Wednesday

Went to art group today.  There were only four of us there, Conley, Vicky, Barbara and me.  Vicky brought a pumpkin pie and whipped cream.  Yum.  It was SO good.  Vicky sent two pieces home with me for Barrie and Kasey. 

Got the new bookcase out of its box and the pieces hauled upstairs.  Whew, that thing is heavy!  And you could injure yourself just unpacking it - heavy cardboard and those mean big copper staples.

Desert Dust

I you are old (like me) and have lived in Wyoming a long time, you may remember this horse.  His picture used to be on every postcard rack in the state.  He was a wild stud, captured down by Wamsutter on the desert.  The rancher who caught him decided to keep him.  He lived for years, and sired many colts.  He was in a pasture down by Glenrock, when someone shot him and several other horses. 

Here is a link to the story about him:

http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/field_offices/Rawlins/wh/desertdust.html

The rancher who owned him was named Frank Robbins, and I met him once, under comical circumstances.  Some of my friends and I were goofing around in Shoshoni, just driving around.  It was time for the little bus to come in from Casper, so we went down to the Shoshoni garage to watch it.  (Yeah, that's the kind of thing you do if you grow up in Shoshoni.  Once in a while, someone actually got off the bus!)

And this night, someone did get off the bus - a drunk cowboy, no coat in the middle of winter, no shoes, and no wallet.  Seems he was drinking with some friends in the Elbow Room in Casper, and when he reached a certain point, they decided to put him on the bus to Shoshoni, as a prank.

He was pretty confused, and looked pretty helpless to us, and cold.  So we took him to the Derby Bar and Dining Room, where Nick fixed him a steak.  The bartender gave him a pair of shoes, and someone else found him a coat.  Nick let him sleep on the mattress in the old gambling room, and staked him to bus fare back to Casper the next day. 

And that's how I met the owner of Desert Dust.

Tuesday

 Kasey is listening to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on my iPad.  She had never heard the story before, and was very worried about the "Whos" and said the Grinch was rude.  She loves that word. 

Cats from the Past

When I posted pictures of Chloe yesterday, I saw pictures of a couple cats we had years ago.

This is Midnight.  He  just showed up one day and stayed.  He terrorized Barrie.  Once he left and was gone quite a while.  I looked out my classroom window at school, and he was rubbing on the tires of my jeep.  So I took him back home. 

  

This is a kitten I raised on a bottle.  Her  name was Muffy, and Boomer thought she was his cat.  They would play together. When she got run over, Boomed searched the house over looking for her for days.

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The coat hooks and boot rack are here.  Now if I can get Barrie away from the TV to put them up . . . .



Monday

Happy Birthday to my friend Sally today! Have a good one.

Chloe came to visit again last night, and to eat, and rub on everything.  Kasey was happy to see her.  I had a new book (The Grinch), on the iPad, but  KC would rather play with Chloe.

I was trying to think how old Chloe was, and went back through my old pictures and found one of her as a kitten, taken in the fall of 2006.

This is Chloe with her sister, Dan.  Dan was supposed to be little tom cat, but presented me with a litter of kittens in the spring.  So did Chloe.  They each had two litters before I bit the bullet, grabbed my checkbook, and had them spayed. 

I don't know where they were born, but their mother had them stashed down by my driveway.  Three or four of the kittens had bob tails.  Their mother left with the rest of them, but for some reason, Chloe and Dan didn't follow.  So I started feeding them.  They were pretty wild, because I never handled them.

I'm pretty sure Kat is the great, (or great great?) granddaughter of one of them.

Saturday

 This is a little (4" x 6") watercolor I did this morning.  This is the view from Paul and Tracy's deck in Silverthorne.

 Chloe's moto is, "if it's there, rub against it."

Barrie and Kasey got home last night.  They went to Encampment for Thanksgiving. 

Tracy called Friday.  She and Paul are at their condo in Florida.  They had dinner with Leslie (Snow) and Russell at his parents' house.  While she was talking to me, I could hear a noisy bird.  She said there is a big bird of some kind that hangs out on the pier in front of their place.  Tracy said she's very polite, just sits and watches people, waiting for bite of fish, maybe?  Sounded like a heron - Tracy said it's as tall as she is.

Friday

Now playing on my iPod, Nancy Sinatra, "These Boots are Made for Walkin':

No Black Friday shopping for me.  I ordered two new art books online yesterday.  Besides, where would I go shopping?  Ridleys?

I finished this watercolor of a buffalo yesterday.  Maybe he needs more shadow under him.  I wanted to paint some sagebrush, but couldn't pull it off.

