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Our neighbors are engaging in the ancient art of backyard camping. Karen and Charlie are going on a river trip and decided to hone their camping skills by pitching the tent and roasting supper on a campfire in the backyard. Love it!

Greg sent me the following article from Fortune on some of the world’s most exclusive yachts. The first one, Octopus, which is around $400 million is one of the several yachts owned by Paul Allen, former partner in Microsoft.   http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/fortune/1205/gallery.million-dollar-megayachts.fortune/  Cathy and I saw it in Dart Mouth, (that is, on the mouth of the River Dart in England many years ago. It even has its own web page http://www.octopusyacht.net/

The winds did come through today…maybe not hurricane force, but VERY high winds. The wind brought so much dust from New Mexico that the moon is distinctly orange tonight! (Breaking News: it’s not dust, rather it’s smoke from the forest fires in the Gila National Forest just north of Gene Daniel’s place. 110,000 acres!)

Sidewalk chalk art

The swamp cooler is operational, the top of the door to the family room has been shaved so the the first time in 21 years it will fully close and latch!

The shade sails only lasted a tad over a week. The forecast is for sustained 35 mph winds with gusts to 50 tonight and tomorrow sustained of 40+ with gusts to 75!!! The sails are rugged, but not THAT rugged. Actually, it’s not that tough to pull them down. I lashed the new cherry tree to the old one and the deck furniture to the grill. Bring it on.

Last night we saw Hairspray at the Fine Arts Center. They did an incredible job with a play I have been dreading all season. I’m eating my words and using my hairspray…wait a minute…you need hair for that???

Cathy delivers the $1000 scholarship to Thomas Price.

Whatever possessed the dusty miller moth to commit suicide in my coffee this morning I’ll probably never know. However, I wasn’t awake enough or visually aware enough, so took a big gulp and then had to spew him/her out all over the front page of the Gazette Telegraph! Eeeeeeewwwwww! They may be harmless, but at 6:30 a.m. they can start the day off on a very ragged edge.

I have been paying  bills online through the bank for years, but have lately started going to  auto pay. Things like the telephone and utilities and several others just eat up too much time each month authorizing the check and checking that it’s been sent, etc. Now it’s just electrons talking to electrons. Makes a lot of sense.

I logged in the lab results for Cath which told us what we already know – she is very healthy and her numbers continue to improve. We have both been interested in this TED lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs7jqqdv5eg, and when I mentioned it to the gals in the Wellness Center at the hospital, they all chimed in, “Oh, you mean the Paleo Diet!” The upshot of it is we are ALL chowing down on lots more greens. BTW, my right eye MAY be starting to crawl up the come back trail. Fingers crossed.

I fixed Cathy’s watch this morning and power-washed deck and furniture in preparation for another coat of penetrating sealer and delivery of the new furniture. The sails look spectacular again, but Cath is still lobbying for another umbrella. Makes me want to jump off the deck on my head!

We went to the annual ONEN neighborhood meeting tonight. Cath was in charge of the scholarship committee and handed two $1000 checks to two VERY deserving young people.

Sylvia's stylish accessories.

Monday, Mark and I installed the stair spindles which put me back in touch with precision measurement and critical use of a chop saw. It was quite a bit of fun and looks very nice (if I do say so myself). ‘Twas hot, and with the 3rd finish coat, the house was pretty aromatic all day.

Lumber Liquidators are poop heads because they made multiple promises to call us after repeated delays in the shipment of our flooring. Now we will have to let Mark go on to other jobs and get in line for his services when the wood finally arrives and start all over.

The plaque for Gladys and Paul’s bench arrived again after being plated the wrong color (silver instead of gold). It really does look nice, however. The bench is in Dubois and is being installed.

I did the drip system for Cathy’s flower boxes and pots today – an expensive, but lower maintenance solution, we hope.

Meredith’s Report: the three tallest trees have fallen. Things are really up in the air for her company.

Thayer Tutt gets decorated!

