Boxing day on the Monument

We took a little road trip this afternoon with the dogs to the Colorado National Monument. I've only been there for work related reasons since the main FM site is behind the monument. The pix are a bit 'fuzzy' since they were taken with my Palm (we forgot the real camera).
We got back home in time for the sunset. The dogs had as good of a time as the people.

XMAS

We opened presents today under our "christmas tree" and hung the ornaments that 'Pete' and Ione sent us on it. They were the only ornaments on the "tree" that we had. Bill got Mocha a squeeky toy bone and we got Kelly a mallard.
We send out our thanks to 'Pete' and Ione for the candles w. the snow-flake holders (as well as the telescope). Susie got a new dishwasher (see 12-Dec) and she "got me" the box set of the extended LOTR series.
I haven't said anything about my side of the familiy because we were gonna go over there but cancelled at the last minute. So we'll have to do all the xmas stuff via long distance.

Val got his blog up

Click here for Val's blog

The work week is done

After spending the majority of the past few days holed up in a small studio under construction it is good to know that I have a few days off (don't have to go back till Tuesday - ain't that a band name!)
Mocha is still doing great - Susie is certain that he'll know a couple new tricks soon. Of course we don't wanna keep him around forever, and it doesn't have anything to do with Mocha.
We also decided not to go over the hill and thru the ski areas to the big city - we've been a bit too busy and tired from it, we don't even have all our stuff here yet. The guest bed frame is here but the mattress is still in the storage unit. Bill is happy with a second sleeping bag for a mattress - yep he's a bit eccentric.
We accidentally opened an xmas gift that was drop-shipped to the house. Hey it wasn't wrapped and Susie is the one who opened it, so don't blame me! And to both of our amazement it was a telescope, a Meade to boot! So I put it up and took a picture thru it of a tree on Mt. Garfield out the back door.
From the house you can sorta see the tree but it's not much more than a bump when you look at it with the naked eye. The 'scope specs out at something like 260x.

Solstice

Well Bill arrived yesterday and we put him to work on helping with the house cleaning. He doesn't seem to mind it (in fact it was partly his idea).
Not much new on the Val front (just continuing to keep him in our thoughts - it's just that much easier with Mocha around).

One of Susie's co-workers gave out xmas presents last week and I had to take this picture.

BTW it is a paver that's been dressed up.
I've been spending most of my work hours doing studio wiring and finding out more "interesting" tweaks that they have here. It keeps pushing back my completion date for this studio.
Tonight we're going to a solstice celebration - it should be fun.

Another day at the studio mill

Last night Mocha spent the night sleeping beside the bed real nice, but he still barks at me when I walk in the door.
Susie is off work this week and I get the pleasure of keeping the economy going. The folks at work were wondering what was wrong because I was there early for once - I was able to get the morning ritual done quicker today. So I spent the workday running wires and cutting holes for the new studio. Everybody there is happy to see progress on the project.

Day 2 w. Mocha

We'll Mocha spent the night looking for Val (or so we think) so he spent the night in his own room, and no "presents" to be seen.
We went to church and they had the annual xmas pageant.
There was a potluck afterward for a family going to the east slope (Denver area). There was plenty of food.
When we got back home Kelly and Mocha were waiting for us. Susie took care of the leaves out front whilst I hunted for the tv cables which were hidden under the vinyl siding. Mocha spent a lot of the time watching me tear the siding off and put it back up.
We also met the neighbor to the south (Larry) he offer to let us use his lawnmower to get up the leaves. Mocha didn't get to meet him, yet. We were concerned about all the newness to him, no need to overwhelm. He still spends a lot of time looking around.

Well Mocha is here

We went over to Breck today to see Val and pickup Mocha. There was a bit of confusion with our friend Bill about the xmas weekend but that has been resolved for now. Val is holding up real well under the circumstances but he is using a cane but that is because of the tumour.
Mocha and Kelly seem to be getting along fine (Klaus may take some time). He has been spending a bit of time wandering around checking the place out and prob. looking for 'daddy'. He did have a bit of an 'accident' (as Susie put it "a little present") in the living room but that is prob. from nerves. We'll see how tonight goes.

Midday update

Well it looks like we'll be going to Breck. tomorrow morning to get Mocha. And now I gotta rethink the whole xmas thing.
Since we'll have Mocha and Kelly we'll take both of them on the 24th and leave Mocha w. Bill and prob. Val - hopefully we'll also spend some quality time - and we'll have to see if my dad has some "room at the inn" to take the three of us (Kelly, Susie, I).

More on Val

We called Bill to find out the latest on Val and they did confirm that there are spots on his lungs and they did a biopsy to determine the course of action. So far they figure about 4 weeks of radiation followed by chemo. So we gave Val another call.
He was about the same as last night (but evidently a bit disturbed by the spots). We offered to help in any way possible - and that would include taking care of Mocha (his dog) for the time he was in radiation treatment. The treatments will be in Denver and he'd only get back to Breck. for the weekends. Bill offered to take him in and get him to/from the treatments (instead of coming to GJ taking care of Kelly) and we think he'll prob. take him up on that one.
Although the whole situation puts another new twist on the season since last year it was Bruce (in Michigan) and pancreatic cancer. I just hope and pray for a much better outcome for Val. At least the doctors seemed to be optimistic at the time.

Some bad news

We got a call from Bill (Susie adopted him as her uncle several years ago) to let us know that our good friend Val from Breckenridge was taken to the hospital because of a brain tumor. We gave him a call in the hospital - he was a bit out of it but otherwise quite lucid.
He told us they thought it prob. came from his lungs so they were gonna run further tests. I certainly hope for the best in that regard.

Should I say? It's My Birthday!

Well we spent the day going to church (where Susie was asked to be the interm Music Dir.) at coffee after the service the membership sang happy birthday to me. We also stopped by the new building that the church will be moving to in Jan. I've become involved in setting up the sound etc. for the place.
We also went to the mall and bought Susie's xmas present - a dishwasher (it's my birthday and she has to get the big present).
All in all though it was a good day.

It's been a long week

I spent the better part of the week rebuilding and retuning the kjoy transmitter - loads of fun. The back transmitter is pretty obvious when it's on since it has absolutely no control and it ends up the loudest, most distorted, station on the dial (and very - VERY illegal at that) and it is a soft AC format.
I also had to repair the transmitter for and tweaked the religious station (a 5Kw AM that I do mebbe 10hrs a month for) and now a really picky (and somewhat vocal about it) listener was very pleased with the result (so was everybody else for that matter).
I've even got a couple of complements on the restoration of kjoy.