REALLY... I think men get a certain vibe from women when they're a 'ladies' man' and they know when they've got it or they don't, non? It probably takes yearssss...sss of practice as well I often wonder where they come up with some of their stuff. Is there a class on it or is it something you're born with.. something your taught or is it pure instinct? Very intriguing.

So no nightmares last night and no dreams either. I had a restless night's sleep - had lot on my mind and a lot to do this morning so I was up fairly early running around town. I was able to take your advice and try the door lock. One cannot push the driver side door lock down from the inside but it does lock fine with the key as it does with the fob. Again, not all of the actuators lock with the fob and key, just two all of the time and the other two when they take 'pity' on me and feel like cooperating Always something and I have just learned to deal with it.

During the week I am going to erect new fences and re-erect old fences and prepare and seed alfalfa fields and check on the migration of elk and mule deer and weekends I am driving back to the little hamlet of Craig to eat and read your clever missives on this forum. There is nothing out there but beautiful canyons and ancient structures and quiet.

Your photos are beautiful - I can see why you enjoy doing what you do. Enjoy your week Andries with the beautiful canyons; ancient structures & solitude. I look forward to reading more about your adventures with your lady Landy and hearing from you next week. Take five oranges and take care.

Renee

 

"I often wonder where they come up with some of their stuff. Is there a class on it or is it something you're born with.. something your taught or is it pure instinct? Very intriguing."

Funny you should ask me, how would I know? But as you say, probably they are perceptive to a particular aura or vibe that, having been initiated by whoever, already is on its way to them.

 

Oh I must be mistaken.. I thought you all came from the same tribe You can be suave Andriesssss... ss.. as I have witnessed from your lesson on how to pronounce your name.

Forgive me but you sound a little stressed-out tonight. I'm sure you have a lot to do to get ready for your big move. Take it easy and don't forget your hat and the chocolate cake I packed in a tin for you.

Hugs,

Renee

 

What, me? Stressed? No my lady. Quite a few things do accomplish before tomorrow and that is the reason for my brevity. As it was I believe I was way to verbal (as a manner of speech) a few times. In fact I am more of a doer than a talker - shy is my other name.

About tribal (if not trivial) things - MAYBE that smoothie out your way is, like I am, part of the diaspora my folk are into since 1994 (more than half the Caucasian population has left that once wonderful land) - BUT that common cultural ancestry can not make me or other folk from my tribe to all be like he is, pouncing on every opportunity to sweep a lady off her feet. Some French blood is more French than others.

Sleep well - maybe with the impossible dream of a trouble free Landrover in your life.

 

lol.. I wouldn't say that he pounced, Andries. He was rather polite, and smiled as he said it

You're probably making your way up that BIG hill right now. Here's hoping that you and your Landy have made it and the quiet and solitude is all that you have wished for.

Shy? Well that makes a couple of things we have in common then as my middle name is 'shyin' but whereas you are more of a 'doer' I'm more of a 'talker' and need someone to persuade me to do more 'doin'..

Until the weekend,

R.

 

"You're probably making your way up that BIG hill right now. Here's hoping that you and your Landy have made it and the quiet and solitude is all that you have wished for."

... in fact as it turned out I am still in the hamlet of Craig as I was informed late last night that a lot of rain and a thick layer if snow is just waiting to turn everything into slippery mud which is waiting to turn my adventure into disaster. I do not like to embarrass myelf in front of myself, so I'll wait until conditions are safe to haul the camper up that incline. Present plan is to go out at sparrow-tweet Wednesday.

Trust all is well with your Landy's sewing machine-like unmanly mannerisms?

 

Mr. Montero.. this changes everything! I didn't know that you had an elf! I LOVE elves.. those supernatural beings with magical skills! And you're absolutely right not to embarrass him (?) by not being able to get up the hill earlier today Hopefully you put your elf back in your pocket and told him that you'd be more apt to conquer your hill at sparrow tweet on Wednesday.

