The snow has continued with a huge storm this week that dropped nearly a foot of snow. The general rule of thumb in this area of Colorado is to begin turning on the sprinklers for your grass around April 15 and shut it off on October 15. But not this April 15. This week was a strange one. I think even the chickens were confused!
Hey, let us in! It looks much warmer in there
Well at least the grass looks nice and green with all this moisture!
Colorado is rather bipolar when it comes to weather. Yesterday, for instance, it was sunny and 73 degrees. Today, my work closed due to blizzard conditions with a high below freezing in April! Or put more simply in pictures of our Greeley backyard with the chickens:
Yesterday
Chickens scratching, taking dirt baths, tulips growing, yard greening, Kitty hanging out.
Today:
Avoiding the snow standing on one leg, feeling “cooped up”, snowy windblown eggs, peeking out the door of the coop.
Sunday was a very snowy day with about 8 inches of the cold white stuff falling. We had made plans with our friend Sean to go to Fort Collins to see the Museum of Discovery there. We weren’t sure if they would be open or not, but when we called and they said they were and Sean said he would drive in his 4×4 truck we said we were up for the adventure! And it was a bit of an adventure…
We actually got a flat tire on the way in! Thankfully we were all the way to Fort Collins and were stopped at a gas station because he noticed the tire pressure slowly draining away. So I went in the store and got a hot tea and Britton and Sean changed the tire out in the snow.
Then we arrived at the museum and had a lot of the fun. The main station we spent the most time at was the music one. It was fun playing with all their hands on exhibits and learning a little bit about different musical instruments and the science behind music.
Britton and the upright bass
Me and Sean at one of the music exhibits
They also had some nature science exhibits with an emphasis on the flora and fauna that is or was native to this area. Including this bison!
Just feeding the (taxidermied) buffalo
Britton playing in the beaver house
It’s been a long time since we’ve gone to a museum but this one was fun and interactive. There were a lot of little kids around, but since we didn’t have any to watch ourselves, we got to act like them instead! 🙂
Afterward we went to our favorite restaurant in Fort Collins and I had the most delicious Harvest Squash Ravioli and we topped the night off by splitting some tiramisu. The roads were icy as we drove home, but we made it back just fine even with the new tire.
Overall it was a great Sunday snow day adventure!
Building Where I Work
Well it has been close to 2 weeks now since I’ve been back to work. I surprisingly picked right up where I had left off 2 months before. Not much, if anything had changed. It was kind of unexpected but at the same time not surprising.
In this building I work in a similarly drab cubicle. I think that is one of the descriptions of a cube dweller. A lot of your life takes place in a well….a cube. The cubes are almost exactly the same with very little variation as with the inhabitants of the cubicles…. And the roads leading to and fro.
As you can probably guess by the way the building looks, we don’t do art. Nope, just data. Lots of computers. It isn’t too terribly exciting, but it is complicated and sometimes challenging. And almost always the same.
Having some time off has given me a lot of perspective.
The building where I want to be…and even there I will be mostly outside
I am glad I have employment and I did realize by coming back that I have learned my System Administration job fairly well. I put a lot of effort into it and it shows. Being able to just pick up and sail freely along is cool just due to the sheer amount of information that I have to know in order to do it. I like to learn and grow and I feel that I have accomplished my goal of being an Application System Administrator. I knew I could do it; and I have.
I want to be a tropical farmer, innkeeper and a surfer too. I am sure I’ll look back at some point and be able to say that I’ve also accomplished those goals. I am ready to live where there is more green every day than grey. More plants than computer screens. More sensations to experience than sitting on my behind.
In the mean time, I will go back to the stark, dull building that shields me from the harshness of the outdoor world of Colorado… and plan my escape.