My Little Corner Of The Skiing World....

Ever since I moved back to Texas in 1975, I've been skiing in New Mexico at my favorite ski area, Ski Apache located in the mountains above Ruidoso, New Mexico. Unlike my beloved Colorado, the temperatures tend to stay mild all winter, which makes for comfortable skiing and makes old ladies like me want to get out their boards and take some turns on the hill.

Ruidoso has had some hard hits the last few years but thankfully, they are still there. Last year, not only were they hit with the worst flooding in their history, but they also never accumulated any significant amount of snow, which means the ski area was hurt as badly as the funky little town of Ruidoso. Frankly, they haven't had snow for the last couple of years. Global warming? Perhaps, but I doubt it. They are just located closer to the equator than most ski areas, I suppose. In all my years I've only heard of them not opening at all, just once. They have great snow making equipment and NOW they have a great WEB CAM. Pretty much all of the land is owned by the Mescalero Apache Indian Tribe and they have enough money from other endeavors that they don't really worry. The ski area is located in the Sierra Blanca Mountain Range (also known as The White Mountain Range) of New Mexico, which is really breathtaking countryside.

Of course, we could go to Taos, which almost always has snow, but the drive is too long. Ruidoso is a mere 5 hours from our front door (or 4 hours if I'm alone). Taos is about a 9 hour drive (12 hours if driving in deep snow). Although I prefer the challenges offered by skiing Taos, I don't care to make the long drive, nor does anyone else.

Unfortunately, the Ski Apache Web Cam is a bit depressing at the moment, although a couple of weeks ago it was all totally covered in snow, but I'm going to try to keep a positive perspective. In fact, I've been so positive as to rent a house there for Christmas. Neither of the kids has skied in years (they can't afford it) and we haven't skied together in a very long time so this year we're going away for the holidays. Farmer's Almanac is predicting plentiful snow for that region during the week of December 23rd and since they are seldom wrong in their predictions, I'm going with it. Actually, we can back out by December 1st without paying a penalty, just as an option. Both of our children have reached the point that they would rather be with us than their friends (yes, it does happen eventually if you've done your job right), so they aren't in the least bit worried about not seeing their friends over Christmas. Five years ago it would have been a completely different story.


I'm just praying I don't fall this year while skiing. No telling how that will affect my Osteoporosis. Yikes. It's really kind of scary, but I've never been much for falling anyway. I check my speed constantly ever since turning 50. I had a bit of a *freak out* that year when I was up in Ruidoso skiing alone. I started my descent down a run called *Caliente* (a run I've skied many times and at high speeds) and I suddenly froze. I couldn't push off, or make another turn, or even side-step. I even sat down and cried (okay this was probably due to the onset of early menopause because I cried a lot). It was something like 20 or 30 minutes before I mustered up the courage to continue my descent. It wasn't in the least bit funny. It scared the life out of me, to the point that I left after that and returned to my my hotel room to lick my emotional wounds.

Anyhoo, I found a great house (this isn't the house, but is a comparable option) to rent for this Christmas that has a hot tub to soothe tired muscles after a long day of sliding around on our boards, a wonderful gourmet kitchen, a wood burning fireplace, plenty of TV's, a pool table, and all the other comforts of home, located on a secluded 7 acres. Now, all we need is some snow...

I'm In The Throes Of My Yearly Canning Project.... During The Best Golf Week Of The Year

As anyone who reads this blog already knows, I usually have a garden every year, from which I *can* (even though it's a jar) various items to give as Christmas presents. However, since the fox family was just so adorable this last summer, as many of you know, I canceled planting this year in lieu of enjoying the fox pups grow and play. I can honestly say that it was worth it. I see Felicia occasionally now sitting in a warm spot on the cinder block fence, hidden by the overgrown trumpet vine. She seems serene by herself but also lonely in a way.

So, I wasn't even counting on doing much canning this year aside from the hot sauce I made and entered in the Austin Hot Sauce Festival at the end of August. Frankly, I'm growing weary of it after 26 years, even though I have always loved doing it. You can imagine my horror delight when I opened the front door last weekend to find a huge bag of green tomatoes.

Hmmmm.... It was obviously left by a fan of my Chow-Chow, right? So, I spent a couple of days going around to farmers markets buying the other veggies I needed for Chow-Chow and finally got down to business on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I realized that I'd forgotten to buy sugar, so back to the store I went. Thankfully, I remembered that I needed more jars while I was there. Before I made it to the check out I remembered that I also need more canning salt. At this point I was thinking that my brain is functioning just fine, thank you very much.

