Rocky Mountain Writer

Hello Everyone!

I have linked my site to a new blog that allows me a little more flexibility.I will be posting over there these days. Visit the new blog by using the "New Blog" link.

Thanks!

Here it is July already and I haven?t posted about my June Adventure! Decided it was high time I did that.

This is my new fur child! His name is Wilson and he is three years old. I adopted him from the PetProject pet rescue on June 7.  You can check out them at  http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/CO106.html

Wilson caught my attention because in his adoption photo he was stretching one arm up toward the camera as if saying, ?Oh, oh, oh, pick me, pick me!? I couldn?t resist!

We had a dog, Pepper, while growing up?.got him a few weeks before my youngest sister came along and he stayed with us until he developed cancer at the age of 18.  As an adult I have never had a pet of my own. I tell people that my Snowflake Teddy is the best pet a girl could have. He?s sweet and soft and doesn?t eat much?when I offer food, he tells me he?s stuffed!

I have pet sat many times over the years for friends and family. Once I was going to pet sit for a coworker?s new puppy. Turns out it was the puppy, the turtle, the fish and the ferret. When she described the ferret as furry snake with legs she sealed its fate of remaining in the cage the whole week they were gone. I fed and watered it, but didn?t want to play with the snake with legs.

Feeling adventurous after sitting with my niece?s kitty over Memorial Day weekend I began to look for a kitty of my own.  My sister sent me to the PetProject site and that is when I found Wilson. His name was Barker and when I first saw him he was being looked at by another family so I thought it wasn?t meant to be. Two weeks later his picture was still on the web site so I sent an email and found he was still available. All it took was one look and one time holding him in my arms to know that he needed to come home with me.

The PetProject folks were wonderful with the whole process. They helped me pick out some food for him since he seemed to have some food allergies. They seemed to really like Wilson and both had to pet him and say their goodbyes when we left.

When I brought him home I had to change his name to Wilson. For those of you readers who may not know, I am a Tom Hanks fan(atic!) Wilson was the name of his best friend on the island he was stranded on in the movie ?Castaway.?  That is where I got Wilson?s name. Since I liked Barker also, I named him Wilson Barker.

Wilson is a sweet and loving kitty. He loves to play with his toys and I find myself spoiling him with new toys frequently!  Right now he is sound asleep on the dining room chair. He knows he?s not allowed on the table but he seems very content to sleep on the chairs.

I now have a very fuzzy little alarm clock. If my alarm goes off more than a couple times (so not a morning person and it is a frequent occurrence for my alarm to ring multiple times in the morning) he will make sure I get up. He begins to walk across my chest. Then he will rub against my face and walk around my head making sure to step on my hair. He will continue this until I get up and get him some breakfast.

Wilson fits in well at my house. We share some of the same interests. He is quite the literary kitty. He loves books and newspapers. He would rather sleep on a book than in the kitty bed I bought for him.  I have to remember to pick up the newspaper off the floor and coffee table because he will burrow down in it and go to sleep. The problem is he gets newsprint all over his white paws and belly!

He is a kitty who shares my shoe fetish. If he isn?t sleeping on a book, you can find him snuggling up with any shoes I happen to leave lying around. The bedroom closet intrigues him because the floor of it is currently covered with shoes?yes, it is time for a closet clean out and a trip to Goodwill!

Getting used to being responsible for someone other than me has been an adventure this month. It has meant thinking twice about my schedule since I need to make sure he gets fed and isn?t alone all day long for days at a time. It has meant double checking any food I give him to make sure it doesn?t have wheat or beef in it since he doesn?t react well to those items. And it has meant finding places for my Peace Lily and Pothos plants that he can?t get to since both are poisonous to kitties.  Thankfully he has learned that the piano, bookcases, dining table and kitchen counters are no kitty zones.

Still, despite the changes required in my life to accommodate Wilson, I am very glad I took the plunge. He is now a part of my family and he is loved!

