Finding a good plumber is a happy thing for the new homeowner.

I've been so busy since we got our stuff moved over here, I haven't made the time to post regular updates about progress. The new refrigerator and gas range were delivered on Sunday, and yesterday the plumber was here to run a new gas line and set up the water line to the refrigerator. Late last night, I finally cleared out all the debris in the kitchen, and it began to actually look like someone lives here. Finally, about 11:30pm, I went over to the old house and emptied out the freezer and refrigerator and brought all the stuff home to place in the new machine.

As I gazed at the new kitchen that was shaping up, I couldn't help but reflect on all the whining and complaining and angst I had indulged in over the past couple of years as we bounced around various rentals. Poor me - no nice kitchen to operate in, and electric ranges mocking my culinary efforts already hobbled by lack of tools that were only half unpacked. But I had an opportunity to live with Pat and the Mdog, dear friends and family to enjoy, and the treasure of reasonably good health - and each day that passed was another step toward the day when those blessings would be lost. If anything were to happen to end our time together, that thing which is most important, would it not be sad to have experienced so much of it in a state of bitter dissastisfaction?

As I gazed at the new kitchen, I knew this was not a reward for all my craving for more and fancier stuff and a 'better' experience - while it is an opportunity to enjoy what I now have, I am deeply humbled, and know that opportunity is always present, even if all one has is a hot plate and one pot*.







* Note to Mona - that's more than enough to whip up some nettle soup, right?

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As I move more stuff into the new house every day, there are other preparations underway tp prepare the place for our arrivl this weekend. Yesterday I had an electrician there all morning correcting a few problems and installing a new 110v outlet for the new gas range that will replace the electric one. The plumber wil be there next Monday to install the gas line and the water line for the new refrigerator.

Every time I go over there I feel more at home and confident that this is the right place for us here in Fort Collins.

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We spent Sunday and Monday at the ranch again - probably our last visit for a while, as we completed our purchase of the house on Balmoral Drive in Fort Collins today (!!!).

Mona had been away at a week-long retreat at the mountain Buddhist center, so I shopped on the way up and stocked up on groceries and had dinner going for us upon her return home. Monday, she took me on the big wild-asparagus tour, and we made a pretty good haul from various roadside patches within a few miles of the ranch.


The Asparagus Dakini of Platte County



A family scene along the Asparagus Trail.


The asparagus haul, back at the kitchen.


Clark feeds a few cows toward the end of the day. Normally, all thirty or so would have been there, but there is so much rich grass this wet spring that they were all off grazing elsewhere. As I watched this scene, four horses ran across a distant hill, seemingly engaged in play.



While we were having dinner, 'Bill from the Hill' stopped by and joined us. When we finished, he showed us the turkey he bagged earlier in the day.

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As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we closed escrow today on the new house. So, as of around noon, we are once again homeowners. We spent the better part of the day after that trying to figure out what refrigerator and range to buy. There is no refrigerator there, and they had an electric range. Probably at least 95% of homes here have electric ranges, but I have never cared for them. Guess people here on the edge of the plains aren't very interested in cooking. An electric range is to a gas range what a kazoo is to an oboe.


My new Frigidaire FGFLMC55EC 5-burner range and convection oven.

We rented a big truck on the way home, and loaded up most of what was in the garage for the last year or so of living here in the little rental house. We'll drive it over and unload at the new house in the morning.

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Little House on the Prairie

I've been meaning to post a few additional photos from our last visit to Wyoming since we returned. The past week has been mainly occupied with attending to various details related to the purchase of the new house on Balmoral Drive, and I've just been sort of drifting around otherwise. Now that we've made the commitment, I have moments of doubt, where I wonder if things are unfolding the way they're supposed to. I had one of those moments today, after I returned home from interviewing for a minor job at a local Internet Sevice Provider. I was looking up contact information for a former boss, who was CIO at a place I worked for a while. I discovered that he is now the CIO of Dolby Labs in San Francisco - a glamorous place that I once lusted to work at. As I sat in our funky basement office in Fort Collins, contemplating our future here, I imagined him inviting me to join him there. Ray Dolby, the founder, owned some snazzy turbine airplanes that he flew around, and I used to fantasize that I worked there and he had me fly around with him to keep him out of trouble.

Life in San Francisco seems so remote now, and I am grateful for the life we have here, but still.... It was the same feeling I had when I discovered that my boyhood friend and cousin Jim was now the CEO of Raytheon Aircraft - makers of a variety of fantastic business airplanes. When I learned this I pondered my own fate in the world of work. Again, lucky me for what I did have, but... Guess that's part of my problem - I seem to always have a big BUT. As I read repeatedly in my Buddhist studies, no matter how much we have, it never seems to be enough. Hungry Ghosts, we are.

