tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34723610061036573282024-02-01T20:32:35.029-08:00Just another perfect day...At the beginning of 2008, this blog would have been called "Just another shitty day..." a lot can change in a short period of time and I'm so thankful for it!GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.comBlogger792125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-70841061847712507922023-11-27T09:47:00.000-08:002023-11-27T09:49:52.235-08:00The Next Day<p>When Nebalee had called Deejo and Mrs. Deejo to let them know what happened they insisted on driving up from Phoenix to join us. Junior wanted to come out to Grand Junction, too, but Mom was adamant about him NOT coming. He'd just started a new job and she didn't want to put it in jeopardy. I know that was super hard on Junior; the four of us sibs have always drawn strength from each other and being purposely left out had to sting.</p><p>The work started the morning after the accident. Deejo and Mrs. Deejo had arrived a couple of hours after Nebalee and I called it a night. Bill was in Salt Lake City at the Medical Examiner's office, Reba was in Monticello, Utah, and Mom was in Grand Junction, Colorado. Lots of coordinating began very early. Nebalee and I peeked in on Mom, then handed her off to Deejo and Mrs. Deejo so we could head down to Monticello to get what we could out of the car.</p><p>Sgt. Taylor had arranged a ride for Reba to see their K-9 vet in Moab, which was incredibly kind of him. During the drive from Grand Junction to Monticello, Nebalee and I took on the onerous task of calling people to notify them of the accident. While Nebalee drove, I dug through our phones to find family members' numbers; those who we didn't have a direct phone number for, we sent FB messages asking them to call us ASAP. The almost three hour drive was perhaps one of the most difficult times of our lives. We hadn't even had time to process our own loss, but still had to make a ton of phone calls and ended up feeling like we were consoling everyone else.</p><p>We learned from when a friend of our died a few years ago, that we had to <i><b>explicitly</b></i> tell people not to post to social media until we had a chance to notify everyone and publish an official statement from the Lodge. We weren't trying to hide anything, but there were people we needed to speak to prior to it getting out to the general public.</p><p>I got a second call from Sgt. Taylor to let us know that Reba's ride had fallen through, and that we'd have to take her to the vet ourselves. Luckily, Moab is right between Monticello and Grand Junction, so it would work out just fine.</p><p>We managed to get everyone notified on our way to Monticello, and it was a huge weight off our shoulders to have that task done. Now we could focus on other things. Mom had asked us to get some specific things from their car, and Sgt. Taylor agreed to give us access to the car. Prior to taking us to the impound lot, he sat us down and told us what to expect and that it could be very traumatic. I believe he even offered to have another trooper get everything out so we wouldn't have to see the car. Both of us felt we needed to see the car and try to follow Mom's wishes.</p><p>The car was in pretty bad shape, but one glance inside at the driver's seat made me feel much better. I've been on my share of accident scenes and my imagination had gone wild. I've seen some really horrific ways for people to die in car accidents and had steeled myself for the worst. The two or three drops of blood I saw on Bill's airbag were a relief - it meant that he'd been killed instantly. He hadn't suffered for any period of time. Sure enough, the Medical Examiner's report that we received a few weeks later, confirmed that he'd died of an atlanto-occipital dislocation (often called an internal decapitation). My heart immediately broke for the bystanders who had performed CPR on him until the ambulance arrived - they didn't stand a chance.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaBr7u1uyC-OlTU69BPrG7sFEVZ0hIqVZW-vTUmwZA3gcsdD6BjgSQdcxsQr6kIF-zzGiS0WfwTsrVySw__3wpSD-RbcZlCBNIiqpBDVJqXnGC_XwKMaFi4WxDOyEYYx6uuNjTLw4rrdAWlfAeaGm3b58exeZZQX5W14T6IAGmhZkTID-7_gBr6UHNw9Y/s4032/2022-11-22%2013.41.14.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaBr7u1uyC-OlTU69BPrG7sFEVZ0hIqVZW-vTUmwZA3gcsdD6BjgSQdcxsQr6kIF-zzGiS0WfwTsrVySw__3wpSD-RbcZlCBNIiqpBDVJqXnGC_XwKMaFi4WxDOyEYYx6uuNjTLw4rrdAWlfAeaGm3b58exeZZQX5W14T6IAGmhZkTID-7_gBr6UHNw9Y/w400-h300/2022-11-22%2013.41.14.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwrRGJ4aOE5LbXWn2nd-HDmuxqt8U2PH6HUw-9081oZHQClGG3WuDBpOJgiNTRrKjHBGYtbePVBSI7Mkbm6IZjcpxYn37-3Qa2uwTzJ76zRluAjp51WNPYIU_Gd_Ty8coAzQzGw-U1wbkYrlCHUXNwm0_ggBM1x_AfFiwAKQ6vowBRAwcLyMe6wsTd6s0/s4032/2022-11-22%2013.41.38.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwrRGJ4aOE5LbXWn2nd-HDmuxqt8U2PH6HUw-9081oZHQClGG3WuDBpOJgiNTRrKjHBGYtbePVBSI7Mkbm6IZjcpxYn37-3Qa2uwTzJ76zRluAjp51WNPYIU_Gd_Ty8coAzQzGw-U1wbkYrlCHUXNwm0_ggBM1x_AfFiwAKQ6vowBRAwcLyMe6wsTd6s0/w400-h300/2022-11-22%2013.41.38.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPm44x0fW7yMPNxTVqcatFEC6A4VIL585o-qc5PbmA_Y03XvCBKi5NLpvWh02VQvpwZJ6c-WAfNoV1pPVXFm00qI_APq49zSLipaNSEMN9ibzkRbdrpZT5R8_602xoKAzl-Vc_lVpJ_SyW-sojKl7ojQ75f0bpNJMFITNodS7TNeQ8apLnrVOyQcLnDzc/s3152/2022-11-22%2013.42.00.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3152" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPm44x0fW7yMPNxTVqcatFEC6A4VIL585o-qc5PbmA_Y03XvCBKi5NLpvWh02VQvpwZJ6c-WAfNoV1pPVXFm00qI_APq49zSLipaNSEMN9ibzkRbdrpZT5R8_602xoKAzl-Vc_lVpJ_SyW-sojKl7ojQ75f0bpNJMFITNodS7TNeQ8apLnrVOyQcLnDzc/w400-h384/2022-11-22%2013.42.00.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This looks worse than it was, because all of the scattered pieces of the car were just shoved in it to load on the tow truck.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhU7yKYZ7WwbctvcLV0_LiZy_0CO-q2pD-O8AJs9ug-yUSd5eUCM1w-bEWkSKTDwFPbTDP-YQK2nl0rqINmTY5xqGiE0H4pEdRV7CBO_B6M_13ZfMumT93gj3WNpOu1EQv5xmjAlGrBEOyYtvRnyYPgrS2cBADB0MO3iFcfDc-F68AVujY-9KRGkQwIfA/s2827/2022-11-22%2013.42.26.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2827" data-original-width="2208" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhU7yKYZ7WwbctvcLV0_LiZy_0CO-q2pD-O8AJs9ug-yUSd5eUCM1w-bEWkSKTDwFPbTDP-YQK2nl0rqINmTY5xqGiE0H4pEdRV7CBO_B6M_13ZfMumT93gj3WNpOu1EQv5xmjAlGrBEOyYtvRnyYPgrS2cBADB0MO3iFcfDc-F68AVujY-9KRGkQwIfA/w313-h400/2022-11-22%2013.42.26.jpg" width="313" /></a></div><br /><p>The entire back seat and everything in the rear of the vehicle ended up pressed up against the front passenger compartment. If Reba had been seat belted in, or had been in a kennel, she would have been killed; instead, she was thrown free. </p><p>Though I was disappointed when Reba's ride to the vet fell through, it turned out for the best. Nebalee and I were able to see her with our own eyes to take a report back to Mom. I think it was also good for Reba to see people who were familiar to her. </p><p>Rebs was definitely struggling a bit. Any of you who have met her at the Lodge know she's a sweet, loving dog, so when Sgt. Taylor asked if my parents' dog liked us, I was surprised. Apparently, she did not like the morning trooper and snapped at him. I didn't know Rebs was capable of snapping at a human. It must have been a bit more than just a simple snap, because the looks on everyone's faces when we opened the kennel and urged her out was incredulous. I just picked her up and carried her to the car with her face next to mine. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivv2j0rdo75iG2ZNgCb7F5H-9H2umqAUrfaYAg76-rsu0_2QerqYueGlczkS3YkGA9mQNCunEhhHbcTMXig1tjr61-EVfI4vD28mAKiow4yIhyycil669-kY7U6P8aB0XZ5d1UW2FhyphenhyphenugUjRSw6yra8QBUkBbOuOAHnCPmKDJ30L7eqXYAEvwAzmd9W-c/s4032/2022-11-22%2014.13.38.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivv2j0rdo75iG2ZNgCb7F5H-9H2umqAUrfaYAg76-rsu0_2QerqYueGlczkS3YkGA9mQNCunEhhHbcTMXig1tjr61-EVfI4vD28mAKiow4yIhyycil669-kY7U6P8aB0XZ5d1UW2FhyphenhyphenugUjRSw6yra8QBUkBbOuOAHnCPmKDJ30L7eqXYAEvwAzmd9W-c/w300-h400/2022-11-22%2014.13.38.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It didn't take an x-ray to see that she had definitely broken her "wrist".</td></tr></tbody></table><br />On the way from Monticello to Moab, I consciously watched the road near where the accident occurred to see if I could piece together any more information from the accident. Here's what I saw: there were <i>zero</i> skid marks from the car that hit them, meaning they never hit their brakes. There were marks from when they hit and launched Mom and Bill into the air, and marks from when they landed, before rolling on the diagonal. Thomas figures that if Mom and Bill were traveling at 70 mph, the car that hit them had to have been doing over 100 mph for that kind of impact. Of course, we <i style="font-weight: bold;">still</i> don't have the official accident report, over a year later. <angry face><div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih7HIRl4QUqq2tRDFHEbeM0mv3ILHwy4YTyYEecX3u4sl25unvAQISYvkghuDs7KQggkaXakxTEBnu717e1wd2Q01srISLQ9tqXC3zka0nSuSblvnnkRoEBQqrSOKKyHu0U18ZNAftzWli9VVkYF0cKCNtUm7FOP3Ubh82v1HfYFL5BFA63yMXM2v7_14/s4032/2022-11-22%2015.08.22.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih7HIRl4QUqq2tRDFHEbeM0mv3ILHwy4YTyYEecX3u4sl25unvAQISYvkghuDs7KQggkaXakxTEBnu717e1wd2Q01srISLQ9tqXC3zka0nSuSblvnnkRoEBQqrSOKKyHu0U18ZNAftzWli9VVkYF0cKCNtUm7FOP3Ubh82v1HfYFL5BFA63yMXM2v7_14/w300-h400/2022-11-22%2015.08.22.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I don't know how we managed to find "her" blanket, but she was thankful to have it.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIJ6Un8A3DZBvE9gsOmOvjYf8BSfEsbranJ-BQ7ylWVJGgWCbBM0c9XypvFj9lrxedcugBVR2Vu7-t0uUW8sgwMZjNVrAipTNUtIrhj19HRnHs48iytNOSkb-8WoPcj5zvoZrGC14PaIChDbICAjw37kCZNUd5OIXcYu8MdUakyLlSF_tiodRay0qORmg/s4032/2022-11-22%2015.38.32.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIJ6Un8A3DZBvE9gsOmOvjYf8BSfEsbranJ-BQ7ylWVJGgWCbBM0c9XypvFj9lrxedcugBVR2Vu7-t0uUW8sgwMZjNVrAipTNUtIrhj19HRnHs48iytNOSkb-8WoPcj5zvoZrGC14PaIChDbICAjw37kCZNUd5OIXcYu8MdUakyLlSF_tiodRay0qORmg/w400-h300/2022-11-22%2015.38.32.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After splinting.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>The vet in Moab was nice enough to keep her overnight for us, until we could figure out how to get her home. She suggested that we amputate Reba's leg, as the break was bad enough she wasn't sure it would ever heal. We were in no place to make that decision on Mom's behalf, so the vet agreed to just splint the leg so we could get her to her own vet.</p><p>So much was going on that day, that some events are crystal clear and some are jumbled. I clearly remember the trip to Monticello and back, but couldn't tell you a thing about what happened after we got back to Grand Junction. I believe Mom was moved out of ICU and into med/surg within 48 hours of being admitted. Her list of injuries miraculously shortened, enough that I began to wonder if they switched her imaging with someone else. The mandibular fracture they told us about didn't show up on subsequent x-rays. The brain bleed turned out to not be as big a deal as they originally thought. The flail chest (two or more ribs broken in two or more places) still existed, but the pain from that was mostly eclipsed by the pain in the rest of her body.</p><p>Mom kept telling people that they "re-inflated" her lung in the field, but I think we sibs were the only ones who truly understood that it was done by bystanders, not by the flight medics. It wasn't until she talked to the respiratory therapist on the day of her release that someone showed an interest in it and asked to see the puncture wound. I got the distinct feeling that the medical staff thought her memories were jumbled.</p><p>People really rallied around us, offering to help in any way possible: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A friend of mine with contacts with the Utah Highway Patrol got me in touch with one of Mom's human "angels".</li><li>We had many kind offers from friends to help care for/transport Reba home.</li><li>Mom's friends took on the job of calling and cancelling any upcoming reservations for the Lodge.</li><li>Nebalee's best friend's family took care of us from afar, sending food straight to the hospital room to make sure we were eating.</li><li>One of my blog buddies helped us find a Utah attorney with whom he'd worked on other claims.</li><li>Every. Single. Person we were in contact with throughout the entire ordeal was amazingly kind and generous, not just the hospital staff, but also the hotel staff and waiters at restaurants. Through this horrible period of time, we were surrounded by kindness. (Except for Mom's car insurance - dealing with them became Deejo's job and he did not hesitate to tell them that he most definitely did not feel like he was in "good hands".)</li></ul><div>As anyone would, I really struggled with the "why" of Bill's death. Mom confided in us that Bill was convinced he had cancer and had scheduled an appointment with our family NP to follow up just a couple of days after their return from Arizona. I had my "why" answered and felt immediate peace with Bill's death. That's not to say I was okay with losing him, after all, we all expected to have him around for at least another ten years. But after hearing about his cancer fears, it explained why he'd been slowly withdrawing from us for the months prior to the accident. I thought it was just me, but Nebalee mentioned feeling the same way.</div><p></p></div>GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-80210910327588866422023-11-21T15:00:00.000-08:002023-11-21T15:00:00.131-08:00365 Days<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCLHa2PoyKkECnmrNE7t6DqWyv_CRIuVU93_1G69yE7sOzjUjzA28rYzh1JBDc4HCp-6cZ7FwNry9gWXuuZzhCICrn0ocb0LjpOgDHycGoVsPcyTN1pmyCSkPoL5S84MB9DwrdrfcBGXoLpZcKgeqtTW9BdRO0AvsAl5Q8mjWevoUGTgP7038_sMjQwgM/s4608/DSCF4455.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCLHa2PoyKkECnmrNE7t6DqWyv_CRIuVU93_1G69yE7sOzjUjzA28rYzh1JBDc4HCp-6cZ7FwNry9gWXuuZzhCICrn0ocb0LjpOgDHycGoVsPcyTN1pmyCSkPoL5S84MB9DwrdrfcBGXoLpZcKgeqtTW9BdRO0AvsAl5Q8mjWevoUGTgP7038_sMjQwgM/w400-h300/DSCF4455.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>365 days ago I had gotten home from work and was in the midst of cutting pomegranates to remove the seeds when the phone rang. I glanced at it, but my hands were covered in sticky, red pomegranate juice. It was a number from Grand Junction, but not one I recognized. I decided that if it was important, they'd leave a message and went back to working on seeding my pomegranates. A voicemail popped up, and so I decided to quickly finish what I was doing and listen to the voicemail.</p><p>I don't remember the person's name who left the message, but she did mention that she had my mother in the emergency room at the hospital. I ruefully shook my head and wondered what Mom did this time. As far as I knew, she wasn't near any horses for another bionic-installation. I called back, ready to talk to Mom and laugh about whatever catastrophe had befallen her. It never occurred to me to wonder why Bill hadn't been the one to call - he's usually the one to keep us up-to-date on Mom's shenanigans.</p><p>I knew that Mom and Bill were on their way back from visiting Deejo in Phoenix, and expected them home that day, but didn't think much about it. They're experienced road trippers and had made the trip multiple times.</p><p>When I reached the nurse, she was very nice when she told me that my parents had been in a car accident and that she had Mom with her. Car accident? They happened all the time, surely it was just a fender bender and Mom was just letting me know that their trip home would be delayed. As the nurse continued talking, I realized that this wasn't a simple fender bender. This was a real-deal bad accident. She listed Mom's injuries: brain bleed, collapsed lung, flail chest, fractured mandible . . . the list went on and on. I don't panic, but I was definitely concerned and getting more so as she listed Mom's injuries. I figured when she was done, she'd move on to Bill's injuries. Instead, she said that Mom wanted to talk to me. I sighed a breath of relief - Mom's list of injuries was significant, but she was still with it enough to want to talk.