July 17, 2012
Dear Family and Friends,
We have new neighbors who moved
here recently after a lifetime in the Midwest. Their house is new
construction and many trees were cleared to make way for the house. In
addition, beetle kill and high winds this past winter made a lot of
trees on their six acres a potential firewood source for the next
twenty years.
The fellow bought a new chainsaw and a log splitter and he’s been
neatly stacking cord upon cord of firewood throughout his property.
While we wouldn’t say he’s been secretly or even unconsciously
competing with me for neighborhood woodpile honors—and of course we certainly do not
feel we're in competition with them—he got Hughes feeling a bit
guilty about not adding to our own wood supply for over a year. It’s
not that we’re in dire need of a more firewood (we estimate we’ve
stored up two to three years of wood to keep us warm during the cold
times ahead), but last fall Hughes and a neighbor cut a couple of dozen
trees and there are five good-sized piles of logs cut to size
(18") still sitting in the woods waiting to be split and stacked.
Hughes explains his hesitation in putting on the
gloves, picking up the maul, and heading
into the woods by saying he’s not sure about his shoulder taking the
stress and strain of wood splitting so soon after his shoulder
operation. Back in April, the shoulder surgeon smoothed his rotator
cuff, snipped a biceps tendon that was too frayed to be reattached, and
generally cleaned up his left shoulder area. All done arthroscopically.
Amazing! He completed six weeks of physical therapy in May, and still
does at least one set of exercises daily. While he says he still has
some occasional low-grade aches, he can now stand on a stool and
unscrew a light bulb overhead, wash windows, and lift his bike onto the
car’s bike rack, all impossible to do a few short weeks ago. But can he
swing an ax (or, in his case, a maul), lift and
carry logs, and stack firewood? Today he proved he's back: he just
finished a two-hour stint in
the woods splitting and stacking, and says he feels properly tired,
sweaty, and pain-free. He’s
got at least two more weeks of splitting and stacking before he’s done,
but is looking forward to the task ahead. He claims it’s very
satisfying work, and as long as he can do it we’ll continue to live in
the mountains.
Our area has been in the national
news this spring and early summer for the series of devastating
fires
across the state, as well as throughout all the western states. We were
never threatened here in Nederland, though the Flagstaff Fire in
Boulder, a dozen or so miles away, brought the fire danger very close
to home. That particular blaze was quickly contained within a
relatively short length of time; much larger and
more destructive fires had started well before the one in Boulder and
continued well after. The fires in the Colorado Springs area (Waldo
Canyon Fire) and Fort Collins (High Park Fire) were two the largest and
most costly in the state’s history. At least 15 other fires have been
reported
across the state. Record heat, high winds, and drought have made this
arguably our worst fire season in recorded history.
After thousands of man-hours,
tons of water and fire retardant, and on-site visits by every
politician from the president and governor on down to local officials,
it took the start of our monsoon rains to really quench most of the
infernos, though
not completely. Our annual monsoon rains are nothing, of course, like
those in Bangladesh or elsewhere in southeast Asia; however, we had
3”-6” fall a
couple of weekends ago and we consider it our 100-year rain. The
torrent carved ruts in our driveway, overflowed drainage ditches we try
to keep
cleared, sloshed a pile of gravel at the foot of our front steps, and
backed up water that seeped under the door into our greenhouse. That
was just the first day. We’ve had some rain almost every day for the
past two weeks, though none as fierce as that first day. Our grass out
back has greened
up and no longer crunches underfoot, we haven’t had to water our veggie
beds, and the temperatures at night are good for sleeping once again.
The rain makes us feel a lot safer, though we know that the lightning
that accompanies
the rain is the primary cause of the fires, and a few weeks of rain do
not bring complete relief to an area that continues to suffer from
widespread drought.
HIKING
In spite of weather issues, for
the past month Judy has been a regular member of a local women’s hiking
group that has discovered the overwhelming beauty of a bumper crop of
high mountain wildflowers this year. From 9,000' to 12,000' in the
Indian Peaks
Wilderness Area alpine flowers have burst earlier this
year and the profusion has created broad carpets of reds, blues,
yellows, and whites. Thursdays have been spectacular for her: good
weather, clear mountain lakes and streams, amiable friends—and gorgeous
flowers and lots of ptarmigans spotted (see photos below).
