weblog

June 17, 2005 12:01 PM
It's Friday here in Colorado. It has been a very busy three days with drama, possibilties and some success. I'm going to put all the pictures up and then later tonight write about the dates and the truck breakdown on the way to date number two. Going to lunch now. Talk to you all soon.

This beautiful valley is at about 7500 feet altitude. I'm looking up the river, the upper Big Thompson, a very famous trout stream. That is Butch and the guide, Brian braving elk, bears, cougars and a killer thunderstorm coming down the valley toward us. Meanwhile, on the right, Gail and I spent a lot of time tying on new flies after getting snagged on bushes, brush, rocks, actually: snagging everything. The stream was small here and I spent a lot of time sneaking up on potential fishy spots.

It is best to reconsider foolishness at a beautiful resturant. Here we are in the Baldpat Inn at 9000 feet. I was woozy most of the morning, but somewhat revived after a wonderful soup, cornbread and salad. And coffee!! The front dining room overhangs a cliff and a view down to about 7000 feet. There are several bird feeders, many humming bird feeders, so we snuck up on a few to get pictures. On the right is a stellars jay.

Here we have several birds. They are finishing taking up a bunch of carbos and are somewhat stunned, moving slow, so we could get a picture. There are humming birds too.

T hese here, now they're not cows but they're ELK!. They were right behind Butch while he was fishing trying to sneak up on him. Fisherpeople make up the bulk of their diet. As not to scare my brother I didn't warn him but tried to sneak up on the elk in order to get something saleable in an "elk eats fisherman" picture; as you can imagine a much more valuable picture.

June 18, 2005 11:24 AM
So enough touristy stuff. What about the dates? Well that's quite a long story so bear with me. Won't be any pictures as yet and maybe never.

My first date was with Helen. We went to a restuarant for coffee/drinks/meet and greet. Austin's is the name, and I was very very nervous. I primped for about 6 hours previous to the meeting. Since this is going to be truthful, I have to say that my first reaction was to be somewhat disappointed. She has lived in FT Collins for many years and looks a bit older than her pictures on the website, at least that first picture. But she was so much fun to talk to. We had a wonderful time discussing books and politics and had so much in common. She is quite a bit smarter than me and much more traveled. She is a doc's Xwife and loves Manhattan. We said good night with a hug and she and I both were looking forward to another chance to talk. That was last Tuesday night.

Thursday was another date, this time with Julie, which as many of you know was the name of a lady that I liked a lot and lived with for five years (until she tossed my ass out), so at least the name had positive spin for me. Thursday night found me much less nervous, so primping time was down to about 30 minutes, and I didn't bother with the Crest White strips, and in a moment of tackiness, I wore the same pants and shirt as the night before (hey, I live in a trailer).

I headed for Greeley directly from the trailer at 6:30pm for a 7pm rondevous at Johnny Correlli's - a restaurant in Greeley. Armed with my charming ways and well laundered hair, I stopped for gas, filled the rear tank and beat feet for Greeley in short order.

5 miles outside of Greeley at 70mph (no trailer remember), the gas pedal ceased to function. I couldn't believe it. Here I am only miles from destiny with a woman with a sly and lecherously languid look, and my truck quits. I just can't believe it. I quick call tripe A - and gete a tow truck on the way. It's now 7pm. Julie of the unknown last name will be waiting for me at the door of the theoretical restaraunt. What to do? How do you get directory assistance on a cell phone? Hmmm, as George would say. Phone rings, tripe A telling me a tow truck has been dispatched. I reveal my plight to the guy taking the triple A call. He gets out his Greeley yellow pages and gets me the number of the resturaunt (I've got to find out how to spell that word some day? Evalyn?). I call. Hostess looks - no Julie. I hang up - what a squid I am, how just absolutely droll and ironic my life has become. I'm a parody of myself. Feeling lost and hopeless the cell phone rings. My step daughter can't remember how to plug in the satellite tv receiver and all the hardware. Could I walk her through. Could I walk her through. COULD I WALK HER THROUGH??? sure. Ok and I did, but suggested that because the truck was kabrooken est in pefidious disregard of the mating ritual of a 55 year old terminally horny person, that just perhaps I could call her back later and find out if she was successful? "Hah, and you said that truck was perfect", she says. I say "perhaps this is not a good time to tell me this?" We agree and disconnect.