In the words of Peter Pan, ?I can fly!?  For a very long time now I have had the desire to fly. It began with a yearning to learn to fly planes. Then skydiving piqued my interest. For years now I have been planning to skydive; it is after all cheaper than taking flying lessons.

Skydiving is on the calendar for sometime in August this year. In my quest for adventure and new experiences this year I have decided it was time. Still, at the end of May I was able to get a little taste of not only skydiving, but the freedom of floating on air.

Most people have never heard of indoor skydiving. I hadn?t either when I received an email from a friend. Maggie had been invited to a birthday party but wasn?t able to make it. She suggested to the birthday girl that I take her place. Ironically enough birthday girl and I work for the same company as Maggie does and had never met. The company isn?t that large, I just work in a remote office and so our paths haven?t crossed. Christina was very gracious and let me crash her birthday party. ?The more the merrier,? she said! Thanks, Christina, it was one of the most fun birthday parties I have ever been to!

Skyventure is located in Lone Tree, Colorado. According to the web site (www.skyventurecolorado.com) this is ?a 12 foot, recirculating 1200 HP wind tunnel.? According to me it is just a big barrel of fun!

Our adventure began with a lesson in flying. This short video showed us the proper body position. We also learned hand signals since hearing the instructor inside the tunnel was virtually impossible. Our main form of communication involved signals to bend or straighten our legs, chin up, and relax. However, once I was in the tunnel it took me a while to be able to relax and remember what the signals meant.

During our instructions we were told to take everything out of our pockets and to take off our jewelry. Derrick, our instructor, told us he had a flyer who didn?t believe him when he said if it was in your pockets it would be sucked out once in the tunnel.  Apparently this man had about $500 in twenty dollar bills that he didn?t want to part with. He kept them zippered in a pocket inside his jumpsuit; that is until he got into the chamber. The bills were sucked out and sent flying around the wind tunnel. I decided not to test it for myself and took my earrings and necklace off.

We were then suited up in jumpsuits that covered us from neck to ankle. We were given helmets, ear plugs and goggles. Then it was time to make our way into the wind tunnel. The tunnel is an octagonal shaped room with a small room along one side for the flyers to wait their turn. The floor is a metal mesh net and beneath it we could see the equipment that helped power the tunnel. There are two doors, one for entering and one for exiting the tunnel. The chamber is about 12 feet in diameter and I would guess about 15 feet high (at least in the space we were flying in.)

When it was my turn for my first flight I approached the door, brought my arms to my chest and raised my chin. The raised chin was important for helping control flight, but it also was a great reminder to look around and enjoy the experience. I leaned into the chamber and began to move into the proper flying position. Thankfully Derrick was in the chamber with each of us to help because I promptly forgot everything I had learned in our training session.

With his help I was able to experience some flight. That first time though I had a lot of trouble controlling myself. I have to laugh because Derrick was very expressive with his hand signals as he emphatically gave me the sign to relax over and over. I have always had trouble relaxing my muscles like normal people!  Toward the end I did get a little better and began to enjoy myself.

The second minute in the chamber I did much better, but still have a way to go before I can really control my own flight. I got to experience some true flight and was really beginning to like it. Then in the last few seconds Derrick grabbed hold of the handles on my jump suit and the instructor in the control booth turned up the air. With Derrick?s help we rose and then descended spinning round over and over. This was sheer ecstasy! I could have stayed there forever soaring and spinning! All too soon the flight was over and it was time to get out.

Indoor skydiving was an awesome time and has totally fueled my desire to do the real thing soon! I also came away with an important lesson for life. No matter what happens, keep your chin up and relax!

I?m going to share a little secret with you all?.I am a daddy?s girl. Yes, it?s true, have been as long as I can remember.

My earliest memories are from the time when we lived in Izmir, Turkey. I was about 3 years old, let?s just say it was sometime in the 60s and leave it at that. I remember the games my brother and I used to play. I remember when my sister came along I was reluctant to let her have the crib. I remember playing on our fourth floor balcony and watching the Turkish world go by below.