Anyway, back to Wyoming. I always feel like things are in a better perspective when I go up there to hang out and poke around. Mona took us on a little jaunt through the Bad Dirt of Wyoming backroads. We collected some rocks and a pile of bleached out wind and sand scoured twisted branches and roots. I found a bunch of old barbed wire scraps too, and brought the whole rustic collection home for cheap garden decoration. I already have a bunck of antlers we found laying around during a previous trek.


Not-so-Wily Coyote. When I slept out in the tent at the ranch the night before, I awoke to hear a bunch of them yelping and howling under the bright moon.


Our escrow closes next Wednesday - after that we will have several weeks to get moved in. Pat needs to jet off for about a week of business travel a couple of days after we take posession, so we will be off to a slow start. Tonight he is stuck in South Carolina with weather-scrambled flight schedules. We're planning another trip to the ranch this weekend, probably our last for a while until we get settled into the new house. Mona will probably be anxious to share her experience at Shambhala Mountain, where she will have spent the preceeding five days at a retreat.


Two of my favorite people.

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We're up at the ranch for a brief overnight stay. Arrived early enough today to go into town and attend the Wheatland Home and Garden show and take advantage of the free lunch of barbeque beef sandwiches with beans and potatoe salad. On the way into town they were broadcasting live from the fairgounds, including an interview with the sewer scope guy, descriptions of some of the door prizes, which included a foot massage, a giant birdhouse from a realtor, and $50 worth of Wrangler clothes.

After we returned to the ranch, Pat and Clark started assembling the big fancy new gas grill Mona and Clark picked up recently.


Indiana Clark and the Temple of Meat - Pat and Mdog share the adventure.

Rib-eye staeks are thawing in the kitchen, and Mona and I have the rest of the stuff ready to go, if Pat and Clark can find the remaining missing pieces to get the new grill fired up for its inaugural cremation. We're already into the chardonnay, with a nice pinot noir and an unusual grenache-shiraz waiting for the guys to come in.


Ginger the ranch cat waits for Mdog to leave the area so she can climb down off the side of the house.

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I've decided to create a job for myself. I read a story in the Rocky Mountain Chronicle a few days ago about a visionary developer who wants to transform an old closed downtown airport into an alternative energy high-tech incubator with mixed-use development. I started following this effort before we moved here a couple of years ago, when I researched local airports.

While I don't have any specific responsibilities in mind, I believe there is some useful role I could play in making this vision a reality.



When I contacted Mr. Goff, and expressed my interest, he invited me to meet him prior to a meeting tonight with local business interests. This should be interesting...

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Well, here we are almost a month after our side trip to Albuquerque. Quite a bit has happened. For a while there just didn't seem to be any positive news to relay - the clock has been ticking as our lease runs out and renewal looms.

We decided to really look hard for a place here in Fort Collins - and we found one, about two weeks ago. But - we waited overnight to decided that we would make an offer, and someone else moved faster, and we lost it. That hit us pretty hard. It was a great house in a good location, at a surprisingly low price. I was afraid we wouldn't find anything else for some time that was so great.

We worked with the realtor to ensure that we would see new listings the very first day they were in the system, even before they became public. About five days ago, a place showed up that looked sort of interesting. In some ways, it looked really boring and ordinary, but there were hints that some special things were going on behind the plain facade.

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The deceptively plain front of 2830 Balmoral Drive

When we walked through the house, we were really impressed - while it was a modest place in some ways, it had been cleverly and carefully expanded, and there were lots of signs that someone had really cared about what they were doing there, with nice touches everywhere we looked.

We made an offer that afternoon - and after a long night of anxious uncertainty with hints of other offers and delayed communications with the sellers, we were under contract just before midnight.


The back of the house, showing the addition which added a bathroom, enlarged the master bedroom, and added a fantastic kitchen. Note the windows at the top of the three sections of vertical wall - these bring in wonderful Southern sun all winter (the house faces West).


Another view of the back of the house - note the two big bay windows in the kitchen.

Below are three views of the kitchen. It is a long room with lots of windows, a door on each end to the patio and back yard and gardens, two high South-facing rows of windows, two ceiling fans, and a nice structural brick wall at each end. Truly a great room.






Note the windows at the top of the frame. Even on a gloomy day the whole area is flooded with light. We're already scheming how to bring gas to the range location.

Today we were there while the inspection took place. We saw even more that we liked about the place, and any doubts we had about the wisdom of making this commitment were dispelled. The basement is well suited for a home theater, and Pat is already going over the specs for projection video... The best grocery market in town is a five-minute walk a block away. The house is just about in the geographic center of the city, so everything is easily accessible. The University is about two miles aways, Old Town is three miles, and my gym is a mile and a half - all easy bicycle rides on nice streets with wide bike lanes.

If everything goes smoothly, we will close on May 9th, and have three weeks at least to get moved in before our lease runs out here in the rental.

Wish us luck...


Camden Avenue
Hayward, California
1994


Balmoral Drive
Fort Collins, Colorado
2007