At the Desert Sage in Crestone:

Sarah: “Ok everybody listen up.”
Us: “Ok… listening”
Sarah: “So there was this guy, and his house caught on fire.”
Sarah: “And he had hair, and that caught on fire too.”
Sarah: “So he ran to his friend’s house and he took a shower to put out his hair.”

(pause)

Us: “Ok.. what happened next?”
Sarah: “Oh. It didn’t work out. He died.”

Posted by tee in kids + pets, photos
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While I was walking down the hall I heard the cats running around and yowling downstairs. Another mouse, I was sure. After I turned on the lights and walked over to the pile of books and magazines they’d toppled onto the floor, I saw that they’d ingeniously trapped one - a very tiny field mouse the size of my thumb. He was on his back, his lower half trapped under the weight of three or four magazines, flailing and making noises that had it not been the groggy middle of the night for me I would swear resembled crying. If ever there was a pathetic and heartbreaking scene with a rodent, this would be it.

I put the cats in the bathroom for a few minutes and lifted up the magazines at the same instant that I scooped him into a jar. Took him outside, bent down and let him run off. Just as I stood up, I realized I was face to face with something in the dark. As the goosebumps popped out like popcorn, my eyes adjusted and I realized from the impressive rack I could just barely make out that it was a very large male mule deer, close enough that I could see his breath crystalize in a warning snort just a few feet from my face.

Under his very vigilant stare, I backed up slowly inside the door again. By all counts an interesting start to Earth Day, I’ll have more on that later. Me and my goosebumps are headed back to bed.

Posted by tee in de la vida
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I’ve been gone so much lately that today I opted to stay behind while everyone else went into town for a couple of hours. That never happens. I feel like a teenager whose parents left for the weekend. What trouble can I get into with a whole house to myself?

Posted by tee in fun stuff, photos
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Posted by tee in photos, sense of place
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Ryan got home a little while ago from a 3+ hour hike up into the trails above our house, which made me a little nervous but I did good and only called him twice on Shane’s cell phone. Sarah spent the afternoon running amok at her friend’s Easter party down the road, and then after dinner, an hour or two collecting rocks outside and putting them in the back of the truck, presumably for the next time we go out to the land. Shane and I mixed up some of our own homemade mocha recipe and (during a much needed hour-long break for Shane, especially, after working 70+ hours since last weekend) laid back and relaxed on the soft carpet of the office floor, catching up with family on the phone for a few minutes, being ravaged by the dogs and cats who immediately converge upon us anytime we’re down at their level.

Feels so quiet now, a cool breeze from the windows we haven’t shut yet, so dark out there that it feels like the lamp on my desk by the window must look be odd beacon out across the valley below.

Still changing, still changing.

Posted by tee in de la vida
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We just stood out on the porch and watched the full, pearly moon rise over the Sangres, lighting up the fast-moving clouds that looked like they might be traveling just a few inches above it. The evergreens on the peak were so distinct, so sharp in the foreground of all that crisp light.

Every year we say we’ll take a break from all the traveling and just have a chill year at home. And every single year about this time we look at the calendar for the months ahead, and say… “whoops”.

We just had our whoops for this year.

Posted by tee in sense of place
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Every trip I make anymore seems to have been reduced to the core of finding the best antipasti available in the city (town, township, roadside, neighbor’s house..). Tonight I had to settle for a mediocre taco salad.

We go home tomorrow afternoon. Among other things, looking forward to more than two pillows.

Posted by tee in de la vida
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