</p><p>I tried to lighten the mood a bit when she handed over the phone, I don't remember what kind of joke I cracked, probably something about Mom being bionic enough, that she didn't need more. Her first words were, "Honey, we lost Bill."</p><p>I couldn't breathe. I must have made some sort of noise, because Jay looked up from his place on the couch and asked what was wrong.</p><p>Mom continued, "we were outside of Moab and a car ran right through us and threw us into the ditch. We rolled a couple of times. I must have lost consciousness because I came to when some bystanders were trying to pull me out of the car."</p><p>I mouthed to Jay that Bill had been killed in a car accident, and my mind immediately went into problem-solving mode. Mom said some more things, but my brain was stuck on 'we lost Bill'. I asked her if she wanted me to tell my sibs, and told her I was going to throw some clothes in a bag, grab Nebalee, and be there as fast as we could.</p><p>I completely forgot that I was supposed to be taking care of L.E.'s critters while she was on vacation to see her kids. I completely forgot that I was supposed to be at work the next morning. The only thing that mattered was getting to Mom as fast as I could. I called Nebalee, told her what happened and let her know I'd be there shortly to pick her up. There was never a question as to whether or not she was going with me.</p><p>Luckily, Jay said he'd take over critter duty, and I stopped long enough to text my supervisor that I'd be gone the rest of the week. Nebalee made the calls to the boys (Deejo and Junior) and let her kids know while I drove to her house. After I got there, she drove while I notified my kids. All I could think of was that when our Grandpa Ed died, Mom and Bill had the decency to come pick us up from school and tell us in person, while I was shirking that duty. I had to break my kids' hearts over the phone and couldn't be with them, but I needed to get to Mom.</p><p>I have amazing kids who completely understood, even though it sucked all around that we couldn't be together.</p><p>As we were traveling along I-70 to Grand Junction, I got a call from Sgt. Charlie Taylor from the Utah Highway Patrol. He'd been the responding trooper and was calling to offer his condolences. He wanted to make sure we knew that Reba had been found and that she was okay other than a broken leg. Honestly, I'd just assumed an accident bad enough to kill Bill had also killed Reba, and hadn't wanted to ask Mom about her. He said that he had Reba with him at the office and that she could stay overnight until we had a chance to see Mom. </p><p>By the time we arrived at the hospital, Mom had been moved to ICU. It was a shock to see her lying in a bed, with a too-big cervical collar on. But if you've ever met our Mom, you know she's a force of nature. She might have had a list of injuries as long as my arm, and was black and blue, but she still looked like the force of nature she is. I could breathe when I saw her - I knew we weren't going to lose her too.</p><p>She was able to tell us what happened, and in the midst of this tragedy, there were a lot of "God things" happening. They were driving on Highway 191 just north of Wilson's Arch outside of Moab in the middle of a bright, sunny day. There weren't any other cars on the road, and Bill was doing about 70. I think Mom was reading, but she heard Bill say, "oh shit", and saw a black blur out of the corner of her eye, then they were hit on the driver's side rear fender. Their car was literally launched into the air, and when they landed, a tire caught on the soft shoulder and they flipped on the diagonal a couple of times.</p><p>Mom said she must have lost consciousness, because she came to as people were dragging her from the car. She knew she was hurt badly and thought she'd collapsed a lung. She consciously worked to control her breathing and fight away the panic. Lucky for her, two paramedics had been the ones to stop to help. One had recently retired from another state, and the other was off-duty. The recently retired paramedic managed to find cell service (it's notoriously bad in that area) and request a helicopter for Mom.</p><p>At this point, she knew Bill was gone. I'm certain she knew the exact moment he died. No one told her, but she did see bystanders pull him out of the car and begin CPR. Her breathing was getting harder, and the paramedics consulted between them. The off-duty one had the equipment and knowledge to perform a needle decompression right there in the field. I credit the two of them with saving Mom's life. The helicopter was twenty minutes out, and I can't imagine the horror of slowly losing the ability to breathe over that time frame.</p><p>When the helicopter landed, they immediately loaded her and off she went, without the chance to tell Bill goodbye. At that point, she also didn't know what happened to Reba, so she told her human "angels" to look for her. The recently retired paramedic stayed at the accident site with several other bystanders looking for Reba. After the helicopter took off, Reba poked her head out from between two cars and allowed herself to be caught. Since Reba can't talk, we can only assume that she was thrown out a window, and clear of the accident, from the impact.</p><p>By the time we arrived at the hospital and assured ourselves that Mom was going to be okay, it was very early in the morning, so we left Mom in the ICU staff's capable hands and headed to a hotel to catch some sleep.</p><p>The days after the accident are both a blur and crystal clear. I'll get to them within the next few days.</p><p>~~~</p><p>These past 365 days have been HARD. There are far more good days than bad (for me at least), but that doesn't make it any less hard. Perhaps the worst thing, even worse than losing the man who raised me, has been watching Mom go through such unimaginable heartbreak so bravely. She and Bill were inseparable, so not only is she having to heal physically, but she's having to do it without her other half.</p>GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-66962981581571444922022-12-01T09:44:00.002-08:002022-12-01T09:44:08.551-08:00Bill's Memorial Service<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiOwYwm3dU50_bOo5dL1uw7Fd8KDAlXqhN68bqumOCP7sfg3GzS79CkZKneeQNBu1-WV67glsI6lAUfuKwFrUYJlS0c-UfkTY4QCqnmTO8yEg_4K9eLlRZGSggHymTXI_183ZmitZKxVwOPSuaXgvtWz6hmms66sb2Pu1cz4Wph7m3MMSyIt0Zhtz-/s640/IMGA0355.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiOwYwm3dU50_bOo5dL1uw7Fd8KDAlXqhN68bqumOCP7sfg3GzS79CkZKneeQNBu1-WV67glsI6lAUfuKwFrUYJlS0c-UfkTY4QCqnmTO8yEg_4K9eLlRZGSggHymTXI_183ZmitZKxVwOPSuaXgvtWz6hmms66sb2Pu1cz4Wph7m3MMSyIt0Zhtz-/w400-h300/IMGA0355.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taken at Bill and Juanita's 20th Anniversary trip to Yellowstone</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>We are having an in-person memorial for Bill, but he touched so many people worldwide, we wanted to be able to Zoom it as well. The Allenspark Community Church has been kind enough to set it up for us.</p><p>Bill's service is scheduled for tomorrow, December 2 at 2:00 p.m. MST. If you'd like to join us virtually, the information is below.</p><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" type="cite"><div dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; color: #500050; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Topic: Bill Martin Memorial Service</span></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #500050; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Time: Dec 2, 2022 01:30 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)</span></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #500050; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #500050; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Join Zoom Meeting</span></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #500050; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88634081098?pwd=OVJhWVZSZVZRWk8wYklCOXR1dS9XUT09" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88634081098?pwd=OVJhWVZSZVZRWk8wYklCOXR1dS9XUT09</a></span></div><div style="border: 0px; 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color: #500050; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #0433ff;"> +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)</span></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #500050; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Meeting ID: 886 3408 1098</span></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #500050; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Passcode: 836848</span></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #500050; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Find your local number: <a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="1" href="https://us02web.zoom.us/u/ktRN8sGVw" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://us02web.zoom.us/u/ktRN8sGVw</a></span></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote>GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-10077700402404103282021-02-28T19:42:00.000-08:002021-02-28T19:42:42.691-08:00It's Getting Real<p>I've been working pretty steadily on Skeeter's cosplay for the last few weeks, but it didn't seem real until <i>my</i> patterns came in. I don't know what about seeing the patterns for my cosplays is so anxiety-inducing, but suddenly I felt the stress of pulling off my 50th birthday photoshoot.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSJ10wp7OCodKMMPc3itvjZMdOpbP1TI-YFD_uT9h3qnRqC2BbrNL3hqwtPN7EjzY__oQ3OE84GS522FMZB4qcdfOkXafF_OWplgYjHKeZP-XIxzzum6LM_FbiSDSKOZK2n-hRPqA-n5Y/s2048/2021-02-18+19.46.15-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSJ10wp7OCodKMMPc3itvjZMdOpbP1TI-YFD_uT9h3qnRqC2BbrNL3hqwtPN7EjzY__oQ3OE84GS522FMZB4qcdfOkXafF_OWplgYjHKeZP-XIxzzum6LM_FbiSDSKOZK2n-hRPqA-n5Y/w400-h300/2021-02-18+19.46.15-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Both patterns will need to altered significantly, and I can't really work on either of them until May once I've lost a few more pounds. The last thing I want to do is work on all those alterations of the pattern, just to have to make more adjustments at the last minute.</p><p>The pattern on the left will be altered to be a split riding skirt, so I don't have to hike up the dress to ride my Skeeter-sus. The pattern on the right will remain similar, but will be altered to look more like <a href="https://dcextendeduniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Antiope">General Antiope's</a> armor.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5rLWwK1FqXV0Lc94hZJUczP1eb6I_YbZ9sKu0gBymIh2kEev1yHbGX3UVX-KWml6R1j0ncBtzDeShMUA9PvnE5may_-qZixCs32ceMrBj8kKcxQzrn_mzS_1r8nsISMpxnbws2icLNM/s1060/20201113_203820.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1060" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5rLWwK1FqXV0Lc94hZJUczP1eb6I_YbZ9sKu0gBymIh2kEev1yHbGX3UVX-KWml6R1j0ncBtzDeShMUA9PvnE5may_-qZixCs32ceMrBj8kKcxQzrn_mzS_1r8nsISMpxnbws2icLNM/w400-h293/20201113_203820.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Oy, this project scares me. I'm cranking along on Skeeter's armor, but the thought of making my own is scary chit.</p>GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-61519666975323942952021-02-07T18:35:00.003-08:002021-02-28T19:37:35.095-08:00 The Big 5-0 is Coming<p>For a couple of years now I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to do to celebrate my half-a-century mark. I don't know, it seems like kind of a big deal and I want to do something to force myself out of my comfort zone. I thought about doing boudoir photos, or completing a Tough Mudder, or, or, or. I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do.</p><p>And then I saw a posse-mate had done a photo shoot with her horse for her birthday. It was awesome, she and her horse were dressed up as warriors and it was breath taking! I decided I wanted to do something like that for my birthday.</p><p>Ever since I got Skeeter, I'd been tossing around the idea of cosplaying with her. Mostly because I've wanted to figure out a way to turn her into a dragon or a Pegasus. Once that seed was planted, it took root and now I'm obsessed with the idea.</p><p>I'll be pushing myself way outside my comfort zone with the cosplay(s) I have planned for my birthday in July. I mean, why do anything halfway?</p><p>Not only do I plan on transforming Skeeter into a Pegasus (a Skeeter-sus, if you will), but also a War Horse. I'd initially planned on doing just one cosplay and photo shoot, but since I'll be paying for a photographer and building costumes I might as well do two. Cross your fingers that I can pull this off.</p><p>My intention is to blog the experience, though I've been pretty bad about posting on a regular basis. My hope is that by blogging it, it'll give me some accountability.</p>GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-7086273738620133522021-01-30T20:55:00.000-08:002021-01-30T20:55:51.816-08:00Thunder Road Wine<p> At an author signing in 2019, I bought a book called Wild Wine Making because I thought it sounded interesting. The author was a bit... well, odd, but very proud of his book. As usual, when I attend an author event, I end up spending more money on purchasing books than I make selling them. But, the book looked interesting and the author assured me it was incredibly easy, so I bought a book for myself and one for a friend.</p><p>Jay and I flipped through the book and decided to try one of the recipes for our Christmas Eve gifts. Each year, we make something different as family gifts for Christmas Eve. Last year was two different types of bacon salt; the year before that I canned homemade marinara; one year we made <a href="https://gundiva.blogspot.com/2013/12/christmas-gift-mis-adventure.html">homemade ice cream</a>, etc.</p><p>We discussed getting a batch started after we returned from SHOT Show, but we were slackers and didn't actually get around to buying the equipment until the shut-down in mid-March. Suddenly, it was the perfect time to get around to doing the projects we'd been putting off.</p><p>We ordered the equipment, and once it arrived we purchased the ingredients for a peach-blackberry wine. Almost immediately we realized that the "incredibly easy" wine recipes were anything but. If we had any experience at all with wine making prior to this, it might have been easy, but we were complete noobs. Luckily, the information we couldn't find in the book on how to make wine was easily found on YouTube. By cobbling the information together, we came up with a plan and turned our mudroom into a winery.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC7FJ042GDD8b5tDNJHCUk_cEqDYuFyvTqD-nssMg3yMA2XkoRZ3-WRGlhw8_maZyJp4hqZBs6adj3woCEiu1B3NCBuS5eV_eEkag-V8YgBAJ4eX23f0Y1pA0O_mYagegM0l8pLEZds98/s2048/2020-05-03+11.33.00.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC7FJ042GDD8b5tDNJHCUk_cEqDYuFyvTqD-nssMg3yMA2XkoRZ3-WRGlhw8_maZyJp4hqZBs6adj3woCEiu1B3NCBuS5eV_eEkag-V8YgBAJ4eX23f0Y1pA0O_mYagegM0l8pLEZds98/w225-h400/2020-05-03+11.33.00.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5/3/20 Day one</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPSjhVm5r1g_MFrqOwOuK91npeJTwB7srJm3E5V-RmWLjTvjUD-f2nbr6Wty64L6bmtRixAJ_d7g39aFZPnXE8ZMUFaxubwr93tloRcYYkVEihByAqFmeuwO9dkCFXeHQ2N9LhIwJjnY/s2048/2020-05-04+19.34.24.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPSjhVm5r1g_MFrqOwOuK91npeJTwB7srJm3E5V-RmWLjTvjUD-f2nbr6Wty64L6bmtRixAJ_d7g39aFZPnXE8ZMUFaxubwr93tloRcYYkVEihByAqFmeuwO9dkCFXeHQ2N9LhIwJjnY/s320/2020-05-04+19.34.24.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5/4/20 Day two</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoD3tgtpcPima110jQ6x0ixIh4OAlv6s5qC5QVcx83ymXyUf5BYAl8L2DVTODJwFJo6AKmvi2gX3anPOn8jEjazuNYZmtv5jZs9McaoGoR_tbpjMJodpnHEJaKqrsYWSvniLtXUFCLqUY/s2048/2020-05-04+19.35.22.