I fell behind on publishing blog entries last month. It wasn’t because March wasn’t an eventful month, it’s just that I got preoccupied with other things.
That said, here are a few highlights from March.
Fifty: This Year’s 30
Monica took part in the Spring Runoff , the annual community run in Pueblo sponsored by the local running club and newspaper, on March 5. She “competed” in the 5-kilometer walk. And she set a personal record, completing the course in 58 minutes.
Those Zumba classes have obviously paid off.
The 50-year-old sported the number 30 on her race bib, prompting her to observe, “Fifty is the new 30.”
The Birthday Boy
Rafa turned six years old in March. He’s now the same age Reina was when we brought him home in 2011. We celebrated the day with a hike out to Pedro’s Point at Lake Pueblo State Park along with Reina, my buddy Scott Smith, and his dog Lacy. It was the first time our dogs had met and given the two-versus-one dynamic, there was decent chance canine tempers would flare. Fortunately any ill mojo quickly faded and we went on our way.
It was a nice hike, about six miles round trip, on a warmish late winter day. Surprisingly, it was the first time the dogs and I had been out that way. But it was old hat for Scott and Lacy. It’s probably not too far off the mark to say there isn’t a local trail they haven’t hiked.
I sent a short note to Rafa’s breeder Lindy Patrick that evening, letting her know that Rafa’s doing well and attached a photo of him. A few days later she responded, thanking me for the email and saying Rafa looks handsome. She also shared that Rafa’s brother Cale will take part in an American Kennel Club Top 20 Confirmation competition in Gray Summit, Missouri later this spring. Cale and Rafa were dubbed the “Bryan Brothers” at birth, after the tennis doubles champions and identical twins, Mike and Bob Bryan. Lindy added “it’s always surprising to me how differently [litter mates] turn out when they looked so much alike as young puppies. [Cale and Rafa] are wonderful, handsome boys, but they don’t look anything alike…at least in pictures.”
Water. Electricity. Mike. What Could Go Wrong?
It was mid-February when Monica noticed water on the basement floor. Water had pooled, then spilled out of our washing machine. Bummer, yes, but what was more odd was that she hadn’t done a load of wash for three days. Our situation begged the question: What the hell?
A quick Google search indicated the likely culprit behind our leaky machine was a failed inlet water valve. A lengthier search of YouTube suggested this was an easy fix, a “one-out-of-four-wrenches” sort of repair. I uttered to Monica those infamous words: “I think we can fix it.” Then added, “we just need to keep the water turned off to the washer when were not using it until we get the new part.” Her look of assurance was convincing enough.
I mean, what could go wrong with the combination of water, electricity, and yours truly in a major appliance repair scenario? How about electrocution? Or perhaps flooding the basement (again…a long story for another time). Then there was specter of sending the washer into a state of a more extensive and expensive repair, or worse, complete ruin.
Secretly, however, my handyman’s confidence was buoyed by the successful resurrection of our Dyson vacuum a few months earlier, using the same Google/YouTube approach to home repair. The new valve from partswarehouse.com arrived a few days later and on the second Sunday in March, Monica and I methodically effected a successful replacement of part no. WPL-8540751. There was minimal water spillage and no one was shocked. At least literally–I’m still somewhat amazed we actually pulled it off.
A couple weeks later our refrigerator went a bit wonky. It wasn’t keeping things cold. I used the tried-and-true approach of the Internet as diagnostic/repair manual once again. Using the Dyson, I vacuumed up the dust around the compressor, fan, and coils, and viola, it’s running like its old self, once again (knock wood).
I may be asking for a tool belt for my birthday.
La Orquídea Indica Primavera
I like that the orchid renews itself each spring. This year, it its first flower bloomed March 21, the first day of spring.
It’s also a meaningful reminder of Monica’s late mother, Herminia, and her battle with ovarian cancer.
Open Season
We have two five-year-old cats, Luna and Blanca. They’re sisters. Luna’s become something of a homebody. Blanca most certainly is not.
Blanca roams. Blanca climbs fences. Blanca drives the neighbor dogs crazy as she makes her rounds. And Blanca is a stone-cold killer. I’d conservatively estimate she bagged at least 20 birds and mice last year.
She chalked up her first confirmed kill of the year near the end of March and left it in the backyard, a bird, a wren, I think.
Thanks, Mother Nature
I can’t say March went out like a lion, but for about 9 hours beginning the evening of March 23 and into the wee hours of March 24, it roared, and mightily at that. As light rain fell, winds were clocked at 59 m.p.h with gusts as high as 75 m.p.h.overnight at Pueblo Memorial Airport.
Our house, built in the late 1920s, creaked and moaned. Monica and I woke from a restless sleep to a neighborhood full of downed trees and branches, most of which were either dead or dying. Fortunately the two 70-year-old American elms that grace our front yard withstood the storm. The only real damage we sustained was to our garage. The wind peeled off one of the gutters from its eave. We were lucky the electricity to our home remained on throughout the storm, too. The same couldn’t be said for roughly 34,000 households in southern Colorado lost power that night.
Just Because
Sometimes taking a picture everybody and their brother has taken before, or taking a picture along the side of the road, or taking a picture “just because” is okay.
Especially if you live in Colorado.