My Landy's 'unlady-like' mannerisms are just fine, thank you No scissor action today. The locks must not like snow either - it sure was cold out today in comparison to last week. Although I didn't notice any scissoring today, I did notice some paint 'bubblage - eeks! Will have to take care of that as soon as the weather breaks. There must be a good rust inhibitor on the market somewhere.

So what will you do with all of your extra time this week? Seeing as you're gone after Wednesday I'll shall make it a point to consult my magic 8-ball for any answers that I may need concerning life, liberty, the Landy and love - hahahaha..

Ms. Slightly Shyin Crazy Renee

 

.. now you have me in agony. Am I myself not maybe the elf and acting as someone else's alter ego?

Gee now I won't sleep at night. What if I have to view and review someone's views on love and life? I'll probably be over eager and edge him on.

My son designed and built little control mechanisms for a Canadian builder of communication satellites who has a satellite company based in the village with the (unassuming?) name of Hemel Hempstead in England. We one day visited a little building for an ale and fish and chips. This little building has been a pub for the past 830 years, but the 200 odd years before that its function is unknown.

On a drive down south to visit the astronomical computer called Stonehenge we passed a little hamlet with a very assuming name which I fail to remember. I asked him about the meanings of the words hamlet / village / town. It turns out that to assume the increased status where a settlement becomes a hamlet the community must be able to afford a church and a priest - or whatever other pastoral entity they would care to assist to subsist.

When the hamlet congregation can afford to build a pub and once it is proved that they can afford to assist the pub to exist they can apply for a status improvement to become a village. There are no pubs in hamlets.

For the village to be recognised as in fact existing and become a town there has to be a few pubs in competion with one another each staying financially viable.

I do not know in detail what delinquent endeavors are necessary for a town to be allocated the status of "city" and I find it difficult for my pure and innocent thoughts to even contemplate the possible options.

So, imagine my inner shuddering when I in 2012 came west with the Greyhound out of the city of Denver, and the driver announced on the intercom that we were entering the city of Kremling, Colorado, and the bus would stop for 12 minutes.

I got out to stretch my legs and buy some coffee and saw the east and west ends of what then must be the city of utter sin all of one hundred yards behind and in front of the bus.

I carefully put my nose to the coffee mug to ascertain the true origin of the contents, thought it wise to not buy a piece of chicken from the local chicken farm, and got into the bus to enjoy my coffee and whatever the view brought into view...

Quite a land, this old US of A - or maybe it is only the West. No wonder it was love at first sight.

 

Have you ever used the phrase ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ Mr. Montero? That chicken could have been the best chicken you had ever tasted but now you’ll never know. Ha! Supped your coffee and got back onto the bus….

But alas, if you are the elf and in fact someone else’s alter ego then it was the alter ego that got back onto the bus and not yourself, the elf. So it wasn’t your decision to forgo the chicken now, was it?

I learned a long time ago, when I was a little girl visiting the library, the perils and pitfalls of ‘judging a book by its cover’. I believe that I was approximately five or six years old when I plucked a book off of the shelf (in my greedy little hands) and was aghast at the cover that appeared before my very own eyes. Just as I was about to place it back up on the shelf proper, a friendly librarian with long flowing black hair stopped and said to me ‘Oh darling little girl....must I remind you that it’s not the exterior of a book that counts but rather the contents of the inside. There are many treasures to be found if you dig deep enough’. I looked up at her again with my big brown eyes and then back at the cover. A large ‘hairy’ wolf loomed over what appeared to be a sassy but innocent little girl (much like myself) wearing a red cape with a hood and her hands were tightly clasping a basket in front of her. The cover frightened me but the persuasion of the nice librarian and her words of wisdom led me to indeed check out that book and take it home to read.