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoD3tgtpcPima110jQ6x0ixIh4OAlv6s5qC5QVcx83ymXyUf5BYAl8L2DVTODJwFJo6AKmvi2gX3anPOn8jEjazuNYZmtv5jZs9McaoGoR_tbpjMJodpnHEJaKqrsYWSvniLtXUFCLqUY/s320/2020-05-04+19.35.22.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5/4/20 The yeast was definitely working</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>During the primary fermentation process, we stirred the nastiness (it's actually called "must") twice a day for a couple of weeks, adding sugar water as needed, until the yeast slowed down. After that, it was time to strain out the fruit and move the wine to the secondary fermentation vessel. In the book, the author says that a fermentation bag for the fruit is not necessary. Let me tell you, it might not be necessary, but it'll damn sure make your life easier. It took a very long time, and a lot of swearing to strain out the fruit. We made a huge mess, but finally got the wine moved to the secondary fermentation vessel.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghXbAPEUL0_527U2LFG2trwXG7W9sExhj1NWMp5NvsMMU6FPA646jYXfYhWlPcFIcvEklusWIJa-j-BMI4L4WOfrvSXVdJ5AaJF1HNQGIdLWIeDNj5xhjUloTcCB-FvuRVGtweH5zss4/s2048/2020-05-13+17.57.08.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghXbAPEUL0_527U2LFG2trwXG7W9sExhj1NWMp5NvsMMU6FPA646jYXfYhWlPcFIcvEklusWIJa-j-BMI4L4WOfrvSXVdJ5AaJF1HNQGIdLWIeDNj5xhjUloTcCB-FvuRVGtweH5zss4/w225-h400/2020-05-13+17.57.08.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting a large pot ready for the first straining</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtCMIz88jj7dvhg5P0xLoUL0Kb0c0adKE_o5dVx2itn6ITBRXMHA7pcUd7onXRXZeQkvlOUZjY450BoKwaAaeMO3P0wA_A1x4SyMDmNVo5kHxDa17nEyhcfykVK0fJYl8u_kVkWvv9Rs/s2048/2020-05-13+17.58.43.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtCMIz88jj7dvhg5P0xLoUL0Kb0c0adKE_o5dVx2itn6ITBRXMHA7pcUd7onXRXZeQkvlOUZjY450BoKwaAaeMO3P0wA_A1x4SyMDmNVo5kHxDa17nEyhcfykVK0fJYl8u_kVkWvv9Rs/w225-h400/2020-05-13+17.58.43.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Removing the fruit and straining out the juice</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwY3ZcTwrkLvMnjWDl4zdIGXTGEvZ48YC4K-gQGGGuh2dlQDg85xuFwZbTdETuYSIltwVhZQXwuq5pG9Er0bvUe-gGx0klLiDLocehyphenhyphenVZgsHxU9JLbFNZkVtw7jABHx0RvupQ206uGExA/s2048/2020-05-13+18.12.55.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwY3ZcTwrkLvMnjWDl4zdIGXTGEvZ48YC4K-gQGGGuh2dlQDg85xuFwZbTdETuYSIltwVhZQXwuq5pG9Er0bvUe-gGx0klLiDLocehyphenhyphenVZgsHxU9JLbFNZkVtw7jABHx0RvupQ206uGExA/w225-h400/2020-05-13+18.12.55.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Straining the juice again into the secondary fermentation vessel</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pM6Yte2pJwa2wVsMK1hzFTAtdQ-24ui_rrHNwCF3rht8_lWZ3hpjBxWMRxqm8GvgxbveLrahTkEAol9-88z24xLHTyi190wxv5gJyr5ryFnhb2LLz9dZazkBomGXRlxKUe2I51x2E1k/s2048/2020-05-13+18.26.38.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pM6Yte2pJwa2wVsMK1hzFTAtdQ-24ui_rrHNwCF3rht8_lWZ3hpjBxWMRxqm8GvgxbveLrahTkEAol9-88z24xLHTyi190wxv5gJyr5ryFnhb2LLz9dZazkBomGXRlxKUe2I51x2E1k/w225-h400/2020-05-13+18.26.38.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not having the right equipment will make the process tedious</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh1C_peN5Bche_kOHDxS5_rcdbkyh5WoYgXs09zsJxHQAtfank7kb2be9R8olzoVrmYxLBF1eJCca0hyphenhyphen6muf6RPQy-cA1HT79dr1_qP8376qdt7IgNJPM-33GOUbRzY7d3kWwpEx0HdAo/s2048/2020-05-13+19.23.59.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh1C_peN5Bche_kOHDxS5_rcdbkyh5WoYgXs09zsJxHQAtfank7kb2be9R8olzoVrmYxLBF1eJCca0hyphenhyphen6muf6RPQy-cA1HT79dr1_qP8376qdt7IgNJPM-33GOUbRzY7d3kWwpEx0HdAo/w225-h400/2020-05-13+19.23.59.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5/14/20 Secondary fermentation started</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Once it was all moved from the primary fermentation vessel (the 6-gallon bucket) into the secondary fermentation bottle (the glass bung (yes, that's its real name)), we fit it with an airlock that allowed the yeasts' gasses to escape, and covered with a cardboard box to keep it cool and dark. If we had a basement, that would have been a better option, but the cardboard box worked remarkably well.</p><p>The next day, we checked and saw the yeast were happily chugging along, doing their job.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwgmippirpbRchVxs72o3AfoHHlImka4VHtCtkF14GeQfGts9nQypoKouerBZ1cjUbeRDBF4Noqdq8GRJm_CQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p>A couple of days later we "racked" the wine, siphoned it to remove the sediment. At that stage, it was still pretty cloudy and we were still figuring out what the hell we were doing, but we got it racked.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2JCv8GbF2R8qMC37phzOfg3HVyAxNr_101QkfeIiD6SP0csDIA9ADkqvfRHlanS1_mru81FJa7b6XKA2qLKKd62buIyoNQAPPw7C-f3HSvVspOxzWQbVOEudCuBIMwttt_vL2k14A6c/s2048/2020-05-16+14.14.51.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2JCv8GbF2R8qMC37phzOfg3HVyAxNr_101QkfeIiD6SP0csDIA9ADkqvfRHlanS1_mru81FJa7b6XKA2qLKKd62buIyoNQAPPw7C-f3HSvVspOxzWQbVOEudCuBIMwttt_vL2k14A6c/w225-h400/2020-05-16+14.14.51.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXEVdAVVo2UKo7qHzYnN6bzaP1KFVUR0dPqVVkF1EIDoIVWRjuqjXiM6oYVF5IdfSSYIu5EJhp7FMyszXEUa3XcW54If84nYagPjBkR6OpgIFJnAKJwHCSraIHTdZjmxhWU1YSFAZC6Ow/s2048/2020-05-16+14.14.58.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXEVdAVVo2UKo7qHzYnN6bzaP1KFVUR0dPqVVkF1EIDoIVWRjuqjXiM6oYVF5IdfSSYIu5EJhp7FMyszXEUa3XcW54If84nYagPjBkR6OpgIFJnAKJwHCSraIHTdZjmxhWU1YSFAZC6Ow/w225-h400/2020-05-16+14.14.58.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JlxTLYkBDlt4ThixTHsjHGzAhkmS7wusYXYXCmgCjwJW1ugbNnYbL37L5cah_E1ROfNzrsm5GZK13F7gnGq0dycIU76Gdfeylf4AczpshQzRyw1W8CfSDHz49eyd2IBI1CxHloy13rk/s2048/2020-05-16+14.15.09.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JlxTLYkBDlt4ThixTHsjHGzAhkmS7wusYXYXCmgCjwJW1ugbNnYbL37L5cah_E1ROfNzrsm5GZK13F7gnGq0dycIU76Gdfeylf4AczpshQzRyw1W8CfSDHz49eyd2IBI1CxHloy13rk/w225-h400/2020-05-16+14.15.09.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><p>After we racked it the first time, wine making got markedly easier. All we had to do was rack it every few weeks to remove the wine from the sediment. Racking the wine is the perfect time to taste it, and it was much better than I anticipated each time. The problem was, each time we racked it, we lost a bit of volume, so that by the second-to-last time we racked it, we'd lost a full gallon. There was nothing in the book about what to do, but we were under the impression the bung needed to be kept full to decrease the amount of oxygen the wine was exposed to. Not knowing what to do, we decided to add more sugar water to make up the volume.</p><p>The next time we racked the wine, it was much sweeter than previously. I complained that it was sweet. Jay looked at me and said, "it's a dessert wine" and thus the idea was born for a Grease-based theme for the wine.</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J40ZNwrpJ2o?start=60" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>By mid-September the wine was ready ready for bottling.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy0TF7L265VIYyI9rGoQXijzaL8WHHyzX0X7Gkt8jZWUmC1HdIRRuAwQkzndrVBYtjflEryTZNU-GopOBQyXH9-ALidz3KttlrmntvbbDptjEMgf1-DbR0hOdjJKDdmA_1FeHl7YiqflI/s2048/2020-09-12+15.30.11.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy0TF7L265VIYyI9rGoQXijzaL8WHHyzX0X7Gkt8jZWUmC1HdIRRuAwQkzndrVBYtjflEryTZNU-GopOBQyXH9-ALidz3KttlrmntvbbDptjEMgf1-DbR0hOdjJKDdmA_1FeHl7YiqflI/w225-h400/2020-09-12+15.30.11.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqIFcoF3xpOGFJKi7cbDkDm_7K2ZIifhyphenhyphenTqwmTPYo8GUyV1fK9gsQiRARH7pfgwdl_bnILFP7NVA4iZgdi2gOJY7K1L9i971Loht2Gv1qAwQE3qgog8xbi2zCAEILe0YdtLK8piDwGc7M/s2048/2020-09-12+15.59.27.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqIFcoF3xpOGFJKi7cbDkDm_7K2ZIifhyphenhyphenTqwmTPYo8GUyV1fK9gsQiRARH7pfgwdl_bnILFP7NVA4iZgdi2gOJY7K1L9i971Loht2Gv1qAwQE3qgog8xbi2zCAEILe0YdtLK8piDwGc7M/w225-h400/2020-09-12+15.59.27.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxnVD6vl9SpLx_56UUtKBEwxXPQSI0OKt40hABmKRlZmIPbaCK_QTj3weT6Ghhz57s2ZorjjtGGPZYwWcgfnqGsonmebfhZYsgFuRHvvJ4kYVs6ztf1WuNkn_wn3RBV2PXTjJVyODqFeo/s2048/2020-09-12+15.59.37.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxnVD6vl9SpLx_56UUtKBEwxXPQSI0OKt40hABmKRlZmIPbaCK_QTj3weT6Ghhz57s2ZorjjtGGPZYwWcgfnqGsonmebfhZYsgFuRHvvJ4kYVs6ztf1WuNkn_wn3RBV2PXTjJVyODqFeo/w225-h400/2020-09-12+15.59.37.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><div>Jay put his graphic design talents to work and made us a great label. I think every year is our best Christmas Eve gift, but this one - the wine paired with Twinkies - was the best. So far.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLdVn-JdcplHd3mR0qGzOIqVHrtpmIhjkhYLAcK7DH05O5MHNQDPVg9dzhKSY5o3L8wl4tNXMEHx5Q9uQvA2f2kzkixqpwmDuQRJoZvsBKsEgE-Ln75sOPdgPC8ppjbER9FLMASQEy7Sw/s2048/20210130_171132.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLdVn-JdcplHd3mR0qGzOIqVHrtpmIhjkhYLAcK7DH05O5MHNQDPVg9dzhKSY5o3L8wl4tNXMEHx5Q9uQvA2f2kzkixqpwmDuQRJoZvsBKsEgE-Ln75sOPdgPC8ppjbER9FLMASQEy7Sw/w480-h640/20210130_171132.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div>We might not make wine as Christmas gifts again, but we'll definitely be trying again, now that we (sort of) know what we're going.</div>GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-11524415789713954962021-01-30T16:51:00.000-08:002021-01-30T16:51:29.674-08:00Noom Update<p> You know, I think I'm getting the hang of this Noom thing. Really.</p><p>I started Noom on October 13, and am currently down 21.2#. As you know, from my whining in my first Noom post, the first few days were <i style="font-weight: bold;">hard</i>. But after that, it got easier and easier. There are days when I'm incredibly frustrated with the scale, but overall this has been fairly easy. 21.2 pounds in 15.5 weeks isn't a lot - it's just over a pound a week lost. </p><p>My goal with Noom has always been to "make my outsides match my insides", meaning that while I felt fit and strong, I hated the way I looked. My weight was pretty steady all through the spring and summer, and I felt so fit with all of the walking and such I was doing. But I hated the way I looked in pictures.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4xQbssolWEG8_VTnSmj_JNQj7J80AcZP-wYQJW1KM-NBw042lVZNRjwEuJT2sO2c_fEI0npcDw9cpUW3aiio88jCCAUOsMYeuBN5Bl3X5j7jsbodQwaxdoAy5ygzvsKl8Zq3cFdmcVA/s2048/2020-08-08+18.29.24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4xQbssolWEG8_VTnSmj_JNQj7J80AcZP-wYQJW1KM-NBw042lVZNRjwEuJT2sO2c_fEI0npcDw9cpUW3aiio88jCCAUOsMYeuBN5Bl3X5j7jsbodQwaxdoAy5ygzvsKl8Zq3cFdmcVA/s320/2020-08-08+18.29.24.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">August, 2020</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Only because it was so muddy and slick that LE and I were laughing about it did I allow that full body picture of me to be taken. My insides (how I felt) definitely did not match my outside (how I looked).</p><p>And to be honest, the two don't match up yet, but they're getting there. This is a picture from a week ago, while I was on a road trip with the Shooting Hubby to go take a gun fighting class. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the picture.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpduvVR00IbM55bHSfLeLwUoAmWeTMB6tq_wXkVcGv84hlxAeZYFBSF15s5sL5ehQ6iwS16cQFS4pgry4-htL_f9u9UJZYBcZ6XSrnx809iUtduWwjIxjIGnpEhZW-Ohe3ZSvVOHFMpjQ/s3496/20210122_103213.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3496" data-original-width="899" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpduvVR00IbM55bHSfLeLwUoAmWeTMB6tq_wXkVcGv84hlxAeZYFBSF15s5sL5ehQ6iwS16cQFS4pgry4-htL_f9u9UJZYBcZ6XSrnx809iUtduWwjIxjIGnpEhZW-Ohe3ZSvVOHFMpjQ/s320/20210122_103213.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Even with a bulky hoodie on, I look much better than I did in August. I'm even stronger now than I was then and am happy with my progress. I still have 25# to go, so probably another four months, but that's okay. As long as my insides and outside continue to line up, I'm good.</p>GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-22413936852701829212020-10-26T11:00:00.187-07:002020-10-26T11:00:01.645-07:00One Last Try<p>Years ago, I gave up trying to lose weight. Nothing seemed to work, and each time I'd lose then gain back what I lost and then some. </p><p>I had my thyroid checked and asked my doctor to up my meds, since my numbers were creeping up. They were still in the normal zone, but my thyroid medication hadn't been adjusted in a few years. I thought I might lose a pound or two that way, but wasn't really surprised when I didn't.</p><p>I also thought I might lose a pound or two with all of the walking I was doing, but that hadn't happened, so I resigned myself to being fit/fat. I certainly don't look like I'm fit enough to do a 5k and 10k each month, but, by God, I get out there and do them. I feel so much better since I started walking. </p><p>I had been seeing the ads for noom for a long time, but mostly blew them off. I mean, I've tried diet after diet and end up heavier than I was before. Then someone very near and dear to my heart signed up, so I followed suit the next day.</p><p>I'm not going to lie, the first few days were <i style="font-weight: bold;">hard</i>. They call it psychology. I call it a mind fuck. It's actually cognitive behavior therapy, and it seems to be working.</p><p>Food is separated into three different categories: green, yellow, and red based on caloric density. Now, I've counted calories before - who on a diet hasn't? But I've never really given any thought to caloric density. Using one of their examples, I can choose to eat 60 calories in fresh grapes, or 60 calories in raisins. The calories are the same, but because the raisins are more calorically dense, it takes more to feel full than 60 calories of grapes. You end up eating far more raisins than grapes to get the same feeling of satiety, which means you end up ingesting a ton more calories. </p><p>Each day, there are tasks to complete in the noom app, in addition to logging every bite of food. I've done food journaling before, and hated it. I never thought that would change. Now, though, it's become something of a game to see how many greens I can eat compared to yellows and reds. Like I said, nothing is off-limits, but red category foods are ones that should be eaten with care. The bulk of the my daily calories should be greens and yellows, with a few reds. Reds are important: they're things like dried fruits, nuts, milk/cheese, but should not be the majority of the day's calories. I sometimes fail spectacularly at that.</p><p>Poor Nebalee had to listen to me whine about two days in about how calorie-restrictive noom was. It's not really that restrictive, I just had to learn to use my calorie budget wisely. In every other diet I've ever been on, especially the calorie-restrictive ones, there were foods that were forbidden. Part of the mind fuck is that I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that nothing was forbidden. I thought I'd have to give up my daily Coke and never have it again. But since I can have it if I want it, it was easy for me to stop drinking it altogether. Coke is a big ole red item and eats up most of my red calorie budget, so once I realized that, it was gone. Saturday was a "reward yourself" day, so I drank the last Coke in the fridge. I hadn't had a Coke in nine days, so I thought it would be a great reward. I loved every damn drop, but Sunday felt a craving for sugar that was hard to beat back. I'm blaming my reward Coke for that. It is comforting, though, that I can have one any time I want, that it's not off-limits.