Kevin and Lauren Brown

After all the sadness of the multiple funerals, it’s about time to get into the season.

Yesterday was Colorado College’s graduation and in typical fashion they decorated the bronze statue in front of Tutt Library.

Today we drove to Lafayette, CO for the wedding of the son of our former next door neighbors. Kevin and Lauren live in Columbia, MO but decided to marry near Boulder where she manages two shoe stores for her dad remotely. Sylvia Agnew came along with us, and as the photos show, a jolly time was had by all.

Cathy and I did a little dancing, too.

This young Swainson’s Hawk was caught in the downpour today just as we were having our lunch. Big bird…about 18″ long!

I told Cath he must have been a Hollywood Hawk, because he landed on the telephone pole down on the walking path and waited until I went to the basement, got my big camera, found the telephoto lens, circled around the house and took  a dozen or so photos of him from all directions while he posed and tried to dry out his feathers.

Before lunch, we went to Bob Seeley’s funeral mass at St. Mary’s, came home and met with Craig the sprinkler guy for another hour. We seem to have a plan in place now and are also getting a couple of bonus spring showers.

This afternoon Cath had therapy, but Malcolm took me to the Retina doctors for my monthly Lucentis injection. I was out in record time, but although my reading of the eye chart showed some improvement, I still can’t read or make out faces with my right eye. The doc is hopeful that we will see results on the third injection next month. I sure hope he is right.

The Boulder, Colorado based Kailin Yong Peace Project Trio, led by Singaporean violin virtuoso Kailin Yong opened for the ukulele virtuoso from Hawaii.   View Kailin Yong’s web site.

We heard about Jake Shimabukuro (she-ma-boo-koo-row) and his ukulele on NPR sometime last year. When we were in Hawaii in January we hoped to see him perform, but of course he was on tour on the mainland. When we heard he was coming to Colorado Springs, we jumped on it. A good thing, too, because it was a sold-out show!

My camera was not too happy with the crummy lighting, but if you want to witness some of his great performances, go to http://jakeshimabukuro.com/video#sfiaaff_30_jake_documentary_trailer

Lots of projects on Wood Ave. – that is, between the funerals. Gutters cleaned, bad sprinkler heads swapped, removed the skylight covers and put up the awning over the kitchen window, the new tree in the back along with all of the annual plantings front and back, new stairs to the basement well on their way and yesterday I put up the sails for the season.

Cathy has kept the therapists busy and in addition cooked up a big pot of soup to share with the people who have lost loved ones and others, like Linda Kennison, who are just coming off of rough medical times for both Linda and her husband. We are both pretty tired at the end of the day, but still manage to watch a good movie like the foreign film Girl on the Bridge, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144201/ a couple times a week.

There are also lots of good things being forwarded on the email loop. Most of you are on my mail distro, either first or second-hand.

What’s not to like about this Spring? Well, maybe all the funerals.

Archeological treasures.

Mark Dykstra, the stair dude.

Somehow, neither Cathy nor Mark could see the artistry in these newly-revealed stair treads.

What do stairs and dying have in common? I don’t know. Maybe they are both about landings.

The stair dude, Mark Dykstra, arrived early this morning to begin the demo – pulling the carpet and removing the treads which were put down when the house was built in 1929. There were some treasures below (workmen of every age drop their refuse in places that will “never be seen”, and then it becomes historically significant as an archeological find in 2012). Today’s gems were: 1. a workman’s glove (note: the middle finger has three holes worn through the leather, all others are fine. I always wear out the index finger first…hmmmmm); 2. a can of Prince Albert’s tobacco. On the back, the advertising proclaims that it was founded in 1907. The company was 22 years old and yet contemporary in 1929, and now 83 years later it’s an antique!; and 3. a tin can of about 20 ounces in volume with a hand-soldered lead seam. What could it have contained?

