him buy me coffee sometimes.  Very grownup.






So there they are, my crush confessions.

For those who may be wondering, Frank and I are still friends, in touch through the magic of facebook, where we might wish each other happy birthday or something.

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hybrid

For the last few days, the weather people around here have been talking about wednesday WEDNESDAY  WEDNESDAY!!  All this hype for WEDNESDAY.

It's supposed to rain rain rain.  Flood watches and warnings.  Flash flooding in the two burn scars.  We've already seen some of that this summer, but WEDNESDAY is going to be messy.  Roads downstream from burn areas will likely be washed out.  Damaged.  Again.

I even drove Wolfgang to his carpool this morning.  They meet at Jack's house, and when it's not Wolfgang's turn to drive, he enjoys a nice 3-mile or so bike ride to Jack's house.  

But it was overcast.  It was WEDNESDAY.  It wasn't raining, not yet, but it would start any minute.  Plus, after work, it would either be pouring down or the bike paths would be flooded or both.  

Since we were up talking to the trees over the weekend, I didn't do an Illustration Friday.  I was just going to skip, but I kinda started having withdrawals.  Then we had all the weather people screaming about Wednesday.  I chose to illustrate this week's prompt, "Hybrid" for a rainy day activity.

I rather like this steampunk movement among artsy geeks.  Steampunk fashion and accessories feature components of steam driven machinery.  We saw plenty of it at this year's Comic Con.  Lots of goggles, gear drives, chains, etc. thrown together with clothing fashions from Victorian England or Old Time American West.  

It's fun.  It's creative.  It's hybrid.  It's Steampunk.

It's Wednesday.

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Silver Liningness, the Sequel

Since weeks aren't just about weekENDS, and my Silver Liningness posts are meant to recap the whole week, I need an add-on.  Despite the fun of it, camp trips don't get to hog all the silver.

With summer winding down, things are lining up for the fall.  Chaco and Wolfgang's housing situations are looking pretty set and to everyone's likings.  Chaco will be in a more apartment style "dorm".  He's with the same friends from last year.  They'll have a kitchen.  Hmmm...

My schedule is falling into place too.  I think I've got a good idea of how much tuting I can handle while doing the back-to-school thing.  Fall is a busy time for the test preppers.  I had two more slots left in my schedule when an administrator from the school where I did ACT camp called to set up separate tutorings for her twin sons.  How convenient is that??  ALAKAZOOM!, I'm all booked for September prep!

On Saturday, Wolfgang and some friends ran in a 5k, Race for Rwanda.  They really haven't run a whole lot since track season ended, so they weren't looking to be in the winner's circle.  With that in mind, they decided to make it "fun".  As they tried coming up with fun things to do, they realized that, since it's for a cause, they didn't want their fun to come off as distasteful.  So they ended up painting their torsos like the Rwandan flag (which they had to google).

Their efforts got them on the local running store sponsor's facebook:

"Run for Rwanda this am. These Rampart kids sure know how to run in style!! Rwandan flag!"

Moral of the story?  If you can't beat 'em, paint your torso!

In news of the wild kingdom, I went out and hired a new plecostomus to take the place of Hot Lips - may he Rest In Peace - the previous tank custodian.  The good news is, the new guy's still alive.  Oh, and he's being and awesome neat freak too, definitely towing the line.  

Additionally, Reese the snake has been with us for a year now.  He's just about outgrown the original tank we got for him, and Meego found a nice big one at a good price.  A friend of his had a large Boa Constrictor that was fed live mice.  I won't go into detail, but one of those mice turned out to be Mighty Mouse, and... well... no more Boa Constrictor.  Tank for sale!

 

As if on cue, Reese shed his skin this morning.  Napolion lives up to the title "curious cat".  No snake skin gets thrown out without a full inspection.

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Silver Liningness Sunday

I'm back.  Didja even know we was gone?