A couple years ago, Barrie, Kasey and I were in West Yellowstone for a sled dog race.  We were in the race headquarters for the drivers' meeting, and there was a mounted buffalo head on the wall.  Some woman from Minnesota had Kasey on her lap and was talking to her.  She pointed to the buffalo head, and told Kasey, "See the bison?  That's a bison."

Kasey looked at her like she was nuts and said "That's a buffalo." 

Chloe came to visit yesterday and finished off the dish of cat food.  Kat watched her, then reached out with her front paw and swatted Chloe on the head.  Chloe laid her ears back, but didn't pay any more attention to her.

Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Tuesday

Am I off the hook, Roger? Here are some pictures of Kasey.

Kasey is reading "The Pokey Little Puppy" on my iPad.

And now for Grover and "The Monster at the End of This Book.  For the fourteenth or fifteenth time.  The Grover book is interactive - she can tickle his tummy, or touch the knots he tied so sho couldn't trun the page, and the knots come undone.  She loves it, and Grover is very loud, and I needed a break from him.



Looks like I put Barrie in the dryer and shrunk her.

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As soon as I finished the order for a new lapatop and came upstairs, I tried this one again, and it booted right up.  And it ran better and faster than it has for a long time.  Hmmm, kind of spooky, don't you think?  I saw a movie once where a computer had human traits.  It's almost like this one was telling me, Okay, I'll be good.  I didn't turn it off after that - left it in sleep mode all night.

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Kasey came running upstairs the other night to tell me Chloe was here.  She was so excited.  Barrie heard a cat in the garage and thought it was probably her, couldn't get her to come out of hiding.  She was up in the loft of the garage.  So she sent Kasey in the garage, Kasey called her, and Chloe came right to her.  We don't know how long she was in there, but she was kind of hungry and thirsty.

Kasey said "Chloe likes me, but Kat doesn't."  Don't feel bad, kiddo.  Kat doesn't like anybody.  Well that's not quite true.  She sleeps  on my feeet and rubs on my ankles, but she won't let me touch her.

Computer died

I just finished ordering a new laptop computer.  My laptop has died, dead, gone.  I'm going with a Dell this time, giving up on HP.  I've known for some time it was going down.  Wouldn't boot up sometimes, and was so slow,  When I was typing, it was always about five or six words behind me. 

Haven't decided yet whether to take it to Mike and see if it can be fixed.  Our other HP, the one Barrie uses, had a hard drive failure, just a couple of days after the warranty ran out.  Mike talked to HP and convinced them to send a new hard drive, free of charge. 

I did back up the files not long ago, so won't lose much.  But it's a hassle to reinstall programs.

Had a yard full of deer yesterday.  The front gate was open, and they came in, six or seven of them.  Something under the snow must have been really good.

The other deer left, and this poor little guy couldn't remember where the gate was where he came in.  He finally found it.

The magpies are still working on the rib cage of the deer on the ditchbank.



Sunday

A cold gray day outside. Looks like it wants to snow.
I am reading "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. That guy sure goes into detail.  For some reason, I thought that was the only book he wrote, but I checked on Amazon, and he's authored several books.  I was surprised to see he wrote "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

I was looking through some National Geographic photos online the other day, and found this picture of a snowy owl.  Wow!  Breathtaking photo, isn't it?

XM Radio already has a channel for Christmas music.  I'm not listening, it's too early.  Besides, I have a playlist of my favorite Christmas songs on my iPod.  I just don't care much for most of the new music.  Give me Bing Crosby any day, singing "White Christmas".

Saturday

We had some new snow, and Barrie plowed our driveway.  She loves plowing snow, says all the other "snow plowers" wave at her.  Sounds like a good way to pick up guys, doesn't it?

Did another little 4" x 6" painting in the little Moleskine book.  I have only 12 pages left in the book.  Don't ask what that is on the right, because I don't have a clue.  Maybe a fence?

Poor kid was not "politically correct." 

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Had much better luck shopping on the Internet yesterday.  Found flannel pajamas at JC Penney for a reasonable price.  For some reason, I refuse to spend $70 or $80 for a pair of flannel pajamas.

Found the perfect bookshelf for upstairs.  I have books stacked on tables and corners of the room. 

Also found a boot rack I like.  It's wall mounted, holds four pair of boots upside down.  We can put it up right over the heater vent in the dining room. 

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I don't want to read any more media coverage about the scandal at Penn State, and no more "Occupy" stories.