Into the Archives: Palisade Sunset

Palisade, Colorado, April 2, 1996

Scanned Polaroid

I had not planned to spend all morning taking dust out of scanned photos, but I wanted to get into my prints and negatives, see how they would come out, and get a few online. (I didn't do the spotting as completely as I would have if I felt like I wanted to devote the time today.) I had started with a completely different subject in mind, and when I couldn't find those pictures right away, I began with this sunset. There are eight images on the page, all different, so come on over and check it out.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

New picture links - yeah!

Was it only last weekend, or the weekend before? I spent a few hours upgrading the picture links on the personal part of my tapirback.com web site. I'd been wanting to turn the text links into picture links, re-think some categories, and reorganize folders. I finally found a format I liked, changed some color backgrounds, and . . . I like it!

That was a big improvement, and it was also groundwork for the hundreds of photos, drawings, and other bits and pieces I'd like to put together on the site, like a travelogue, scrapbook, etc., all in one. I don't know when I'll find the time, but since summer has been just a bit slower in my online store, I thought I'd take the opportunity. It was fun. Usually when I get a break from that, I work on The Tapir Gallery (which by the way, still needs major remodeling). I've been building tapirback's various locales since 1996. It feels like a house that you keep improving - only maybe better. You don't need a dumpster to make the changes.

Hmmm. Next time I'll find out more about blog formatting. I would have liked to have all of the pictures on the left with the text wrapping automatically as it did around the first picture.

I've spent a lot of time coding very basic html. There are a number of formatting types I haven't used at all, some rarely, and some I learned recently and promptly forgot. If you don't use it, you definitely lose it with the new things. But web coding is one of the coolest things I've ever learned. What else combines art, logic, writing, presentation, preservation, and costs almost nothing in and of itself?

Add instant gratification, and it is not only addicting, it's SUCH an amazing technology. . . . Links? So simple! I once wrote an entire book wishing I could use something like LINKS from point to point in the explanations. But that was before links and web pages had been invented. More on the book some other time. That's one more project I'd like to resurrect and re-invent for the web site. Oh well, many thoughts, many projects, and it's later than I meant to stay up.

Day 1: June 5, 2001 - Leaving Palisade, first night

I don't have any photos for this day. I got super lucky, because we were having an unseasonably cool few days just when I had to go get the moving truck and put everything together. It's hard to describe what the heat can do to me, especially combined with the stress of leaving home, so this was just plain fortuitous. We picked up a couple of Marco's friends to help pack the truck. One or two others bailed, so we were lucky to have anyone. It took a lot longer than anyone expected, but eveything fit just about perfectly. The pre-planning paid off. Everyone behaved, and it was a friendly effort all around. I don't remember the goodbyes. I rememer that Kate flew in on time, and I had to keep her waiting longer than I expected, but she'd brought a book and was fine with that. She waited at the airport, which was just off of the route I needed to take out of town anyway.

So, the sendoffs were done. Kate (incredible friend) was a welcome sight. I was even more tense than I thought I'd be and I just wanted to get on the road. I remember seeing her at the airport seemingly pretty relaxed and wearing a colorful (blueish?) scarf. The truck was packed, and it had seemed the lesser of several evils to put my car on a tow rack behind it with all wheels off the ground. I can't say I'd had much experience driving a truck this big myself, but Kate said she had. Once with Kate, I think I began to relax a little. She drove, and we hit the nearby highway never looking back, or not much. We passed through Grand Junction, Fruita, Loma, Mack, and over the Colorado-Utah border on I-70, driving literally into the sunset. I remember how red the sky was, and how pretty it made the desert. It was reassuring and, as Kate and I always did, we laughed in spite of everything.

We'd of course planned to be far enough along to stop for the night before it was actually dark, but that wasn't going to happen. We stopped for dinner somewhere and ate something. The room was big. It was OK, I think. The A/C was cold. And we got into the low desert mountains before we stopped for the night at a small hotel.

