Life Transplanet

Looks like it is going to snow here in Colorado this weekend.   It’s been a nice few days with highs in the 50′s.  It makes me think of spring but we are still at least 5 months away from things starting to grow again.

We are planning a trip to Rincon soon which will be awes0me. We are looking forward to seeing the place after almost 9 months away! Not sure what to expect, but the gloomy weather here can drag on a person so it will be good to see some sunshine and green plants!

The geese are migrating this time of year and apparently found some food in our yard which was kind of interesting.

Not Chickens

We (Greeley) are on a flight path for migrations each year and we get thousands of these guys as visitors on their way from Canada.  They stop at all the lakes in town and since our house is in between 2 ponds they occasionally stop by to say hi.  They don’t usually come into the yards to eat though…lol.

I woke up today in my warm house while outside it is a chilly 7 degrees.  Thinking about this I realized that it’s completely normal for me.  I live in a place where if you didn’t have shelter, you could quite possibly die.  It’s always amazing to me that people selected this as a place to live.  Sure in the summer it’s nice and warm day and night, but what kind of marketing did they have to use to get us here?

I figured I’d go for a walk and I snapped a few pictures to share.

We Carve Paths thru the Snow and Ice

I suppose for some people that haven’t ever lived or visted a winter wonderland stuff like this would be pretty fascinating.  It will be fun to make Puerto Rican friends that haven’t ever seen snow!

The Frost Clings to Surfaces in the Night

We have a pond in the center of our subdivision.  It’s got a lot of ice over most of it, but this end must be a bit warmer.  I thought the vapor dancing on the surface was cool and took a short video.

t looks like we will have a white Christmas.  This snow is going to stick around for a few days at least!  This is all so normal to me, much like the Rocky Mountains.  Heck we live right up against them and I hardly ever go, I’ve been so many times and it’s so “normal” that I haven’t taken time to blog about them.  This is a reason why Puerto Rico fascinates me, it’s a whole new world.  A world where they don’t bury water lines for fear of freezing pipes and houses aren’t built with pitched roofs to keep the weight of snow from crushing them.  Seems absurd to me.   LOL

I’ve been running into some trouble here and there.  Nothing major, just normal things that tend to break every now and again.  I am of the mindset that I can do anything and I have proven this to myself thru the years.  I can install sprinklers, I can finish basements (framing, plumbing, electrical), I can work on cars.

Lately I’ve come to realize that I just don’t have the time.

In order to fix something you have to have the tools, the knowledge and the time to do it.  The clutch went out on my Honda before we left for vacation. I’ve never done a clutch before so I figured I’d give it a shot.  Saturday morning (one of the only days I get off) I woke up early and got started.  I was taking parts off and making pretty good progress.  Then I came to a point where I couldn’t reach a bolt.  It was a bolt that held the engine onto the transmission.

I tried several different approaches to get to it.  I even took the whole other side of the engine bay out, the tire, the hub and the axle.  Still just couldn’t get a good angle on it.  There just wasn’t enough room. What I needed was an impact wrench.  Well I decided that spending Saturday morning on my back under my car wrestling with a stupid bolt that I needed to spend at least $100 for the right tool to get it out with…just wasn’t worth it.  I put it back together and drove it to the shop.  Went to Puerto Rico and when I came back it was done.  Well…that was easy.

We got a call from one of our renters and the toilet is leaking a bit around the base.  ugh…WeIl I put the toilet on and because the tile had moved the toilet up about 1/2″ it has always been in the back of my mind.  I put a new wax seal on and it appeared to be working fine.

Well here comes one of those decisions.  Should I do it myself and save money?  Again I would find myself spending Saturday morning struggling with bolts, trying to figure out how to cut cast iron and run a new collar to fit with the toilet.  Since I wasn’t entirely sure how this would work out I called to get a quote.  $300 to put all new piping under the floor and seal up the toilet to the floor.  Hmmmm.   Sounds like a deal to me.

I guess I pick and choose my battles depending on what the task is.  I have a lot of work ahead of me this spring.  I need to finish up the landscaping in the back yard at another place.  I need to finish my framing job at another.  I just have too much on my plate without adding to it.  The landscaping I am 100% about the work that needs to be done.  The framing is the same, I know exactly what I need to do.  The plumbing at this older house I would spend a lot of time just researching and trying to find out what needs to be done.  Let alone finding the 1 bolt I need a special tool for.

I would rather put in some extra time at my job doing something I am good at, then under a house frustrated.  Plus we have to clean our house, go shopping, tend to our other small business, run misc errands all on my day off.  Sometimes you just can’t do everything yourself.

Well the city council has decided to put it back on the agenda for Feb 16 where they will hear public input and vote.

We are on a chicken rollercoaster.

We are getting very indifferent on the issue. Either situation isn’t completely desireable. The current code isn’t good but the proposed code is almost worse because of all the micromanagement and bureaucracy.

Reminds me of a saying. “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

Britton and I took a few days off work and today we decided to take a bike ride through Greeley. We thought about taking the Poudre Trail, but had a few errands to run, like picking up fresh tortillas at the tortilleria and stopping by the library for some movies I had on hold.  So, instead we ended up touring Greeley. First we stopped at Houston Gardens on the corner of 4th Street and 23rd Avenues.

While this is a pretty busy intersection, you would never guess that there is this beautiful garden and natural habitat hidden right there in town. It is open to the public most days of the week except Sunday and Monday and was an original homestead in the area. It was really cool. My dad said that when he owned his lawn business he used to mow there. I thought it was pretty neat and had wanted to visit there for some time, but their hours were always the same as our work time and Saturdays are usually so filled with chores that we never thought to stop. When you travel by bike and don’t have to work, life is much slower and detours like this are welcome (so are more bike lanes!).

Side note: Because we weren’t expecting to “tour” Greeley, these pics were taken with Britton’s cell phone and not our usual camera, so they might not be as clear.

Houston Gardens in Greeley

On my bike in Houston Gardens

Our second stop was to visit with my parents. They seemed to be doing pretty good although I still worry about my dad’s health. Mom was working on painting the house and Justin (my brother) was looking for a job in addition to his landscaping business since winter is coming upon us.

Next up on the tour was a short ride over to the tortilleria Los Comales for some freshly made tortillas and some hot sauce. I always try to get Britton to go inside to practice his Spanish and he had fun with it today. Then about 4 blocks down we rode through Lincoln Park and went to the library to pick up some movies I had on hold.

I thought we would just ride home from there, but hey, we had TIME and the day was unusually warm (high 60s) after the snow. So Britton wanted to ride over to Glenmere Park. Glenmere is a really nice old area in Greeley with some homes that have a lot of history to them and is located pretty close to the University’s campus. It is also quite the ride by bike from our house, but hey ok.

The lake at Glenmere

We rode around through the fallen leaves admiring the houses, gazebo, pond and trees and decided to go to the bird sanctuary there. Britton and his friends used to ride their bikes there all the time when he was young and I remember going along with my dad when he took care of some lawns near there.

Britton with his bike in Glenmere

We then rode past my grandma’s old house and what Britton called “Witches Alley”. My brother Justin and I used to dare each other to run up this dark scary alley when we would stay with my grandma, and usually we could only make it half-way, even in the daytime, let alone at night. It’s funny that Britton thought it was a haunted alley as well and we didn’t meet until much later.

We passed the hospital and rode past a house that we are hoping will be our final rental and first paid for house. It is our final step to Puerto Rico.

Finally we rode home and whistled at my mom as she was priming the house and fought a head wind all the way back. I held on to Britton’s backpack filled with tortillas, movies and memories. It is nice to have a day to live instead of making a “living”.