Monday I went for a walk in Cibola National Forest near Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was a perfect day to do so: a little too much wind but warm enough that my hoodie was sufficient. I had planned to go up on the tram to the top of Sandia Crest but it was closed due to wind. I found a few easy walks instead.
One year ago today, Bandit came to live with us. It’s been occasionally exciting, and not always in a good way, but life has settled down recently. He is doing well in agility class. His missing eye doesn’t seem to interfere with doing courses: his main issue has been getting overly excited by the other dogs. However, he is doing much better now at staying calm.
He has learned to sit politely and wait for an invitation before jumping up in my lap. He had some minor housebreaking issues when he arrived, but I am starting to trust him almost as much as Rion finally.
I hardly ever feel like I am trying to walk a small, uncooperative tank on the leash now. I don’t know if we will ever break him of his counter-surfing habit, but Jack and I have learned that we absolutely cannot trust him with food when we leave the room for more than thirty seconds.
For years I heard the phrase “too cold to snow” but decided it was a lie after moving to Colorado.
Jack’s personal weather station this morning:
Notice the minus 4F which was the outside temperature and the humidity of 86 percent. It’s not showing any precipitation because we are getting a very light, dry powder snow at present.
The view outside our house:
I googled the phrase “too cold to snow” and found that is is almost never too cold to snow. However, very cold snow will not hold as much moisture as temperatures closer to freezing. Another mystery explained, courtesy of Google.
… from a windswept morning in Colorado.
…at least until the sun comes out and it burns off.
Jack’s personal weather station reports that the overnight low was -6 F. I was happy to see that the blanket Jack put on Rags last night seemed to be keeping him comfortable. We rarely use blankets, but Rags is getting old and frail, and was shivering yesterday morning.
It was 0F when I fed horses this morning. We are forecast to have snow showers tonight and tomorrow with a high of 14F tomorrow.
Jack and I put the tree up Tuesday. This is the earliest we have ever done so. This is a new tree: our previous one was shedding so badly that Jack bought this one on clearance after Christmas two years ago. This is our first self-lit tree: Jack doesn’t miss wrangling the strings of lights at all.
I had an observer as I fed the horses this morning.
Today I had my first solo experience driving the Mountain Community Senior Services shuttle. I first heard of this service over a year ago, and since I had been looking for a volunteer opportunity, I signed up a few weeks ago. MCSS provides two types of transportation for community seniors: volunteers who drive seniors to appointments in the volunteer’s vehicle, and volunteers who drive the shuttle for what is called the “social” program. For the social program, the shuttle picks up clients at their homes, delivers them to lunch, and then returns them to their homes. At present, I am driving once a month.
I was fortunate that the first woman I picked up today was adept at giving directions, so I didn’t have to rely on the GPS of my telephone. Although I thought I knew northern El Paso County fairly well, I have discovered completely new neighborhoods sheltering among the foothills.
The shuttle was easier to drive than I expected. I had figured it couldn’t be any more difficult than our (no longer existing) horse hauling rig, and I was right. I was amazed about how small the Subaru Forester seemed when I drove it home afterward.