Go to Day 2

Last photos of Palisade and Pets

Well, this is it - the last photos of the garden and pets. It's already May 29th, and moving day will be June 5th. Marco is moving back into the house so he doesn't have to pay another month's rent on his apartment. It's fine. We're getting along. He lined up some friends to help me pack the moving truck on moving day. Kate will be flying in from San Jose to help out and drive with me all the way to Oregon. I've made the discovery that Central Oregon is HOT in the summer. The Willamette Valley (Oregon) isn't as hot as Western Colorado, but it's hot enough, and it's more humid. I'm not going there. I don't know where I'll land, but it won't be another place where I can't go out and enjoy the summers. I've been looking at temperatures online now that summer is settling in. Beth suggested I check out the Oregon coast, so I've been doing that. It's weird knowing that I have one week to decide where I'm going to live, and I can't go there to check on it. I have about enough space on my credit cards to get moved and take care of basics. So, which of Oregon's coast towns will be right for me? I guess I can even decide when I get there. The one that looks most promising may be Astoria, with some depth, history, and a community college. My other concern at this point is that I have a lot of stuff to pack into the moving truck, and I dread doing that on a hot day. It could really mess up the rest of my week, and I'll need my health. This is stressful and scary, but also exciting.

Here's Elvis on the hummingbird feeder. We're supposed to hang a bottle on the stand, and we've done that before, but I'm not going to risk the birds when she looks so eager! Here I've exposed the picture for Elvis. See below for how it really looked.

Here are a few more pix of Elvis on the feeder. She was so cute (and creative).

Yeah, Hi Elvis. Where are the birds?

Here she looks like a weather-cat!

The back yard in the evening with roses and late-day sun on Grand Mesa.

Leila enjoyed lying in the back yard about this time of day.

It's not quite the same pose. You'd have to click on it and then look at her carefully. Indulge me. These are the last pix I'll ever take my lovely dog. I think it would be unfair and confusing to come back and visit. Once they get over missing "Mommy," that should be it, I think. The thought makes me cry, but what can I do?

Sweet Leila.

Leila and Elvis doing their thing. I'm not sure why I don't have any pictures of Pterelas today. Maybe he was asleep on the couch. Going around taking "last photos" is no fun, so I probably was trying not to think about that.

Counting the days, enjoying the flowers

The days were counting down to moving day early in June. I still didn't know where I was going to end up. I was thinking that someplace near my brother in Cottage Grove, Oregon, would work. Maybe Eugene, as it had more potential. I was reading about some aspects of living there. I'd taken one of the most important (to me) for granted, and that would turn out to be a mistake. Meanwhile, the riot of growing, flowering plants was my delight. Here's one view of the front yard here on Milleman Street.

Here's another view. I've never been a fan of plain tract-looking houses like this, but the location made all the difference, and the flowers were the icing on the cake. We always got weed ordinance notices, though. As you can see, it's not manicured.

It was an ongoing struggle between getting something to grow besides the iron weeds and having that something go crazy and look like a jungle. I didn't mind the jungle so much, but there were times that the only cure that would keep away the weed ordinance wolf was a lawn mower. The neighbors liked us better when it was trimmed, too, especially the retired ones who seemed to have nothing to do but make their yards look perfect and give us the evil eye.

Last time for the flowers

The old digital cameras really don't handle contrast very well, do they? Nevertheless, this is the memory I have of the garden coming into full bloom in May 2001. The roses are out now.

The roses surrounded the small deck on both sides. They kept me busy pruning. I've never seen roses grow so crazily fast. There were a lot of suckers to pull out as well as just keeping the regular stems trimmed. That wasn't too bad compared to the white dusty stuff that would get on them later in the year. We were set against poisons, so we tried various natural or less harmful remedies with limited success. But it was fun to see them, so bright and colorful. I'm not sure what the water jug was about, except that we made sun tea once in awhile, so maybe that's what it was.

More roses with a big rose stem sucker begging to either be cut or run rampant. I sometimes filled whole garbage bags with them from this one little patch of roses. In the background, the moonlight scotch broom has lost its beautiful light yellow blossoms, but it seems to be adapting well. And the fence is now covered with lush, growing vines. Only a few weeks ago they were brown and dead-looking.

Here's another photo of the yellow rose. The planter box around the deck had several colors.

