Home is Where Your Heart Sings

   I never thought that moving to the City would make me feel like I have come home. There are a lot of similarities to Grand Junction, Colorado and Albany, New York. The area here sets in a Basin between the mountains. This area is much smaller than Albany but it reminds me of it. Albany has the Heldeberg Mountains and the Adirondacks. Junction has the Grand Mesa, Colorado National Monument, and the Book Cliffs.

 The Book Cliffs are a series of desert mountains and cliffs in Western Colorado and Eastern Utah. They are Cretaceous Sandstone and they cap many of the South-facing buttes and appear similar to a shelf of books. Perhaps the most famous is Mount Garfield at the edge of Palisade, in the Grand Valley known for it peach orchards, and the City of Grand Junction. The cliffs range for nearly two hundred miles, and begin where the Colorado River descends South through Debeque canyon into the Grand Valley to Price Utah. On a very clear day off on the horizon to the south you can see the snowcaps of the San Juans and the Telluride ski area.

   The Grand Mesa is a large mesa in Western Colorado. Having an area of about 500 square miles, it stretches for about 40 miles. It is the largest flat-topped mountain in the entire world. The Mesa ranges about 6000 ft. above the surrounding river valleys, including the Grand Valley to the west at about 11,000 feet, and reaching a maximum elevation of 11,333 feet at Crater Lake. It is a home to  Wild Colorado Mustangs.

     We are currently under contract for a home almost in the shadow of Mount Garfield. It has been so many years since I have lived in a City. At first I was very tentative to the idea and even skeptical, for the majority of my life I have been extremely anti-society. A loner, not a joiner. Don't get me wrong I still prefer the wilderness to gatherings of people. However we are attempting to integrate into life a bit more. The only thing that being a loner gets you is solitude and loneliness. It has it's place, the wilderness in Colorado is clean, crisp, concise an clear. Cities are noisy, congested, polluted, and often dirty. The new us is finding river walks, hiking trails, and adventure almost in the city limits.

   A sleepy University town in it's awakening stages. The similarities to Eugene, Oregon are striking. Only this town is in it's early stages of growth, and soon will blossom into the Big College town it is destined to become. It has the normal growing pains. The need for an extensive trail system looping the town, with designated bike paths. They will have to figure out how to deal with the students, traffic and bikes all together in the downtown core. I hope they work it out. The area has promise and can grow into an exciting place.

   Did I ever think that it would awaken feelings of my hometown? The answer is a resounding No! Don't know how these feelings crept up on me. I know when I was young I spent time around colleges, taking creative writing classes and wearing big thick sweaters in the fall. It made me feel more writerish. Funny how we all have our way of envisioning our success. It is good to be older than younger. House hunting has recently put us in some situations where we have had to drop in on college students and their living arrangements. It reminds me of ski towns and crash pads of ski enthusiasts (a reverent term for ski bums.) While being exciting and fun, living day to day to chase sunsets and snowflakes, doesn't lend to retirement or security in life very well. I guess you trade off everything in life. These days I wear a uniform and work at a large Plumbing and Heating business to afford my dream retirement home. Gone are the days of my many backpacks and sleeping bags in search of adventure. My adventure comes from my pages and seeing where they will take me. I hope that this adventure is a promising as those of my youth. I guess you will just have to stick around and see.

   I'm excited for the new beginning and to think that this respite in life comes out of the concern for our Goldie, Golden, Gracie. Since moving here she has settled in well and has her routine of chasing the local cats who parade through our yard. We have promised to get her a kittie, her very own tiger cat to match her color, when we move into our new home. Since real estate deals fall apart at a whim, I am hoping this one goes through. I  have just the spot for my motor home that will take us to the ocean. I will have a balcony to have morning tea on and watch the sun light up Mount Garfield and to scheme about writing adventures. A much mellower and mild rebel of sorts. I have yet to explore the writing scene in Grand Junction, a bit too busy getting established. Never enough time to do the things you really love.

My Girl Gracie!

 
 

 A Song that Evokes Home For Me.
"Coming Up Close," 'Til Tuesday'

Kentucky Derby Scoop

The scoop from Toloose for the derby is Frosted at a big price. Good Luck Toloose. Bob (Toloose) was a handicapper for the St. Pete Times as a by product of our misspent youth at Saratoga Race Track. Hope your pick wins.