I also remember a Saturday or Sunday morning helping Mom in the kitchen. She gave me the orange juice can to throw away. It bugged me that the lid was still partially attached to the can so I decided to twist it off before throwing it away. In the process I sliced my finger.  This would be the first of many finger slicings in the kitchen for me.

Mom took me to the emergency room that morning while Dad stayed home with Tom and Tina. I remember the ER doctor telling me that I now had a spider on my finger where he put the stitches and that I should tell my daddy about my spider. I even remember going home and sitting in my Daddy?s lap and showing him my spider.

Growing up the thing I remember most about Dad is how hard he worked and yet still found time for his family. He was the first man in my life and he has set the bar high.

Dad always taught me (and my siblings) to work hard at whatever we decided to do. Truth is this was a lesson both Mom and Dad instilled in us. This has served me well over the years. Of course, I often tell Dad it?s his fault that I have to work so hard. He instilled that darn work ethic in me!

My Dad is one of the smartest people I have ever met. He doesn?t have many degrees or initials to put behind his name, but he still knows a lot! He worked many years taking classes one at a time to finish his bachelor?s degree.  Dad knows more than any degree could have taught him.

When I bought my first car he went along. I had picked out the car I wanted and I had fallen in love already. We sat with the finance person at the dealership and they quoted a monthly payment amount. All I heard was the amount and knew it was double what I could afford. Dad on the other hand said, ?That?s 23% interest. She is not paying that!? I was stunned; he knew the sticker amount and was able to do the math so quickly to come up with the percentage rate. I drove away that night in the car I wanted and had a manageable monthly payment with a reasonable interest rate.

Over the years as I have had to make decisions about financial matters, home ownership and other important happenings I tend to consult my Daddy first. He is my financial planner and my sounding board for these decisions. He can fix just about anything. Over the years I have called on him many times. I remember calling him one morning and telling him, ?My car is deader than Elvis!? He came from work. It was bitterly cold out. Dressed in a suit with a nice trench coat over the top to try to keep warm he jump started my car so I could go to work also.

He has been called to help with floods in the laundry room and broken laundry room doors.  When my front window leaked he came and fixed that before I realized it should have been fixed by the homeowners association.

I think Dad is a teacher at heart. While he is always quick to help, he is also quick to teach so that I can be self sufficient.

When I was sixteen and eager to have the freedom that driving allows, I wasn?t able to take the car on my own until I knew how to change a tire. That came in handy with that first car I had?it was forever having flat tires and I changed my own tires in a variety of weather circumstances. I also had to learn how to change the oil. I didn?t have to change my own oil, but Dad wanted me to understand the process.

Dad is a largely self taught computer geek. When I was first learning computers he helped me learn. Still, he was quick to ask, ?Did you read the book?? when I call with a question.

My Dad tells great stories from his growing up years. He once drove home with bubble gum in his tire because the tire had developed a leak and the bubblegum was all he had to fix it. Recently he told me of working for my maternal grandfather during the summers.  He says his mom wasn?t happy with the fact that Grandpa gave him beer, but Grandpa?s thought was if Daddy was going to work like a man, he should drink like a man also.

My maternal grandmother told me a story about how Dad was showing her how indestructible the coffee mugs he was selling from the dairy truck were. He threw the mug against the summer kitchen and it broke into many pieces. He said, ?Hmmm, it?s not supposed to do that.?

Last summer he told me the story of his and Mom?s first date. That became a blog entry. You can find it back in the archives for July 2007.

I think of all the things that amaze me about my Dad is his unconditional love for his family. This has been so very evident in the last ten years while Mom was struggling with Lewy Body Dementia. As she began to have problems he stepped in, quietly, without a big fuss.  He did what needed to be done.

As Mom could do less and less for herself Dad put everything in his world on hold and did for Mom. He searched for ways to keep her comfortable, happy and secure. I remember him giving her a doll because she never really had one as a child. He brought her flowers, stuffed animals; anything he thought would make her smile.