</p><p>Food journaling is only one of the daily tasks required. There are short articles to read, goals to set, and quizzes to take. It takes approximately ten minutes out of my day to complete all of the tasks in the app. Considering the amount of time I spend scrolling through FB, I was sure I could cut ten minutes from there to spend on the noom app. </p><p>Also, each person is assigned a goal coach that checks in with them once a week. The one task that I absolutely dreaded and almost refused to do is the daily weigh-in. Fuck, I hate the scale. I cannot express how much I did not want to step on the scale, much less every day. Luckily, Jay and I left for vacation the day after I signed up for noom, and I refused to pack the scale with us. I let my goal coach know that I wouldn't be doing my daily weigh-ins while we were on our road trip. </p><p>After the first couple of days on noom, I started to get the hang of it. Jay and I had made a goal to walk at least 1.5 miles every day while we were on the road. After all, we were headed to three different National Parks, at least there would be some beautiful places to walk. There were a couple of long driving days that we didn't quite make our 1.5 miles, but we made up for it on other days. In seven days, we walked a total of 15.87 miles, an average of 2.26 miles/day.</p><p>I began to look forward to stepping on the scale when we got home: I'd started to get a handle on my calorie budget and we'd been walking a lot. Part of me was scared, what if I stepped on the scale and nothing happened? My doc had adjusted my thyroid meds and it resulted in zero weight loss. I'd started walking pretty religiously, including virtual races each month, and that resulted in zero weight loss. I had made peace with the fact that I was going to be fit/fat. But now? I finally had hope that the scale was going to move.</p><p>In the less than two weeks I've been on noom, I'm down 9.2 pounds. I don't expect it to continue at that rate; I believe my plan has me on track to lose seven pounds a month until March, which will take me to my goal weight. They even warn you that the scale is going to be variable. Some days I'll be down, some days I'll be up. Them acknowledging that right up front, and reassuring me that it's perfectly normal, has done a lot to ease my diet and scale anxiety. Despite the scale moving in the right direction, my clothes aren't yet fitting differently, but that will come with time. (**That time came today, Monday, when I weighed in. According to the scale, I'm up a pound. Knowing that it's a normal fluctuation is helpful, but I won't lie, it's still kind of disheartening.)</p><p>Two weeks in, I know this is going to work, so then my next big question is: can I maintain it? Noom isn't a diet that you pay to be on for the rest of your life; it's training you to work within your calorie budget. I hope that in the next six months I'm able to absorb all of their "psychology" so I don't end up gaining back every pound.</p><p>Speaking of cost, one of the things that kept me from signing up in the first place is that there's no set fee scale for the program. It felt like looking at a menu with no prices listed - I just knew I wouldn't be able to afford it. It turns out, for me, it's less than a gym membership. The hard part, if you're on a budget, is that you have to pay for your entire program upfront, rather than monthly. I paid about $145 for my six month program, which works out to be about $24/month. </p>GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-39716066063325644932020-10-25T20:08:00.009-07:002021-01-30T16:28:37.403-08:00Virtual Races 2020I've neglected this blog for so long, and I feel guilty for it. I probably don't have any readers left, and that's okay. Instead of writing for others, I'm using this as a journal of sorts.<div><br /></div><div>Two years ago, I started Ease Into 5k (a Couch to 5k-type app). <a href="https://gundiva-talesfromthetrail.blogspot.com/2019/08/copper-big-red-dog-update.html?fbclid=IwAR3bKdNRzfXTOILyIMqLKPeDkqHDpso9rZD7ZdbwFpaL-8RqWvo3hQ8durA" target="_blank">Copper became my running partner and we completed a couple of virtual races</a>. Then the weather rolled in, and I hung it up.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2019, I thought it would be a good idea to do a cumulative race of 121 miles. I thought it would be something I could complete between February and my birthday in July. I was wrong. It actually took me 13 months to complete. I just couldn't force myself, even with using the Ease Into 5k app, to take up running on a regular basis.</div><div><br /></div><div>At the beginning of the year, though, I decided to give it a try again. I was the most out-of-shape I've ever been. A flight of stairs defeated me, so I found more virtual races that looked interesting and signed up. I joined the community rec center and started walking on the treadmill. I didn't break out the training app, figuring I could do intervals all by myself and build up that way. Because I was so unhappy with my fitness level, I managed to make it to the rec center on a fairly regular basis and forced myself through run/walk intervals, either on the treadmill or on the 0.1 mile indoor track.</div><div><br /></div><div>I lined up 5ks for the next few months and whined to Nebalee about how much I hated running. Poor thing had to hear it before and after every workout. She likes to do the BolderBoulder 10k for her birthday, and I knew if I was going to have a snowball's chance in hell of surviving, I needed to train. Except, when I "trained" in 2019 I started strong, then gave up. The 2019BB was awful and seriously gave me PTSD. To this day, whenever I'm faced with a 10k, she has to talk me down the day or two before.</div><div><br /></div><div>In February, I committed to doing a 5k a month for the rest of the year. I <i>had</i> to do something about my fitness level. So, I found a few and signed up.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've done 5ks in the past, so when I huffed and puffed my way through the Love Your Heart race and turned in a flat-out pathetic time that underscored exactly how unconditioned I was. It was disheartening. I kept at the walk/run intervals at the rec center between my first race and my second. In doing so, I was able to shave 15 minutes off my time, but I hated every damn moment of it. Not only did my mind hate it, but my body wasn't doing well. My feet and knees were giving me fits and after each of my 5ks I was lamed up for a day or two.</div><div><br /></div><div> Nebalee listened to me whine about it, then suggested that maybe I give up running and just walk. I thought she was out of her ever-loving mind. She asked me to try walking the April race to see what happened and she offered to join me.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll be damned if I didn't shave another four minutes off my 5k time at the next race, and we never went faster than a walk. I wasn't lamed up for days after the race, plus I'd cut time. I was sold!</div><div><br /></div><div>Right after March virtual race, the world shut down, so I was forced to "train" outside. Luckily, the weather was good enough that I didn't freeze and once Nebalee proved to me that walking was better for me than running, I never had to talk myself into putting in the miles. My entire attitude about exercising improved.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGWn76K1HcQx83PKf3bT8t8bl_uSk9C4RqvbDXXK1ijEfmsJ8DWoc7d338gdpxVXuzGZ3tlVo5T2pZuRORyw2ovP91YyVzScXdSXxFjkBkW1qeevL3LfIUMmaa3D5z-BCjfg45xc9zgnk/s1080/Oscars+SCRAM+5k.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGWn76K1HcQx83PKf3bT8t8bl_uSk9C4RqvbDXXK1ijEfmsJ8DWoc7d338gdpxVXuzGZ3tlVo5T2pZuRORyw2ovP91YyVzScXdSXxFjkBkW1qeevL3LfIUMmaa3D5z-BCjfg45xc9zgnk/s320/Oscars+SCRAM+5k.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oscar's SCRAM! 5k<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Since that April virtual race, Nebalee has been my constant race partner, always setting a good pace: one that is doable, but still challenging. I was beginning to think I might make it through the BolderBoulder, now re-named the VirtuALL 10k, since the world was still mostly locked down. Tens of thousands of people crowded into downtown Boulder wasn't a great idea, so they took the race virtual. </div><div><br /></div><div>We did one 5k in May, prior to the VirtuALL 10k, which was good. I was beginning to think I might be fit enough to do a 10k. And I was. We didn't turn in a great time, but I finished with minimal cussing and didn't even hate my sister for one moment, as I have in the past with the BolderBoulder. I was sore, but not lame, and decided that I would commit to not only one 5k a month for the rest of the year, but also a 10k.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nebalee was doing a great job of encouraging me, and pushing me at every race, no matter the distance, and I had hopes to hit at sub-sixteen minute mile by the end of the year. Then, August happened and our state caught on fire. The air quality since has been hit or miss. Some days it's okay to be outside, some days it's not. I wasn't going to give up on my races, so bad air or not, on race day, we walked. We didn't want to push ourselves in bad air, so went from trying to cut time to just completing the miles. I'm trying not to be frustrated about being forced to slow down; seeing improvements in my time was the motivation I needed to keep going.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've now completed six 10ks, though I get a bit of a panic attack a day or two before each, and Nebalee calms me down each time. I've decided that next year, I'm going to walk a half-marathon at least once. I've got races lined up for the rest of the year, and I no longer dread training for them.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll be posting race updates in the table below, just for easy reference for myself. </div><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2020 Date<o:p></o:p></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Race name<o:p></o:p></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Distance<o:p></o:p></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Time<o:p></o:p></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">+/-<o:p></o:p></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Note<o:p></o:p></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">February 29<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Love Your Heart<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">1:17:06<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">March 18<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Super Grover Red Cape<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">1:01:17<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:15:47<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Lockdown began mid-March<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">April 22<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Oscar’s SCRAM!<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">00:57:24<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:19:42<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Began walking instead of running<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">May 4<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">May the Fourth<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">00:53:48<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:23:18<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">May 25<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">VirtuALL<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">10k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">1:47:03<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Replaced BolderBoulder after lockdown<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">June 12<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Zombie<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">00:52:37<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:24:39<o:p></o:p></p>
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<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">June 24<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Smokey the Bear<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">10k<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">1:43:07<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:03:56<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8;">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">July 2<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">World UFO Day<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5.1k<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">00:52:49<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:24:17<o:p></o:p></p>
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<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 9;">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">July 17<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Dragonfly<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">10k<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">1:42:37<o:p></o:p></p>
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<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:04:26<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 10;">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">August 18<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Ratification<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">10k<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">1:55:43<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">+00:08:40<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Intentionally slow due to poor air quality<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 11;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">August 28<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Wonder Woman<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">00:55:41<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:21:25<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 12;">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">September 7<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Riveter Run<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">10k<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">1:56:06<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">+00:09:03<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Intentionally slow due to poor air quality<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 13;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">September 7<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">BoldiTUDE<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">10k<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">1:56:06<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">+00:09:03<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.95pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Intentionally slow due to poor air quality<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 14;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">September 25<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">She Believed<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.9pt;" valign="top" width="104">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">00:53:07<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:23:59<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">October 10<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Stranger Distances<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">6.7 mi<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">1:58:12<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Odd distance</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">October 12<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Jolly Jack-O-Lantern<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">00:58:18<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:18:48<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">October 31<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Thriller<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">00:58:56</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:18:10</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">November 1<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Day of the Dead<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">10k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">01:45:35</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:01:28</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">November 26<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Thankful Turkey<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p>00:50:53</o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">-00:26:13</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">December 5<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">ColderBolder<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">10k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> 01:39:45</o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> -00:07:18</o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">New PR</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">December 24<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Smilin’ Santa<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">5k<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> 00:49:29<span> </span></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> -00:27:37<span> </span></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">New PR</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /></div>GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-6680556283148235132020-02-09T17:27:00.002-08:002020-02-09T17:27:24.704-08:00RIP Speed RacerOn November 24, 2014 the sweetest kitten ever was abandoned in a cardboard box in a grocery cart in the middle of an aisle in Safeway. My boss' wife saved "her" and brought the kitten to the college, where I immediately laid claim to the tiny bundle of fur.