I then decided that if I was going to be making the Chow-Chow anyway, I might as well make more hot sauce so that all of our Christmas gift recipients can have one of each, so off I went in search of the rest of the items I would need for that undertaking. Good. I was done, so I proceeded to the checkout, paid my money, and headed home.

I knew it was a full moon by the way people were driving... You know. Like they were in a dream or on the FREAKING CELL PHONE. Okay, they were on cell phones, most of them. One was just a complete moron who probably shouldn't even have a drivers license. It took forever for me to get home because everyone was acting like we were in a slow motion movie or a time warp. It was truly weird. They just passed a new law here that states you cannot talk on cell phones while in school zones. I saw countless people on their cell phones in school zones. What good is a law if it isn't enforced, right?

Just as I pull in the driveway I remember that I'd also needed to get more cilantro for the hot sauce and by this time I was getting annoyed as Hell with myself. I promptly turned around, cursing under my breath and headed once again to the store. I went in, got the damn cilantro and headed back home, which proved to be amazingly uneventful.

Needless to say, I got off to a rather slow start, considering my failing *gathering skills*, but picked up steam later on. I've now gotten several cases of Chow-Chow finished as well as two more cases of hot sauce, with only one more case of each to go. I'm hoping to get that finished up Monday. Then I can slap the labels I made on the jars and be done with it.

So, I'm a bit absent during this. However, I am still posting once per day, as promised. Is November almost over yet?

You've Got To Stand For Something Or You'll Fall For Anything....

Country Western songs have the greatest titles, don't they? This is one of my favorites, although I can't really recall who it was that sang it. The first time I heard the song I knew that this would be something I would pass on to my children with great fervor, and I did. Or at least I think I did. I tried to anyway. I can tell you that both of my children are VERY opinionated and still alive, so I guess it worked to a certain point.

Still, I think it's a key issue in the education of one's children. Of course, you don't want to raise delicate little flowers and then send them out into the world to be eaten alive by all the greedy monsters out there. Therefore, one must, at a certain age of understanding, make one's children aware of the horrors dangers that lie beyond the securities of home. I'm not saying you have to traumatize them with tales of the world's evils or anything. I'm merely trying to say that you just can't shelter or protect them these days. Knowledge is power and if you're overprotective, you're not doing them any great favors. Children these days are much savvier about their world than we were at their age, and yet so naive in many other ways. I believe that they very often don't believe the images and stories they see on TV and in movies, so it's not real to them.

For instance... Do you remember playing *jacks* and *hop-scotch* in grade school? I don't think they even do that anymore, which is a shame. It seems as if everyone is just training their little future athletes, computer wizards or brainiacs these days, whether the child likes it or not. I can honestly say that I'm glad we spent summers doing nothing more than eating Popscicles, sweeping the driveway for a quarter, rescuing baby birds, catching fireflies at night, having water balloon fights against the guys and playing *Kick-The-Can* until our parents called us to come home, often followed by gentle threats to get us there. Those were times when we could actually allow our minds to rest from all the school work done during the other 9 months of the year.  It just seems like there is so much pressure on kids these days. It's a competitive world out there and they know it.

I remember a time when we still said the Pledge of Allegiance in school with shining pride in our country. Our teachers got a 3 month paid vacation every year, which made them work just that much harder during the school year. Those were times that we were still allowed to say prayers in school without persecution, detention or expulsion.

We had a music teacher that taught us all the important songs of patriotism and taught us to square dance (as if we were going to need that skill someday). How many kids can sing America The Beautiful and The National Anthem all the way through these days?



Of course, there was a lot of injustice in the world back then, but there still is. All we've done is trade off here and there for this and that, with nothing truly changing. If my generation succeeded at anything, it was to at least raise awareness of the injustices that were once swept under the rug.

The government is still trying to get all up in our business, demanding more taxes than ever, and trying to control more of our personal time. Women still don't make equivalent salaries to men (in the majority of cases) for doing the same jobs, and in most cases are still the main caregiver of the family. Women just work more than ever now. Children are still abused physically and sexually and often murdered. Automobiles are no safer than they have ever been. Crime continues to rise and there is only one commune left in America (thank goodness... that was never a very good idea). Wars still rage on and there is still an overabundance of hatred in the world.

Honestly, I'm beginning to think that my generation (yeah, the ones who burned our bras, wanted pot to be legalized and wanted peace in the world) are directly responsible for this. We didn't know what the Hell we were doing except when we protested against the Viet Nam War (okay, we didn't know then either). Otherwise, we were merely idealists and romanticists who had no real clue as to the effect our actions would have on the future, albeit ultimately not our original intentions. I'm only speaking for myself, of course. Then, we grew up and went on to live mostly productive lives while raising families. We conformed, really. How on earth did that happen?