We got in a feral fix this weekend.  After waiting patiently all summer, the fire bans were eventually lifted, so

we loaded up like neanderthals and headed for the hills.

Wolfgang planned an end-of-summer trip to Elitch's with a few friends, a couple of whom will be leaving this week for college.  So while they were being amused, the rest of us went to go get dirty.

Chaco refused to move from this position
until I put the camera away

It was a really nice weekend for it. Lots of rain was forecast, but we didn't get a whole lot where we were, just clouds and cooler temperatures. We did get under a few sprinkles, but we don't complain about rain!

It was a beautiful day for hiking through the Aspens.

I don't think it technically counts as "lost" if we didn't know where we were going in the first place

Strange tree carvings in those woods.  I'm sure they were signs of doom from some evil forest cult.

This morning, Meego and I went for a bacon hike and met a couple of deer.

We were enjoying a nice moment of nature bonding, when a rowdy jeep shocked us all back to the rat race.















We enjoyed a nice time by the creek while some Church-in-the-Woods people worshipped nearby, reminding me it was Sunday.

No doubt, we were affected by the evil forest cult, because we played Survival Poker while the Biblin' was going on.

Magnum had a deck of playing cards with survival pointers on them.  We had regular and strike-anywhere matches for "chips"

I'm pretty sure a use-your-watch-as-a-compass and a how-to-fend-off-a-black-bear beats a what-not-to-eat and a make-a-snowcave.

b*tches be walkin'

Several years ago, during lent, I decided that I would walk the dogs every day.  I'm not even Catholic, but I kind of like the idea of the lenten sacrifice.  So when people I knew were sacrificing for six weeks, I made the commitment to the dogs.

By the time lent ended, it had become such a habit that I just kept doing it.  Truth is, I enjoy my walks with China.  Back in that initial lent decision, we had two dogs - China and the lovable Domino.  They were active exercise-me! dogs, and I had a 2-headed leash.

Then we lost Domino to the dreaded cancer, and China's not the youngster she used to be.  She and I continue to enjoy our old lady walks together.  Some days, I think maybe I should skip it and get caught up on other things, but then she gives me that look...  It's practically all she asks of me!

This week's Mama Kat's prompts include " Your morning drive  "   Well, I've already blogged my hellacious morning commute, so I thought I would instead share my heavenly morning walk.

Let's go walkin' with China!

READY!

We went out the back gate to catch the pedestrian trail - the same trail that started out the hellacious commute to the school crossing.

This morning, a bicyclist, who was totally spandexed out, passed by and made me wonder how Bike Lady is doing these days.










Then we head west along a nice shady sidewalk.  This is also the route that starts the famous Midnight Mile.  I like it this time of year for the shade and views of the mountains.  I do love China, but I get tired of looking at her butt.





About a half mile down the road, we are near a shopping mall.  Even though it's so close, I can't remember the last time I was actually inside this mall.

One can't seem to go very far here without coming upon a large evangelical church.  This one is not too large, and it's not that large scandel-ridden one either  

Because of our close proximity to the Air Force Academy, there is a constant din of trainer aircraft circling each morning.  

There are several of these single-engine planes in the air at any given time as well as another that spirals slowly upward before making a dump of parachuted cadets.

China and I are buzzed so much that I don't even notice them anymore.  If they're not there for some reason, it seems weird.

We walk by an apartment complex that has a pool I fantasize about crashing.  I'm not sure what PARC stands for, but I have noted that it's CRAP spelled backwards...

It was right near here that I had The Great Bear Encounter of 2011.

Eventually, we've looped back around to the pedestrian trail, approaching the school from the opposite direction, where a fearless crossing guard counterpart slaves.


The school sits at the top of the hill.







Aah, another lovely walk to get China off my back start the day!

This post actually almost qualifies for another of this week's prompts: "9 pictures. 9 words" , but seriously, if I could do just 9 words, I'd be hanging out at twitter.
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