Frustration, and silver linings

I've been making lots of changes on the blog-o-nater here. I figured it needed a pick me up and I was bored. My day has been a big disappointment today but that's mainly when I ignore the silver lining. Most of the day I spent working on my car. I love spending time with my dad this way. He teaches me, I learn, we laugh, it's fun. By working on my car I mean laying inside my trunk taking apart the stupid amp that someone put in. My speakers have not been working for two months or so and I couldn't figure out why. Today my dad and I found a hidden fuse that had blown and changed it out. The speakers worked, I was literally skipping down the hall to the kitchen to go grab some baking soda so I could clean the corosion off my battery while I was under the hood. After the battery was hooked up again and looking spanky clean I crawled back in the trunk to screw the amp back into the panel. Sparks flew, I yelped and the fuse blew again. We tried at least 8 times testing different theories as to why the fuse was going out but nothing. We ended up with a nice pile of fuses and a very frustrated Sara. The result of three hours of labor is that I have sound but only if the amp is not touching the metal of the car, and yes the amp is grounded. My dad and I have no idea why it is happening and he has a good 45 years of being a mechanic to back him up. Blah.. We have reach the "screw it" stage of labor. This means it is too dark outside to keep messing with and we are both bummed we couldn't get it working properly so we are going to grumble around the house for awhile. However the silver lining: on my drive back to Denver I will have music as long as the amp sliding around in my trunk doesn't loosen a wire. :)

Other than that today has been an emotional blow out as well. Some days I just feel like I don't have the skill set to deal with my emotions. BUT, I can't forget the silver lining. While I experience very strong emotions like anger, and sadness that threaten to consume I also fully experience happiness and joy with the exact same intensity which I wouldn't trade for the world. Someday I'll figure out how this all works. When I am old and gray. When I have seen it in all of the ranges the world has to offer. After which I am going to print a user manual so that everyone else can benefit from my grand, gray haired wisdom. That or I am just going to grin and let them struggle through it like I did. Struggling builds character. Think of the twisty tree, warped by the wind as it clings to the cliff. It survives and in it's warped form it is more beautiful than any straight tree could hope to be. So I shall survive to experience life another day, bring on the warped-ness and twisty trunk.

Trip, trip, tripping and stumbling back to Dgo. It seemed like as good of a time as any to go hang with those people who are forced to call themselves my relatives, so off I went in my little blue car. The drive down was beautiful. The plains have started to change colors and it was a patch work blanket of colors rich enough to make any painter jealous. It is times like these that I swear I could never be happy anywhere but Colorado. After the destination was reached the rules of the game were typical. I have spent lots of time talking with my mom and listening to her wisdom. I have spent lots of time picking up nephews and throwing them around without regard for their health or well being. I have spent lots of time curled up, hanging out with my dad. My dad, mom and I also went for a long drive today up La Plata Canyon. It was a blast seeing stuff that I haven't seen since I was a kid and being goofy with my parents. Some days I just have to shake my head and say "Yeah, this is where I get the weirdness from." Pictures will explain that below. I'm not sure exactly when I am going back to Denver. Probably sometime within the next week. Tomorrow I am hoping to work on my car (I have access to all of my dad's tools, NICE!), and maybe just spend a relaxing day enjoying being around him. Granted, the poor guy has to spend the morning at doctor's but maybe I can surprise him and get some stuff done at the house before he comes home.

Greco-roman style wrestling. Nice dodge Mom, I'll get you next time.









Dad and his good buddy Terran. That kid loves him. I think Dad must slip him candy or something when the rest of us aren't looking....








Awwww... you'd think we like eachother just a little. This is the only picture where neither one of us is sticking out our tongues to make my mom groan and say "NO! Take a nice picture. Don't do that...." We took about 10 of these before she got one.









See what I mean...















Cora making Fried Green Tomatoes... Mmm...
















Last but not least the beautiful sunflowers outside my sister's house. They are about 6 feet tall...

Tom, what kind of fruit do you like?

