I am Thankful

I made this list of things I was most thankful for one winter when I just couldn't fight depression setting in that year. The list worked then, and it still makes me smile now.

1. The Lizard
2. Inner peace, faith
3. Having Colorado and Utah in my backyard
4. Paw prints in the snow
5. Bobbing tufts of purple on July/August summits


6. The ability, endurance and determination to pedal all the way up Highway 5 again
7. Steady employment
8. Golden, red and orange leaves that rustle in the breeze
9. Pink, purple and crimson clouds
10. Friends


11. Crystal clear reflections on high altitude lakes
12. West Elk raspberries and Weminuche strawberries
13. Bugling elk, chirping marmots, screeching raptors, sheep banging heads, trickling tiny waterfalls, clucking ptarmigans
14. Camera batteries that don't die during once-in-a-lifetime shots
15. Coyotes that play with their food


16. Pink noses on white martens
17. 212,824 miles and still purring (NOW: 303,555)
18. Shoes and socks that don't wear blisters
19. Ibuprofen when they do
20. Sunbathing fluorescent lizards that skedaddle across red rock on their hind legs when startled


21. Gaining Payne and No Payne in a day
22. Having access to 60 flights of stairs to climb at will
23. The chilling grip of the river around my ankles as soft, squishy algae and mud seep between my toes
24. Lilac along the South Platte bike path, fresh rain on mesquite, the rush of steam from a Thermos of chai or cinnamon tea atop a winter summit, and the skunk that didn't bust me when I inadvertently trespassed
25. Weekends

Tweet

Project Blizzard

I was going to post this later today, waiting on pins and needles to learn if we have been drawn for Ride the Rockies. But then I decided I can post like normal, and then do an update when I find out if we are headed for Telluride in June...


12:22 p.m. Friday, 1 March 2013: WE ARE IN!!!



I bought my first pair of neoprene booties after finishing my first Ride the Rockies nearly ten years ago. One chilly morning of that first adventure, my toes were so cold, I thought I would have to SAG (finish that day's ride aboard a van). Another rider took pity on me and loaned me his neoprene booties until my feet were warm enough to go on. That was enough to convince me I needed a pair of my own.

The pair I bought didn't last long. One zipper broke the first time I wore the booties. But I continued to wear them until the second zipper broke, back in about 2011. Since then, I've doubled and tripled my wool socks.

For my birthday, The Lizard presented me with a brand new pair of neoprene booties in shocking neon. They are warm, waterproof and highly visible on the road. Plus, they match my rain jacket, and they soothe my itch for blindingly bright green!



I've wanted my very own blue hydrangea for years and years and years. Longer than I've known The Lizard. He gave me my very own plant for Valentine's Day, which should survive transplanting outdoors after these lovely blooms (still going strong!) finish.


Three Christmas cacti continue to delight.



My (indoor) larkspur is once again spreading winter smiles through heavenly blues.








Late Thursday night, February 21, I finished piecing the main section of this year's Denver National Quilt Festival high hopes. I'm still working on the border, but this top has been SO fun to do. The Lizard says that's because it doesn't contain snowflakes. :O

Staying busy with this quilt through the last half of winter has helped me fight SAD by giving me something to look forward to each night when I get off work and by providing what might be an unbeatable deadline but nevertheless a positive goal to work toward.



Cross-country skiing atop the Grand Mesa during the three-day weekend made for a lovely post-Valentine's Day date.


Amidst all this wonderful smiley stuff, depression did indeed still lurk, and it wasn't polite. February is full of painful anniversaries for both of us, and there were moments when happiness felt like a distant planet.

Two things I've learned from February 2013 are daylight matters and chronic pain is a bigger trigger than I ever realized. I'm so thankful for my new office digs, which provide more daylight than I've ever had in my entire 35-year career (a good deal of which was spent in a darkroom, of course), and I'm so thankful I finally went through physical therapy, which has made the ongoing pain much easier to manage and in a few rare and priceless cases, even prevent.

I've often quoted from a card a long-time friend sent when my youngest sister died: "It's always darkest before the dawn." There were some dark moments in February 2013, but the dawn was never far from me.

