Swing that Hammer While Singing 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'

Now I remember what the lead up to Christmas used to feel like:  A freight train bearing down upon me while I, running full tilt, tried to stay ahead of it.  Women are responsible for Christmas.  We are the logistical managers of this yearly project.  Most adult women have these lists, tangible and intangible, in our heads and on paper, filled with bullet points which say: 

• Get out the Advent Calendar
• Get family photo for Christmas Card/ecard taken
• Write chatty annual Christmas letter
• Address Christmas Cards (old school), or
• Send e-cards with kids' photos (new school)
• Plan charity gifts
• Find Christmas decorations
• Nag husband to get decorations down from attic/garage shelves/spare room closet
• Unpack and recondition Christmas decorations.
• Test the lights BEFORE stringing this year  
• Decorate house/office/school/church
• Buy tree/wreath/garland
• Decorate tree/wreath/hang garland
• What do I get the teacher, paper boy,  post man, co-workers, building super, or doorman?
• Figure out what the people in the family want
• Buy all the gifts
• Try not to get into buying frenzy this year
• Remember the reason for the season while taking deep breaths as you drive between holiday activities.
• Buy gift wrap and ribbons
• Wrap all the gifts
• Remember to TAG all the gifts while wrapping this year
• Get out special dishes
• Find Christmas table linens
• Figure out seating arrangements Christmas Day (Who's too old for the kid table?)
• Juggle Christmas party invitations.
• Figure out what to wear to all the parties
• RSVP Christmas party invitations.

And we haven't even talked about FOOD yet.  Let's just not go there.

Women in my age group who haven't 'let go' yet are basically comatose for the first two weeks of January because they are so tired from decorating, buying, gift wrapping, food shopping, babysitting, and cooking.  Young women are juggling the toddler/early elementary school set while working full time.  (They go from, 'Kid afraid of Santa. to Kid asking five times a day, When is Santa coming!)  I know there are women out there who would like to drive an ice pick through the heart of the composer of 'Jingle Bells'.  (This is the first song memorized by four to six year olds who love to then sing it at the tops of their tiny little lungs again, and again and again.) Women with older children don't have to work to preserve the Santa myth, but their cross to bear is reigning in pre-teen and teen Christmas greed and unrealistic expectations.  (No, I don't think a nine year old needs a make-up kit.  Are you kidding?  Do you know what the insurance cost is for a 16 year old boy driving a Corvette?  Plus, if your Dad can't have one, what makes you think you can?)

And we haven't even talked about FOOD yet.  Oh, Lord, so many special ingredients to buy.

Sprinkle all this with an unforeseen event like a house remodel, or an illness, or an unexpected trip,and Bob's Your Uncle, recipe for Hari Kari.  But, hey, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Holidays, Joyous Kwanza or Bah, Humbug as you please.  And, as I'm sure you're asking, why, why do we do all this?

• For the joy of posting something each day of Advent
• Loving the growth progression of the children in each Christmas photo
• Sharing the joys and heartaches of the year with close friends
• Experiencing the joy of giving to the less fortunate
• Basking in the beauty of the twinkly lights
• Loving the face of the gift receiver when you've 'nailed it'
• Remembering the woman who bequeathed you that special bowl or table cloth or utensil
• Knowing that showing appreciation to those who work for you and with you forge bonds of community
• Enjoying making the special foods which seems so time consuming until it becomes a family sharing event
• Taking the opportunity to thank your creator for the 'new beginning' Christmas represents each year.

May your Holiday be as wonderful as mine is going to be.

Enjoying Christmas is all about attitude.  

 

  

The First Thirty Things Before a Single Hammer is Swung or Tile Laid

1)  Check out nine books on bathrooms/kitchens/remodeling

2)  Speed read nine books on bathrooms/kitchens/remodeling

3)  Use three pages out of nine books on bathrooms/kitchens/remodeling

4)  Buy four new magazines on kitchen/bathroom design for a $35.00

5)  Buy eight old magazines (circa 1995) on kitchen/bathroom design for $2.00

6)  Discover the old magazines have identical ideas to new magazines

7)  Eureka!  $100 dual flush, small footprint, ADA toilet

8)  Look at 300 kitchen sinks - buy one which includes freebies.