Today's Song
"Chestnut Mare," The Byrds

Remembering the Healer of Belknap Hot Springs, Oregon

      We were saddened recently to hear that our Friend Ron, who was the massage therapist at Belknap Hot Springs on the McKenzie River in Oregon had passed away of a heart attack. He was a truly gifted healer. Several years ago my wife spirited me away from our Aspen, Colorado business for an intense healing session with Ron after I was showing signs of fatigue and life weariness. He was certainly the magical healing man in the cabin across the river. I thought I would post a well healed picture of myself spending some relaxing moments in the gardens at Belknap. He was a  true friend and our trips to the hot springs will be a little less magical without his presence.

A Song for Ron, Rest In Peace.
"Diamond Mountain" Luka Bloom

A Prayer for Today

   A Prayer from the Autobiography of a Yogi,
Divine Will is a power of itself and will work miracles in your life. Use it and see the results.

A Beautiful Rendition of A Beatles Song

"I Will," The Beatles, Alison Kraus and Mark O' Connor


Swami Paramahansa Yogannada and his Guru Swami Sri Yukteswar

Create something beautiful today it is your canvas!

Reality, Once Again Rears Its Ugly Head

   Reality bites it creeps into your fantasies and to your writing dreams and says, "Get a job!" I know many writers, write novels when they are commuting on subways, and trains. I am working at scheduling my writing early in the morning. It lends to a clear mind and good work. My work is physical and I find it difficult to write after a full day of work. It doesn't mean that I haven't sat down at the end of the day, relaxed and found myself working well at something. However, I think if I wanted to let myself dream and go, I would prefer to work at research and fleshing out my Historical Work on a more full time basis. I suppose that it is my job to make it happen. It is my reality right now. So the advice I would give to myself is that if you want it to happen that you should buckle down and work harder at making it happen.


     On the bright side my work on Out of America is progressing well. My Chapter, Ford's Porch was a 1200 words when I opened it up and it is decent. The rest, Children of a Greater God, and the opening Chapter, which needs to be rewritten to include a perspective of what my Heroine thinks of the main character, needs to be totally redone. Unfortunately, from a personal perspective, I have no clue what that was. I guess that is why they call it fiction. Invent it and make it real. Sell it so to speak!


   The very best part of being in Grand Junction is that the Real Estate Market with The University becoming a real University and not a State College the growth is tremendous. There is a wonderful opportunity in investment right now. It is possible to leave the area with increased assets by investing in local Real Estate. All of which takes time away from any kind of writing schedule with working full time. A juggling act for sure. I guess that is where you set and make your priorities in life. I want to try harder to move writing to the fore front of the list. Happy Writing and Trails to You.

A Cute Little Song
 "Delirious" Luka Bloom

Hiking Colorado

 This Easter I am thankful for the wonderful Mountain Trails and River Walks that I have been able go on in Colorado. Enjoy your life and your day. Go for a hike or go climb a mountain or a hill. Get into the outdoors!

Maroon Bells- Twin Fourteeners Near Aspen, Colorado.  Each Peak A Song In Itself!

Grand River Recreation Park


Today' Songs Twin Songs for Twin Peaks
"Dust In The Wind" Kansas
"Carry On My Wayward Son" Kansas

Ski Season Off Season (The Mud Season Blues)

   No longer  living in a Ski Area, I already have the Mud Season Blues. What is the off Season? What is the Mud Season? If you have never lived near or at a Ski Area. Most Ski Areas in the West close by April 15. Sometimes if they have a lot of snow they will extend there use permit with the Forest Service, (most ski areas in Colorado are on U.S. Forest Service Properties, National Forests.) They will extend their insurance and therefore extend the ski season. Most areas do not extend the season unless conditions are incredible. What does all of this have to do with off season. Areas close by April 15, they do not reopen for the late spring or summer season until May15 or sometimes into June. You have no work. The mountains are muddy with melting snow and no one, no one is around everything is closed.