He bought movies and videos he thought she would like. He read to her, comforted her, and walked the floor with her at night when she couldn?t sleep.  Even when Lewy caused Mom to be angry at Dad he kept his cool and kept going. He knew it wasn?t Mom, but Lewy at those times.  I know that it must have torn his heart out to see this happening to his sweetheart, but he never gave up. He kept her safe and happy until the end. Now that Mom has passed away Daddy still keeps giving to her. He chose a beautiful grave stone and he makes regular visits to her grave. He chooses silk flowers that she would like and that reflect the season or holiday.

My Dad is an amazing man. I could go on for a long time about all that I have learned from him.

I am a Daddy?s girl! I am not ashamed to admit it. I can?t imagine life with any other Daddy ?cause mine is truly the best.

My niece, nephew and sister toured the sanctuary on May 18, 2008. It was a one hour tour and was very informative. The center is set up so the wolves are housed in acre lots that give them privacy, but also allow close up viewing by visitors. Despite what you may think when you see this picture, there is a fence surrounding all the wolves. Visitors are advised not to put anything through the fence and I obeyed those rules. Somehow I managed to get a perfect shot between the fence wires.

All of the wolves have been rescued from other places of captivity. At each enclosure our guide told us how the wolf came to live on the sanctuary. One wolf was kept by a couple of college guys?in their closet and fed a diet of pizza, beer, and cheetos. I am sure this wolf is much happier in his current home!

The dedicated volunteers who run the sanctuary love these wolves like the rest of us love our pets. They interact with them on a daily basis and the wolves seem to enjoy it as much as the people.  While the wolves don?t truly live in the wild they have the benefits of the wild, yet are protected and taken care of.

The layout of the wolf education center allows them to have their freedom and the choice whether to show up for tours or lay low in the woods until the people are gone. They are feed raw meats as they would eat in the wild. They are also given animal hides as toys since this is also part of their life in the wild.

In March 2008 a female wolf cub was born and is being raised at the center. Koda is about the size of a medium-sized dog. She is playful and lovable. I had the opportunity to play with her for a few minutes while there.  She is currently housed in the building in her own pen, but will eventually move out into the ?wild? with the other wolves. She is the one wolf I was unable to get a picture of.

Our adventure was truly a trip into the wild, albeit without the dangers J

Dementia steals much from everyone involved. It can't steal our hope if we fight against it.

A recent commercial that is playing in Florida is a small step in the fight against Lewy Body Dementia. Slowly, but surely the word is getting out about Lewy. You can check out the video on YouTube with the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2LWFLf9MXY

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.  ?Marcel Proust

March was the third month in my year of living adventurously. It is easy to think of adventure in respect to activities such as jumping out of planes, traveling to exotic locales, or wrestling crocodiles. Many equate adventure with danger.

This year I am seeing that adventure is an outlook on the world. It is not the content of the activity, but rather the way we see that activity and the impact it has on us.

I have found that when I open my eyes to the adventure of my daily life I see things in a new perspective. Suddenly what could be the doldrums of day-to-day life come alive. I saw this recently when I tried to direct a colleague as we went to lunch. I don?t know the city I was in very well yet and I was trying to find the restaurant by memory when I should have just used MapQuest before we left.

After traveling a long way down the wrong road I was apologizing as we turned back. She said, ?That?s okay, it was an adventure!? Our adventure eventually led us to a great little teriyaki restaurant where we had a good meeting.

Having new eyes leads me to see the goose in the middle of a fancy hotel courtyard in the middle of a big city instead of just hurrying past on my way to a meeting. When I stop to look, I see the goose is sitting with its beak almost pressed to a window like a three year old. On the other side of the window is the hotel swimming pool and I can almost see the longing in the eyes of the goose as it contemplates how to get through the glass to the water.

Having new eyes leads me to see the buffalo (or bison, I don?t know the difference from afar) on the side of the highway as I drive home and exclaim to my sister who is on the phone and in the middle of a sentence, ?Oh look, buffalo!? My family and friends are used to my random outbursts like this. I think it makes life exciting, but it probably just annoys people.

