A Colorado Auction

A house down the road has been bank owned for a few years, and yesterday it was up for auction on the premises. So we walked down to see what a foreclosure auction was like.

The house looks better than the picture, but it does look like a mobile home, was built about 15 years ago by a scrappy couple who are long gone. The house has two front doors into the same room. ("Don't you be coming through my door bitch.") It sits on five acres with nice views on a steep hill.

When we got to the house only a security guy was there with his small dog. He offered us a free pen with the name of his cleaning company on it. After a while a real estate agent pulled up in his Range Rover with a golf theme license plate and a salmon golf theme shirt too. He had been the listing agent till the bank got drastic.

Then the auction group rolled in, in one SUV. They had gotten lost on the way. Three guys in white shirts and ties and a hefty blonde gal with a pile of papers. The auctioneer looked like Kenny Rogers with white hair parted in the center, show biz. Then there was a guy with an earpiece who seemed to be wearing a Bill Gates wig. , and a gnarly looking little guy: maybe he'd been a jockey, or in rodeo, or maybe a ventriloquist dummy? He stayed behind the car.

They asked us if we were there to bid? I said no we were there for free cookies. When the auctioneer plugged in his amp Jon said, "Is this going to be a square dance?" He said, "That could be arranged."

Since there was no one there to bid, it was time to get the auction started. They were allowing on line bidding, with a teaser minimum of $50,000, and warned the folks on line not to push that orange button unless you really mean it. There was no video of the auction, so the auctioneer got started as if he had a big crowd there, "I want to welcome you all, ladies and gentlemen," and rolled into that amazing monologue that auctioneers do.

They had one bid for $50,000, on line. Nothing else came in. The house across the street is for sale for a million and a half, also on five acres. Wow. The bank has the right to reject the offer, but it was pretty stark and surprising. They packed up and headed off to their next auction.

I haven't posted on this blog in more than a year. I like writing but I didn't like experiencing my life as possible blog material, and there's something uncomfortable (for me) about posting my dear diary life on line. But I thought I'd pop in with this one.

On the Road Again

We're leaving in the morning, heading back to California. It will take two days, and we're planning on staying in Flagstaff tomorrow night, an old railroad town that still has some charm.



Molly spent the day hovering around the car. The Chows used to lie right in front of it when they got a whiff of suitcase action. At least she has the sense to lie behind it! Dogs get freaked out when suitcases get put into action.

A spooky house

We passed this deserted house on a hike the other day. I wonder how long it's been deserted.

Here's the outside of the spooky house:

Morning, Birds

Love his white eyebrows!


The light was stranger than it appears in this picture. I have trouble getting sky shots to capture their full color.



Magpies are magnificent.



Today it's snowing. We're making plans to go back to L.A. at the start of November. My mother's back in assisted living, out of the hospital, but very confused about it all.

Camo the Chicken

Dinah sent me this picture today of her little chick named Camo, short for Camouflage, though I don't get the reference. This silky chick has an amazing head puff and is show quality. She has two other chicks. Who doesn't keep chickens at college? (and a horse, two goats and two guinea pigs.) I never had a pet when I was in college. deprived.

Yesterday we took a long hike up a mountain to around 12,000 feet. We passed through snow and pine forests, but it was a warm, pretty day. I finally saw a big horned sheep but unfortunately it was dead by the side of the trail.

When we got to the top we wandered around looking for that perfect lunch spot. We weren't at the top of the mountain, but at the end of the trail, and it was pretty level. There was supposed to be a great view which we never quite found. But we did find two nice stumps to sit on, enjoyed our lunch, and then discovered we'd gotten all turned around and really didn't know where we were. Our footprints in the snow were melting and losing direction.

It was scary, briefly. Have you ever been lost in the woods? It's not a good feeling. I had a compass but I'm still figuring out how it can be my friend. Anyway, we found our way back before too long. I checked in my hiking book back in the car to see what I'd done wrong. The author wrote, "when you reach the top, go around the corner." GO AROUND THE CORNER? That's no direction. Anyway, back in the house again. Heard a rifle go off a little while ago, but not too close.

Sunset Strip

We get some beautiful sunsets up here. I discovered if I set the auto to ISO it catches the light better.

Speaking of sunsets, last night we watched "Richard Pryor Live on Sunset Strip." What a brilliant and funny guy. It was released in 1982, so it was interesting that they cut away to Jesse Jackson in the audience several times, also to Alan Alda.

Galloping Goose Again

We took another hike along the Galloping Goose trail bed, and had lunch by a stream with a waterfall. Molly took a swim in it.