I feel like I should write something interesting but there isn't too much going on these days. Unless you want to hear about all of the books I've been reading lately. (Most likely not). Other than that I have been catching up with various important people in my life. Everyone who knows me knows that I suck at communication unless people are with in a pretty short range of my actual person. About the only person I do keep up with who lives far away is Tom, and that is just because the poor boy has been my best friend for so many years that there has to be some sort of compensation. I could send him a fruit basket I suppose but that requires money and a knowledge of what kind of fruit he likes... which I don't have either of. In fact I am such a crummy friend that I had to steal this picture of him. (I have pictures but most of them are from the days before I owned a digital camera. I wasn't kidding when I said we have been friends for a long time.) Since Tom is one of the six people I know who reads this blog it only seemed fair to put him on it. :) I mean really you have seen pretty much my entire family line-up, and a good deal of Joey's family and friends. So, blogger land meet Tom aka Tombo...Tom meet my invisible friends. Now shake invisible hands and play nice. Wasn't that exciting? The back story behind Tom starts with an unusual meeting. Tom and I met in the High Five movie theater when I was about 13 or 14. He was friends with my sister Cora (she's a year older than I am) and I believe he had a trench coat and a pony tail at the time. I was still living in Pagosa but we ended up chatting on instant messenger for a year or so until I moved to Durango to live with my dad. I pretty much stole his friendship from my sister, Oops. In the following years I spent a lot of time ditching school and hanging out at his apartment up on the hill. Our friendship is based around long walks, ice cream cones from DQ, and an ability to tell each other pretty much everything. It's very cool. If you don't have a friend like this I recommend you get one. You could scout out local theaters but I think that only works in small towns when you have a blond sister towing you around. It could be that I just got lucky. Maybe I should send a fruit basket to Cora? I have a vague idea of what she likes, or at least I know the ones she is allergic to. So, in conclusion to this rambling-no-point-blog, a message to Tom (which everyone else gets to read with invisible eyes in their invisible heads): Thanks for being my friend. Thanks for always listening to me ramble even when you know I am being stupid. Thanks for not telling me I'm being stupid. (You must have a lot of those moments stocked up). Thanks for accepting me no matter what, and no matter how many bad things you know about me. Now write me my letter damn it. You are a lousy pen pal! :) (That is said with love of course and if I get one in the mail in the next 24 hours, I'm very sorry)

We came, we saw, we camped.

Joey took to camping like a duck to water. I will never again underestimate him. Okay, it might happen again but if it does I will once again be very impressed with everything that is Joey. We left Saturday morning to find a campground that was not full. I was a little bit more pessimistic then I should have been about the whole thing but that is because I am used to the idea that you have to get to a site early on Friday otherwise all of the good spots will be taken. The first camp ground we checked out was full except for two spots that were completely exposed and not very exciting. So on to the next campground! Success!! Brainard lake was a beautiful place to go, with not one lake but three. We found a nice little spot with lots of tree coverage, up went the tent and then it was time to hike around and explore. There were lots of rocks to climb, creeks to cross, and stones to skip. It was a little chilly but not that bad. The most amusing part was having to trick the camera into taking pictures because SOMEBODY (me of course) forgot to charge the camera before we left. Bad Sara, no cookie. But since we are skilled and devious we managed to force a dying camera into taking not one or two photos but a whopping 32 pictures. Woot! The remainder of this post will consist of pictures with captions for your viewing pleasure. Don't worry you won't have to look at all 32. Enjoy.

This was something I hadn't seen before, vertical ground complete with trees. Interesting...








I like to climb rocks. It was fun. I think I impressed the little kids that were hanging around the shore... Not really. They probably were laughing at me. Mean little kids.


Joey had some mad Smore making skills, and a growl to go with them. His marshmallows were that perfectly golden brown, mine were flaming balls of sugary death. I like the taste of charcoal, plus I'm into instant marshmallow gratification.




We had hotdogs for dinner. My hotdog was also burned to a crisp. At least my campfire culinary skills are consistent.






During our hikes we found cool trees and played with them. Visualize a large tree trunk with a hole going straight through it. Then add two people with their butts sticking out of the hole and you have the gist of this picture. There was also an echoing giggle sound.












It was truly beautiful. Colorado at it's best with blue skies and clear water.

Weekend forecast/my computer is lame

Things need to thank my dad for: teaching me how to fix crap. My computer is busted again. This is the second time this year so it is once again in parts on my living room floor. I just ordered a new CPU fan which I think is the problem. Lol, I am hoping anyways. The fan that came with the computer is apparently defective and they don't sell it anymore so I am going out on a limb and trying a different one. It should be compatible. If not there might be some wire splicing on my part. I'll let you know in 4-8 days when after I get the new part. Until then I will be stealing Joey's, I mean borrowing, his computer. He's got decent taste in music. Right now I am listening to a song called Adiemus by Miriam Stockley. It's very pretty.. kind of reminds me of Cirque de soleil. Alright I have more important things to do then play on this thing. I'm off to pick up some camping equipment for the weekend. To celebrate being together for 6 months Joey and I are going to take of to the wilderness this weekend. It just goes to show that you can compromise over anything. I can learn to like city life and Joey is willing to try out his primal nature side. I promise to post pictures after we return. Just think.. Joey not showering or shaving his legs for three days??? Joey in the woods??? Joey running from bears and raccoons in the middle of the night screaming like a girl??? I cannot tell you just how excited I am about this. I never think it is possible but then I fall in love with him a little more. (Quit gagging, I'm done.)