Tweet

Project Blizzard

What could be more fun on a Friday than the photos that made me smile during the winter month of January, when the days finally began growing just a tiny bit longer?

Thankfully, January was not a sad month for me. I hardly had anything I could ascribe to depression, other than a nasty cold that really dug its heels in the entire 14 days I kept trying to banish it. More natural daylight at work definitely is helping, but I've also had a few momentous events bursting with smiles.

January marked the final payment on the final debt I took on more than ten years ago to help a loved one who made some bad choices. At one point, I was making three payments a month on a gesture that often felt unappreciated. This final piece of that shattered puzzle, making the final payment, has many times brought tears of joy to my eyes this month. It feels so liberating to be free of the debt!!!


Last Wednesday night, I graduated from physical therapy. I likely will have to do the stretches and exercises for life, but that's okay because I feel like my life is coming back to me. For eight years, I have lived with back pain that although better than prior to surgery, has been debilitating, demoralizing and yes, depressing. Now, the pain is managable and tolerable. Life indeed is returning.


While I was recooperating from emergency back surgery in 2004, The Lizard, whom I'd been dating for about six months, bought flowers for me for the first time.

It was the first time I'd ever seen a Christmas cactus. It was the beginning of a tradition. We have added a new Christmas cactus to our collection every year since. Until 2012.

I found one at a grocery store I really liked back in November. It had blooms of every color I've ever seen. I almost bought it.

But then I decided I can make my own after this winter's blossoms are done. Several of our plants need trimming.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the gorgeous blossoms on that first hot pink Christmas cactus. All month long!












Color always seems to make me happy. That's why I love making things in rainbow shades.


My mailbox filled my creative life with color early in January. I nailed a colorful hand-dyed crochet thread destash, and I picked up some solid colors to go with some variegated yarn colorways I already had. Let the knitting (and crocheting) begin!






I've never been one to be happy with just one project on my needles. I'm also trying really hard to use up thread, yarn and fabric in my stash. I've found a perfect use for some of the sock yarn I picked up on close-out nearly two years ago. It's a secret, and it likely will take a year or more to finish, but it makes the perfect closer at the end of each day, even if only for a couple of rows.


I'm making the cheeriest quilt I've ever worked on, thanks to the bright, springy green, and so far, it's entirely leftovers.


Big smiles when in Ravelry's Star Fleet Fiber Arts Academy I was reassigned from the USS Kitchener, where I have been serving my entire two-year tour as a mere crafter with no responsibility, to the USS Noro. Of all the yarn-named ships, I got stuck on the one with the name of the yarn I love just about best! And now we find out what I'm really made of as I take on duties of First Officer...



A few of the bulbs I planted (in pots) in September were fooled into spring when Indian summer set in. So I brought them inside before the second frost could zap them. After three months of long, stringy greens, my grape hyacinths are blooming!


A huge accomplishment in January was successfully pedaling 60 miles on Martin Luther King Day even though I hadn't been on my bike on the road since December 1. (I'd done up to 18 miles in the basement on the trainer several times in December and January.) I wasn't sure if I could do 60 miles, and six months ago, I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to ride again. This ride was another particularly liberating achievement. Physical therapy and hyaluronic acid are working!


And just check out those calories burned. Soon to be no more Fat Cyclist here!


Saving the best for last, after graduating from PT on Wednesday night, I received word that my replacement camera has arrived. I picked it up yesterday!

During the recent office move at work, I dropped my trusty 10-year-old first digital camera, the one I use at work and just last summer began carrying in my pack during bike rides instead of the heavy Nikon workhorse (which I adore beyond measure) because the better camera weighs so much. I was trying to increase my chances of completing difficult rides while boosing my enthusiasm for taking photos during rides when I was sometimes too exhausted and sometimes suffering too much to play with the big camera.

The little camera still worked, with duct tape, but did not look professional at work, where I need to be professional, and I worried about how the duct tape would hold up in the humidity of my pack on long bike rides, assuming I could ride again one day. (Which, yay, I can!!!) My bosses took compassion on me and presented me with a gift certificate to replace that little camera for Christmas. I waited for after-Christmas sales, and it turned out the replacement model I picked happened to be one of the most popular. And on sale, too. It had to be ordered. I waited patiently. Sort of. Every day, I wondered where my new camera was en route to its new life with me.