We left Mark doing the stairs and our much tattooed gardener, Sara, pruning the lilacs and went to a rousing send-off funeral for Rosie Wunder. On the way Cathy reminded me of TWO other funerals this week (John Konsleman and Bob Seeley). We just learned of Bob’s death this morning from a stroke that took him out on Saturday. His wife Rita (stout British stock) still did the readings at the 8:30 a.m. Mass at St. Marys on Sunday.

Cathy had to deliver a report at the Woman’s Literary Club this afternoon. She was surprised when the club honored her with a commendation (maybe the first since 1892) for her work organizing and archiving the papers and all the club records. I wasn’t surprised…

Patty Weed dropped by while I was outside swapping sprinkler heads. She has fixed her sights on a little house in the neighborhood which will need maybe $200K in repair in order to make it livable to her requirements. I joined a dozen others in persuading her to keep looking. However, those of you who know Patty…..

She is one-of-a-kind and we love her.

We took in a lecture at the Pioneer’s Museum yesterday that was instructive on lots of levels. The first (maybe superficial level) was when a couple with two nice little kids sat in the first row and the oldest boy got his finger pinched in the folding seat just as the moderator started to introduce Tom Huber, the speaker. It must have hurt a lot, because the little guy (4 years-old?) just howled! The screams filled the old courtroom where we were, but soon he calmed down to a whimper and then silence so Tom could begin. Ten minutes or so into the presentation, this same young man got a bit bored and started to get antsy and a bit noisy. The parents tried to reason with him, but he persisted. They evidently drew a line in the sand about what would happen if he didn’t be quiet and sit still, but the youngster called their bluff in front of this big crowd. Good parents that they were, after one last chance, they packed up the family and tried to quietly leave. Then the little boy began to bargain and loudly promise the world for another second chance, but the line had been crossed twice. Diminishing screams and howls were heard down two flights of stairs as these harrowed young parents delivered what may have been a life-saving/changing object lesson for him AND his brother!

Tom carried on as best he could with his presentation of  a book he has been working on for over ten years on the Hayden Survey Expedition of 1872-78 of mainly Colorado and part of Wyoming before they were states. Tom collected great pen and ink drawings of the geography/geology of the region and then with his wife, Carol, found the exact spot from which the drawings were done and did panoramic digital photos of the same scene to compare how much the landscape has changed in 140 years. Tom is a professor of geography at UCCS and just a great teacher/speaker. We really enjoyed the talk and look forward to the book when it is published.

Later we went to a wedding celebration next door along with the Agnews. Charlie Goodell is an ER doctor who works in Raton, NM 3+ days a week. With two rather loquacious dogs and unpleasant contacts with the neighbors over their barking (by email, shouting matches and phone calls) he decided to hire someone to care for them while he was away. I think he met and hired Karen in the grocery store, and soon they fell in love and just got married in Hawaii. (Time span about 4 months?). Anyhow, they threw this party yesterday. Charlie invited the Agnews and us since we are neighbors on either side of his house. Karen invited 50+ of her closest friends.  She was totally in her element – Charlie had the well known ‘deer in the headlights look’ about him most of the afternoon. The weather cooperated. Great party.

From there we went to the Philharmonic to hear a concert featuring Gershwin and Bernstein. It was a ‘sold out’ performance, but we got tickets in the last row of the handicapped section right behind Lynn and Rick Waite. Rick is struggling with multiple trips for dialysis now, but all really enjoyed the music. We know Lynn and Rick from the various volunteer programs at Penrose Hospital.

Today we went to Denver for a Mother’s Day brunch with Chelsea, Neal the kids, and his parents at a neat Italian restaurant called Locanda del Borgo. Nice food, but a short trip as both kids were tired. We were up and back in the span of about three hours.

Cath got right to work on her Woman’s Literary Club presentation for tomorrow, and we got just a few drops of the promised rain for the weekend.

Sad news: Cathy lost two good friends this week. One was a lady, Rosie Wunder, she worked with in the Rehab Buddy program, and today we learned that John Konselman, died last night. John was the husband of Jackie with whom Cath worked for 20+ years at the university. He had been in a struggle with multiple ailments for years.