A Chapter Closed

Most anyone who's known me for the past decade has met, or at least been aware of, an important lady in my life.....my first car: Lola the Purple Corolla.


She became a part of the family just a few days shy of my 19th birthday back in May of 2000.  Since that time, she's been everywhere.  Together, we've journeyed from Arizona, to Wisconsin, to Minnesota, to Texas.  When my brother was in need of another vehicle, shortly after I'd purchased a new car in late 2007, she moved with him to New Mexico, a couple years before I made that same move myself.  Sure, she wasn't in my possession anymore, but she was still in the family and that was great.  Then this past summer, she came home to live with Leni and I again and I loved having her around.


I did my growing up years in Lola.  Not the type of growing up where you learn to ride a bike or deal with bullies or things like that.  But the type of growing up you go through in college and early adulthood.  Owning my first car taught me to manage money and plan ahead for unexpected maintenance and repairs (in those days, I referred to my savings account as my "Save Lola Fund".)  The hell of bureaucracy was experienced in that car when I had my first fender bender and had to deal with police reports, insurance companies, estimates, etc.  I was rolling around in those wheels when I finished college and decided to spend a year as a volunteer and then later when I got a full time job with benefits.  The list goes on.


Other people have had memories in Lola as well.  Tons of people I know (myself included) learned to drive a stick shift in that car.  Some special friends had favorite music to listen to in Lola....if I had a nickle for every Dixie Chicks or Steven Curtis Chapman song that had been played in her stereo, I'd probably have enough money to buy her all over again at the $3000 purchase price we agreed to with her original owner.  


I could go on and on (more than I already have) but in the end, it all boils down to the last week or so when Leni and I decided it was time to replace Lola with something else.  I'd been begging Leni for years to have a daily driver that was a little newer and had airbags.  He finally submitted and had started looking for something else.  We found a great deal on a VW Jetta Wagon and acquired that vehicle this past Saturday. 


On Sunday afternoon, I spent about 2 hours clearing our things out of Lola and giving her a good cleaning.  Windows, vacuuming, upholstery, wiping the dash, an exterior wash etc.  Leni even charged her AC so it would be nice and cold.  When she was all clean, I hopped on the computer and posted an ad for my car on Craigslist.  We weren't expecting much money out of a 23-year-old car.  But I knew she had some life still in her and that someone else could benefit from those miles.  


It happened so fast.  I've never seen an object on Craigslist sell as fast as Lola did last night.  This is what it looked like:


5:16 pm - Posted ad on Craigslist
5:40 pm - Inquiry call
6:30 pm - Met up for a test drive
7:00 pm - Done deal....returned home sans Lola but with a little thicker wallet


Lola now lives with a kid just a year older than I was when I bought her.  He can barely drive a manual transmission and needs her for getting around between his home, his job, and his community college in a town about a half hour away.  He and his mom (who test drove the car for him as my dad had done for me more than 11 years ago) were pleased with the deal and even promised to keep the name, which meant a lot to me.


I'm always on a mission to keep the amount of cars on our property to as low a number as possible and was overall satisfied that we found a good family to live her final days with.  But I'd be lying if I didn't confess how sad I was to come home without her.  In fact, I cried on the way home.


I LOVE the car I drive now.  Still a Corolla, but exactly 20 years newer than Lola was.  And Leni's new (to us) Jetta will serve us well for many years.  But both these cars seems so sterile and without the personality and history that Lola had.  In the end, I'm happier to hand her off to another family than I would have been to have kept her and had to watch her towed to a scrap yard at the eventual end of her life.


Thank you, Lola, for your long and faithful service to the Porter-Moore family.  I know you'll be as good to your new owner and I hope that I'll see you around sometime.

Lola: serving our family 2000-2011

Keep It Real!

Finally Talkin' About It

Meet "Mini Moore"

Forgive the poor photo quality...they gave us printed pictures that didn't scan well so this is a picture of the picture I took with my camera :)

This ultrasound picture was captured just this afternoon.  Waiting to tell the masses about the anticipation of our first child has been tough but we're pleased to finally be able to talk completely openly about it (thanks to those of you who have kept the secret for us in the last couple weeks!).


Here are the details:

• Currently in the 12th week of development
• As of this week, Mini Moore is the size of a plum.  Next week will be peach week!
• Yes, we are planning on finding out the gender (perhaps at our next appointment in early November.  If not, in December)
• No, we won't be sharing whatever name we choose until the baby arrives
• The due date is April 18th!
• Thanks for asking....I've been feeling great!  No morning sickness at all (thank you GOD!).  I've been quite fatigued in the evenings and have to be very careful about remembering snacks between meals, but other than that, it's been pretty smooth sailing.

That information has pretty much satisfied 99% of the questions I've been getting in the last couple weeks.  We're pretty excited and would appreciate any and all prayers that our friends and family can offer for a continued healthy pregnancy and a healthy, happy baby when all is said and done.


195 days to go!


Keep It Real!

Landscaping, Part II

This post, the follow up to Landscaping, Part I, is more than a month in the making.  Thank you for your patience.