Is this adventure? Maybe not in the true sense of the word, but my search for adventure in my life is leading to new and interesting encounters and discoveries. It has given me new eyes.

Having said all that, I now am going to tell you about this month?s adventure. I did have a reason for prefacing this entry by all of that rambling. You see this month I took the step to try out a new author. Well, not new, but just new to me. I have always loved books and have always found that immersing myself in a book is an adventure in itself.

This month I read ?Slaughter-House-Five? by Kurt Vonnegut. Although he is not new on the literary scene, I have never read any of his books. I picked up this book while in Tucson on last month?s adventure. The back cover hails this book as a great antiwar book and an American classic. So it goes.

This is the story of Billy Pilgrim, an unassuming optometry student when he heads off to war. He ends up in Dresden during World War Two at the time it was firebombed.

At one point in his life, Billy believes he was abducted by aliens from Trafalmadore. Vonnegut describes Billy as being unstuck in time. He travels back and forth between his life on earth, in the war, and on Trafalmadore. So it goes.

The book was easy enough to read despite the jumping back and forth of the story line. I imagine it is this jumping around that causes it to be labeled as an antiwar book. I have heard first hand stories from my brother-in-law and cousin about life in a war zone. I hear the stories of men and women who fight for our country who return to their lives with post traumatic stress and other illnesses that change their life. I have great respect for these heroes.

Yet, as an antiwar book, I feel this one has missed its mark. It was not one of my favorites and I can?t honestly say I will seek out another Vonnegut book to read. So it goes.

Still, it was an adventure of an unknown author and his world.

As always I am seeking out the next adventure for my year of living adventurously. And, I am currently planning a September adventure which I will be blogging more about in the coming weeks. Come back and see what happens next and while you?re at it, don?t forget to look at life with new eyes!

The Easter Bunny appeared at our house each year bearing chocolate and goodies and hiding the eggs my brother, sisters and I decorated. Often, the Easter Bunny appeared on our dinner table also in the form of a cake.

Mom and Dad always worked to keep our holiday traditions alive for us. We all have fond memories of holidays past. Those traditions continue in our family today. My brother and sisters have taken these traditions and created their own around the foundation Mom and Dad created. As a single person, I, too, have been able to create my own traditions around those of my childhood.

One of the things I have taken from childhood is this adorable bunny cake. It took me a while to figure out the details of how to create the bunny, but I finally got it and have made this cake for a variety of Easter dinners and other functions.

This cake is made of two round cake layers. Use any flavor you like. Once the cakes have baked and cooled, cut the layers in half lengthwise as in figure 1.

Then cut each half circle again as shown in figure 2.

Figure 1.                                                              Figure 2.

Two of the larger pieces become the body of the bunny.  Layer them together with frosting or you can also use jam in a flavor that compliments your cake flavor. Place them on your cake plate with the long cut side down and the rounded side towards the ?back? of the cake plate. You want to leave enough room at flat cut side to place the head.

Sandwich to two smaller pieces together and place them on the cake plate at the ?front.?  You will place the cut side against the cut side of the body.

Then place the remaining smaller pieces against the side of the cake on either side; using frosting or jam to secure them. The rounded part faces the head of the bunny. These are the bunny haunches.

Add a couple of large marshmallows at the back to create the tail.

Once you have the bunny built, frost completely with any white frosting. Before the frosting dries, press coconut into the frosting to create the bunny?s fur.  Use jelly beans for the eyes and nose and licorice for the mouth. The ears are created using white paper and colored pick in the middle.

Tint some coconut green to make the grass around the bunny and sprinkle the grass with jelly bean ?Easter Eggs.?

The deadline for Apples and Thyme this month was March 20 and I realize I am posting a couple of days late. You can read my entry on the Christian Writer?s Forum blog for details on my recent writing woes. http://christianwritersforum.com/Blog/ It may not be added into the roundup at  http://melecotte.blogspot.com, but you can check out the other entries by visiting her web site.