As I walked past the old railroad ties I had this fantasy that I'd kick a rock, look down, and see an old gold watch underneath. I pick up the watch and hold it to my ear, to hear if it still ticks. I hear a distant voice that says, "Helloooo?"

And then?

Last night we went for dinner with some friends at their house. The guy's a really good cook. We were there for Thanksgiving a few years ago. When we got there last night his wife was on the phone, the football game was on the big tv, the kids were flying off a trampouline, and he was cooking.

As he mashed the potatoes we told him how great looking his cats were. He went to the freezer and pulled out a ziploc bag with a frozen dead pocket gopher in it. We admired it. We weren't worried about what was for dinner at all.

BEEN IN THE MOUNTAINS TOO LONG!!!

Lunch at the Uranium Mine

Yesterday we went on a 4 1/2 hour hike on some up and down cliffside trails that ended at an abandoned uranium mine, where we had lunch. Aren't I just glowing? I need a geiger counter around here, just to know when things are really ticking.

Weird Neighbors

Too late to illustrate, but have to say...

Down the road our 40 year old single neighbor got busted early in the summer for driving 150 miles mph while chased by the devil. In the first telling the devil was in the back seat but now I know he was in a separate car. Now the neigh is living in a Christian community in Mountain Village. (Richistan). Who knows where the devil's gone. Just checked the closets.

Not just to make fun. People with bad mental conditions get meds that make them feel like their old selves except for the side effects. They think: "Who needs these stupid pills?" and then the devil is chasing them... and so are the cops.

Now mega rich guy who's part of the Haagen Daas family is renting our victim's house while his castle is being remodeled. The devils are fattening up on strange flavors. Unappreciated famous guy was one of the first stars of beach volley ball in the 50's in case you don't appreciate.

We had crock pot cooked pot roast tonight. Or was that crack pot kook rroswt? One of the recipes I read said add an envelope of Lipton's Onion Soup mix and a can of coke.

Talk about blase....

Just couldn't go there. Dinner was a yum. Especially lemon sponge custard (joy of cooking easy masterpiece) at the end.

Gray Jay

We went on a lovely hike today near Lizard Head. There was snow under all the pines but the trail was clear and we'd never hiked it before. No human prints on the trail, and no one passed us in either direction. It wasn't a huff and puff trail. There were so many hawks flying. They may have been golden eagles. Also we were stalked by a number of gray jays, like this cutey above.



That's Lizard Head behind me.

Molly gets really crazy when she encounters piles of snow but I didn't get any photos of her in the act.



Last night we put some spaghetti and garlic bread in the upstairs bird pan for the magpies and stellar jays. In the middle of the night Molly started barking frantically. It was serious enough for us to get up and find the big flashlight. Right outside the house a herd of maybe a dozen mule deer ran off in all directions. Mule deer don't usually move in herds.

Was the upstairs smell of garlic bread and spaghetti so enticing?

A very good dog

Tonight I was making lasagna, and the recipe was on the the laptop, on the couch. I'd put one layer down and couldn't remember whether you put sauce next or cheese next. I left the square dish on the counter, on top of a dishtowel, and walked over to the computer.

CRASH! Our counter slants about 15 degrees and the pyrex dish took a slide and a fracture. On the floor were shattered glass fragments, red sauce and noodles. It looked like the scene of a crime. It was meat sauce on the floor. Now our old Chows would have been fighting with me to let them at it even though it was laced with glass, but Molly just watched from her bed. Our downstairs is an open floor plan so there aren't any doors you can close off.

I spent the next 45 minutes on cleanup, and got the remaining lasagna into a bread pan, which is enough for two peeps for dinner.

Here's the lake where she took a sudden swim last week



I bet that water was really cold!

Foliage

The winds are blowing so hard today that the leaves make a clack sound when they hit the window. Our house is shaking. We decided to take a fall foliage tour over to Rico since the leaves may all be blown off by tomorrow.



There was quite a bit of snow on the mountains last night.

We ended up at our usual restaurant in Rico but it was the chef's day off and you could tell by the way the food tasted without even asking where the chef was. Also, I hate it when you ask "what's the 'spicy sauce' on the burger?" and the waitress answers "It's a secret." Secret spelled Russian Dressing. But don't tell anyone. It's a secret.

Buck

And Obama is declaring Saturday National Hunting and Fishing Day, poor buck. Don't get me started. We were this close, it's not a zoom in.

Acrophobia?

Our neighbors told us about a hike they like to take for picnics, so we followed their directions. Maybe we should have remembered that she jogs uphill and he races bicycles.