9)  Look at 25 kitchen faucets - buy one with handle I can figure out how to use

10) Go to retail plumbing supply store - use smelling salts upon hearing price quote

11) Become a 'silver' member of an on-line building supply company due to large number of
       purchases

12) Learn to control eye rolling when Drake screams, "STOP CHANGING YOUR MIND"
       four times a day.

13) Convince Drake we need to remodel the second bathroom NOW

14) Look at 2000 pieces of porcelain tile

15) Buy 20 pieces of porcelain tile

16) Return 20 pieces of porcelain tile

17) Agree to postpone tile decision on 2nd bathroom until after Thanksgiving to save marriage

17) Investigate the reputations of fabricators, carpenters, plumbers, tile layers, and bathroom
       remodelers.

18) Interview fabricators, carpenters, plumbers, tile layers, and bathroom remodelers

19) Discover a stone company which can cut slabs of marble to 1/4th inch

20) Drake does the happy dance for a 'no grout' shower.  Remodeler does happy dance for sale of
       marble shower

21) Look at 500 pieces of slab granite in four places, all of which are at least 35 minutes away from
      Sun City.

22) Go back to four places to look at more granite.  Gasoline rewards are robust this month.

23) Learn to ignore Drake when he yells, 'CAN'T YOU JUST MAKE UP YOUR MIND!"

24) Buy kitchen granite slab in the very last place we looked for granite - HA, VINDICATED!

25) Do slab lay-out the old fashioned way - with graph paper cutouts - thanks to Drake

26) Look at 1000 bathroom vanities

27) Remember remnant granite at granite supplier - will get for bedroom vanity

28) Buy the 1001st bathroom vanity

29) Find glass cutter who comes to house to cut down mirrors

30) Find hall sconce which matches living room lamps

Let Us All Bow Down to the Master Clock

One smooth spot of Arizona living is the LACK of monkeying with the clock.  Because of the climate and the perverseness of people who choose to live in the desert, we do not observe daylight savings time.  As the human race, we've gone from clocks, as our ultimate luxury possession to being our slave masters.  Just because we've shed our wrist watches in favor of our mobile phones doesn't mean we've broken our bonds of servitude to the time keeper.

One of the joys of retirement is the sliver of freedom I enjoy from the tyranny of the clock.  A true luxury is being able to lay in bed when I wake up, and even better, to be able to simply lay there contemplating the ceiling rather than cataloging all my chores of the day, and what time they have to be done. 

Time management is something we practice whenever we have a project, but it's not a relentless daily necessity as it is in the non-geezer world.  A friend sent me a picture of her childrens' Halloween costumes, and my first thought was, "I wonder when she had time to make those?"  No wonder so many women step back or down in the working world when they are responsible for small children. In my day (a true geezer phrase is there ever was one), I didn't know a single father who took on the responsibility of Halloween beyond following kids around during the actual event eating their candy, or if you lived in NOLA,  drinking a Dixie long neck.

Now 'being at work' is being redefined by constant connectivity, and I initially thought the redefinition would actually mean more flexibility for working parents, but it really means EXTENSION of work time.  "Honey, I just need 20 minutes to clear my email."  "If I can work uninterrupted here in the bedroom for an hour without the kids banging into the room every 10 minutes, I can really free up tomorrow when I'll  be slammed."  "Hello, you're working NOW?"  "Just 15 more minutes."  See, how the clock has become even more controlling than when we started work at 8 and left at 5?  The tag line from some commercial says it best, "When did it become a luxury to leave work on time?"  The operative words in that sentence being 'leave' and 'time'.

So, today, you are being offered the carrot - an extra hour.  Isn't that swell?  I can remember being thrilled and waiting to change the clocks until the next morning.  Forget 2:00 am.  It was as if I got to stick it to those relentlessly marching numbers by turning them back.   Well, the piper is just around the corner.  First, it's going to arrive tonight when you realize it's already dark!  Second, next spring the clock has jet lag in your own home planned just for you....  You're just a slave.  Clocks rule!  And not always in a good way.     

High Country Musings

Abbie Greenleaf Library, Franconia

I'd put my library card collection up against anyone's.  OK, I really do know no one collects library cards, but it is quite fascinating to see the differences in libraries across the country.  I've seen more than a dozen libraries in the past five years.  My soft spot library is Franconia, New Hampshire.  Colonel Greenleaf built the Franconia Library to honor his wife Abbie in 1912.  It's a Jacobethan cottage made out of Indiana yellow brick, with stained glass window flags, and African mahogany woodwork inside.  It's like a dollhouse when you walk in.  The new addition is completely concealed from street view so as not to detract from the historically significant building.  It's on the National Register of Historic Buildings.

