A Painted Sky Sunset and Pizza

 

Song:  Theft, and Wandering Around Lost

Group:  Cocteau Twins

Today...

I slept in late...

fed Bandi...

and then as I was lying in bed...

amber light shining through my bedroom window blinds signified another beautiful sunset

was in progress.

I grabbed my iPhone and headed up to the loft and...

once again...

walked out onto the third floor deck

(Beautiful sunsets happen very often here).

I often must put the camera into wide angle to capture much of the skies at once.

Even though it has been sunny....

much of the snow remains on the mountains for quite some time.

I never tire of beautiful sunsets.

They are such a magnificent metaphor for my stage in life.

As I am in my sunset years...

just as in the later stages of a sunset...

the colors deepen and become so rich...

just as all experiences continually deepen and richen until dusk...

whereupon you are gently lulled to sleep under the welcoming glinter of starlight.

Always be the person who deeply appreciates life in all of its glory...

and never let a sunset go without letting it set your heart ablaze with its surreal magic.

---------------

After the last of the colors began to fade...

I had a deeply growing urge for AJ's Pizza in Woodland Park.

I had been thinking about their pizza...

off and on...

all day long.

I am at that point in life when I much more easily follow my urges...

especially when it comes to food.

I arrived and had found that they were playing one of my favorite eras of music

on their sound system....the 70s...all the greatest hits.

I ordered a large pizza...

and to my surprise...

I ate it all there.

My appetite is returning slowly...

and although it is still not 100%...

my enjoyment of food is still one of my favorite carrots in life.

All gone  :)

I listened to my favorite music on the drive home...

but this time I kept the windows up as the temperature was below 20 F.

(below -6 C)

-----------

My sisters are thinking of coming to visit this Spring...

and so...

I will keep the Christmas Tree up for them to enjoy...

that...and I am still just too fatigued to take it down.

Plus...

I just love looking at the colorful lights at night from the loft.

Anyway...

I am not one for typical social conventions...

if I like it...I do it.

If I don't like it...I don't do it.

This is freedom...

and that is how to live life...

on your own terms.

High Altitude Rice Cooker / Sunset

 

Song:  Essence

Group:  Cocteau Twins

I had gotten this high quality rice pressure cooker...

as it was needed for my altitude.

All the other rice cookers I had tried simply couldn't cook rice well.

This Cuckoo model is the highest pressure rated rice cooker on the market.

The other high pressure brands are only rated to 5,000 ft...

and so...

I needed a heavy duty model...

as it is the only one I can rely on to cook rice properly at my elevation of 9,650 ft.

(about 3,000 meters).

This model is ultra heavy...

with a very thick gauge rice container...

and strong metal locking lugs 

(necessary because the much higher pressure at which this unit operates). 

The front knob is the rotating locking lug knob...

and behind it is the automatic pressure release valve.

After loading in the rice and water...

you just press the pressure cook button.

It takes a few minutes until it heats up the water to cooking temperature...

and for the pressure to build up.

Once it does...

it automatically lists the countdown timer (14 minutes cook time).

Including the warmup...

rice takes but 20 minutes total to fully cook in this unit...

while many other rice cookers take 3x as long.

It is because of the much higher pressure at which this cooks...

and so...

perfect rice in 1/3 the time.

The pressure release valve automatically bleeds off the pressure

starting at the 3 minute mark.

Finally...

restaurant quality rice at my altitude.

I made coconut shrimp with orange sauce to eat with my rice.

Just as I had finished up with supper and the subsequent clean up...

I noticed an amber glow coming through the windows.

I hurried up to the loft and walked out to the third deck to capture the sunset.

We are to have many days of sunny weather.

Besides picking up my mail...

I am unsure as to what I will do tomorrow...

as I am still very fatigued.

But...

at the very least...

I can always look forwards to seeing the sunrises and sunsets 

right from the comfort of my home.

-----------

It is just so beautiful here.

This is such a wonderful way to live...

and where I will eventually meet the end of life...

filled with the serenity in which I live everyday.

The Wings Of Fairies / A Strange Crystal Mist

 

Song:  The Druid's Lullaby

YouTube Channel: Elder Grove Sounds

Yesterday...

during late afternoon...

another fairly rare event occurred in the skies all around my home.

Although it has happened a handful of times since I have been here...

I was particularly amazed by this occurrence yesterday, as this time...

the very small but highly numerous particles of this silvery glitter looking...

almost fantasy setting of floating masses of a surreal and strange mist of single ice crystals 

 seemed to undulate in the slight mountain breeze...

and they were everywhere I looked.

Although it had lightly snowed over the previous two days...

the strange crystal mist seemed to appear after the last of the snowfall.

Similar conditions had existed the other times it had occurred here before as well.

It is after the last of the snowfall...

and when the temperature dropped way below freezing at ground level...

as if the low temperatures were freezing the very last amount of moisture

from the very air itself.

As the air up here is very arid in the first place...

perhaps that is why only single particles of ice crystals formed...

instead of actual snow crystals.