Without further ado, here's your update, in photo form:

Before starting

After tilling in more than 5,000 lbs of compost

The straw we used to protect the seeds

Started seeing these guys come up somewhere between the 1 and 2 week mark

Here we are today, Oct 1!

Leni mowed the lawn (LAWN!!!!) for the first time today.  A couple more mows, especially with a new (hasn't arrived yet) mulching blade for the mower will help get rid of the remaining straw.  Still keeping the dogs off of it until the first good snow pack to protect it from their paws and nails.  We don't want them rough housing too much on it until it is more established.  We are quite pleased and can't wait to enjoy it more in the future.


Keep It Real!

Not Guilty

After a long, tiring, but blast of a weekend at a wedding in Milwaukee this past weekend, I had to be up and wide awake for a court trial at 8am this morning.  For a glance back at the last time I was in court, see this old post - it's a goody.


Flashback: Almost two months ago, I was pulled over for speeding.  The officer claimed I was going 70 in a 55. I could swear I was going a shade over 60.  Admittedly, that is still speeding, but I knew that police in this area had been recently trained on eyeing speed without using actual radar.  Knowing that, if that was the case in this situation, that kind of evidence wouldn't hold up in court. This was a good ticket to fight, even though it was only a $30 ticket.


I showed up to my arraignment back in August and plead "Not Guilty" and was assigned a court date.  It was during a time that I work so I called to have it changed and of course they moved it to the morning right after I would be traveling back from a wedding.  Oh well.    


That all brings us to this morning.  I got up early, went through my morning routine, and then sat down to write down the thoughts I'd been collecting regarding how I would question the police officer in court.  


The proceedings are such that my side of the case would be presented in the form of questions directed at the officer.  After consulting with Leni's aunt, an experienced court translator who has seen lots of these cases, and a little bit of online research, I went into court ready to ask these questions:

1. When you clocked me, were you driving your vehicle or were you parked? (He was driving)
2. Does using radar from a moving vehicle compromise accuracy of what vehicle is being clocked, as compared to being parked?
3. Was I driving alone or were there other vehicles around me? (I was in a pack of cars)
4. Is there a possibility that you inadvertently clocked another driver?
5. When you pulled me over, did I ask to see the radar? (I did)
6. What was your response to that? (He refused to show it to me)
7. When had the radar equipment last been calibrated? (Next question asked only if he did not know the answer or if it had been quite some time)
8. Is it possible then that the radar gave an inaccurate reading at the time you pulled me over?

As I said before, I was geared up for a fight.  I was naturally nervous but also excited to fight for myself.  I wasn't concerned about the measly amount of the fine but wanted to do all in my power to prevent the citation from being reported to my insurance company.

In the end, the officer never showed up and my case was completely dismissed.  Part of me had been hoping for this outcome but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I also had really wanted the opportunity to face the cop and get the chance to question him.  I was looking forward to the hopeful chance of having the experience of being found "Not Guilty", followed by shooting him an annoying "you suck and I win" smile from across the court room.  But oh well....in any event, I'm keeping my money and my auto insurance company will never know a thing.  Mission accomplished.

Stay tuned when this weekend, Leni will mow our new lawn and I'll actually take some pics and post the sequel to my most recent post, Landscaping Part I.  Sorry about the month long delay between posts.  I don't have an excuse.  Just didn't happen to get anything up.  My bad.

Keep It Real!

Landscaping, Part I

Meet my yard:

It seems generous to call it a yard.  "Dirt lot" would probably be more appropriate.  Leni once had grand plans about the stages in which he wanted to landscape the dirt lot including bushes, redoing parts of the terrace, steps and walkways, and finally.....grass.

Since the snow melt, however, I've had different thoughts.  Every time the dogs go into the backyard, they wrestle and roll around and bring in TONS of dirt and dust.  By the beginning of summer, I was just plain SICK of it.  So we decided (read: I decided) to plant grass on the lowest, largest level of the yard this year so that the dust-in-the-house issue wouldn't be such a problem next spring.

After researching what grass to plant and how to do it, we chose the end of the summer to do the project, hoping that the monsoon rains would aid in the watering process that germination requires.

So we broke the project into two weekends.  Last weekend,  we hauled and tilled more than two and a half tons of compost into the yard.

Moving from the truck, up the steep front yard, and into the back.

Spreading the compost out.

 

8 HP tiller!

Weekend 1: done!

Next came this weekend.  Just one day's worth of work this time instead of two.  The plan was to install some edging, actually plant the grass, and then cover it with straw to protect it while it germinates.

Installing the edging

Edging doesn't want to be straight....wonder why

Putting down 20 lbs of grass seed

Seed now covered with 5 huge bales of straw
Chicken wire fence keeping the poor dogs off

So there you have it.  The seeds are being heavily watered as I type this and the copious amounts of water will continue for several weeks.  We should start to see little blades coming up in about 2 weeks, or so we're told.  Time will tell!

Stay tuned for the eventual Part II post, hopefully with pictures of green grass!

Keep it Real!