The fact is that none of us has even an inkling as to what our future holds or the impact our actions will have on that very future. So, back to my title. You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything. In summation, it all boils down to the reality that we should always be careful what we stand for... for we will surely see it come to fruition.

Procrastinator Extraordinaire....

Has anyone noticed lately that I am... ummm... here? I do recall that I was going to spend all of my time getting the guest house and the main house ready to put on the market by Christmas. Hahahaha! What a pipe dream that was!

It suddenly turned colder approximately a whole month early this year. I've been forced to switch over my winter clothes a month early (Oh, the horror!) as well as spending the better part of the day preparing plants to come inside for the winter. None of the plants like to come indoors for the winter because they all know. They've obviously heard from their plant friends how I tend to neglect plants during the colder months, often allowing them to meet an untimely demise. They were so scared they were shaking. Really! Besides, I'm sure they have seen the dead carcasses of their plant friends when I have to toss them out in the spring.

That's not to say it won't be 85 degrees again anytime soon, because it will. It will probably be on Christmas Day, when we want warm weather about as much as a root canal. We haven't had a white Christmas since the children were teenagers which would make it approximately 8 or 10 years ago. Actually, I think there was a white Christmas the last time we went skiing for Christmas, but we were already gone so we missed it (which basically means it never happened).

So, not only is the weather hampering my progress around here but it's also preventing me from playing golf as well. And... what am I doing? I'm blogging away while watching my ass grow in size, realizing I'm not accomplishing much of anything at this point. I am, however, growing less fit by the day because I'd rather work on the guest house than get out in the cold and exercise. It wouldn't matter, really. I just hate to exercise or clean out anything. Oddly enough, I don't seem to be able to get much of anything done these days, which includes the main house, the guest house, scrap-booking or exercise. I am, however, caught up on my ironing which is nearly unheard of in my world.

While the guest house does have an air conditioner, it does not have a heater (that works anyway). It can get bitterly cold out there in that tiny space. I know. I'm just making excuses, aren't I? I seem to be doing everything I can to avoid doing that which I really need to be doing. Procrastinator extraordinaire. That's me. I suppose you could say I'm honing that particular skill. Not that it needed honing. I've been sharpening my procrastination skills since I could talk.

 I'm assuming that what I really need to do is work on those *cleaning out* skills that I claim to have....

Now That I've Got All This, What The Hell Am I Supposed To Do With It?

I'm probably making a huge mistake, but I decided to do the NaBloPoMo *thing* this month, just to see if I can actually stick with something for an entire thirty days. It should be interesting to see if I really can keep up with this challenge. In the back of my often blurry mind I keep questioning whether or not anyone would want to even read my blog every day for 30 days. I guess we'll soon find out, won't we? Well, here goes nothing!




Ever since my daughter graduated high school and then college, I've been collecting scrapbook items that I like. I've bought several kits that included scrapbooks, tons of paper and embellishments, a number of different types of cutting scissors, inks, and stamps. I've bought so much that it could literally fill up the trunk of most cars. Still, nothing I've purchased has inspired me to begin this undertaking. I mean, where does one begin when one's children are grown, gone from home and your memory of time frames eludes you?






So, I decided to start by writing about it in hopes of finding some grand formula and/or solution to go by. So far, I'm still right where I began so many years ago. I am a creative person, so where is all that creativity? Has it left me for greener pastures? Hopefully not. I've looked at dozens of blogs about scrapbooking in search of the perfect ideas, all to no avail. Trust me when I say you can waste a lot of time looking at those web sites without ever fully understanding the technique. I've become quite frustrated about this and am truly on the verge of taking it all to a professional, but then it wouldn't be done by me. I suppose that's out then.





I've accumulated at least a dozen large boxes of pictures over the years, which should be enough to keep me busy cutting, pasting, writing, and embellishing for the next several years. Still, my dilemma lies in the fact that I just need a good jump start but cannot seem to find it.

So, I'm going to ask my readers for a bit of help. Where is a good place to begin? Do you just throw a couple of pictures on a page and throw down some embellishments? Do you put those inside the plastic jackets or not? Do you frame every picture? Do you write about every picture? Do you frame invitations? I know. I have a lot of questions. However, I have no desire to take one of those classes at Michael's Arts & Crafts. I want need to be inspired, but so far it's been like an empty well. Nothing. I need suggestions!