Each library has all the regular stuff - books, mags, computer terminals, newspapers, CDs, DVDS, and librarians, but each one has its little quirks. The Newport, Oregon Library was open more than ten hours a day, seven days a week. One (unnamed) library had to close and fumigate for bedbugs. The Austin Library has security to rival airports.  The

I'm pretty sure this is 'Fortitude' because I find Patience annoying.

NYC Public Library lions have NAMES (Patience and Fortitude) given to them by Fiorello LaGuardia, the Mayor of New York during the depression to stand for the qualities he figured New Yorkers needed to get through the tough times.  The Lake Tahoe Library was set smack dab in the middle of a city run RV park.  I've also discovered libraries are enamored with bronze statues.  They run largely to 19th century children seated reading books.  Those statues attract white haired ladies but not 21st century children.

A surprising number of libraries in really small towns have new library buildings.  The library in Fraser is one of these.  The Fraser Library is also doing a quilt raffle ( keep your fingers crossed for moi).  Fraser is unique in that it offers  a 'free basket'.  Every library sells stuff - usually their purged material or donated items.  In Fraser's free basket there are usually outdated periodicals and children's books.  Ruffling through the basket each trip has garnered some great reads.

The last time I found High Country News.  (Considering Colorado is the first state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, don't you just love the name?)  Actually, the subtitle is 'For people who love the West'.   It's a nonprofit news magazine covering environmental, natural resource, social and political issues affecting the American West - their words outlining who they are.  After having read two issues, it seems to be all about mountain living with a conservation twist.  Their advertisers are lots of small colleges touting their environmental/sustainability degrees, contractors outlining their 'green' residential construction, and travel opportunities for the adventurous.    In the second issue I read, they sprinkled the entire edition with famous quotes by conservationists beginning with Thoreau.  ("Simplify, Simplify.")  This publication is well written with thoughtful articles,  and essays.  If it hadn't been for the library, I'd never have heard of this magazine.

I loved the Marketplace portion of the magazine.  I've never seen help wanted ads like these:  Smith River Field Coordinator for Trout Unlimited.  Or, how about applying to be an Associate Director of Philanthropy for the Wyoming Outdoor Council.  I just wish they'd included the salaries being offered.  You can also buy stuff:  cast iron cookware scrubber,  ten floral varieties of raw honey, aromatic cultivated skin care, and my favorite:  Sign up for the 'green' dating website.

The point is libraries are still phenomenal resources of information and entertainment even in the age of hand held technology.  I've always been amazed by the vast majority of people who don't patronize their local library.  Are you still paying for downloading ebooks and audiobooks?  Why?  With a library card, you can access thousands of titles absolutely free.  Want to sample more than a hundred magazines and newspapers?  Check out your library.  They also offer classes tailored to the community they serve.  I've seen literacy classes and citizenship classes. Sun City offers a class to share your memories.  (OK, a little weird, but lots of people live alone in uber elderly land.)  Every library has story time for toddlers.  There's also homework help, writing classes, book clubs, tax help, technology help, and just a whole bunch more stuff.

My library card collection is in double digits; however, all you really need is one.      

      

The Post Season is Here!

In my baseball household, October is either a month to rejoice, or a month to absorb and reflect on the successes and disappointments of our team's 162 game season.  Fortunately, we are rejoicing since Drake's beloved Rangers are in the play-offs as the American League West Division Champs.  This is a double delight post season for us since the lowly Houston Astros are now RESPECTABLE, and without a doubt the Cinderella baseball team this year.  They've already kicked butt in Yankee Stadium, and took one game in KC.  The Astros were 'our team' the 20 years we were in Houston and New Orleans.  We had season tickets to the Astros when we were doing the DINK thing in Houston. 

Drake is a big believer in rooting for the home team, so when we moved to Hurst, Texas in 1990, a stone's throw from the Ballpark at Arlington, overnight we became Texas Ranger fans.  Drake is one of the faithful who believes in supporting his team whether they are last in the division at 67 and 95 (last year) or first at 88 and 74 (this year).  He knows more about baseball than any of the talking heads on TV.  He's also not a dyed in the wool, hidebound traditionalist.  Those idiots pretty much believe baseball should be played as it was in 1920 when the 'lively ball' was introduced. 