I wait. Traffic whooshes by and the the truck sways in a rythm that reminds me of all the jobs I've lost, all the women who found me insufficient, and my total lack of money and my inadequete defense for such radical out of the box. But the poor Julie person, god, how I would feel being stood up. Called my brother. No one home. Left message that I blew up the truck - they later would claim that I said "rolled the truck" causing them some consternation because I had his Nikon coolpix in my bag. I call the restuarant again. They search throughout - no Julie. I settle in the seat and wonder if I have enough m&ms to make it through until they find my shriveled body. Tow truck arrives. Gruff looking guy, big, brutal unthinking kind of man who you know could put the truck up on the tow without the power pull and lift, but he efficiently goes about his business.My brother has called, learned I've not rolled the truck and is driving to follow me into whatever shop that might repair this. While Massive mean and brutal tow truck driver hooks my poor F250 and loads it on his diesel belching machine, I call the restuaruant. No Julie - 7:20pm now. THE BITCH MUST HAVE STOOD ME UP!
I leave my phone number and ask that if she every does show up - this harlot that would fool with my virgin heart, that they should give her the number.
I gentle broach the subject to man mountain, "could we wait a few minutes for my brother to arrive, AS squid face DOESN'T HAVE A CELL PHONE" (what's that about anyway?). He turns toward me, I'm aware that I'm about to be lunch, emotionally.
"Sure, I'd be happy to" in a voice so gentle and sweet that had to ask him again - no hearing aid in on my side of course because of the date. We talked a little and the phone rings. It's Julie. She has been outside on a bench since 6:50pm. No one looked outside. She came in, they gave her the phone number and let her make a long distance call to my cell. Wow. We talked and I groveled a my best level - using my deep phone voice, and she thought she would wait for me. Jeez but how long would that take, I thought - tow truck to repair place - repair place to brother's car - brother's car to restuaruant - and then how to get 20 miles back to the trailer? "Could you drive me home when we're done, I ask her".
"sure"
Wow, this is a babe.
Tow begins, brother behind, a parade into downtown Greeley. Driver has overheard my wheedling and asks if I'm meeting this girl for the first time? Yes. Eharmony or Yahoo, he asks. Match.com I say. Hows that working for you. He reveals he's divorced and sad about being alone too. Hey, he says, what if I just take you right to the restuarant? So we pull in, our little parade with brother behing, a a tow truck big enough that it is carrying my F250 - not towing it - right into the restuaruant parking lot, where Julie is standing with different color hair, and she CAN't believe it.
I'll tell you more about the date later.

June 18, 2005 2:32 PM
So we go in and the only seating is in the bar - but we end up talking for hours. I was actually pretty proud that I got myself there, didn't stand her up and dealt with the breakdown with minor whimpering and other uncivilized reactions.
Julie is a RN that is working the homehealth side and likes it. She has a little cabin in the woods - a prefab and hopes to be there all the time at some point in her life. She is more beautiful in person than her pictures, and her hair was much redder than in the pictures I sent you. She had to work the next day so we left and she drove me all the way back to my trailer. When she pulled up in the dark to the trailer, she obviously hadn't understood, despite our talking that I actually LIVED in the little airstream. Her face fell, and we parted with a little hug. She is camping over the weekend, but I wrote her a thank you. I don't expect to hear from here again.

But that was OK I guess; I held up my end pretty well. And when I got connected to the internet - remember my truck was somewhere (I only had the name of the place - awaiting diagnosis), but luckily the RV park has linksys - wireless router just like mine, so in short order I was on the net. I received a email thanking me for the first date from Helen and suggesting a dinner on Saturday night as she was free. I replied asking for suggestions and said yes to the Saturday time slot. She is quite excited about a book she has just read, the prequel to The Davinci Code - Angels and Demons. I said I would read it if I could find it and we would discuss it.She was really excited about that.

A day goes by and I don't get the confirmation on our Saturday night plan, so I email her and give her my cell number. Friday night at 8pm I get an email mail that says she has decided not to pursue any further relationship with me. Respectfully I write and asked what had changed, as dinner had been her idea. She replied that she decided that she had "trust" issues with me and was afraid about loosing her freedom, and that she wasn't sure I was telling the truth about "things". Also that I was too much a free spirit - which sounds like a good thing to me. As you all know, I overshare, don't filter much, and it was kind of painful to hear someone say I was basically dishonest or self-bemused. So there went Saturday night.

TRUCK DETAIL ALERT - sysnopsis - $215 out of pocket truck fine. Details for the gear heads- But on the truck - I had to put off the rear end rebuild on friday - to the new ratio because the truck was in Greeley awaiting news - replace or repair, junk? I called Friday night and found that they thought it was the fuel pump too, not and engine and I was relieved. However when I called for a pickup time on Saturday they said the truck wouldn't start - they popped the distributor cap (hey TJ - write me - miss you - and hey delaylamore - where are you?) and found that the rotor was not turning - sheared 25 cent pin - that was what the failure was all about. So I'm on the road again, have my satellite dish back and Monday is the new day for the new rear end.

So that's that until something new occurs. I've borrowed a guitar and I'm trying to remember where the cords are. Pretty hopeless after 15 years of not touching one. Also bought some oil supplies and I'm going to try to paint some small paintings for the airstream. Just for fun.

Books - been out Friday morning and this morning buying books - Butch is picking out the sales and helps me by, but I'm keeping the bucks if anything sells - good deal for me, bad for him, though he did get some priceless classic cameras at a garage sale today. I've listed many on Amazon and I have one current listing on ebay - I'll see if I can offset the bleeding out of the accounts during this first month. I've currently overspent by a $1000 in the first 20 days. Fort Collin's weather is perfect as it is almost every day. Good place for solar and satellite.

Bye for now birdies!

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