Trip Report: Handies Peak

As the last hurrah of summer 2011, we planned a trip up to Colorado this past weekend to get into some cooler air and beautiful scenery.  Oh yeah...we were going to attempt to summit our third 14er too :)


Accompanying us on this trip were my brother and sister, Nick and Claire, as well as one of Leni's co-workers, Rob.


Nick, Claire, Leni and I left Los Alamos together early on Friday morning.  We made the drive up to the last city before the road to the trailhead, Lake City.  This is a delightful, small mountain community built upon a historical 19th century mining boom.

If you ever go to Lake City, you MUST go to the restaurant pictured above.  Three words: pulled pork nachos.  I would trade an average to better-than-average friend for these.


After hanging out in the city for a while, it was time to begin the journey up the 20 mile road to the trailhead.  The first 12 miles were smooth sailing driving.  The website that gave details concerning the road had called this a "rough 2WD road".  We were braving this in our 1988 Toyota Corolla and Nick and Claire were in their much newer Pontiac Vibe.  This was no problem when the road went from pavement to packed dirt and when it transitioned to gravel and rocks, it was okay at first.  But the rocks started getting bigger and closer together and it became a pretty stressful drive.  Here's some video of Leni getting Nick and Claire's car over a particularly rough spot.





We all made it up and over but not without some scraping, some bottoming out, and almost getting high-centered.  If I were authoring that website, I would have labeled the road as "High Clearance Only".


We found a parking spot about a mile below the actual trailhead.  The views were really breath-taking.

Not too long after we arrived, Rob arrived too.  It was dinner time.  Rob's dinner cracked me up.

The morning came quickly and we got up, ate, packed our daypacks, and were off!  

Virtually all of the trail is through fields of wild flowers.  The word on the street is that the peak season for viewing these blooming beauties is the last week in July and the first week and August...perfect!

Not too far up the trail, we happened upon this waterfall.  I hadn't seen pictures of it or read about it in online trip reports so it was a nice surprise.

This was Nick and Claire's first 14er so it was nice that the trail was relatively easy.  I say relatively because there's really no such thing as an "easy" 14er.  But the nice thing was the steep parts weren't too long and they were usually routed with switchbacks.  That said, it was still challenging.

Nick, Claire and Dottie

Rob plowing ahead with our pooches

Leni and the dogs with the peaks that watched over us all day

At about 12,800 feet in elevation and about 2.5 to 3 miles in, we came upon a clear lake called Sloan Lake.  The online pictures of it were good but didn't do it near enough justice.  It was a perfect place for a snack break.

We kept going.  The trail was well-defined and we were moving at a good pace, given the varying levels of experience in the crowd.  A bit above the lake and we came upon a scree field crossing followed by some of the steeper switchbacks of the climb.

From the saddle, the summit was looking pretty close.  The trail was generally steep but that was compounded by the gravel that covered it.  It was exhausting because the gravel caused us to lose footing and sometimes slide back a bit.  This was the toughest spot for me.

Here are some summit shots:

Looking southwest back to Sloan Lake

Looking east into Grizzly Gulch, home to another route that summits Handies

Rob, Leni and the dogs were waiting for me when I got to the summit

Nick, Claire and Dottie arrived not too long after me

Me and the dogs enjoying the long rest on the summit

The Moores with Sloan Lake in the background

The Moores and Porters

It was time for the journey down.  That gravel just below the summit was hell and I slid out a little.  Before too long, we were back down to the lake where we had another snack and pumped some water.  Just below the lake, we ran into a couple making their way up the trail with their two goats.  Awesome.

When we got back down to the waterfall, we left Nick and Claire there, as Claire wanted to do a little water color painting of it.  Rob, Leni and I pushed on the final stretch to camp.  My feet were very tired and wanted badly to get out of my hiking boots.  I settled down for a little nap and when I woke up, Nick and Claire were back and it was time to start dinner.

The next day, we started the dreaded drive back down the awful road.  Things were much easier going down than coming up, a major godsend.  We stopped for lunch in Pagosa Springs and then made our way home from there.

It was another good trip to summit a 14er.  We are SO blessed that we've always had good weather for these trips.  I read trip reports all the time about people making big trips to CO only to have their bid for the summit destroyed by storms.  Here's hoping for similar blessings in the future!

Keep It Real!

Wrong Number

We've all gotten  calls on our phones that were wrong numbers.  It happens here and there.  

What happens less frequently, however, is the wrong number text.  I've gotten them once or twice before.  This past weekend, I got one from an unknown number that read as follows:

Unknown Texter: Hey girl...let's hang out around 1? Is that too late?

I had no idea who it was, nor did I have any idea if 1:00 was too late.  AM?  PM?  

Under normal circumstances, I would just text back letting them know that it was a wrong number and get on with my day.  But on this day, I just felt like kidding around.  So I texted something different back:

Me: Sure, where?

Unknown Texter: Cottonwood

Me: Cool okay

And that was it.  I was hoping that when 1:00 rolled around, I'd get a text from this person asking where I was but I never heard from them again.  Bummer.  

It was worth a try and still did provide a little entertainment.

Keep It Real!