Packing in Palisade

There's less than a month to go, and I'm seriously deciding what goes and what stays or gets thrown out, because what's going is already stacking up in the garage in bankers' boxes. I did NOT choose the pink. It came with the house. The room had belonged to a little girl, of course. I also didn't pick the foo-foo trim or the fake wood paneling. I began to tear some of this down, but I didn't get very far before I saw that it was unfinished underneath. It was going to be a big project.

There are a lot of books, some clothing, although mostly used as packing material, tapir skulls, and my projects - ring binders filled with paper, floppy disks, some printed on paper, some artwork and supplies (quite a bit), and assorted other projects such as fabric things. Sometimes it's hard to tell if these are classified as art, useable things like quilts, or potentially to be made into clothing. Most of the fabric doesn't end up finished, but I have absolutely loved gathering and working with fabric during the past few years. The designs and colors can be fantastic, and there's a store in Grand Junction whose buyer's taste and mine coincide all too often for the budget. Anyway, I'm getting ready for the road.

Purple wallflowers in Palisade - it's jungle season

Ah, the purple wallflowers are blooming in the front yard. The wallflowers come in all colors and you never know what each year will bring. They're tough, too. They find their way by themselves. I do love the times here when the flowers start coming out. The flowers grow, the weeds grow, everything takes off and blooms or exudes or twines or mushrooms for the short happy season before it's baked dead. I always let the garden go a little crazy, but soon I'll be trying to cut and pull it back into shape - usually without much success. I'm delighted so see something with color in the front yard where the rocks and herbicide ruled for so long.

MAY: I could be starting a suburban legend, but it seems to me that every May 2nd, something happens here. It's the first day all year that you can feel the summer heat at some time during the day. With that, for me, comes a momentary depression. The time is over when I feel elated the whole time I'm outdoors. That feeling is basically over until October. From the second on, it can be hot, but there are a few days left when it won't be too bad. But this year will be different. I'm leaving all this and I'll be in Oregon in about a month.

One photo on my birthday; Elvis in the fern

This is the only picture I took on my birthday. I'm writing this "from the future," and I've forgotten the details of the day. Marco had moved out. I was packing and planning my move to Oregon. Our divorce was being finalized, and I was getting ready to part with pets and home. It was my 52nd birthday. I hadn't made real friends in Palisade due to health, work, and the fact that when Marco and I were happy, we didn't seem to need anyone else. Also, I tend to be shy. I have a lot of friends and colleagues online, and a few really good friends in real life, but they all live far away. I'm sure my mom called, because she always does. My siblings probably e-mailed, because that's what we usually do.

As you can see, Elvis was sleeping in, and continuing to wreck, my gorgeous fern. Well, it's not gorgeous any more :( But she's so cute, and cats don't follow instructions very well. I had put it way up high but that didn't bother her!

Flowers for my birthday

It's nearly my birthday, and the flowers respond to the warmth of May in Palisade. Actually, midday is starting to get hot.

The red really comes out in this photo. I think the colors of the sage and its flowers are about right, but the old flower box behind them isn't really that radiant. Maybe it was enjoying the Spring, too.

Pterelas, Leila, roses

All the nuances make a difference when you know it's almost over. Here's Pterelas with slobber on his nose. He's part Lab and part Chow, and probably part something else, too. He's got a pink tongue with black spots on it.

I just took a similar photo, but I want this one, too. They will all be precious when I can't see the dogs any more. A different expression, a different angle. It all feels important, and also ephemeral.

Even the roses interest me, and how they begin to bloom in May.

This is Leila. We're pretty sure her mix is half Lab and half Chow. Her mother was a Chow, and the owners had to chase the Lab out of the yard after mating with her mom. I guess he could have been a mix, but he looked mostly Lab to them. She had a black tongue, a slight underbite, and white, white teeth. She's one of the sweetest dogs you can imagine. Very tuned in to emotions, maybe a little codependent, but not too. She has a streak of "cat" in her - a bit of independence, and, oddly, is the best mouser in the family (including the cat).

Happy cat; not so, Sheryl

At this point some panic and depression are setting in. I know I'm going to be leaving them, and about all I can do is spend time with them and take photos to remember them by.