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg55Xm1iE-V9CqCfShtqI23Sba5HOh3fiI8sw4XXRpgSSzOa6i9IJZ100GusdprVsl36ihHBWp_PDDCdkJG_Pc6BLzVlbM6xFcMES9zrUSRrlJaFDv65eCnclxK3ZYesK-6d4gYSeIi50E/s1600/SR+11-28-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg55Xm1iE-V9CqCfShtqI23Sba5HOh3fiI8sw4XXRpgSSzOa6i9IJZ100GusdprVsl36ihHBWp_PDDCdkJG_Pc6BLzVlbM6xFcMES9zrUSRrlJaFDv65eCnclxK3ZYesK-6d4gYSeIi50E/s400/SR+11-28-14.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And then we got home and the yet-to-be-named kitten decided Jay was "her" human.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsniwsghriFAaSJSDIh5DNBPkt49izZivKpxVO_kgP_O79-AEO0cHq2se1OfnfiGBQwSDfRpSqwSGnkguwpOx34MkbmDJQRsGIeSS4XlCkybwlbuQnOvp4MB1Cabb7tbW8H3hrcOWMZR8/s1600/SR+11-24-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="540" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsniwsghriFAaSJSDIh5DNBPkt49izZivKpxVO_kgP_O79-AEO0cHq2se1OfnfiGBQwSDfRpSqwSGnkguwpOx34MkbmDJQRsGIeSS4XlCkybwlbuQnOvp4MB1Cabb7tbW8H3hrcOWMZR8/s400/SR+11-24-14.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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A few days later, we agreed on Abby as a name. I swore it was short for Abandonded Kitty, Jay said it was short for Abigail. We didn't have to agree on what Abby stood for, we were just happy to have a name for the kitten.
Fast forward a few weeks, I was laid up in bed after another dental procedure and Digger was playing with Abby. Just as I was about to nod off, he called from the living room, "Mom, I thought you said she was a girl. These are definitely balls." When I managed to crack my eyes open and focus, there they were - a pair of fuzzy black balls. I guess "Abby" was a lot younger than we thought when we brought her.. er... him home.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqVjZCeZtGhc2fB7HXK_rWZj4D4N1YJs14rhSVwTayGeq9ZpcWVmn09eFi1-DAhAI7ZBpIPwGX4s9aapS4DEIxEOeFWAS2dc_NXLHKi8Z5vZ9PouAUxxsyQ5M9Vw8ZQ0zIerHLPyN6W38/s1600/Baby+Speed+Racer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqVjZCeZtGhc2fB7HXK_rWZj4D4N1YJs14rhSVwTayGeq9ZpcWVmn09eFi1-DAhAI7ZBpIPwGX4s9aapS4DEIxEOeFWAS2dc_NXLHKi8Z5vZ9PouAUxxsyQ5M9Vw8ZQ0zIerHLPyN6W38/s400/Baby+Speed+Racer.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Abby became Speed Racer and we loved that shitten with every bit of our cold, dead hearts. He was a ... special ... cat. His elevator didn't go all the way to the top, but everyone who met him loved him.</div>
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On November 17, 2019 he went on a walk-about. We thought we lost him forever. Speed Racer *NEVER* failed to come when called. After a couple of days, we were pretty certain that he'd gone to the Heaviside Layer, though in a small part of our formerly cold, dead hearts, we both hoped he'd show up.</div>
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Pongo was really sad and moping around that Speed Racer was gone; he became incredibly needy and went back and forth between me and Jay. He was truly despondent that his brother was gone.</div>
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After a couple of weeks of Pongo being so needy, Jay decided Pongo needed a new brother, so off to the Cat Rescue we went to adopt Pongo someone to play with. I wasn't sure I was ready to move on from Speed Racer, but Pongo was driving us absolutely bat guano with his neediness, so we brought home Chief.</div>
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Elli's text on December 16, 2019 only said, "Speed Racer!". He came back! He was in really bad shape. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8GIELHoW0vSIsq73fetC4kYk4yVQEdMfDfg-C_0KUjgFvQoeCCwP-a456qP6PuzOF90sCjYFBGWCoEiMN_A-1L8hy_s-UOXrOmojaVTzugnDT3Pc5G2PXEIf6e5Jb9T_kMnQpK8yARPU/s1600/2019-12-17+07.21.40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8GIELHoW0vSIsq73fetC4kYk4yVQEdMfDfg-C_0KUjgFvQoeCCwP-a456qP6PuzOF90sCjYFBGWCoEiMN_A-1L8hy_s-UOXrOmojaVTzugnDT3Pc5G2PXEIf6e5Jb9T_kMnQpK8yARPU/s400/2019-12-17+07.21.40.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can see the tracks he left when he came up out of the cornfield.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">An optimistic estimation of his body condition score put him at 1-2. I was fairly certain that he'd come home to die, but each day he got a little stronger and stronger. </span>By the time we left for Vegas, his body condition score was a solid 3, headed toward 4.<br />
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Chief took it upon himself to help Speed Racer heal by cuddling with him every chance he had. He took immediately to Speed Racer and when he wasn't busy terrorizing Pongo, he was cuddled up to Speed Racer, purring away.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirCx1HKyYnm4afEeRcCyWoR_SlTYxHzGmoF3PMj8qp954WRHxBB7aowfE_kgPfhE7K2sN-UNApVMFN1jfxNpJ91oI7AKSTmWf1TkmhUwqOJk6AC57cjt7_RwzU-H3gmpu4YQ_QSEOUb-w/s1600/2020-01-26+11.57.21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirCx1HKyYnm4afEeRcCyWoR_SlTYxHzGmoF3PMj8qp954WRHxBB7aowfE_kgPfhE7K2sN-UNApVMFN1jfxNpJ91oI7AKSTmWf1TkmhUwqOJk6AC57cjt7_RwzU-H3gmpu4YQ_QSEOUb-w/s400/2020-01-26+11.57.21.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht5L3hEGxdyUjeZ0Gon4eflJTmZAmxYjYWMa9khRjvP-Fc-A-f7NrE1fsYmggE7GNdWDGSJE6PhludTFVV-MLLqhcwrp-h75SJ5h-ETbjeqci85oMG5D1DMtSoysOSsDckDayhwv6rQa0/s1600/2020-01-26+18.03.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht5L3hEGxdyUjeZ0Gon4eflJTmZAmxYjYWMa9khRjvP-Fc-A-f7NrE1fsYmggE7GNdWDGSJE6PhludTFVV-MLLqhcwrp-h75SJ5h-ETbjeqci85oMG5D1DMtSoysOSsDckDayhwv6rQa0/s400/2020-01-26+18.03.27.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where Speed Racer went, Chief went. You can see how thrilled Speed Racer was.</td></tr>
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Speed Racer has always been an anxious cat, and despite L.E. spending time and loving on him, he dropped some weight while we were gone, but he was still a solid 3.</div>
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But the last few days, he just tanked. Monday, the only thing he would eat were cat treats. Tuesday, he turned his nose up at them, so off to the vet we went. I hoped it wouldn't be a one-way trip, but in my heart I knew.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Probably liver failure, common in formerly obese cats (he was running 17#, easy, before he went on his walk-about) who lose a lot of weight rapidly.</span></div>
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Speed Racer, a whole lot of people loved you and prayed for you when you went missing. Even more cheered when you came home. You're going to be missed, Good Boy.</div>
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October 2014 - February 4, 2020</div>
GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-34909108124116079712020-01-22T20:33:00.002-08:002020-01-22T20:33:17.317-08:00My Boys<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrRT8EYqBiVqLNdF7CUID-RRM2rxOonN-_OryJkQCbzXHWBNGbSflU9DJ0J0VsbfyzmElZGJ4dbinTSLtNBf67gsYxvorWgoMKMrUqf-D9Jgfm8_mNDnRIJ5_FTuUoZcmrlXSFHL4Y8Cc/s1600/3f3c90ae8cee04ed0c7919c78cda4cfb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrRT8EYqBiVqLNdF7CUID-RRM2rxOonN-_OryJkQCbzXHWBNGbSflU9DJ0J0VsbfyzmElZGJ4dbinTSLtNBf67gsYxvorWgoMKMrUqf-D9Jgfm8_mNDnRIJ5_FTuUoZcmrlXSFHL4Y8Cc/s320/3f3c90ae8cee04ed0c7919c78cda4cfb.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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I know we've probably all seen that meme and have laughed. But when I see it, I count my lucky stars that all of the men in my life get along. I'm sure I've written about it in the past, but when I see them hanging out and having fun my cold, dead heart just swells.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy6yz6Mci3AY5AXKwGEP0ClmGB1HZaiHvhdiAnKVAEnrzi8WN1roCUQwk-CJUzHc7Yg86eTSuT0HtK6jQUrfb-xyneHe4i45qt6BrhQV34SqhYuLUYqUORaXNOXTiDXysrWR2muTgZOhE/s1600/FB_IMG_1579750550606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy6yz6Mci3AY5AXKwGEP0ClmGB1HZaiHvhdiAnKVAEnrzi8WN1roCUQwk-CJUzHc7Yg86eTSuT0HtK6jQUrfb-xyneHe4i45qt6BrhQV34SqhYuLUYqUORaXNOXTiDXysrWR2muTgZOhE/s400/FB_IMG_1579750550606.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L->R: Jay, Mez, me, Robbie</td></tr>
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Robbie and Mez were among the group of shooters who immediately took me under their wings when I was a baby shooter. I've written in the past about the importance of <a href="http://www.thegundivas.com/2018/08/the-importance-of-shooting-buddies.html">shooting buddies</a> over on The GunDivas, but I don't know that I've talked here about how important it is for women to be surrounded by men who believe in them.</div>
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"My boys" are every bit as important to me as "my girls", and it might have been even more important to me that they approve of, and get along with, Jay. You see, my boys helped me heal from a bad break-up, though they didn't know it. My girls helped too, but in a different way. My girls listened to the sobbing and angst that went along with having my heart broken. My boys showed me my worth and believed in me. They treated me with kindness and respect without ever knowing how damaged I was. They accepted me for who I was: a new shooter who was willing to pull her own weight and learn the ropes. There might have been some hesitation at the very beginning, simply because the majority of the (very few) women who attended the shoots were there only to appease their significant others, so they didn't know what to expect.</div>
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There are some people who say that it's impossible for people of opposite genders to be friends, but I don't believe that at all. In fact, I think it's critically important to have friends of opposite genders.</div>
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There are lots of studies out there about how important a father figure is in a child's life, or failing that, a good male role model. I want to throw it out there that it's not just children who benefit from from good male role models. Having quality men in my life as an adult showed me how I deserved to be treated. I have a great father figure in Bill, but that's not the same as having friends who showed me, through their actions, what I could and should expect.</div>
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As important as it was for my girls to approve of Jay when we started dating, it was every bit (maybe more) important for my boys to approve of him. It was equally important that Jay not be threatened by my male friends. As a society, we tend to talk about strong women, but we don't talk about strong men. Let me tell you, it takes a strong man to go into a relationship with a woman who is surrounded by men she has a history with, and who she loves in the same way she loves her girls.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7G8YVWsFT4WX4c9vwhBS7EztSCb39-Tcb5slA7T7BdqMdogrrImUr53Go0S-yA7UkGHNwcRxMRcoZqiDTCUp9XpUIrZuliHOM9X6UMu56I9_Bac-HQgduEGExBJK0jt4TJn0k0_Rx1rg/s1600/FB_IMG_1579751158196.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7G8YVWsFT4WX4c9vwhBS7EztSCb39-Tcb5slA7T7BdqMdogrrImUr53Go0S-yA7UkGHNwcRxMRcoZqiDTCUp9XpUIrZuliHOM9X6UMu56I9_Bac-HQgduEGExBJK0jt4TJn0k0_Rx1rg/s400/FB_IMG_1579751158196.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Maybe that's why this picture means so much to me. I have spent a great deal of time this week counting my blessings that Jay and my boys melded so well. Every time I see them together, my heart swells. It's not just Mez and Robbie who Jay gets along with, I'm talking <i>all</i> of my male friends. </div>
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GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-76060801599595662952020-01-05T20:26:00.000-08:002020-01-05T20:28:45.389-08:00Family BondingMonster, my youngest, moved to Arizona a year or so ago. He does that, gets itchy feet and moves. He's the one of my three who just packs up and moves, always has. I'm not brave enough to do that, I'm a Colorado girl through and through and can't imagine living anywhere else (except when it's below zero, then the thought flits across my mind).<br />
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Deejo and his family moved back to Arizona a year ago, after Monster did. Now, Monster lives with Deejo's family and it seems to be working.<br />
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That was a round about way of saying that I haven't seen my brother or my son in a while. Nebalee found us cheap airfare, so we flew out to spend a few days with them.<br />
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It was so good to see my Monster (and the rest of the fam, obvs). We spent one night sitting on the couch, watching hockey. I can't remember the last time I got to hang with him and yell at the TV.<br />
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Since we had some free time and wanted to go do something, we put on our thinking caps and came up with axe throwing. I don't know who had the idea, or even where it came from, but that's what we came up with. I got on Groupon and found a place nearby that was reasonable. Nebalee and I got everything organized and the next day, off we went.<br />
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We had a 90-minute session that included some very basic instruction and practice, then we broke up into teams and competed against each other. We started with two-handed throwing, to get the hang of it, then went to one-handed. Because I like to be able to do things ambidextrously, I tried throwing both right- and left-handed. Monster and Deejo also played along with the non-dominant hand practice.<br />
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Asset, Nebalee's daughter, was apprehensive at first and didn't really want to keep going after her first couple of throws. It's deceptively harder than it looks. But then she got the hang of it. She got the hang of it so well that she was the only one on our team to put any points on the board when we were playing 21.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Team Axcellent</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Team Axekickers</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Check out the witty, axe-themed nicknames</td></tr>