It's here! It's here! I picked it up yesterday. Last night was my first time using it! It is just different enough from my other cameras that the learning curve is significant, but I love it! The old camera is sad and tired, but thankful it doesn't have to endure duct tape anymore. It is enjoying its new home in a display case amongst family treasures.





first shot with the new camera


fourth shot with the new camera

Tweet

Project Blizzard

gifts handmade by my four-year-old neighbor
Welcome to 2013 and to my first winter smile collection of the entire year! This is my 1,000th published post! I didn't plan it this way at all!!!





Last Project Blizzard, I accidentally forgot to include one very big November smile. When the weather is bad, The Lizard and I like to spend an hour or two in a bookstore. During an early November visit, I stumbled upon an extremely reasonably priced copy of Jean Leinhauser's "365 Crochet Stitches." I'd had it on my wishlist since... probably since electronic wishlists were invented.

Sadly, we lost Jean, the Crochet Queen, in 2011. Her OOP (out of print) books skyrocketed in price. I had no hope of ever landing the handy little daily crochet calendar I'd wanted so long.

I felt almost as if I was stealing from the bookstore when I checked out. How lucky for me the bookstore didn't know what a goldmine it had on its shelves for just $24.95!!!


December had moments (and days) absent of smiles, didn't it? Sometimes the world can seem so dark, so lost, so hopeless. But goodness is out there. I had to look hard last month to find joy. My search was successful.

There were a few more absolutely brilliant sunrises.


I was able to turn some of those sunrises into snowflake inspirations via a kaleidoscope photo editing program.








Our new lunchroom at work offers more daylight than I can soak up in one hour.








When my workgroup moved to a new floor, we all had to take home all personal stuff, then bring it back after we were done moving. While moving my tiny portable studio and first digital camera back to the office, I committed the unpardonable sin. The old dinosaur camera hit the pavement. Hard.

It's been a tank through ten hard years now, surviving several such accidental drops, including two total immersions. (Yes, I baptized my first digital camera. Twice. Although not intentionally either time. The electronic technology converted me, so only fair I returned the favor, right?)

This most recent bouncing spill, however, the camera body did not fare as well. Perhaps it's getting old, like me, and resenting what it gets put through. The Lizard carefully and skillfully applied a little duct tape (to the camera, not me), and presto! My little Fuji works again!



Indian summer tricked some of my bulbs into growing again. And then winter returned. I moved five pots of greenery inside before they could freeze. No flowers yet, but the little babies are showing me every day how much they appreciate a nice warm house and a grow light.



We had never known the name of three plants The Lizard inherited from his father, until November when one of them began doing something we didn't know to expect and I published photos of the progress in a Wordless Wednesday. Marigold let us know these tropical treats are dwarf umbrella trees. And the little pinecone-looking formations turned into itsy bitsy firecracker-like flowers!




I've been asked once again to be an official photographer for the 2013 Youth Trek. !!!



The Lizard and I have been donating blood together for about seven years now. In December, we got to donate side by side for the first time ever.



I got behind in crocheting around one rock every week during the office move, but I've caught back up.


Most noteworthy this month, in my opinion, have been a pair of snowflake drives. The first, snowflakes for the family and small children of a needlecrafter who died suddenly after Thanksgiving, made me long for another drive after the world went dark December 14. Then three Ravelry members pointed me to the Connecticut PTSA's request for snowflakes for the new elementary school. (The PTSA now has enough snowflakes; they have a semi truck FULL!!!!!!!!!!)

Making snowflakes has always been a healing thing for me. Viewing snowflakes, the ones made by chilly temperatures, has always had a peaceful and calming effect on me, perhaps because I grew up in the desert and they were so rare. Sending snowflakes as gifts has always felt like a perfect way to send love across the miles to places I could not be.

I wait anxiously with hope that someone might share photos of the donated snowflakes that likely will completely cover the walls and ceilings of the new school. Perhaps some special snowflakes will be given to the families who lost someone.

Wouldn't it be cool if snowflakes became a new international symbol for love and friendship?!?


NOTE: I had to close this post to comments due to the high number of comments being attempted by fake fans.

Tweet