Last Friday the schools in Granby were in a Lock Down Mode. Apparently there was some guy walking by the schools carrying a rifle and someone called the police.
Ian and I saw this man. We were on our way back from the "feed store." "Feed Store" is surrounded by apostrophes because it's not really a feed store. My friend Zena, who was here a few summers ago, went with me to the feed store. It's actually in the Miller's barn next to the goats and birds they raise. There's feed stacked all around and you pick out what you want then you leave your money in a "lock box." "Lock box" is also surrounded by apostrophes because it's not really a lock box. It's a metal box but it doesn't lock. There's a note on it that says "Please do not steal any money. We've lost the key." The note is dated 1997. True story. Ask Zena.
Anyway, we were on our way back from the "Feed Store" driving by the high school and we saw this man. He was dressed in camo and he was carrying a rifle. It didn't worry either one of us. Grand County is 70% public lands and we have multiple hunting seasons; doe season, buck season, mule deer season, badger season, elk season, cow elk season, cougar season, loose cow season, runaway horse season, lost goose season...it goes on and on. So seeing someone carrying a rifle along the road didn't seem too weird to me or Ian. We didn't call the police.
Apparently someone, obviously someone who doesn't live here (most of the tourists here are from Texas - I didn't think someone from Texas would worry about someone carrying a rifle) so I figure they were probably from "THE FRONT RANGE." It took me a while to learn that THE FRONT RANGE is synonymous for Oregonians learning someone is from CALIFORNIA - this is not a compliment. THE FRONT RANGE is anyone not from this side of the Rockies - flatlanders, city folk, Democrats. They probably called the police.
The local police, following protocol and at the same time wondering which local bozo was walking downtown with his rifle in plain view, shut down the schools. They converged on the guy, probably excited that they had something to do that didn't involve FRONT RANGE PEOPLE, and then leaned against their police trucks (no cars here - only 4-wheel drives) and asked him how the hunting was. The story was that he got tired of waiting for his two buddies to pick him up - they were also carrying rifles and wearing camo, and decided to walk home.
No one was arrested, although he was probably cited just because the police thought they should, on some minor offense, like walking on the wrong side of the road or wearing camo in public.
It was quite the story in Granby. Mainly we were all laughing at the person who called the police - he or she probably won't ever come back here. Ian thought it was hilarious since he and his friends are always walking around town with their Air-Soft guns, he hopes someone calls the police on them, he thinks it'd be cool to be arrested, especially by Officer Sanchez - he's cool.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Not at All About Homeschooling
The elk have started heading through our field to the Elk Reserve; they hole up there during the winter - free from hunters, snowmobilers and me - in the winter I can't get over there although in the summer I do plenty of riding there.
They come through our field and through our fences; I don't curse the broken fences like I do in the Spring. During the night until the early morning they come and I wait for them every year - it's one of the things I will truly miss about Granby.
They are dark shapes, shadowy on the snow. I open the window to our bedroom and Mike and I sit, at 2 in the morning, watching and listening to them. . They whistle and snort. They move through the snow and the night, hundreds of them for one or two weeks and then they disappear up into the Fraser Canyon for the winter.
This year, knowing this is my last, I force myself to stay up as long as possible. I want to commit this winter migration to memory; I know I will never see this again and I will miss this.
They come through our field and through our fences; I don't curse the broken fences like I do in the Spring. During the night until the early morning they come and I wait for them every year - it's one of the things I will truly miss about Granby.
They are dark shapes, shadowy on the snow. I open the window to our bedroom and Mike and I sit, at 2 in the morning, watching and listening to them. . They whistle and snort. They move through the snow and the night, hundreds of them for one or two weeks and then they disappear up into the Fraser Canyon for the winter.
This year, knowing this is my last, I force myself to stay up as long as possible. I want to commit this winter migration to memory; I know I will never see this again and I will miss this.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Back in the Groove
When we travel, I always keep a mental list of places I do not want to move to. For example, if we had traveled through Granby I would have put it on my mental list. I also keep a mental list of jobs I've never want to do, like working at a liquor store or cleaning cages at a zoo. Fixing computers is now a job on my mental list.
It took me six hours one evening and two hours the next morning to finally get our computer up and running. Our computer crashed seven days ago and yesterday we received the restoration disc. The envelope it arrived in said it was overnight air delivery - I figured it went to Tanzania, then over to Somalia then back to Denver before the company, which is, believe it or not, based in Denver, before the brilliant minds at K12 figured out we have no airport in Granby. It was then put on the UPS truck, which went to Silverthorne, which is past Granby, then to Kremmling then to Granby then to the post office. How did a UPS package end up at a post office...I don't know - for most things around here I shrug my shoulders and say, oh well, it's Granby.
I drank two and a half glasses of wine while fixing the computer the first evening. The first step stated "when you restart your computer immediately press the Y key numerous times; this is important and oftentimes you miss this message - PLEASE DO NOT MISS THIS MESSAGE OR YOU WILL HAVE TO BEGIN THE PROCESS AGAIN." I hadn't started drinking yet, so I did not miss the message as I poised, alertly, over the keyboard, continually checking to make sure the Y key had not moved.
This was not the end of the frightening messages - numerous times throughout the six pages of instruction it stated, DO NOT MISS THIS MESSAGE OR YOU WILL HAVE TO BEGIN THE PROCESS AGAIN. By this time I had had one and a half glasses of wine, so the message was losing its impact.
By 9:30 I had restored the computer, however I could not hook up to the Internet. Our Verizon wireless stick was not "RECOGNIZED" by our computer. I know they hadn't seen each other in seven days but it is a computer, they're supposed to be smarter than us.