I love this one. Elvis in action.

Snoozing.

Where to sleep if you're a cat

If you're Elvis, I guess the window sill behind the blinds is a good place to sleep. Marco's mom gave us the gold and green thing on the left. It's a "money tree," a tradition in the Philippines, which is where she and Marco are from. I don't think it ever brought us money, but maybe it did. I remember one time ringing the bells and an order came in on a slow day. But that was only once. The box in the upper left is something I made to hold floppy disks. I like making simple things that solve organizational issues. I'm not a great woodworker, so they have to be simple, but they do usually work. I or we also built the shelf under the blue box.

Pix to remember the garden by, and first boxes

I loved and hated this yard. I mean I really did love it because of the scenic mountains we could see from here, and it was so large it was great for the pets and it buffered the neighbors, so we could feel that we had our own space. But the weeds were terrible and it needed a lot of water. I might try xeriscaping if I were to do it again. I understand now why so many people here landscape by putting down black plastic with rocks over the top and not having plants at all, or having a few peeking through, but I don't like that, and I wouldn't do it. We tore out all of the old black plastic but then the weeds had a field day. Once I found out that kitchen sage grew well, needed little water, survived winter, had purple flowers, and kept down the weeds, I began planting it everywhere. Unfortunately, I had to leave before most of the plants got big enough to do what they were supposed to do. The ones in the planter here are getting a good start, but they're still having to cope with the weeds, and the weeds were too much for me.

Here Elvis, Leila, and Pterelas are all enjoying being outside. Whenever I came out to work, I had lots of helpers.

The catnip has sprouted way up since last photo. I can't say Elvis pays any attention, but I like looking at it.

The plants in the front are sage. I even put one in the empty spot in the box with the rose bushes.

Happily-growing sage plants.

Here's another view of the garden facing west. Mt. Garfield is just behind that house. The grass had become a big problem. The gound got hard, as it will eventually since the soil is mostly clay. The weeds grow and the grass doesn't. It looked good when we moved in. It seems we needed to learn about lawns. I don't remember that lawns were such a science in California. You watered them and mowed them. This seemed to be a different set of rules.

Here are the first four moving boxes. I love bankers' boxes. They're so easy to stack and store. They're big enough to be useful and small enough not to be cumbersome. I got the bright idea to order a whole lot of them for everything that would fit in that size box, label them carefully, and place them on two-by-fours so they wouldn't get wet. It worked extremely well. I didn't realize it yet, but I was investing in furniture for my future apartment, too.

Elvis on the photo stand

This is my set-up for taking photos for the gift shop. I guess Elvis thought it was suitable for her. What a soft, gentle cat. She's a good one. We got lucky with both dogs and Elvis. Except for sleeping in some very odd places and the occasional playful bite, Elvis is a very easy-going and non-destructive cat. I love how she plays with the dogs, too. I'm not sure they love it, but they tolerate it. Sometimes they instigate, so I guess they don't mind having their faces bitten all that much.

Fried mini blinds

I'm just taking odd shots here of things to remember. These mini blinds on a south-facing window got so hot during the summers that they warped and twisted. I don't know how old they were, because they came with the house. I replaced them with white mini-blinds that should last for awhile, anyway.

A blog is a blog - Leila, Pterelas, and hail on the worn out deck

I keep struggling with the fact that some of these pictures are simply self-indulgent and have no redeeming artistic or social value. If it's going on the Web, it should be meaningful, right? Probably not. What is a blog? It's a web log, and it's mine. I like my pets. I want to remember them. I like the way Leila commandeers the chair by the washer and dryer, and Elvis likes to sit with her on the back of the chair.

Here's Pterelas, looking goofy and happy, as usual.

Leila and Elvis, no flash.

How fast the seasons change here! It's April and the grass has not only turned green, but has started growing out of control. A bit of hail reminds us of the season. It could still snow, as we often get our deepest (but not coldest) snow in April. Old-timers say the Grand Valley used to have a long Spring and Fall, but no more. There's basically only winter and summer now, with a very short Fall and Spring. At least it seems that way.