It was an exciting trail if you like them skinny with cliffs and wide space with nothing to catch you if you roll and big horn sheep scat and slick surfaces, but I ran into some psychological difficulties on the way down. (Notice how I'm leaning even above.)



The butt hike helps when the acrophobia kicks in. My astrological sign is cancer the crab.



This bull mastiff knew better than to hike on such scary trails. "I'm not going!"

This wolfhound pup just joined his athletic family's pack yesterday. His tail was so long he looked like a mountain lion. He was a very mellow pup. He's going back with his new family to Arizona on Thursday. When I see him next he'll be a giant.

Hope Lake

"Hey, where's Sally?"



"I'm coming, I'm coming."



Hope Lake above treeline, around 12,500 feet. Huff, puff. Our neighbors ride a tandem bicycle over the highest mountain passes. They put up with us today. They're fun and are getting a wolfhound puppy tomorrow.



Trying to hitch a ride back. No luck. Smoke from the California fires tints the skies here.

Lizard Head

There's a famous rock formation around here called Lizard Head. This isn't it. The famous Lizard Head is just a big block on a giant one- for years I thought the head had already fallen off. And then just walking along the Galloping Goose trail I came upon this beauty. Hey there Lizard Head!

We saw "The Hurt Locker" in Telluride last night. Wow, two films in a theatre, two nights in a row, and both directed by women! (Julie and Julia the night before.)

I liked "The Hurt Locker" ever so much better, though I could have done without all the handheld photography. It's a suspense movie set in Iraq. The lead, Jeremy Renner, has a touch of Russell Crowe and a touch of Elvis. wooh!

However, it resulted in nightmares in which I was pleading to exchange Farmville points for a "get out of the army now" pass as we marched over the Colorado mountains to Sawpit.

Silverton Again

We took our friends Anne and Danny over the million dollar highway to Silverton on Thursday. We got there just as the steam train was pulling in and the streets were flooded with tourists.



You could hear a lot of different languages on the street, as well as a saloon piano, which is a lovel sound. I guess it's the season when foreign visitors come to see the fall foliage. Quite a few were calling out to their friends in Italian. Danny looks like he stepped out of a foreign film in the picture above.



I cooked fried chicken, trout almondine and lasagna. Jon cooked bison steaks the last night. We had a jolly time.

Pretty Bird

I think this is a female Western Tanager feasting on one of our elderberry bushes. Wish she would bring her boyfriend around, as the male is one of the prettiest US birds.

Table for 4

Some good friends from L.A. are coming to visit this evening, staying till Friday. We're looking forward to it. You never know how the altitude is going to affect folks, so we're not making too many plans.

Not sure if I'll be posting pix or not because some people don't like to have their pictures out on the internet.

I had to enable word "captcha" on the comments because I've been hit by a strange spam movement from Japan, all on the old post about the Rachel Alexandra contest. I'm going to see if this stops them.

Galloping Goose

No, Galloping Goose isn't my new screen name though it might fit. It's the name of a lovely trail laid down on land formerly part of a narrow gauge railroad over the mountains. A strange beast called the Galloping Goose traveled the rails, half car, half train, actually made from old Pierce Arrows. We didn't pass another person on our 2 1/2 hour hike. There were old railroad ties and spikes along the way, and the climb was quite easy because the goose had to do it long ago.

Can you believe those cliffs above me (in the picture below) are actually really popular with rock climbers?



They are entirely vertical. In the picture above the large bag of potato chips sticking out of my orange pack seems to be rock camouflaged? Although the rock in the front looks too much like it's part of my pants and IT'S NOT!



Above seen on an aspen near the trail head. Was Marti McGinnis here?

On the way back we stopped to get milk at the Sawpit store. I was hoping they'd replenished the Haribo gummy roll candy they sometimes sell, so I was hovering by the counter behind the big blonde who turned out to be Daryl Hannah. Like Ralph Lauren last week, she also had tanned and bulging calves, but she was much prettier than Ralph, and quite a bit younger, and more makeup. She was with a tall guy who stood deferentially behind her. My candy was not there.

Snippet of conversation between the babe and the nice counter guy:

He: So how did the meeting go yesterday in Montrose?
She: It was really awful. It's really bad.

(She's been trying to stop resumption of uranium mining in sadsack Nucla, CO. Likely to come with it is a nuclear dump site. Just the thing in a mountain resort community... Unfortunately the county commissioners are one step this side of organized crime and there seems no way to stop them. Good for D.H. to try)

She: The reporter was such a New York type. She was supposed to film it and she didn't even bring a camera. She was totally non mellow.