I don't know...

but the real mystery to me is why I can see them so easily in the air all around me...

but no matter how I have tried to capture this mystical and extremely beautiful event...

my camera simply cannot capture the reflection of the sun off them.

Perhaps the resolution of my camera isn't fine enough to capture the event...

but with the resolution of today's cameras...

it seems they could capture whatever my eyes could...

but apparently not.

The glittery and crystalline mist was everywhere I could see.

I tried to then look into the sun to perhaps...

 capture the sun's rays as they refracted through the ice crystals...

but when I reviewed the photos...

again...

nothing.

As I thought about it before going back inside...

although I am not sure the land of origin of forest fairies in lores of old...

 it seemed as if I were in a fairy tale as I stood looking upon

 tiny fairies flittering their silvery wings as they floated up and down...

 and then left and right as if they were under their own power 

instead of being at the mercy of the slightest breezes.

They were easier to see with the darker background of the forest...

but my camera couldn't capture this event.

Perhaps it were these particular events in some of the Nordic countries...

or of the Druids of Old England...

which had given rise to their prevalence in fairy tales about fairies of the forest.

And...

just perhaps...

the tiny ice crystals were also greatly accentuated by my own extreme nearsightedness...

as even the stars at night take on a beautiful glittery effect in my eyes.

That would make sense as that would explain why

only certain people could see the fairies of the forest in many tales of old.

Perhaps only the very nearsighted could see the glittery wings of the fairies

(they didn't have glasses back then).

And although I wear glasses when I drive...

I don't wear them at any other time...

only because the world is far more beautiful without them  :)

And...

if this is the case...

then, quite literally...

beauty is in the eyes of the beholder  :)

The Puddle Of Water

 

Song:  Lotus

Group:  Secret Garden

This morning...

I had gotten up and decided to make myself

a couple of BBQ shredded pork sandwiches.

I had spent the previous two days going shopping in Woodland Park...

and I had stocked up on all kinds of delicious meats and other food.

As I was heating up water for coffee...

I looked up and out the great room windows to see that we had a light dusting of snow

in the middle of the night.

But...

as I looked out the windows from the kitchen...

I saw something in the middle of the great room tile floor

that should have never been there.

I saw the reflection of the great room windows in the middle of the floor.

OH NO!

That could only mean one thing...

a large puddle of water (3 x 1 feet / 1 x .30 meters) was standing on the floor.

I couldn't believe it!

My beloved home had a major issue...

as water intrusion by whatever means...

is a very major issue to have in a sturdily built log cabin...

particularly with the custom build of my mountain chalet.

As I bent down to investigate the method of intrusion the water had taken...

I first looked up to see if there was a leak from above...

but after looking up...

besides not having seen anything out of order...

I realized how improbable such a scenario would have been.

First of all...

my home has an alpine slope...

and had a brand new thick metal sheathed roof installed just a handful of years ago...

and it has a life span of greater than mine will be (40 years guarantee)...

plus...

it was way below freezing last night.

No water could have infiltrated from outside...

unless...

it had come in as snow...

and then had melted on the floor...

but the only scenario which would have fit the evidence would have been an open window...

or sliding glass door at the horizontal apex of the great room

(there are two sliding glass doors allowing direct access to the front of the 2nd deck)...

but as I checked the doors, I realized that not only were they closed and locked...

but that there was no water anywhere else but in that particular spot in the middle of the floor.

I then looked for possible leakage from the tracks of the doors...

but...

no...

nothing.

And then a great sinking feeling came over me as another possibility came to mind...

a very worse case scenario...

and a very expensive one at that.

I have...

throughout my home...

underneath all of the flooring on all three floors...

a great series of serpentine laid water hoses which 

are pressure fed by a dedicated water heater which warms the whole house by pumping...

under pressure...

hot water through those tubes...

which then heat the whole house from beneath the floor.

I was then thinking that as it was way below freezing last night...

that perhaps...

a pipe had frozen...

which had then caused a leak...

but that didn't make sense...

as I have the whole second floor heated throughout Winter

(and the other two floors I have set to heat automatically if the temperature drops

below 50 F / 10 C).

Moreover...

the floor was warm underneath my feet.

As I ran other possible scenarios in my head...

I cleaned up the rather large puddle of water...

and then sat there on the floor looking for more water to emerge.

And then...

the most plausible scenario of all had come to mind.

Every morning...

without fail...

as soon as I get up...

Bandi sits at the front door as she eagerly awaits me to walk her

into the forest for her morning bathroom routine.

But...

on this morning...

she was not there...

but was rather lying comfortably on my bed...

without a worry in her little head...

and without any urge to move from her comfortable spot.

I then remembered that I had fallen asleep before her final bathroom run

between 9 and 10 PM the previous night.

I was actually overcome with a flood of relief as I realized what had transpired.

Bandi just looked at me without sorrow or guilt...

as if to say...