The best news of all is that my dad has returned home from the land of uncomfortable cots and scrubs. He is back home and sounding down right chipper. He has to take it easy for awhile but my mom is going to go visit him this weekend so he has some company. I am very, very happy and relieved about all of this. While it was worrisome at the time everything was probably for the best because now we know things that will be important for the future. Plus I have an excuse to go back to my childish habit of calling him every morning. Poor man, you kind of have to feel sorry for him putting up with a kid like this but at the same time at least he is well aware of just how much I like him.

Sporty sport sport

As you can tell, this weekend revolved around sports. :) On Saturday a good friend of Joey's flew in from Las Vegas with his girlfriend for the annual CU/CSU football game. There was, of course, some friendly jabs as to who will kick whose butt. I was odd man out at the house since I was the only CU fan but I managed to hold my own. This year we sat on the CSU side but next year we get to sit on the good school's side. :) I have to admit being surrounded by a sea of green was not the best time in the world I got over it eventually. It was a good game. I would brag about whose school won but I really don't need to since it was obvious from the get go who was better. Ahem...go BUFFS! On Monday we went to a Rockies game, also very cool. The Rockies won. Lol, it was a hot day and we all opted to sit in the sun for some reason until we were all burnt to a crisp, then we moved to the shade. After the game we wandered down to taste of Colorado. Ironically Joey and I did not taste anything. We were waiting until we returned to the apartment for some tasty brats. They were awesome.

In other news my Dad had a less fantastic weekend/first week of Sept as he was stuck in the hospital for most of it, hopefully they let him go today. Not much fun for him. The way I am looking at it is that they liked him so much that they decided to keep him. I can understand why, he is a very likable man. I think I was more upset about it then he was to be honest. He takes this stuff in stride much more so then I do. I kind of stumble a little bit, then have to pick up the ball and carry on. My sister Cora is there right now to help him out with stuff. It is rough being this far away. I would much rather live close enough to go curl up in a chair in his room and play some good old blues for him. The good news is that he is okay. He got to the hospital in time and he was nice to all of the nurses. Keep your fingers crossed that they release him today so he can go home and relax in his own bed.

Weekend shanigins

Ah, the adventures of this weekend. The weekend was kicked off with Friday as usual, the only difference about this Friday was that Joey and I proclaimed it "date night". Apparently one of the symptoms of moving in together is a strange illness where two people who were once out going suddenly become plagued with a tendency to stay at home and forego public scenes in favor of curling up on the couch and watching movies. So to remedy this the aforementioned "date night" was agreed upon. We started out the evening by getting gussied up and heading out to a wonderful Sushi dinner. There was much Sake and rejoicing among the masses. After dinner we met up with Kendall and crew for a few rounds of pool. Out of four games Joey and I won three of them. (How I will never know because both of us are rather lacking in that skill.) During pool a game of chalking ensued. The rules to this game are simple. You take the chalk for the pool cue and you attack an unsuspecting victim leaving a circle or smudge of generally a bright blue or red chalk. If the person does not realize they have been chalked then you gain 10 points while they walk around looking less than intelligent. Exhibit A: Koach Kendall (Not my fault) . Exhibit B: JoePink (Okay, this one was pretty much all me) Exhibit B resulted from a promise made to Kendall that I would get Joey while he slept and then post the picture on this site. Lucky for me the boy sleeps like rock most of the time. He laughed while he washed it off and there were no hard feelings. I am still trying to train myself to sleep with one eye open at all times on the off chance that he feels a need to return the favor. One of the joys of our home is that we have maintained a playful atmosphere but if I can be ahead in this game I will. :) On Saturday "date night" evolved into "date weekend" with a trip to the Aquarium. I'm a big fan. It was a lot of fun and slightly ironic to go check out all of the pretty fish after having had Sushi the night before and then going out to lunch at Fish N Chips later that day. Joey wandering around wondering out loud how such and such a fish would taste. I have to acknowledge that he sparked my curiosity with that one. I have never before considered eating all of the little colorful sea decorations but now... you gotta admit, it could be tasty. Mmmmm... Dori from Finding Nemo with a pineapple sauce and a mango garnish. There is a whole untapped market there. Kids would love it. Maybe.... okay maybe not. Did they still like bacon after watching Babe? I really like this picture because it seems very dramatic. Maybe Joey was carefully considering the buffet for his next meal. We'll never know.

The weekend was concluded with the last race of the season. (Unless you count the RR the first weekend of September which I'm not because Joey isn't going.) In the morning we headed out to the blistering sun in order to watch Bob take 3rd in state for the 45+ league. Very proud moment with lots of clapping, yelling and Joey grinning. Aren't sunflowers a good look for Bob? I think he should carry some with him at all times. They just brighten his whole look up. :) Awwww.....




















And thus was the end of yet another wonderful weekend. Now it is on to the work week/job hunt/joey is out of town and I am going to be bored. Life is good. Blackman over and out.