Nothing To Do With Nuthin'

HAPPY 2008 EVERYBODY!

Now that the holiday season has ground to a halt and brought each of us a new start here I am with the continuing saga that seems to have no end in sight.

The last posting left us waiting on the electrician to come put in the switch boxes and all that’s associated with that level of install. By the time I got back from Christmas in Colorado the work had been done. Mostly. Seems concrete and the boys aren’t fond of bitterly cold, windy, snowy weather here in NM. I can totally relate.


The usual delays that come from the holidayius interruptus could be predicted, so I won’t bemoan the additional two weeks the build is behind by; everyone needed a break. I spent until Dec. 21st @ La Mirada, administered an ‘easy’ final to my English students (so ‘easy’ that 75% of them got a “D” on it!), hopped a flight to Denver and stayed bundled up for a week while I watched champagne snow fall outside the nice warm house in Colorado. Shoveling snow was my lone activity in between naps and playing with Lego and Monster-dog. KJ and I did manage to make some cookies, a ham, visit friends and generally spread good will and money around. And my Colorado dentist fixed my tooth—something no dentist in my area of NM seemed to have time to get to (there’s more to this tale, but I’ll spare you).

Being indoors for those two weeks saw my health return and some info. from my friends Carolyn & Norbert convinced me that The Tin Can’s ruination of my health was probably due to so much cold air coming in and settling under my sleeping area. I had already invested in hundreds of dollars worth of insulation for the water line, windows and door. All that was left was to return to TTC and install it.

I never want for small projects to do these days.

So, KJ, Lego, Monster and I jumped in a rental car and drove down to NM. The morning we left it was 19 degrees below zero, with a wind chill of about -30. We couldn’t drive fast enough in my opinion. There hadn’t been a day I’d been in CO where the temp. was above freezing. Folks in warm climes think that the folks in cold climes are nuts to be running around in shorts when the temps. are in the high 30’s-40’s, but consider how much warmer 40 degrees is when you’ve been existing in sub-zero weather! It’s kinda like when I lived in AZ and had a down coat on when the temp. dipped below 70; from 110 degrees to 65 degrees the change is noticeable.

This has nothing to do with the house, does it?

Oh, but it does….



Four more days back @ La Mirada (I should get a kickback for the number of times I mention them, huh?) allowed my health to root itself and make day trips to TTC to do those pesky little insulation tasks. From insulated tape to heat tape to window sheeting to insulated blankets to filling propane tanks we were kept busy. Then there was the constant chasing down of the dogs to interrupt perfectly good work progress. Gotta love it all. So, there I was, getting all geared up for moving back into TTC and start checking everything out to make sure it’s a go and…there’s no water flowing from the well. It’s reasons like this that teachers get more days off at the holidays than the rest of the working world—shit happens and someone in business needs to be working so we teachers can go back to work without a worry in the world. HA!

A call to the well company got me spending some more money on some more heat tape and insulation for the well pipes. Two tie-downs, a tarp and the Mexican serape from the Jeep became the well tank’s new clothing. I’m thinking of putting a gargoyle head atop the tank just to give it some personality and a sense of worth. Some more clay got screened for the floor install that is expected to happen…sometime, but most certainly NOT manana, some more glass tiles got scraped clean of silicone from their previous existence as a wall in a Scottsdale, AZ beauty salon, the rest of the electrical work got done. Now, aside from the house looking like Stonehenge, it looks like Stonehenge with vines. BIG improvement!

And, the inspector didn’t show up today, as we had hoped, but Rex and the boys did and they used up the rest of the lava block that we had on hand and now one corner of the garage is taller than me!! Heck, I’ve even resorted to doing what I did months ago and that is: I’m parking my Jeep in the garage again! With partial walls up the Jeep looks like a Matchbox toy. Heh heh heh.


The Tin Can is now double heated and warm enough to keep this Arizona Desert Dawg cozy and cheerful. It’s almost like home. If I could I would purr.

Like any TV station news broadcast worth it’s ratings in feathers and scales, I will close with the critter section. This critter tale is one that has been a very long time in realizing for me.

A store in Estes Park, CO had, for several years, stuffed animal heads that I deeply desired. These are truly stuffed animal heads. I intended to finally buy one of these oversized parodies for the new house and was struck a wrenching blow when I saw that there was only the stuffed animal bear head left in the store. While I’m fond of bears, it was the Rocky Mountain Sheep head I had been coveting all these years. Being of a nature that is represented by a Ram, I made an inquiry. A clerk went to the storage area and found a Mountain Goat head and the RM Sheep’s head; they hadn’t been big sellers, and one was gently dirtied while the other head was barely damaged. I got both of them for 50% off!! They took up half of the car trunk. I was a giggling girly-girl the whole way home from Estes. (Yes, I’m over it now. Ummmm, no, I’m not, hee hee hee hee.)

As if that wasn’t kewl enuf they’re puppet heads to boot, so, of course, I’m trying to conceive of a way to rig them so that they can suddenly start talking and scare the beejeevers out of visitors! (Hartman—you up for helping me out with this prank?) I crack me up!

Manana: The Legend of Belen Meets ME!