RUNNING
This time of the year is prime
road race season. Judy won her age group in the Boulder
Distance Classic, setting a new age group record this year. On
Memorial Day she took her
age group in the Bolder Boulder
10K by the slimmest margin ever: just
37 seconds ahead of second place. (She took this as a wake-up call to
train differently and harder for next year’s event.) On Father’s Day,
she took her age group in the Father’s
Day 4K and won several nice
prizes as well. On a strange impulse, Hughes strapped on his leg
brace and hobbled to a 2nd
place finish in his age group, a full 15 minutes behind the winner.
Judy most recently finished second in the 4
on the 4th, an annual
Fourth of July event in Boulder.
Hughes would have accompanied Judy to Boulder on
July 4th, but he was playing trombone
again in Nederland’s 4th of July parade in the Barker Dam Brass Band.
This year, for the first time, we had a very brief
rehearsal just prior
to the parade: Corky (in this year's photo, our FL is kneeling in the
front row) brought in a
new piece, “Hey, Baby!” and thought we might run through it a couple of
times before the parade performance, especially since some of us had
never heard it before—plus there was singing for those who knew the
words! It was a crowd pleaser (he was told) and we’re likely to repeat
our performance next year, though without a rehearsal. Note that
neighbor Brian (back row on the left) took a leave from Big
Head Todd
to provide a solid musical grounding for the group on the drums. Having
a pro on the traps makes a huge difference!
TRAVEL
We have been determined to stay at home this summer
and enjoy
our beautiful area. Why leave a place that thousands of
tourists from
all over the world come to for the beauty and serenity of our
mountains? We
leave too often. Not this year! However...
This spring was the occasion for
an important trip to Boston to attend the celebration of our
granddaughter’s high school graduation from Thayer Academy. The weather was
perfect for the outdoor event and she was surrounded by most of her
family—parents, brother home from college, three uncles, and three
grandparents. Sadly, Dan’s father passed away suddenly just a few days
before graduation. Everyone tried very hard not to dampen the
excitement for Julia and we all carried on as well as possible. Norm
was a generous and caring in-law for our daughter and grandfather for
Griffin and Julia. Griffin was asked to give a eulogy at the services
for
Norm, which were held the following weekend. Though we were not
present, everyone was quite taken and proud of what he said and how he
delivered it.
That same weekend, we attended
the 50th wedding anniversary party honoring Judy’s brother, Herb and
his wife, Joan. It was a lovely affair which gave us a chance to not
only see the two of them, whom we don’t see that often, but also to
visit with family members and mutual friends we haven’t seen in
quite a while, as well as to meet family members we had never met.
Griffin’s
summer job is working
for Duck Tours of Boston, getting
passengers ready for the ride, answering preliminary questions, and the
like. We decided on our one free day to take a Duck Boat tour of
Boston, which
turned out to be more interesting than we had anticipated. Actually, it
was comfortable, good fun, and we learned a lot of facts about the city
where we once lived. In the afternoon, we met with Dan and Griffin,
both of who came from work, at the foot of the State House and we all
took an architectural walking
tour of Beacon Hill, which also was a
good decision. We learned a great deal about the history, development,
and architecture of Beacon Hill (and how one formidable resident was
able to get a fire hydrant moved around the corner from her house so
she could park her car in front of her home on Louisburg Square). We
finished the evening at Wagmama (a tasty noodle restaurant) at Quincy
Market.
SUMMER
SOCIALS
AND ROUTINES
We both still volunteer at the
Carousel of Happiness
in Nederland and at the Backdoor Theater on
Friday nights (unless a children’s movie is showing, and since it’s
summer there have been more of them than more “adult” films). One film
we would recommend highly, especially to our adult friends of a certain
age, is “The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel.” It is well written, features
a sensational cast of British actors (has Judi Dench ever made a bad
movie?), is intelligent, and laced with humor at just the right times.
If you’ve been put off by the title or snippy reviews by
twentysomethings who
think “The Hunger Games” stands right up there with
“Porky’s” as a cinematic masterpiece, consider the source and see it
for yourself. You will not be disappointed (unless you're a
twentysomething yourself).