Thus the next morning I was at the Verizon dealer (which also sells fudge, Christian CDs, is the FedEx location and offers chiropractor services). He plugged it into his computer and said, "There's nothing wrong with this, I'm not sure why your computer doesn't recognize this." Was I sold a stupid computer? One with the beginning symptoms of Alzheimer's? Back home I went and called the helpful people at the Tech Support; by this time I had four reference numbers, so it took them quite a bit to figure out where I was in the process. It didn't help that they asked me difficult questions like "What was the last step you completed?" "I don't remember, I think maybe the printer one, no wait, maybe the one before it???" (I was embarrassed to tell him about the wine.)
At any rate, by 11:30 yesterday morning I had it up and running and Ian and I were back on track. Sort of. It took me a few minutes to remember the name of this blog; everything my computer remembered it no longer did - after all, I was sold a learning disabled computer.
It took me six hours one evening and two hours the next morning to finally get our computer up and running. Our computer crashed seven days ago and yesterday we received the restoration disc. The envelope it arrived in said it was overnight air delivery - I figured it went to Tanzania, then over to Somalia then back to Denver before the company, which is, believe it or not, based in Denver, before the brilliant minds at K12 figured out we have no airport in Granby. It was then put on the UPS truck, which went to Silverthorne, which is past Granby, then to Kremmling then to Granby then to the post office. How did a UPS package end up at a post office...I don't know - for most things around here I shrug my shoulders and say, oh well, it's Granby.
I drank two and a half glasses of wine while fixing the computer the first evening. The first step stated "when you restart your computer immediately press the Y key numerous times; this is important and oftentimes you miss this message - PLEASE DO NOT MISS THIS MESSAGE OR YOU WILL HAVE TO BEGIN THE PROCESS AGAIN." I hadn't started drinking yet, so I did not miss the message as I poised, alertly, over the keyboard, continually checking to make sure the Y key had not moved.
This was not the end of the frightening messages - numerous times throughout the six pages of instruction it stated, DO NOT MISS THIS MESSAGE OR YOU WILL HAVE TO BEGIN THE PROCESS AGAIN. By this time I had had one and a half glasses of wine, so the message was losing its impact.
By 9:30 I had restored the computer, however I could not hook up to the Internet. Our Verizon wireless stick was not "RECOGNIZED" by our computer. I know they hadn't seen each other in seven days but it is a computer, they're supposed to be smarter than us.
Thus the next morning I was at the Verizon dealer (which also sells fudge, Christian CDs, is the FedEx location and offers chiropractor services). He plugged it into his computer and said, "There's nothing wrong with this, I'm not sure why your computer doesn't recognize this." Was I sold a stupid computer? One with the beginning symptoms of Alzheimer's? Back home I went and called the helpful people at the Tech Support; by this time I had four reference numbers, so it took them quite a bit to figure out where I was in the process. It didn't help that they asked me difficult questions like "What was the last step you completed?" "I don't remember, I think maybe the printer one, no wait, maybe the one before it???" (I was embarrassed to tell him about the wine.)
At any rate, by 11:30 yesterday morning I had it up and running and Ian and I were back on track. Sort of. It took me a few minutes to remember the name of this blog; everything my computer remembered it no longer did - after all, I was sold a learning disabled computer.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Not Really About Homeschooling
For those three of you who have been following this blog with diligence and fortitude my apologies for not keeping up with it. One-I had technical difficulties and Two-I had a kind of unexpected surgery.
The technical difficulties have not been resolved; I'm down at the library.
The surgery has also been resolved, since now I have a half of a thyroid, which apparently is fine. Sometimes you either lose weight or gain weight; if either happens you're supposed to call your doctor. Yeah, right, like I'm going to call my doctor if I start miraculously losing weight.
I asked my surgeon if I could take my half of the thyroid home; I thought this might be one of those "teachable moments" and would be grossly cool. Unfortunately hospitals don't do that anymore - something about a bio hazard. Ian was really, really disappointed. Not only did he not get a formaldehyde jar of a thyroid, but Dad had to cook for five days. (I was actually feeling better after three, but milked it for a couple of extra days)
The snow had settled in and my anxiety level has risen. I worry about driving, about the cold, about the cold and the horses, about the cold and the chickens, about the cold and world hunger. But I'm consoling myself with the thought that this will be my last winter here.
I'm still having technical difficulties at home with our computer. In fact, they are so bad that the techno geeks are sending me a disk to "restore" my computer. I'm not sure what I did so I'm blaming it on Ian. Thus, no homeschooling tirades for a few days and Ian has a few days off, which is fine with him since the snow is here (did I mention that?) which means the two mountains are open for skiing.
The technical difficulties have not been resolved; I'm down at the library.
The surgery has also been resolved, since now I have a half of a thyroid, which apparently is fine. Sometimes you either lose weight or gain weight; if either happens you're supposed to call your doctor. Yeah, right, like I'm going to call my doctor if I start miraculously losing weight.
I asked my surgeon if I could take my half of the thyroid home; I thought this might be one of those "teachable moments" and would be grossly cool. Unfortunately hospitals don't do that anymore - something about a bio hazard. Ian was really, really disappointed. Not only did he not get a formaldehyde jar of a thyroid, but Dad had to cook for five days. (I was actually feeling better after three, but milked it for a couple of extra days)
The snow had settled in and my anxiety level has risen. I worry about driving, about the cold, about the cold and the horses, about the cold and the chickens, about the cold and world hunger. But I'm consoling myself with the thought that this will be my last winter here.
I'm still having technical difficulties at home with our computer. In fact, they are so bad that the techno geeks are sending me a disk to "restore" my computer. I'm not sure what I did so I'm blaming it on Ian. Thus, no homeschooling tirades for a few days and Ian has a few days off, which is fine with him since the snow is here (did I mention that?) which means the two mountains are open for skiing.
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