For the people who don't live with Drake Smith, let me explain.  The term 'lively ball' is a misnomer.  Ball manufacture was exactly the same before and after 1920.  What was different was a set of new rules.  In short, prior to 1920, one ball was used during the entire game (even foul balls were thrown back), and pitchers liberally 'doctored' the ball.  It became dirtier and dirtier.  A ball was only replaced when the yarn under the hide cover started to unravel!  As a game progressed, the ball became harder to see, harder to hit, and had less pop off the bat because of the deterioration of the ball. 

What prompted a whole bunch of new rules being adopted was the death of a player in the 1920 season. The poor guy couldn't see the ball well enough to get out of the way of a beanball, a ball that hits a batter in the head.  In the wake of the 1919 Black Sox gambling scandal, and Ray Chapman's beaning death, the traditionalists had to give way to the newly appointed baseball commissioner,  Kenesaw Mountain Landis.  He instituted numerous rule changes to the game.  One was the introduction of discarding balls and substituting new ones during the game when they showed any wear or tear.  Oh, and even though Gaylord Perry would disagree, spitballs became illegal.  So....after 1920, hitters could see the ball better, the clean, new balls had more pop off the bat, and the result was the start of the 'lively ball' era.

Now, it's the 21st century and Major League Baseball (yes, they capitalize all three words) is dragging its feet in adopting technology into the game.  They were dragged kicking and screaming into allowing umpires to be overruled by video replay.  What hasn't been corrected is allowing the umpires to affect the outcome of almost every single game played.  They are not neutral arbitrators. 

Every single major league park has 'pitch track' technology - in 3D!  In short, a high speed computer can look at a computer generated cube on every play and tell you exactly whether the pitched ball is a ball or strike in real time.  These calls are crucial.  A hitter and a pitcher adjust after every single pitch.  There are 'hitter counts' and 'pitcher counts'.  An entire ballgame can be compromised by an umpire who calls strikes which are actually balls and vice versa.  In fairness, the umpires do their very best, but what human eye can see exactly where a 100 mile fast ball as it crosses a 17" by 12.5" pentagon  and at what height?  Add in balls that literally wiggle around side to side or up and down as they cross home plate.  The problem is further compounded by the umpires' subconscious bias favoring seasoned star pitchers and batters.  

As you watch ANY baseball game this postseason, notice some of the media (TBS, ESPN) shows you the location of every single pitch using the pitch tracker, while other media (FOX) refuses to show the tracker at all.  Ever wonder why?  Well, it's an easy answer:  The tracker shows how inaccurate the umpires are at calling balls and strikes.  If you are lucky enough to watch a game showing the tracker, start thinking about how many calls are missed, and how different game outcomes could be if every pitch was accurately called.  In Drake's opinion, it's going to take a glaring, game changing outcome in the World Series involving balls and strikes before there's going to be any actual movement for technology adoption of the umpires 'announcing' the balls and strikes rather than deciding them.  He's just hoping to live long enough to see it.  That's a reflection of the stranglehold the traditionalists have on baseball.

One baseball tradition I can really get behind is the amount of superstition pervading the game.  Even Drake succumbs.  He's wearing his 'lucky sweatshirt' for every Ranger game now.  After all, they've won all three games when he has been wearing it.  I love to look for the superstitious aspects of the game.  They are often hilarious. 

Every wonder why there's so much weird hair in baseball?  It's all about superstition.  On the Ranger team, Derek Holland, who was sporting the "Wild Thing" haircut, abruptly got rid of it after a three game slump.  I would wager there's at least one member on each team in the play-offs who hasn't changed his underwear because everyone knows lucky underwear figures in any win streak.  Hats are notoriously lucky for pitchers.  Some of those toppers are so sweat stained and filthy, you know they haven't been swapped out since Spring Training began.  Notice the ritualistic hand movements from a hitter on base after a hit directed toward the dug-out.  The Rangers started this particular superstition by doing 'antler hands' in 2011.  Now, most teams have their 'I got a hit'signal' which usually changes from year to year.  Players follow strict pre and post game superstitious rituals.  Look for the elaborate hand and body movements between players in the dugout before a game starts.  Now, during the play-offs all the superstitions go into hyper drive. 