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I was fairly confident that our team (Axekickers) was gonna kick Axcellent's axe, but they beat us two of three games. It's all good though, we had a great time and the games helped us get out of our heads while we were throwing, and get comfortable. The last game we played was "Survivor" and it was each person for themselves. I was feeling pretty confident, as was everyone else. Holy cow! Asset started off strong and kept going. She beat three or four of us in a row before getting knocked out. Luckily, we all had two lives to lose, so she had the opportunity to come back and redeem herself.<br />
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Asset had a bit of a rough start to the day, but stuck with it and started kicking everyone's axe. Monster took to it like a duck to water. The rest of us were pretty hit or miss. She and Monster probably threw the best, each with a handful of X-ring throws in a row. If I had laid down a bet, Asset or Monster would have been the two I'd put my money on to win.<br />
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Then Nebalee stepped up. Asset had just thrown three (or was it four) bulls eyes in a row. They stepped to the line together, mother vs daughter, and Nebalee threw her axe. It wasn't a great throw, but it stuck in the 3 ring. Asset threw her axe and I don't know what the hell happened, but her axe throwing mojo completely disappeared. Like - *poof* - gone. Nebalee had successfully knocked Asset out of the competition and had to face Monster, who had also been kicking everyone's axe.<br />
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Nebalee had her best throw of the day and ended up victorious. I'm sure if I was a better writer, I could write a tear jerker of a screenplay about how the underdog came from nowhere and beat the two best throwers with the best throw of the day. <i>Just imagine the slo-mo montage with inspirational music as we watch her axe leave her hands and rotate toward the target. The crowd erupts in cheers and the loser gives her a heartfelt congratulations. Everything is right in the world.</i><br />
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The whole thing was so much fun, but there was one last throw I wanted to try: two axes at a time! If throwing one axe was fun, throwing two had to be twice as fun. It was.<br />
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Now, some people might raise an eyebrow at using axe throwing as family bonding, but it was incredible! I think that this is something we'll have to do on the regular. We don't have a nearby axe bar (yet), but once it opens, I'll be taking my other heathens for some mom/heathi bonding.<br />
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<br />GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-44631726580093059602019-08-23T08:43:00.001-07:002019-08-23T08:43:22.329-07:00I Must Be BrokenAll the back to school posts and weepy mommies seriously make me think there is something broken with my maternal instincts. Not once did I cry about my kids going to school - it just wasn't traumatic to me, though obviously it is very traumatic for many, many parents. School was just what the kids were supposed to do: it was their job; a rite of passage; something to be celebrated, not mourned.
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I've never been the mother who wanted childhood to last forever. I looked forward to my kids growing and learning. I have wonderful memories of my kids when they were little, but I don't ever wish that they didn't grow up so fast or that we could have spent more time in a certain time period. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This time every year, I start wondering what the hell is wrong with me that I didn't feel the loss so many parents do. But then I remember that my kids think I'm a pretty kick-ass mom, despite my lack of maternal emotions, and their opinions on my child rearing abilities are all that matter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tree ammo, Heathi :)</span></div>
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GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-9575393027210940842019-08-12T07:00:00.000-07:002019-08-12T07:00:11.572-07:00Reflections on GISHThe <a href="https://www.gish.com/the-2019-hunt-list/?fbclid=IwAR2w42zjiwj3ZDwAQRqqd6B27x9pGS9L9SeqVJhnbPvX-ZUvqTq_veg8K3o">GISH Hunt List</a> was long and daunting, but our team #GoodMishaMigos, managed to complete 35 tasks. I know there are a lot of teams - the "In It To Win It" teams - who did a lot more than we did, but everyone on our team signed up just for fun and we all had fun.<br />
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We were an international team, we had two from Great Britain, two from Germany, and five of us from the States. The amount of artistic talent we had was amazing, excepting yours truly who can barely draw a stick figure, and the entire team was incredibly supportive of each other. I would say that the experience was very much like my experience with NaNoWriMo in that it broadened my horizons, forced me to meet people I wouldn't otherwise meet, and have a great time.<br />
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One of the tasks was to create GISHemon cards, which one of our teammates took on and I love how they turned out. It's a good example of the amount of creativity in our team.<br />
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When I registered for GISH, I just thought it would be a cool thing to do, but I didn't really realize the worldwide impact. Each year, the powers that be determine where in the world GISH is going to focus. This year, Laos. Before GISH even began, "we" (the GISHers) funded the clearing of unexploded ordinances from 25 farms in Laos.<br />
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Apparently, every year, there is a "mystery" charity that is announced halfway through the hunt and the money raised goes to the charity. This year, the Change A Life: Laos challenge was to raise $150,000 to send prosthetic technicians to Laos to fit children who had lost limbs with prostheses. In under 48 hours, the $150,000 was raised. I found that absolutely incredible, but the money kept coming in. The first $150,000 was earmarked for prostheses, but anything above that went to support a team of four women who remove unexploded bombs from farms and communities in Laos. We ended up raising an additional $80,000!<br />
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The focus wasn't just on helping people on the other side of the world, many of the GISH challenges involved helping our local communities, all while having fun. Countless donations were made to shelters, 10,000 trees were planted, and the world, for a week, was made a kinder, gentler place.<br />
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While I do not generally agree with Misha Collins' politics, I can 100% get behind the fact that instead of just whining that "someone needs to do something", he's putting his money where his mouth is, so to speak. He has come up with actionable plans to help both his (and our) local community and the world in general. I respect that 100%.<br />
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The lesson in this is that you don't have to agree with someone's politics to genuinely like and respect them.<br />
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I loved GISH and will continue to participate as long as it continues. I'll also do my best to recruit people to join. While I can't say it was life-changing for me, as some people have said, it certainly enriched my life and I'm happy to be one of Misha's Minions.GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-24090040078489172992019-08-11T07:00:00.000-07:002019-08-11T07:00:07.324-07:00The GISH(es) That Got AwayThere were two GISH challenges that I wanted to do, but couldn't quite pull them off. These two will haunt me until I see the Hunt List for next year's GISH.<br />
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#67 <i>kills</i> me that I couldn't pull it off. I could have gotten access to an arena that holds 11,000 people. I can sign. The biggest issue for me was a "sizeable crowd of spectators". Had GISH occurred during the Stampede, it would have been so easy to show up a few minutes before my shift, quickly sign the National Anthem as the crowd came in, and then go back to work. UGH. Really, this one will haunt me.<br />
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And then there's this one:<br />
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I should have tried harder to complete #69. When the kids and I volunteered for the fire department's Flame Out 5k for so many years, I knew who to call to access the Smokey the Bear costume, <i>and</i> I previously had access to the public education department and could have borrowed the fire department's mascot, Sparky. Unfortunately, it's been so many years since I worked closely with the fire department that a lot of the guys I worked with have now retired. </div>
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Again, this was a case where my literal-thinking brain hung me up. Because I know there are *actual* Smokey the Bear and Sparky costumes, it didn't occur to me to just make one that was "close enough". In retrospect, I could have easily made a dalmatian-like costume and delivered goodies to one of our many fire stations.</div>
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I am planning on doing GISH again next year, and will have to make more of an effort to think outside the box and do better about asking Jay to help me break out of my left brain.</div>
<br />GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-43452776866055276962019-08-10T07:00:00.000-07:002019-08-10T07:00:06.660-07:00Jay's GISH projectsI wasn't the only GISHer in the house this year. I talked Jay into joining with me, even though neither of us had any idea what to expect. We didn't with <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a> either, and we are both still involved with our WriMos several years later and plan on doing NaNo again this year.<br />
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Jay is by far the most creative and artistic of the two of us. While the animal-based GISH challenges were right up my alley, the artistic ones were custom-made for him. I knew immediately which challenges I wanted to do, but Jay took some time to choose his. The first one that jumped out at him was the Bee Bar.<br />
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Jay has a unique ability to imagine something and then bring it to life, so I knew his Bee Bar would turn out beautifully.<br />
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We took it to the CSU flower gardens in an effort to entice the bees to have a drink at the bar. We moved it around to a couple of places until we were happy with it (the pole pictured above was not the final placement of the bar).<br />
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With the success of the first task, Jay went back to the list to find another one. When I decide to do something, I am usually all in, whereas Jay tends weight the pros and cons and be more choosy. I saw the Stormtrooper task and knew that it was perfect for Jay, so when he told me that he was going to do it, I was thrilled.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO8q99OHvlq6TzQBxvmKo6T5qhWm43RzE-a-EQxnQ44ActKMikUv_pgZsay0NqWKDb3_G8lrFT02qBc4OkUqJZ_vN5FZAcyt-T1hM0Pg2fpw7ujPVJOTJQx7i7DrqpqS004Qt3d9ColFk/s1600/Gish+34.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="347" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO8q99OHvlq6TzQBxvmKo6T5qhWm43RzE-a-EQxnQ44ActKMikUv_pgZsay0NqWKDb3_G8lrFT02qBc4OkUqJZ_vN5FZAcyt-T1hM0Pg2fpw7ujPVJOTJQx7i7DrqpqS004Qt3d9ColFk/s400/Gish+34.JPG" width="353" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Final submission photo</td></tr>
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Yes, that is a Stormtrooper riding a snowboard at the X-Games. Right in Jay's wheelhouse. Took two seconds, seeing as how we have plenty of action figures around.</div>
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Speaking of action figures, they played a prominent role in his third and final GISH task:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8LQoScBiZOYKbSLgnEx1CImGUJ9NDywuT8nT00tRKK5k3iCLLLyNYagxzstoy0-AKjwzva_SHpvW6oXYDEmf1STPqx3jSPtgOZKTGgRrStfVVJH8XNpCBwsBAvifYWv2pGA9yZOOL_dc/s1600/2019-08-03+22.45.44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8LQoScBiZOYKbSLgnEx1CImGUJ9NDywuT8nT00tRKK5k3iCLLLyNYagxzstoy0-AKjwzva_SHpvW6oXYDEmf1STPqx3jSPtgOZKTGgRrStfVVJH8XNpCBwsBAvifYWv2pGA9yZOOL_dc/s400/2019-08-03+22.45.44.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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See, this kind of task is where I get literal. I read this and thought, "well, that can't be done, we don't have a food truck!" Jay read it and said, "we have everything I need for this task". His brain amazes me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx-cnBJCZytwXW3mGUe-8wHwKlSGy9tdpNH0NiVUQXNeLH-HyW_SUO0Lptj0eZLpXE1CI2a7e0LEywsPF334bARzNZbi4VjWehItjZtcTS_tDQzeCeDLeT-bEyh-A0EHRj9Q2RMEYzEsc/s1600/2019-08-04+09.05.51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx-cnBJCZytwXW3mGUe-8wHwKlSGy9tdpNH0NiVUQXNeLH-HyW_SUO0Lptj0eZLpXE1CI2a7e0LEywsPF334bARzNZbi4VjWehItjZtcTS_tDQzeCeDLeT-bEyh-A0EHRj9Q2RMEYzEsc/s400/2019-08-04+09.05.51.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">Final submission photo</td></tr>
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Every single item used in his last task was something we had in the house. His ability to look around and see objects that are not at all related and turn them into something cohesive astounds me.GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-14169758046602434542019-08-09T07:00:00.000-07:002019-08-09T07:00:01.188-07:00GISH #111The last GISH task I participated in was a collaborative one with other local GISHers.<br />
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This challenge hadn't really been on my radar, until someone posted about it in the Colorado GISH chat. I thought it would be a great way to meet other GISHers in person, and who doesn't have stuff they need to get rid of? I'd rather give it away in person than drop it off at ARC or Goodwill. Remember the doll from the tourniquet video? She found a new home thanks to the Community Bazaar.<br />
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One of the other local GISHers took charge of planning it, and gave each of us a task. Mine was to find a location. Since I live out in the boonies, and most people were wanting to do something in the Fort Collins area, I voluntold the kids that we'd be using their driveway for our GISH Community Bazaar.<br />
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Bright and early this morning, I loaded up and headed to the kids' to get set up. We needed at least 6 total GISHers, and until they all showed up, we weren't certain we'd make the required number, but we did! Hallelujah!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFXMJELX_62IvSgCEmzW6Wv77P6i3itR4dQHnaq0JSFsjllFf3Gjf8mrv0wewb_HqL-ViK3GbXX0xhvl7COLwWjfxLhbyqyQcFP5eLqTarjuGgoWa_5SW3QO7gVCLYWcoqYzPfSdQt7g/s1600/2019-08-03+08.25.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFXMJELX_62IvSgCEmzW6Wv77P6i3itR4dQHnaq0JSFsjllFf3Gjf8mrv0wewb_HqL-ViK3GbXX0xhvl7COLwWjfxLhbyqyQcFP5eLqTarjuGgoWa_5SW3QO7gVCLYWcoqYzPfSdQt7g/s400/2019-08-03+08.25.01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Former strangers, we all bonded very quickly and found several things in common with each other (besides living locally). In fact, our first customer of the day commented on the fact that we seemed close and must have a connection. The look on his face when we told him we'd just met that morning was picture-worthy. I guess just having a common interest - GISH - was enough.<br />
