Bend to Alturas

our squat blue car sped along highway 31, the gas pedal on cruise. the morning was ear freezing cold, but only if you didn't put on your hat. we were prepared for all kinds of contingencies--tools to fix the car, new relay 109, warm jackets, boots, camera, motorcycle helmets, snorkling gear.

ranch fields fenced by barbed wire were intersperced with evergreen forest. in one field two deer munched on the calf-high grass. as we approached the intersection to fort rock, there appeared a flock of ravens. then two golden eagles launched themselves from 15 feet off the road to our left. on the horizon we saw the pale gray clouds were dropping to road level. snow was on the way.

the small town of silver lake arrived on the road. along with some cows. a man on a horse with two dogs was herding the faster bunch of cows with a woman behind the slower cows. keith waved at the man, then the woman, and they raised thier gloved hands in return. as we moved away at 5 mph from the man, he turned in the saddle. perhaps he wondered if he knew these people in the car or why they waved. but who did he know that owned such an impractacle vehicle as a foriegn made car?

the snow began to fall and collect on the road. the back windshield wiper was utilized to wash off the snow spray and the gray dust of road travel that had collected over the last several months. a herd of antelope watched us as we passed. they were content to eat next to the now dormant sprinkler system.

as we neared paisley, the snow picked up into a definate storm. we stayed on the road, slowly driving on, trusting the studded snow tires and brakes. on through lakeview the flurries followed us. just before the border several deer bounded across the road in front of the vehicle before us. even the deer just born this year effortlessly cleared the fence.

at alturas the snow was still falling and we were hungry. we made it through town without noticing anything exciting enough to stop the first time around. at the end of town, keith started his u-turn with the steering wheel and finished it with the emergency brake. the road was slick enough for some fun. at the black bear diner we ate burgers (vege and massive cow) with mounds of french fries. outside the weather was warmer and the roads a bit clear.

Sometimes it works

i'm boiling off solvent today. sometimes it works better than other times...don't know why. there is a good explanation of
how to rotovap. the basics are you reduce the pressure and solvent boils. sometimes it boils nicely for me other times it bumps and spatters when i am boiling off water ... today it is being nice, yay =).

Reminded me of my mom =)

i went to make biscuits tonight, couldn't find my cookbooks so looked on-line and found this recipe
never fail bicuits
read the reviews and this one reminded me of my mom.

I'm a great cook (even if I say so myself)but I have never been able to make biscuits, well ones people want to eat. That is until now my family ate them all (12 biscuits wow) instead of the boys using them for weapons.Thanks alot Madison.

Moving...

yesterday we moved. fortunately we had several good friends with trucks and trailers to help us out. we got everything out except a couple things that we picked up this morning. we packed all our stuff into the garage, house, and sheds at my in-laws' house. we signed the papers for selling the house this morning. so hopefully wednesday we'll be rich... okay not rich, but in good financial stead for a month and a half.
i don't know where anything is... so i'll have to get the kitty a new food bowl for her wet food. the kitty is adjusting quicker than i thought. she started exploring last night (came out from her blanket nest under the bed). hissed at the resident cat and meowed for a while. maybe tonight i'll get the clothes out of the boxes and bags... or i could work on my novel (i've been inspired by watching the movie serenity).

That Works?

i've been packing this week. i went to pack my two combs... well not pack, but just set aside so that i wouldn't pack them as i emptied out the bathroom drawers. there was a build-up of hair oil, shampoo oil, and what-not on the teeth. usually i throw away the comb after a while because this is kinda gross. i have tried various things to clean out the comb... hot water, shampoo, flossing the comb(way too time consuming but decent results). i was feeling very cheap so i didn't want to throw out the combs. i thought of the blue tube of cleaner some barbers/stylists use to clean their stuff and wondered if i could find out what was in there. google returned an interesting result to my comb cleaning query. baking soda so i thought i would give it a try. i put some lump of baking soda in the sink (i buy a large bag since i use it in the cat litter, very effective and cheap when combined with wal-mart cheap litter) and ran hot water. i put the combs in the water and waited for magic. nothing swirled them around. nothing. left them in the sink while i packed the bathroom. bingo. it really did clean the comb off very effectively. so next time you peer into your comb or brush and see the build-up just throw it into a sink of baking soda for a freshing-up.

Pronounciation? Bah!

i shouldn't have gone to the trouble of finding out how to pronounce the street name. the automated system at the power company pronounced it mis-cue rather than the correct mee-ehsk. no big surprise really. our rental house is on caballo dr. which is spanish for horse and should be pronounced cah-bi-yo but everyone says cah-ball-o.