Moving on...

Golden, CO has been a good place to be for the past few months. We have enjoyed the blue, sunny skies (and begrudged the few grey days---my how fast our expectations of a "good day" changed!) Living right next to a rushing, flowing, dancing stream and looked over by a canyon full of mountains (at least, they are mountains to this flatlander) brought at least a few moments of enjoyment, no matter what else was going on.


We have tentative plans for the next few months: We will spend this weekend doing the "lasts" (trying to fit in last visits with friends and family and last trips to the rec center and the library). We plan to be "movin' on" by Tuesday morning, taking a few days to get to the Grand Canyon, via Glenwood Hot Springs, CO and Moab, UT. We will spend a month or so in Arizona. Then in mid April we plan to head towards Alaska for the summer.

So...we have a direction to head and a tentative schedule. That's more than we had when we left Ohio in December! Hopefully we move on stronger and emotionally healthier as we leave this place and time of healing. We are back on track as we continue our journey 2 wonder.

Too Much To Do?

The kids and I realized a few days ago that we only have a little over a week before we plan to leave Colorado and head south to spend time in Arizona with our older daughters. How did the "move date" sneak up on us so quickly?! Suddenly we look at our mostly unscheduled days and panic that there are too many things we still want to do or see with not enough time to fit everything in!!

I was thinking about taking an intro to kayaking class here (in the community center pool). We want to take Randy down to Colorado Springs to share Garden of the Gods with him. We still want to visit the Natural History Museum---after all, we get in free with our pass from the Field Museum in Chicago. My dad says we need to visit the visitor center of the Renewable Energy Labs here in Golden. And on and on goes the list.

So...it's decision making time. What things are most important to us? What places will we skip (at least for this visit)? Which people will we spend time with? What library books will we finish reading and which ones will be returned...unread? We also realize we need to do another mini-purge of belongings. We have gathered more clothes, more books, more papers, more STUFF in the two months we have been here. Which of those things do we keep? What things do we get rid of?

Living in a small space makes it so much more obvious how quickly "stuff" accumulates. Living in a movable home makes it more difficult to put down "roots" in the first place...and makes us realize how many connections we have already made in the relatively short time we have been here.

We enjoy the freedom that comes with a mostly-open calendar. But this week we will be busy. Time here is running out...

ARGGHHH! ... WIND!

The wind started blowing again last night. We have gotten spoiled with a number of warm, sunny, hardly breezy days. But the temperatures are dropping again which makes the wind roar down the canyon from out of the mountain ranges behind us.

The branches are whipping back and forth, sometimes the tree trunks even bend downward. It seems the stream is struggling to keep moving down stream...not UPstream where the wind is pushing it. The little red squirrel I enjoy watching is nowhere to be seen...probably holed up in her nest.

And us? We are hunkered down in our RV. Even with the furnace running and a space heater aimed at us, it still seems chilly. It is hard to focus on anything as the entire RV rocks in the wind, almost jerking with the big gusts.

I walk outside occasionally just to double check the jacks keeping the rear of the trailer level. No, they've not shifted so far...but these gusts make it FEEL like the trailer is moving!

And...all the hard work Jakob and Randy did during the freezing cold a few weeks ago is coming apart. Every so often Jakob has to go out and chase down long styrofoam insulation boards as the wind blows them out from the base of the RV, flips them, and tries to carry them off. Last time out, Jakob stacked all the pieces fully under the trailer, up against the down-wind tires (and only remaining insulation boards still standing), and tried to weight the pieces down with a folded up lawn-chair. Seems to be working for now...

I'm thinking I will buy a few more boards tomorrow. Jakob and I will try to get them all put back up and more thoroughly taped together before the temperatures take a big drop later in the week.

It's frustrating to have to re-do things we thought we had already solved...if we must keep coming up with innovative solutions at least let the problems be NEW ones!!

So...aaarrrgggh! to the wind! Bluuurrrgh to repeated frustrations! I think I'll go looking for chocolate...with that and a lovely, oh-so-soft white blanket to cuddle under I just might get my equilibrium back!

WIND...a poetic look

Here is a poem written by Jakob and Anna (with framework by me)

The WIND

TODAY it is:

• howling like a coyote
• strong, like a giant trying to push over the RV
• uneven as waves on a shore
• blowing cold out of mountain snow forts

YESTERDAY it was:

• soft like a kitten pouncing
• gentle like a playful lamb
• lifting the hang gliders to dance around the mountains
• warm like a breath of sun

TOMORROW??

• which wind will fill the air?

Logic and Eliminating Variables

I didn't PLAN to have Jakob practice scientific methods today for school. I didn't PLAN to have to send him crawling around under the RV (and inside the styrofoam insulating boards he and Randy installed around the perimeter of the RV). I certainly didn't PLAN to do school wrapped up in blankets today.

Sigh...

This is one of those days that calls for spontaneity and flexibility... We apparently ran out of propane last night. (HOPEFULLY, that is all it was...and there is nothing actually wrong with the furnace.) That explains the blankets...

Then, when Jakob decided to do his school reading while sitting by the heater in the enclosed space under the RV (don't bother...I don't know either...it's useless to ask why...!!), he discovered that the heater wasn't working. When he followed the cords to check connections, he discovered that the hose heater (plugged into the same extension cord) also wasn't working. He checked the circuit breaker--flipped it off and back on again, tried unplugging and replugging the cord to the outlet, etc. Nothing...

So, he spent quite a long time, disconnecting all the cords and components, dragging everything into the trailer, and trying each part in the interior outlet. After resetting the breaker for the inside outlet (which blew when he first plugged in the extra heater), he tried each piece separately. They all worked individually. I guess this all of this counts as using scientific methods, right?! He eliminated variables and finally isolated the problem. The outside outlet isn't working!

He has already walked over to the office and reported the problem. They say they will send someone to work on it yet today. (At least it's currently above freezing so our water lines are not at risk!)

Thanks, Jakob! Job well done!