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We didn't have the greatest location, as the kids' live in north Fort Collins, but we had a couple of customers who couldn't believe that we were just giving stuff away. Our second customer was an older gentleman who "paid" us with a whole rash of Dad Jokes. We spent a lot of time laughing with him, but of course I now can't remember a single joke. I should have written them down!<br />
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It was hot, and we were tired by the end of our Bazaar, which is why we all look like whipped puppies in our last picture.<br />
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We exchanged numbers and promised to keep in touch, as one does. But I'd be on a team with these folks any time. If I can't get my family talked into GISHing with me next year, these are the people I'll GISH with.GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-13297596255160875872019-08-08T07:00:00.000-07:002019-08-08T18:41:21.331-07:00GISH #74"Hey Assbut" was one of the tasks I was really looking forward to, as was this one:<br />
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I have long been an advocate of tourniquets, and my <a href="http://www.thegundivas.com/2018/04/what-i-did.html">passion project</a> in 2018 was to train everyone I could in tourniquet use. I trained staff and students on campus in 2018 and 2019 - not as many as I would have liked - and I trained Posse members. I personally know someone, one of my Posse mates, whose life was saved by the proper application of a tourniquet.<br />
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Again, it's like this task was custom made for me. I didn't have the first idea of how to make a stop-motion video, but I happen to be married to a very artistic and smart man who does.<br />
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After we filmed the "Hey Assbutt" video, he helped me with this. I did purchase two new dolls for this, though GISH is all about borrowing and re-purposing*. However, I did handcraft the doll-sized tourniquet out of electrical tape, paperclips, and a bamboo skewer. The tourniquet I made ended up being a cross between a CAT and a SOFT-T wide. Unless someone has been trained in tourniquet use, or carries one, no one will realize that my doll tourniquet is a hybrid (well, until I just blabbed about it on the interwebs).<br />
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The making of the video was fun, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. If I could change one thing about it, I would have made sure it's more clear in the video that the tourniquet needs to be pulled tight before twisting the windlass, but I'm still happy with how it turned out.<br />
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When I saw this challenge come up on the list, I immediately thought tourniquet. It was announced a few days into GISH that our mystery charity was for an organization that would be sending technicians out to Laos to fit children who have lost limbs to bombs with prostheses. Tourniquet training and use in areas such as that can save lives (they can and do save lives here as well), so I found my choice of topic to be timely and appropriate.<br />
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Here's the link to the video: https://youtu.be/0_-PcCu-UbE<br />
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*The not-bloody doll was salvaged and re-purposed for my last GISH task.GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-81112458007296209192019-08-07T07:00:00.000-07:002019-08-08T18:40:38.684-07:00GISH #54After our busy Monday, I had a few days to plan my next three GISH tasks. There were two I was really looking forward to, but they required significant planning.<br />
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For those of you unfamiliar with Supernatural, or this scene, there's a little back story. Dean and Castiel (trench coat) step in the middle of a fight between the archangels Michael and Lucifer. Castiel, being an angel, isn't quite fluent in human vernacular and his insult was a little ... off.</div>
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Turns out, there is such a thing as an Assbutt according to GISH lore. An Assbutt is a mix between an African wild ass and a Monarch butterfly. Just like the unicorn and fairy tasks, this one was custom made for me.<br />
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I don't have access to an African wild ass, but I do have access to a BLM wild ass. A quick text to my friend Kathy from the <a href="http://uswhba.org/">U.S. Wild Horse and Burro Association</a> was all it took to set up a time. I spent the night before we went out to do this task making butterfly wings out of cardboard. I am no spray paint artist, but I was pretty happy with the way the wings turned out.<br />
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I had picked up a white dress shirt and a trench coat earlier in the week so I could cosplay Castiel. (Cosplay - chalk it up to something I never thought I'd participate in, not to mention gender-bending cosplay. My hippie nerd daughter was very proud of me for this.) The Molotov cocktail I made using an old water bottle and a red/orange handkerchief. Really, the set up was pretty easy.<br />
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Lucky for me, Kathy has lots of experience dressing up and tying things to animals, because my initial idea of just running some baling twine around the wings and under the burro's armpit didn't work at all. She grabbed a bareback pad and we secured the wings to it. At first, I tried getting the wings to stand up, but they kept flopping to one side or the other. No problem, our Assbutt was supposed to be moving, not stationary, and the wings would be flapping anyway.<br />
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Turbo the Assbutt was a bit of a show off, but the sweetest little ass I've met. He's such a lover. A bit ornery, but he's three, so ornery is what you'd expect. He makes me want to add a donkey to our herd.<br />
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I am not an actor, Jay is not a cameraman or director, and I am terrible at editing video, but I managed to piece together a few seconds for my GISH submission.<br />
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Here's the link to the video: https://youtu.be/-D9AxDAD9oY<br />
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(Cross posted to Wilsons' Wild Ones)</div>
GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-20961357293514471462019-08-06T07:00:00.000-07:002019-08-08T18:36:23.286-07:00GISH #14<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We came back from our second task elated, but tired. However, we had one more task to complete before we could call it a day.</div>
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Usually, mechanical bulls can be found at rodeos, but we were in between rodeos. Around here it goes: Greeley Stampede, Rooftop Rodeo, Cheyenne Frontier Days, Weld County Fair, then Larimer County Fair. This year, there was a break between the Weld County Fair and the Larimer County Fair that spanned the time frame of GISH. The closest actual mechanical bull during GISH was at Cheyenne Frontier Days, but that ended the day before and I couldn't have driven up there anyway, because I was working the Weld County Fair. I was determined to complete this task, though.<br />
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Mom has a mechanical horse thing that she used during the winters before her hip surgeries to keep her core strong and her hips working. I was pretty certain that Mom and Bill had a steer head somewhere, from when Autobot and her ex-boyfriend were playing at roping last summer. Mechanical horse thing + roping steer head = mechanical bull.<br />
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Bill put the "bull" together while Mom and I were putzing around after the ride. We were all so tired - who knew that walking a <a href="https://gundiva.blogspot.com/2019/08/gish-153.html">unicorn into the living room</a>, then throwing a <a href="https://gundiva.blogspot.com/2019/08/gish-80.html">surprise fairy party</a> was so exhausting - but I only had to ride the bull for two seconds. I could do that, so I did.<br />
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Here's the link to the video: https://youtu.be/3FSbKSVxYus<br />
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For some reason, I can't embed the video and when I tried to upload it directly it didn't play.<br />
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(Cross posted on Wilsons' Wild Ones)GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-33787322682008842252019-08-05T07:00:00.000-07:002019-08-05T07:00:00.937-07:00GISH #80<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHDIPl0mXZJoGOZxB94qhNy4HhC67-ih-0QUiHFUTGC8tzYXQaRjUzHp3ccbqMwk1Cc4vWVGSuuR08dNhmMzzuG2CUBQL-rizdDx2ESajSPUhAyKykWItxWa94jIwDnE8HNYzjFxuVEus/s1600/GISH+80.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="346" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHDIPl0mXZJoGOZxB94qhNy4HhC67-ih-0QUiHFUTGC8tzYXQaRjUzHp3ccbqMwk1Cc4vWVGSuuR08dNhmMzzuG2CUBQL-rizdDx2ESajSPUhAyKykWItxWa94jIwDnE8HNYzjFxuVEus/s400/GISH+80.JPG" width="277" /></a></div>
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Our second challenge gave us an excuse to trailer the horses into Wild Basin, where we'd be guaranteed to run into hikers. It's a rare occasion that we see hikers across the street where we normally ride. As a general rule, we're okay with that, but since we needed to have people to throw a party for, we had to go where the people were.<br />
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The <a href="https://gundiva-talesfromthetrail.blogspot.com/2019/07/my-cup-runneth-over-ride-72919.html">ride itself was amazing</a> and we couldn't have asked for better behaved horses. They did a great job as Mustang Ambassadors that day.<br />
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Mom had baked cookies for us to give out as party treats and I bagged them up into individual treat bags. I thought that maybe people would be worried about taking home-baked cookies from strangers, so I quickly made up labels that said "Courtesy of Allenspark Lodge B&B", so they'd know the cookies came out of a commercial kitchen. (That came back to bite me in the butt later.)<br />
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Thank God Bill was the one driving, because I don't think my nerves would have made it. People coming out of the park were kind of a-holes. We were supposed to be spreading love and kindness, but I really just wanted to spread knuckle sandwiches with the way some of those people were driving.<br />
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Finally, a car saw us coming up the one lane road and pulled off to let us pass. I made Bill give them a cookie, which he tossed to them through the window as we yelled "thanks!". We did that for the next few cars. Sometimes you gotta train humans the way you train horses: make the wrong thing difficult and the right thing pleasant. People who insisted on not giving way on the road out had to thread past the truck and trailer; people who pulled over and let us by got cookies. As Ranger Mustang used to say, "<a href="https://allensparklodge.blogspot.com/2018/04/teacher.html">Peeples can be VERY HARD to train</a>".<br />
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Finally, we were able to get parked, tacked up, and on our way. Along the way, from the trailer parking to the trail head, we ran into some hikers who were thrilled to see horses on the trail. They stepped off to let us pass and guess what? They got cookies. Make the right thing pleasant, right?<br />
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We didn't want to risk losing the "unicorn's" horns, so we didn't put them on the "unicorns" until we reached the hitch rail.<br />
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All that was left was to set out the party sign and find us some people to surprise.<br />
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The hitch rail is off the beaten path a little bit, as you can see, so we had to go trolling for people. The first group wasn't super excited. The kids were, but their mom, not so much. The girls came and rubbed the horses' noses then off they went.<br />
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Mom walked down toward the falls, which are on the same path as the hitch rail, just a little beyond it and found a family that wanted to come meet our pet unicorns. In fact, one of the little girls was wearing her unicorn shirt, so it was perfect.<br />
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The girls were shy, but excited to pet the unicorns and spent several minutes with them. Their parents had to practically drag them away.<br />
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The most surprising reaction came from adults. Remember when I said my decision to label the cookies would come back to bite me in the butt? Yeah, Mom met them where the trail met the turn off to the hitch rail and handed them cookies. They looked at the label and asked if this was some "publicity stunt" for the lodge. Ugh. It was like an arrow through the heart. Once we explained that we thought people would be more comfortable knowing that the cookies came out of a commercial kitchen and that we were doing this for a scavenger hunt, their tunes changed.<br />
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I was hoping to see pure surprise and joy on the kids' faces, which we didn't get. However, the look of joy on the previously dubious adults' faces? Priceless!<br />
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The reaction from the adults were my favorite and I felt like we'd nailed the task. Shortly after, we packed it in and rode back out. We'd entered Wild Basin with 20 cookies, and had three left. Easy, peasy, we just stopped at the ranger station on the way out and spread the love there too.<br />
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*Verbal consent obtained for posting pictures.<br />
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(Cross posted on Wilsons' Wild Ones.)GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-8543231840136427662019-08-04T07:00:00.000-07:002019-08-05T12:59:56.386-07:00GISH #153During the week of GISH, we are forbidden from posting our challenges on social media (unless directly instructed to do so). That rule is <i>sooooo</i> hard to live by, especially since the challenges are a ton of fun and I wanted to show off my amazing, crazy family.<br />
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Jay and I were placed on a random team with people we didn't know, from all over the world, and I was a bit hesitant. I shouldn't have been, everyone on the team was amazing and supportive and we each brought our own special talents to the team. Jay is far more artistic than I, so the tasks he chose played to his strengths. I signed up for the tasks that I could incorporate the animals in, and recruited Mom and Bill to help me out with three of the tasks.<br />
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Last Monday (7/29/19), I spent the day at the lodge with them working on my tasks. I'm not sure I've laughed that hard in a long time. Everyone worries about making memories with their children when they're young, but I think we should also spend time as adults making memories with our parents. Turns out, it's a lot more fun, especially when you have parents like mine.<br />
