Steve and Judy's Travels!

Wednesday Our last day at work. Our office neighbor and friend Gary Kring bought a
celebratory, “end of busy season” lunch, for his office and our office
combined. It’s an annual tradition. Judy and I planned to leave right
after lunch. We’re heading for the Las Vegas conference, Arizona,
California, and….. condors in the Grand Canyon. I worked till eight. All ready for an early start tomorrow morning. The weather started earlier today than yesterday: right after lunch. Dark
dark skies. Wind. Rain. Tornado warnings. Quarter size hail. Wave after
wave of weather came through, clear into the evening.

Monday. I love that drive home from the eastern plains, watching the shadow of the
Rockies rise in the distance. But now we’re back in the office. It’s a
nice return. The work doesn’t pile up and wait for me while I’m gone now.
It just gets done. Ohmigod! I think I’m dispensable. We had quite a busy season of December year-end clients. It takes through
June to get them cleared out. After that, though, we’ll have some excess
capacity. It’s nice to have time to relax and breathe, but we don’t want
too much of that. We don’t want anyone to get bored. We’re putting
together a list of nonprofit organizations that have year-ends that are not
December. We’ll send some information to them to see if we can get a little
more work in the second half of the year. I’ve wanted to do this list for
years. Two thirds of our clients are December year-ends. It would be nice
to balance out the work. I’ve always wanted to do this list, but couldn’t
figure out how. How do you find nonprofit organizations that don’t have a
December year-end? Thank you internet. Now we have access to information
about nonprofit organizations we can accumulate and sort. Jamie is taking
care of it. A list of potential clients in Denver that are not December
year-ends. Thank you Jamie. I caught myself referring to our time in Denver as “the trip”. I was
describing to Jamie what I could get done in a short amount of time, and
explained: “I don’t have time to do everything this trip. Maybe I can
finish it next time.” Interesting transposition of perspective. Got the financial statements finished up for the Silverton job. It’ll be
ready to go out in a couple days.

Tuesday Funny thing about the Honda. It doesn’t have a thermometer or compass. Why
would they build a car without an outside thermometer and compass? Last full day to get my Denver work done. The Durango job is my only
remaining project from the Western Colorado trip. I stayed home and worked
at the house all day to get it done. And done it is. Finally. We won’t
look at the realization on that job. We’ll consider it an investment in the
future. Sue, the bookkeeper, promises me a 20 minute audit next year. Sat on the porch swing tonight and admired the lightning show. Annie sat
between us and shivered. It was a good show, even if Annie didn’t think so.
We heard reports of golf ball size hail to the north of us, and three foot
drifts to the south of us. We just got a light show and heavy rain.

Saturday. The Wedding Day. The morning was a blur. Flowers. Film. Errands. When we go to Fort Morgan to Larry and Lolly’s, it isn’t really Fort Morgan.
They’re at exit 73. Fort Morgan doesn’t really start to happen until exit
80. The Wal-Mart is at exit 82. You have to go all the way to exit 90 to
get to Brush. You can go down Highway 34 to get to the middle of Fort
Morgan from Larry and Lolly’s if you want. It doesn’t involve the
Interstate, but it is more direct. We made that drive back and forth quite
a few times this visit. And, like always happens when we hang around
somewhere for a few days, we’re really getting to like this place. We
particularly like the home base, parked out next to the hog barn. The afternoon was a blur. The pre-wedding dressing and conversation. Got
it on tape. Pre-wedding pictures. Got some of that. The ceremony. Got it
all. The post-ceremony photos. Skipped that part. Then, back to the ranch
for the party. And what a party it was. A barn dance. The bride and groom
arrived. Jodee and Todd. The DJ got the party started with his
introductions. The barn got packed with two hundred fifty happy people. We
all got food. As the evening progressed, everyone got happier. And louder.
The DJ was engaged till ten. He went into overtime. Larry and Lolly don’t
have any close neighbors. It’s a good thing. And I got it on tape. I wanted to go see some purple martins this trip. We’ve never seen purple
martins. Our bird count is still at 296. I want 300. I know exactly where
a colony of purple martins lives in Kansas. I have a map. And we have an
invitation to come see them. Nine hundred purple martins living in hanging
white gourds. We’re already in Eastern Colorado, so it couldn’t be much
farther to pop over to Kansas. Except that it’s on the other side of
Kansas. Six hundred miles each way. I counted the number of days between
now and when we leave Louisville for the conference in Las Vegas. It just
doesn’t work. No purple martins this trip. There is some good purple martin news, though. I found a name on the
internet to contact. She wrote me back. There are purple martins in
Colorado. You just have to know where to look. She knows where to look.
And she told me. Sunlight ski area. It’s outside Glenwood Springs. All we
have to do is get back to Glenwood Springs in the summertime and I know
exactly where to go to find them. I checked the internet for a bird list for Southern Nevada. It looks
promising. If we can get to some canyons outside Las Vegas while we’re
there, we should get to see some interesting birds. Tomorrow, the last of the wedding events. The opening of the presents.

Sunday. We get to wake up to different birds here than at home. Well, the robins,
mourning doves, house sparrows, starlings, grackles, red-winged blackbirds,
and house finches are the same, but here we have meadowlarks. At home, we
don’t hear meadowlarks from our house in the morning. Here, we’re
surrounded. Meadowlarks, kingbirds, and orioles. We don’t get kingbirds in
Louisville at all. We woke to the sounds of birds singing. Birds singing
and leftover balloons popping in the morning heat. It’s hot already. The day-after-brunch. There were a lot of presents. I got it all on tape.
And let me say that I’m confident these videotapes worked. I backed up and
viewed enough samples to know they’re all there. Time enough for a quiet visit with Larry and Lolly before moving on. It’s a
nice place to stay out there. Larry and Lolly are threatening to move back
there this fall. It was ninety degrees out by the time we left. Ninety degrees outside, and
a hundred inside the motorhome. Fired up the generator and started the
central air. Started the engine and the dash air. It took awhile. Tanked up at a truck stop. We paid 20 cents per gallon less than we did for
the last tank. Guess the annual Memorial Day gas crisis is over. On the way out from Louisville, Rags took his drugs, then went to sleep it
off in the cat box. For the trip home, he stayed awake and his chin didn’t
even get wet. He’s such a manly cat. We’re back to Louisville for three days.