Life Transplanet

It is still cold and snowy here, but let’s focus on fun! We weren’t sure what to do for New Year’s Eve this year. I have to work during the day until 5pm, so that kind of limited our travel radius some.  When we went over to the boxing fight party the other weekend we decided we should all do something, but we didn’t know what. So, Sandi and I decided that we could just have it here in Greeley, and that our house would be a good location…So…We’re having another party.

Here’s the Invitation

Also…if you have any extra chairs, that would help. We are low on the seatage.

Then we’ll be Jammin’ like Bob Marley

It is about 8am and it is negative 15 degrees Fahrenheit (negative 26 Celsius)! That is arctic Colorado weather! Kitty usually sleeps outside, but we took him in to sleep in the laundry room last night because it was so cold. The people on the news kept saying to take pets in, that it is so cold it will freeze human skin within a few minutes, so we were pretty worried about the chickens.

I boiled some water this morning and took it out to them and they were just fine. They were not moving much to conserve energy and the black one had frost on her feathers. I think the leghorn has frostbite on her comb, but they were happy when they heard the ice crack as I poured the hot water into their dish. The high today is only supposed to reach about 10 degrees, so the water will freeze again soon!

When I was bringing water to the chickens, Schnoodle ran out with me to go to bathroom (our yard that is). As I was walking back to the house, she just stood there on three legs. I thought maybe she was standing awkwardly as she peed, but she wouldn’t move. I had to coax her back in, but she was slow and looked  like she was in super pain. I think she might have arthritis in one of her back legs, and they say arthritis is more painful when it’s cold (low pressure). 

As I was coming to work, my car started slowly and the road conditions weren’t too bad until I tried to get up onto “O” Street from 25th Ave. My car slid around and let out a bunch of steam/smoke as I gunned it up there. As I walked from my car into the building, the contents of my nose froze as well as my hair that was still slightly damp from showering. All of this is to describe that it is frickin’ cold!!! Puerto Rico, you are looking especially lovely today!

As I was trying to stay warm in our flannel sheets this morning, I just realized that we have quite a bit of tropical things in our house. This must be part of our subconscious desire to be in the tropics considering that Colorado is in the USDA plant hardiness zone 5 and Puerto Rico is in zone 11 (same as Hawaii). What this means is that the low temperature that can be expected  in most of Colorado is -10 to -25 degrees F and the lowest you should ever expect in Puerto Rico (or Hawaii since they don’t list Puerto Rico on the map for whatever reason) is +40 degress F. So the only tropical things you can grow here are houseplants. Last night the low at night was  about 0,  and we are not even half-way through the winter season. But in good Colorado fashion, Saturday’s weather was in the upper 50′s which confuses things even more unless you are from Colorado like us, and then it’s just normal.

USDA Hardiness Map

Here are a few tropical things we have in our house sheltered from the snowy, cold world outside.

Josh, Our African Grey Parrot eating a tortilla chip

Our Banana Tree in our Living Room looking out to a snowy scene

We got this drawf banana tree from a seed catalog in the houseplants or exotic plant section. When we first received it, it was only about an inch tall, but we kept watering it and now (after about 3 years) it is about 6 feet tall. It has never had bananas yet and I think that is because it is so dry and the varying amount of sunlight it receives. Still, it makes me smile and it gets a new huge leaf (like 2-3 feet!) every so often. Also from the seed catalog we got some coffee plants that have never born any fruit (coffee) either but have beautiful glossy dark green leaves.

Me with the Banana Christmas Tree

Because the banana tree and another tall houseplant in our living room are so big we decided to just put lights on the banana tree in front of the big picture window with a couple of ornaments and call it good.  We have had a real pine tree before from the mountains and we had a nine-foot fake tree for a while, but this is kind of fun for this year. It kind of reminds me of that Corona commercial where they light up one big palm tree…

Plus, while some holiday lights in this dark time of year are welcoming, I think too many lights and decorations are kind of corny (more on that later).

**CHICKEN UPDATE**
I was worried that the -10 degrees F might be harmful to the chickens. I checked some online references and apparently they’ll be fine as long as they are out of the wind and / or rain. Well the greenhouse is dry, but cold. It was 0 degrees a little bit ago.

I have to remember that they come with down jackets. 100 years ago nobody had a heated coop, they seemed to get by just fine.

I know, that is a weird combination -John Denver being the hippie folk singer and Hector LaVoe the rockin’ salsa singer, but there is a method to my madness. I would say that these two musicians really encapsulate what people think of when they think nostalgically about Colorado and Puerto Rico. And…I like them both.

Before my mom moved from California to Colorado to be with my dad who was from here, she would sit and listen to “Rocky Mountain High” over and over. I understand her longing because now, I sit around (or dance around) and listen to salsa music- Hector LaVoe in particular and think about Puerto Rico.

Rocky Mountain High

There are definitely plenty of other great musicians from Colorado (Big Head Todd and the Monsters, 303, Glenn Miller, Yonder Mountain String Band, India Arie etc) and from Puerto Rico (Daddy Yankee (or Yanqui-lol), Calle 13, Willie Colon, Ricky Martin, Tito Puente, Jose Feliciano), but John Denver and Hector LaVoe represent Colorado and Puerto Rico respectively, to me. -On a side note, Jose Feliciano (Feliz Navidad singer) was born in Lares, Puerto Rico!

It’s interesting that both Hector LaVoe and John Denver changed their last names. LaVoe is actually a French name that means “the voice” and he sings a song called “Soy La Voz” or “I am the voice” and of course John Denver’s last name is the capital city of Colorado. They both died untimely deaths with Denver flying and crashing his airplane while flying drunk and LaVoe from drug use that led to AIDS. I don’t know if there is a movie out about John Denver, but El Cantante starring JLo and Marc Anthony had a lot of great music in it.

Here’s a great Christmas salsa song:

Aires de Navidad

Other songs that remind me of Puerto Rico and Colorado at this time of year are: Esta Navidad by LaVoe and Colorado Christmas by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Click to hear more from Hector LaVoe with La Murga de Panama.

Last night we went over to our friends Chris and Sandi’s house in Commerce City to watch the Oscar De La Hoya fight against Pachiou (sp?). It was quite embarrassing how bad De La Hoya looked compared to Pac. He was slow and old and just got pummeled.

Anyway, it was fun getting together with friends and later that night we played Dominos or “bones”. Britton and I played as a team and I think we took second, not bad for never playing that particular version of Dominos.

Friends from right to left: Lisa, Me, Sandi, Blair and a friend of Blair’s

Watching the fight