There are so many aspects to a baseball game, yes, even the ones which end 1 to 0, it's hard to be bored because this game is so complex.  It helps immensely to have Mr. Baseball doing commentary for me while watching.  Every part of the game is ramped up during the play-offs, so pick a team and get behind them.  Oh, and if you have any questions, they can be answered by Mr. Baseball himself.  Just let me know, and I'll pass them on.

GO RANGERS!   

       

      

Upcoming Lunar Show

There's a website I just love.  It's called 'Earth and Sky', and it sends me a newsletter everyday.  Yes, everyday seems like overkill, and I normally wouldn't put up with that.  I mean who has time (yes, even when you're retired) to read something which pops up in your mail box each day.  However, unlike gossip sites, or sell you something sites, this is all about geology and astronomy, hence, Earth and Sky.  (I've always wanted to use 'hence' in a sentence, so cross THAT off my bucket list.)

Anywho, E & S has about five stories everyday.  It also has fabulous pictures from all over the world as well as from space.  Another feature is a picture of the night sky with constellations, planets, comets and other see-able stuff plotted, so if inclined, you could actually FIND them.  Typical stories could be about something going on in the ocean, or following NASA satellites,  the happenings in outer space, or perhaps covering a large earthquake and the possible resulting tsunami.

It's always exciting when a lunar eclipse appears in the website.  This has been the year of lunar eclipses.  There's another one coming up on Sunday evening the 27th.  It's a full eclipse of the 'Harvest Moon', or Blood Moon which is the full moon closest to an equinox.  (That last sentence should convince you that I've really been reading this stuff, and it's sticking to me like bullhead burrs.) This full eclipse of a reddish tinged, seemingly over sized moon,  is going to be visible to all of North America.  Keep your fingers crossed for a cloudless evening because there's going to be a lunar event to which you're all invited.  The beauty of this one is it's going to start about 7pm MDT and finish up about 9pm.  You don't need any funny glasses or pinpricks in a sheet of cardboard to enjoy watching.  READER ALERT:  Figure out what time YOU can see the eclipse based on your time zone. This eclipse is so great because it's going to be in prime time.  We actually had to get up in the middle of the night in April to see the last one.  Standing outdoors in the middle of the night where coyotes regularly roam was a bit of a nervous experience not to mention the old people with weapons who could have mistaken us for prowlers.  

So, snap open the lawn chairs and pop the popcorn 'cause the universe is going to be putting on a Sunday night show. Just to whet your appetite, here's a pix of the moon I took from our balcony in Colorado.  Looks like we could have a front row seat for the upcoming elliptical event.     

Welcome to Fraser, Colorado, Home of Nothing.

There are two questions asked whenever we give the 'vagabonding' spiel to strangers.  The first is always, and I mean always,  "Do you have an RV?".  Then, we have to explain how we manage to travel around with all our stuff without having a recreational vehicle to live in.  I find this question ridiculous, actually, because I've been in RV's, and I've yet to see one which has more than a teaspoon of storage.  I mean, let's just talk clothes:   The closet in a typical travel trailer  is 20" wide, and the drawer space is about the size of two small bedside table drawers.  On this trip ALONE we took three seasons of clothes! I'm not even going to talk about RV kitchen storage.  The second question is, "How do you pick the places you go?" and the third is, "What's your favorite place?".  It never varies. 

Our initial pick for our six month vagabonding is always about what is there to see.  The second and sometimes third place in our six month travels all flow from the initial pick.  So....  This year we picked the odyssey trip across Canada from Newfoundland to Banff.  Our second destination, Colorado, was based on the end place, Banff.  If you unfurl your low tech paper map, or check your hi tech Google Map, you'll discover  Colorado is almost directly south of Banff.  We've drifted slightly southeastward, but absolutely directly south of Banff is Utah, and we've been there.  It was easy to settle on Colorado; we've talked about it as a primary destination before. 

Picking an actual place to rent is much more difficult.  It is a combination process of looking at places which will have short term rentals combined with things to do and see.  We also have to decide furnished or unfurnished.  (This trip was all about furnished rentals.)  For instance, I didn't really ever look at Denver, even though I knew there would be short term furnished rentals, because we live in a big city for half the year already.  When we are out of Phoenix, it's all about scenery, scenery, scenery unless we are headed for the Big Apple or a family event.  Colorado was also a natural for one of my big go to rentals:  ski condos.  I discovered when we went to New Hampshire in 2011 people line up to rent you their ski condo between Labor Day and before the heavy snow flies.  Nobody rents one of these places once the kiddos go back to school, and the skiers are certainly not interested.  Thus, when this ski condo popped up in Fraser, Colorado, with a great price as well as a heated pool and a fitness facility as part of the package, it was a no-brainer.  The added attraction was the closeness to Rocky Mountain National Park.