   I have had some of the greatest off season vacations ever. You save your money all season, if you are a waiter, or a ski tech, or ski employee and you take a vacation for a month. I have travelled America and Canada by rail. Gone to the Ocean in California, Baja, and Cancun for a month, joked about how not many girls are ski bums, although I have had some great girl ski companions it is rare.
So when we went to the sea it was in search of sun, sand, skin, and sisters. I have a short story that I use  that line in Titled (The Rolling Reverend.) It is actually a very good story. Perhaps my best yet, I think it is probably the most commercially sellable story any way. The reason is the humor and the topic. I became stuck in it when the reverend attempts to give his version of the Sermon on the Mound. Anyway there are three to four more ski stories I need to button up for my collection.


   Back to the off season blues, the most memorable off seasons I have spent are in the ski areas that I did not leave. Everyone is gone the towns are empty and a few local pubs and stores stay open. The real hard cores stay. You take your skis and walk up and ski the soft vanilla cream melting snows and then come down through the muck and mud and running streams of mountain water and have lunch with your local friends. Just too much fun and excitement, too much adrenaline. Dodging rocks and large areas of gravel and green growing grass.


   Vail was my most favorite. Late at night walking around the village and up the trails to the restaurants and bars from lower to upper Bridge Street. You could hear all the Mountain Streams breaking the silence in the dark running downhill. The Mountain was alive and thriving in the growth of new life. Aah! the off season, thinking about it now, don't think there was anything blue about it at all. These days I don't have off seasons, I did when I lived and worked in Aspen, recently. However even those days have ended. Perhaps I will again in the future when I move to Oregon. Maybe I'll experience and Ocean off season. I almost had the perfect off season set up. Living in Vail in the winter and Charleston, South Carolina in  the summer. Someday I will tell the story of the Former Georgia State Trooper who stole $50,000 dollars from our packing and shipping companies Western Union and dashed our dreams of opening packaging and shipping stores in the Mountains and the Ocean, every year. Not Today Berta! Truly and Off Season Blues Story.


   I have had somewhat of an Epiphany regarding the research for my Historical Novel. For almost all the time I have researched and thought about the work I have fixated on Arapahoe Basin. I know the principles and have spoken to them about the work. I have completely excluded half of the equation. The half I have neglected is the mountain of Keytone, which eventually bought Arapahoe Basin. I know it was started by Max and Edna Dercum and Earl Eaton. Max wrote a book. Titled, It's all Down Hill from Here, Edna. The thing about it is I don't know who the principles were in 1978-79. I have aways believed it was Ralston Purina owned by Senator Dansforth. I could be total off base because I have neglected to do my  research. It not only opens up a whole new chapter of the work. It may hold the key to the truth of the event that I have been seeking. The truth is I didn't pursue the Senator in my research I omitted what is most likely the most important piece of truth and fact. What was Keystones motivation to own Arapahoe Basin? The Mountain at the time was probably the second largest ski area in the world. Second only to Vail. It was almost seven miles long in frontage on the highway with terrain in the mountains. The History of both of these areas is so new that the truth is there isn't that much. Excepting the interviewing of the principals involved. I suppose it is public record who owned what and the time frame they owned it in. I do know that after Keystone purchased Arapahoe Basin and Copper Mountain, they were forced to sell off Arapahoe Basin in an anti-trust lawsuit. What was that about and what brought that on?


   I have just recently ventured on to the Campus of Mesa University. It shouldn't be too hard to take a trip to their Library and see what information and documents are available. The Summit County Historical Society and Mary Ellen Gilliland are also excellent sources of information. I was also told to attend the Legends of Skiing Dinner in the Fall and that there are key individuals to interview regarding the history. I look forward to the day that I become financially independent enough to pursue this full time or that I get my writing act together enough to get a contract to do it. In the meantime it still is an enjoyable hobby and pursuit. I am at the stage with it to want to pursue it on a more aggressive level. Time does indeed take care of things. I hope it is on my side. I don't know how long or how old the key principles are. Will they still be alive to be interviewed.?

   Off season no such thing in the city, just people going to work and living there lives. They don't know of skiing rocky terrain or even owning a pair of mud skis so you don't wreck your good skis. It seems that they know of the blues, just a different kind of them.

   Today we need to celebrate Spring. I decided on two songs for the occasion. The first is what it feels like to me to be in a city. The second is the Best High Lonesome Loser Cowboy Song that I have ever heard.
"The Weight" The Band
"Cheyenne" George Strait

Happy Easter, hope spring brings joy and happiness into your daily life and world!