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Here's the first task we tackled on Monday:<br />
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You can't tell me that this challenge wasn't custom made for us! Puh-leeze! Unicorns in the living room? I couldn't sign up for that one fast enough. I called Mom when the list was released and asked if we could do this. I really only asked out of courtesy, because I knew she's be all in.<br />
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The first thing we needed to do was transform Mom into the Fairy Mother and Washoe into the Wonder Unicorn. Mom was easy, I found some fairy wings at a costume shop and put her in them. We also dressed up our hats, as they were going to be used for two challenges.<br />
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Washoe's horn took just a bit more work, but not much. A paper towel roll, sliced and diced, then covered with aluminum foil made the perfect horn. A couple of heavy duty bread ties to attach it to his halter, <i>et voila!</i> A unicorn.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r_TNpvtvwUQ" width="560"></iframe>
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Despite his little slip on the hardwood floor, he did great. I initially imagined him in front of the fireplace with the Fairy Mother (aka Bionic Cowgirl), but didn't want to risk more slipping on the floor while getting to the area rug in front of the fireplace.<br />
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A friend of Mom's was kind enough to video the whole thing, as I was focused on getting pictures. It always delights people when the horses visit the inside of the people barn, and Mom's friend was no exception.<br />
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Our first task went off without a hitch! One down, two to go.<br />
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(Cross-posted on Wilsons' Wild Ones)GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-89137858973923665262019-07-25T21:33:00.000-07:002019-07-25T21:33:31.028-07:00Stepping Outside My Comfort ZoneI've admitted to falling in love with the T.V. show Supernatural, to the extent that I went and got a Supernatural tattoo.<br />
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As I started digging around on YouTube, watching panels and stuff, I started following several of the actors on social media. I had no idea that the actors were so involved in different causes, and had, in fact, started some of their own programs.<br />
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The lead actor, Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester) has been pretty open about his own mental health issues, and after losing a friend to suicide started the <a href="http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/Always_Keep_Fighting">Always Keep Fighting</a> campaign (March, 2015), which raised money that was then donated to several different organizations. Less than a year later (February, 2016), the other two leads, Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) and Misha Collins (Castiel) launched the <a href="http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/SPNFamily_Crisis_Support_Network">SPNFamily Crisis Support Network</a> to help support fans struggling with mental illness issues. The support network is staffed by fan volunteers who have been trained as crisis responders.<br />
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Pre-dating both the Always Keep Fighting campaign and the SPNFamily Crisis Support Network, is Misha Collins' <a href="https://www.randomacts.org/">Random Acts</a> whose mission is to "conquer the world one random act of kindness at a time".<br />
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One of the things I ran across while I was learning all of this cool stuff was something called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GISHWHES">GISH</a> (<a href="https://www.gish.com/welcome-to-gish/">Greatest International Scavenger Hunt</a>), which was started in 2011 by Misha Collins and part of the entry fees to join help support Random Acts.<br />
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Anyway, I told you all of that just so I could tell you this: expect to see some craziness going on here starting on Saturday. I talked Jay into joining up with me, and we have no idea what we're getting ourselves into. We've been randomly assigned to a team with seven other people, whom we've never met and who are scattered around the world (hence, international).<br />
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<a href="http://nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a> was the last time Jay and I randomly joined something that we really didn't know anything about and we loved it. Our region rocked, we met some really great people who we consider friends, and we were active members for years. We're not quite as active in NaNo as we were (moving out of our home region decreased our participation), but we still manage to make time to attend a few write-ins every November.<br />
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My hope is that GISH works out the same way. There's not much that we know about GISH other than to expect some weird challenges, but it promises to be a good time.GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-21588744419447490812019-07-18T12:09:00.000-07:002019-07-18T12:09:14.266-07:00I'm Not That Old. Am I?Well, since I completed another trip around the sun yesterday, taking me one year closer to 50, I guess I am.<br />
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My 30 year class reunion is this weekend, which is almost as big a slap in the face as staring 50 in the eye. I mean, it feels like high school was just a few years ago, not thirty for God's sake!<br />
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I skipped my 10 year reunion, let's be honest, because I wasn't in a very good place. Instead of completing college right after high school. I spent a semester at Fort Lewis in Durango and didn't get invited back for second semester. Something about a 0.0 GPA made them revoke my scholarships and send me packing. So I went home, took my EMT class (4.0 GPA, baby), got married and a year and a half later started popping out babies. I had kids at 20, 21, and 23. Bam, bam, bam, three in a row. I was teaching at Front Range in the EMS department, but kinda sliding under the radar because I didn't have a degree. Rumor spread that anyone without a degree was going to get axed. So, I quit and started at CSU two years or more after my high school friends had graduated. When my 10 year reunion came around, I was divorced with three kids, going to school full time, and struggling to keep my head above water. There was no way in <i>hell</i> I was going to show my face at that reunion.<br />
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When my 20 year reunion rolled around, I also skipped that. My life was no longer in a shambles, but Jay and I had just gotten married. I was busy navigating being a newlywed after so many years of being single. I'll admit, I skipped the 20th because I was just being selfish.<br />
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But now the 30 year reunion is upon us. I've only kept in touch with a handful of people from high school, and only through FB. I wasn't a part of any one group. I knew who a lot of people were, and people knew me, but the "ride or die" friends I thought I had all but abandoned me once I started dating my ex-husband. My church friends turned their backs on me (maybe not, but it certainly felt like that) for dating someone so different from us. I mean, the ex was not a really great guy - he partied, he drank, he was an ass. But little church girl me thought I could save him. HA! So maybe my church friends were right to turn away from me, but that doesn't make the sense of betrayal any less.<br />
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I was going to blow off my 30th reunion. But then I started thinking: my life did not turn out <i>at all</i> the way I thought it would, but the last 30 years have been one hell of a ride. There have been some absolute shit times in the past thirty years, but also some really amazing times and I wouldn't trade any of them for the world. Not even the shit times - they made me who I am.<br />
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So, with that in mind, I'm going to take my overweight, middle-aged, freshly tatted up body to the reunion and catch up with other people who have <i>also</i> spent the last thirty years living their lives.GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3472361006103657328.post-82383719180859805712019-07-16T16:30:00.001-07:002019-07-16T16:32:55.761-07:00In Which I Embrace a FandomI joked at my going away party that I was doing typical "midlife crisis" things: quitting my job, getting new ink. You know, everything except trading in the husband. I think I'll keep him, I kinda like the nerd.<br />
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It's a good thing I like him, too, because his nerdiness has rubbed off on me. I've been an unapologetic fan of The Walking Dead for years. I don't watch much T.V., but there are sixteen Sundays a year that no one is allowed to talk to me between the hours of 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. so I can watch my "program" and get my post-show therapy (The Talking Dead). Little did I know, as rabid a fan of TWD I am, I was just dipping my toes into nerdom.<br />
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I reassured myself that while I had some nerd tendencies, I hadn't quite gone off the deep end like Jay had with Star Wars. Sure, I had signed up for the quarterly TWD subscription box, Supply Drop. And sure, my favorite presents were all TWD based. I mean, who <i>wouldn't</i> want an honest-to-God crossbow for Christmas? I <i>owned</i> my love of all things Walking Dead. (But hate Fear the Walking Dead. What a steaming pile of crap that is, even if they did steal Morgan and Dwight.)<br />
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I didn't really understand what it was like to be completely submerged in a <i>fandom</i>. Hell, I didn't even know what a real fandom was. While I considered myself a borderline "nerd" (hence, "nerdom"), I had <i>no idea.</i><br />
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Our house is pretty much a shrine to Star Wars, and I gave Jay so much grief about it. But I had <i>no idea</i> what it was like to be part of a rabid fandom.<br />
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In late March, my FB feed started blowing up. Many of my FB friends were torn up about an announcement that a show was ending after its fifteen season. Now, these are friends I have a fair amount in common with and they were losing their shit about this show ending. I knew nothing about Supernatural. I recall seeing the car at Denver Comic Con when I tagged along with Jay a few years ago. I was enamored with the car, because it was badass and had a trunk full of goodies that I wanted to put my hands on, but I had no idea it was from a T.V. show. To me, it was just a cool car at Comic Con - I was completely overwhelmed with all of the cool stuff there, so it was just another cool thing I saw.<br />
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Because so many of my friends were torn up about the announcement that Supernatural was ending, I gave into my curiosity and watched the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVVFZQymnq4">video announcement</a>. I saw three good-looking men who were obviously passionate about their show and who were torn up about making the announcement. I respected the fact that they wanted to make the announcement themselves instead of letting their #SPNFamily hear it from anyone else. To say my interest was piqued would be an understatement, so I found the show on Netflix and sat down to watch the first episode.<br />
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Four episodes later, I came up for air.<br />
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I was hooked.<br />
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The brothers Winchester were amazing. I'll admit they're easy on the eyes, but I love the complicated relationship between the boys. For years, I've been reading novels based on the paranormal, and here those stories were on T.V., plus a healthy dose of dysfunction. Many years ago, I considered myself an <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=X-Phile">X-Phile</a> (oh my Chuck, I've been a nerd much longer than I realized!), and Supernatural is basically the X-Files if Mulder had been able to prove the paranormal.<br />
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The next day, I hit Amazon Prime and ordered seasons 1-13, and put in a pre-order for season 14. I couldn't risk Netflix taking down the series before I finished it, like what happened when I tried to re-watch X-Files a couple of years ago.<br />
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The announcement that the show was ending came about the same time as I turned in my notice at work. Not saying it was a sign, but I'd already decided fifteen years was a nice round number to go out on. Giving my notice made me feel free, as I'd mentioned before, and part of my new-found freedom was the freedom to explore new things. While Supernatural has been on almost as long as I'd worked at the school, it was new to me and I embraced it wholeheartedly.<br />
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I was bingeing a season every couple of weeks, and then I found out about the conventions! I don't know why it never occurred to me that there would be Supernatural conventions. I mean, I've been dying to go to a Walker Stalker convention for years, so of course there are Supernatural conventions, and pretty much all of the panels can be found on YouTube.<br />
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I used to roll my eyes at Jay every time I'd come home and see him immersed in some sort of Star Wars thing on YouTube. I just had <i>no idea</i>. It became Jay's turn to come home and roll his eyes at me being plugged into the laptop, bingeing old convention videos.<br />
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For Jay's birthday in May, I decided to pay for the Ahsoka Tano (more Star Wars nerd stuff from Clone Wars) tattoo that he'd been wanting for a while.<br />
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My intention was to just make the appointment for him, but in diving into my new fandom, I'd come across a tattoo that I wanted and the tattoo artist just happened to have time to do one for me after starting Jay's tattoo.<br />
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When Ashinator got her Dr. Who tattoos, I'll admit I was ... concerned. What if she hated them in twenty years? She told me that she would never regret her tattoos, as they signify different periods of her life and that when she was 80, she wanted to be able to look back at them and smile at the memories. It was with her words of wisdom in mind that I went ahead and made an appointment for myself as well.<br />
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As much as I love TWD, I hadn't been moved to get a tattoo (that's since changed, as I have an appointment tomorrow for my birthday Daryl Dixon tattoo). However, six weeks after finding Supernatural, I *had* to have a tattoo. I am fully embracing the freedom to stretch my wings and try new things.<br />
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So yes, my "midlife crisis" has included quitting my job and getting fresh ink. But the nerd hubby? I'll keep him. Especially since I am beginning to understand him a bit more.GunDivahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02965363044411500380noreply@blogger.com0