What I didn't exactly understand is how isolated this town is and how high it is.  We sit at 8550 feet in elevation.  That's enough to have you panting after you climb 14 steps.  Drake is still not able to do his typical eliptical workout.  This is a high, high mountain valley surrounded by mountains that are even higher.  To get back to Arizona the direct way, we have to climb over an 11,000 foot pass.  You'd better believe we'll be watching the weather like hawks from mid October.  Oh, it's gorgeous.

I'm looking at golden aspens and mountains right outside my deck patio door.  There's wonderful hiking within easy drives, and we've certainly taken advantage of several of them.  There's actually a 'movie theater' which offers two or three first run films each week.  It's actually a combo facility of movie theater and bowling alley, but it's here.  There are a surprising number of really wonderful restaurants because of the upscale Winterpark ski resort four miles down the road.  I made sure there was a real grocery store easily accessible before I even considered renting this place. 

What I didn't think about were box stores within a 30 mile radius.  There are none.  There's no drugstore beyond the Safeway pharmacy.  There's no Target, Walmart, K-Mart, Kohl's, Family Dollar, or Dollar General much less a 'mall' with Dillards, Sears, Penny's, etc.  There are a few boutique stores in Winterpark selling ski apparel or souvenir t-shirts, but there's no place to buy underwear.  The closest box stores are on the western side of the Denver metroplex, and that's a minimum of an hour away because of the mountain driving.

Initially, I thought, "Oh, no problem.  I shop on the Internet anyway."  What I didn't anticipate is there's no mail delivery in all of Fraser.  Everybody has to go to the post office and get their mail either via a post office box or 'General Delivery'.  Since post office box rental is a six month minimum, we get our mail here General Delivery.  Drew, the Postmaster of Fraser, Colorado, and I are now on a first name basis since I get a stream of letters and packages. Still, not really a deal breaker.  Everything in this town is within a 2 mile radius.  There are 1170 residents receiving mail counting Drake and I.

I didn't anticipate going to war with UPS.  Here's a little known fact:  Savy internet sellers sell you the item, then pick the shipper without notifying you before you buy.  Depending on where an item is being shipped, and what it is, dictates whether the item goes USPS, UPS or FedEx.  No problem, right?  Wrong.  Did you know UPS will not deliver to your local post office EVEN when there's no mail delivery in the town?  Then, when the UPS package is 'undeliverable', according to them, their system will not let you correct to your physical address for delivery.  A UPS help desk clerk hung up on me last week when I refused to accept their system and kept pressing as to why they wouldn't deliver my package to an obvious address (Fraser Post Office), and no, I didn't use a single word of profanity.  UPS lost one package, and only after our local driver intervened was it found, and he also managed to snag a second package out of their system and deliver it too.  Way, way too much drama.

I've come to the conclusion the due diligence of my selection criteria has to improve.  That's business speak for I have to be wary about living, even temporarily, in towns which are too small.  Our society is so urban now I expect to have access to certain levels of service.  We all do.  I don't think it's the weather which drives people away from a town or area; it's the isolation from services.  I'm not talking just about stores.  It's about health care, dental services, vision services, car repair, pharmacy services,  internet availability, appliance repair, and a myriad of other things we take for granted. Since my UPS tiff, I've begun to query people I run into about why they live here.  Of course, one of the answers is, "I've always lived here."  Another is, "I like to ski, (hike) (bike) (camp)", but another answer which keeps popping up is, "I like the solitude."  OK.  Yes, theoretically, I get that, but practically?  Nope.

I'll be in Fraser for  six more weeks.  Feel free to send me anything (like my birthday cards) to Jan Smith, General Delivery, Fraser, Colorado 80442.  Just don't try to use UPS; they don't admit the post office building exists.  While here, though, I'm concentrating on staying healthy and enjoying the natural beauty.

Jan on the top of one of the ski mountains

 If you want to enjoy more of my pix of the golden aspens, click on the link:

https://goo.gl/photos/jLNf6PdotJ7LQVKg6