Imagine my surprise when I got all snuggled into bed to read my book and I learned that the book was a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf! The story revolved around a girl called ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ who walks through the woods to deliver food to her sickly grandmother (cake in this instance). She had orders from her mother to stay strictly on the path. But a hungry, hairy wolf wants to eat the girl and the cake she has in her basket. He secretly stalks her behind trees and bushes and shrubs and patches of little grass and patches of tall grass listening to her as she hums to herself. After a while he approaches Little Red Riding hood and she naively tells him where she is going. He suggests the girl pick some flowers (this story really intrigued me as you know how I love cake and I do enjoy petals and flowers – remember I was a Brownie Girl in the Scouts after graduating from the Daisy girls..) Where was I.. oh yes…he suggests that she pick some flowers, which she does. In the meantime, however, the wolf goes to the grandmother’s house and gains entry by pretending to be the little girl. In the version that I borrowed from the library, the wolf locks her grandma up in the closet When Little Red Riding Hood arrives at her grandma’s house, her grandmother looks very hairy and not like herself.

‘What a deep voice you have Grandma' – (the better to greet you with the wolf says)

‘Goodness, what big eyes you have!’ – (the better to see you with the wolf replies)

‘And what big hands and wrists you have!’…..

Well… that was the end of Little Red Riding Hood. Or was it? There are many versions of the fairy tale – all with different endings. It definitely was an interesting read and stayed with me throughout my teenage years and well into adult-hood. The tale makes the clearest contrast between the safe world of the village, hamlet, town or city, and the dangers of the forest, or in your instance, Kremling, Colorado, ‘the city of utter sin’ The story also warns about the dangers of not obeying mother.

Personally, I like this story because it tends to link old cultures to the modern psyche of women, much like the book I’m reading right now titled ‘Women who Run with the Wolves’. The following quotes are a few good examples of the book and how I try to see the world and life in which we live:

• “Having a lover/friend who regards you as a living growing criatura, being, just as much as the tree from the ground, or a ficus in the house, or a rose garden out in the side yard... having a lover and friends who look at you as a true living breathing entity, one that is human but made of very fine and moist and magical things as well... a lover and friends who support the ciatura in you... these are the people you are looking for. They will be the friends of your soul for life. Mindful choosing of friends and lovers, not to mention teachers, is critical to remaining conscious, remaining intuitive, remaining in charge of the fiery light that sees and knows.”

• “Be wild; that is how to clear the river. The river does not flow in polluted, we manage that. The river does not dry up, we block it. If we want to allow it its freedom, we have to allow our ideational lives to be let loose, to stream, letting anything come, initially censoring nothing. That is creative life. It is made up of divine paradox. To create one must be willing to be stone stupid, to sit upon a throne on top of a jackass and spill rubies from one’s mouth. Then the river will flow, then we can stand in the stream of it raining down.”

• “Though fairy tales end after ten pages, our lives do not. We are multi-volume sets. In our lives, even though one episode amounts to a crash and burn, there is always another episode awaiting us and then another. There are always more opportunities to get it right, to fashion our lives in the ways we deserve to have them. Don't waste your time hating a failure. Failure is a greater teacher than success.”

• “Asking the proper question is the central action of transformation- in fairy tales, in analysis, and in individuation. The key question causes germination of consciousness. The properly shaped question always emanates from an essential curiosity about what stands behind. Questions are the keys that cause the secret doors of the psyche to swing open.”

It’s a BIG book but a good read

And I’m most likely revealing a little too much about myself now but I’ve always been a fan of the dark fairy tales and mythological stories - ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Cupid & Psyche’, 'Little Red Riding Hood'.. perhaps that is why I wear a red jacket and tall riding boots And I wouldn't want to cause you any agony Mr. Montero....

 

I'll have you know that I haven't been walking on my lunch hour Mr. Montero since after we last 'spoke'. I went for my walk and saw only one of my deer friends standing alone by a tree and the symbolism struck me severely. I'm very sad....

Hope you are well and that I someday hear of your travels and your solitude in the vast Colorado mountains.

Renee