We are also enjoying a summer of
very regular bridge playing with congenial, semi-competitive neighbors
who enjoy talking while we play and thrill to winning a trophy for top
boards upon occasion. If you thought bridge players were stiff-backed,
sniping, lip sucking, anti-social, bickering backbiters—and there are
some of these—you should come to the mountains where
bridge is a game, not life.
Hughes still plays rhythm guitar
with McGinty’s
Wake. The group is gearing up for their annual gig at
the Carter Lake Sailing Club
near Loveland in two weeks. This will be
the group’s 6th or 7th or 8th year of performing there at the annual
summer hootenanny and potluck. (It’s a good thing that two of the group
are
members there; we always get invited back and we play for food.)
In
addition to local get-togethers and
evenings with neighbors, we hosted a “reunion” of friends from Desert
Trails who live in the area: John and Helen from Longmont, Russ and Pat
who are camp hosts currently at Cherry Creek State Park, and cousins
Ken and Carol from Milliken. As we do at Desert Trails, we tried our
hand at locating some area geocaches, ate well (potluck, of course) and
enjoyed each other’s company. We will see Russ and Pat again this
winter, but the other two couples are making alternative plans and
won’t be in Tucson this winter.
TWO
EVENTS WE
WANT TO REMEMBER
We’d
like to remember two wildlife events that intruded on our otherwise
relaxing
summer:
First, on an otherwise normal,
nothing-out-of-the-ordinary morning, the dogs ran off into the woods on
the other side of the rock wall barking at something. We rarely take
note unless the barking takes on a frenzied tone and both dogs are
working together, or if we see a potentially dangerous animal nearby.
In this case, the barking stopped and the dogs returned after a few
minutes. They joined us wherever we were at the time. A few minutes
later we happened to notice that Bella had two points of blood on her
right
hindquarters about two inches apart and another point of blood on the
inside of her left rear leg. All three were puncture wounds, but from
what? We took her to the vet whose educated guess was that Bella had an
encounter with either a fox, a bobcat, or coyote. We don’t know and
never will. Bella never complained, or cried, or whimpered, or limped.
The vet treated the wounds, gave her some pain pills (which we
discontinued after a day or two), and we watched the wounds heal as
neat as can be. However, we believe 17-pound, 13-year-old Bella was
very lucky to have escaped whatever predator she bumped into in a dark
place
where we could not see her.
Second, Judy, on an otherwise
normal, nothing-out-of-the-ordinary return trip up the canyon from
Boulder had a wildlife encounter of a different sort: she ran smack
into a very large adult bear that ran across the highway in front of
her. She
t-boned the bear and threw him further across the highway in the
direction he was headed: toward Boulder Creek. She stopped and searched
along the creek for the bear. Several cars and a delivery truck from
Boulder Lumber stopped and joined in the search when they heard what
had happened. In the end, we don’t know. The front end of the car was
obviously damaged (about $2600 worth) but it was drivable. So she came
home and called the sheriff’s office and the state highway patrol to
report the accident. No one has got back to her and no one has reported
a damaged bear in the area,
not even an angry bear. Like Bella’s encounter, we will probably never
know.
Living in the mountains keeps us on our toes. There
is always something new, something
unexpected, something challenging—yet ever interesting. Life always
reminds us to pay attention.
All things considered, it’s been
a pretty fine summer so far. We dodged a wild land fire bullet, have
enjoyed the company of friends and neighbors, and been engaged in the
community is several ways. Judy and Bella got close to something bigger
than they and survived. Perhaps best of all has been the past two weeks
of the Tour de France, which has had us glued to the TV for two or more
hours each day—and there’s still almost a week to go. Next month we’re
looking forward to the arrival of one of the later stages of the USA Pro
Challenge bike race, which will pass through Nederland during the
very
challenging Stage 6 on August 25. Watch for Nederland as the riders
pass
through town (quickly), and watch for us in the crowd along the highway
about two miles north of town. We won’t be throwing nails in the road
or waving lit flares at the riders. We won’t even be chasing them as
they head up the road. We’ll have all our clothes on and we won’t be
wearing a goofy costumes. We’ll be the ones just quietly cheering each
of the riders for what they will have achieved, and then head back to
the
house to see the finish on TV.
All good wishes for a very happy
summer.
Judy
and Hughes with their favorite granddaughter who's headed for Boston
University this fall, the fourth generation of BU students in the Moir
family.