"Hey...your fault.  A girl needs to go when she needs to go.

You shouldn't have forgotten to take me to the bathroom last night.

But...I will forgive you so long as it doesn't happen again!"  :)

And...

yes...

it was my fault...

and...

no...

I wasn't the slightest bit angry with her.

I was actually impressed with the very large volume of urine she had in her bladder.

That was a very large puddle...very impressive!  :)

At night...

I usually leave my bedroom door slightly open to allow Bandi to freely get water

from her very large water bowl in the washroom...

 which then had allowed her to leave me her little gift in the great room

(I stopped leaving my bedroom windows open at night in Winter since I had gotten ill).

No worries...

I have a large bottle of enzyme solution specifically designed to clean up biological messes.

As a side note...

Bandi's urine was without odor...

which indicates a healthy set of kidneys and urinary tract...

and the fact that she keeps herself very well hydrated.

------------

I am looking forward to today's mail.

I had ordered some more Winter clothing...

and a few other things for the house.

------------

On the food front...

a few days ago...

I tried another Vietnamese restaurant in my search for fantastic Pho.

I was headed down my mountain to eat Pho...

and to shop at Walmart.

The restaurant was this little hole in the wall eatery...

but some of the best food comes from such places.

I started with fresh rolls as an appetizer.

Although they didn't have Bahn Mi...

they did have these rather delicious pork dumplings.

Their Seafood Pho was better than the last place...

and the huge scallop was a treat...

along with the other seafood...

but...

it just lacked deep flavor.

I don't know what spice or sauce was missing from their dish...

but once I taste fantastic Pho...

I will know that it will be the restaurant to which I will return.

And so...

onwards I will travel in search of my favorite Vietnamese restaurant.

On my way to Walmart from Colorado Springs.

On the following day...

I just felt like eating tacos...

so I stopped by my favorite taco truck in Woodland Park.

It was then that a fortuitous event occurred.

I normally order carnitas tacos...

but they had run out.

So...

I had seen this picture of a taco being dipped into some sort of meat juice.

It looked good...

so I ordered a few of them

(Quesa Birria).

I was going to take pictures of them...

but after taking one bite...

I had forgotten all about taking pics...

as I was so engrossed in the bursts of flavor and juiciness of these great tacos.

I couldn't believe that it had taken me 66 years to have even tried these.

That is why exploration of new foods is so important.

I had missed out on having these for so long.

OMG...

I had found a new favorite taco in which to look forwards to eating once again.

A very happy day for me!

Yesterday...

I decided to do more food shopping at Safeway in Woodland Park

(In the Safeway parking lot).

I had seen this at Safeway...

so I just had to try it.

Yes...

the meat was just as delicious as I had imagined.

However...

I won't be buying any more.

While the meat was tender and had a delightful smokey flavor...

the meat was just filled with thick tendons...

tendonal sheaths...

and thick, almost inedible, skin...

all of which had made it far too tedious to eat.

However...

I had eaten enough to be satisfied...

and Bandi absolutely loved it.

--------

Pretty soon...

 I will be going back to the Asian market...

and it will be then when I will try another Vietnamese restaurant...

and in the meantime...

I will try other ethnic restaurants at the same time

(I am in search of the perfect dumplings as well).

Hey...

a man can search for many great tastes at once!  :)

In Search Of Fantastic Pho

 

Song:  The Eye Of The Dragonfly

Artist:  Witeka Friedemann 

Last evening...

feeling better...

I decided to try one of the many Vietnamese restaurants in Colorado Springs.

But...

as I was sitting at my computer up in the loft...

I noticed out the front windows that the clouds were changing color.

I looked behind me through the octagonal window to see that the sun was setting.

I then stepped out onto the third floor deck to take some shots as the sun began to set.

I was then faced with the choice of sticking around for the ending of the sunset...

or quickly showering and dressing so I could reach the restaurant before they closed.

Well...

as I hadn't eaten anything all day...

I decided I didn't want to miss out on my meal.

I had started out my meal with two Spring Rolls.

I then ordered a Vietnamese sandwich (Banh Mi)...

...and I finished up with a bowl of Seafood Pho

(it had squid, crab, mussels, fish cakes, and shrimp...

along with noddles in a broth).

While I love good Vietnamese food...

this particular Vietnamese restaurant lacked in flavor in every dish.

It wasn't bad...

but...

it just wasn't so fantastic as I had hoped.

I absolutely loved the food in a Vietnamese restaurant in the 

San Francisco Bay Area some years back.

But...

as there are so many Vietnamese restaurants in Colorado Springs

from which to choose...

I will simply continue my search for one that will become

my favorite Vietnamese restaurant for the rest of my life.

Exploration is one of the great pleasures in life...

and just trying different restaurants until I find what I love 

will be a new adventure into which to launch myself.

I love food...

and so...

in having a minor mission to chase

(in search of fantastic Pho)...

I will have something in which to look forwards.

And...

after I find my choice...

I will then embark upon a new food mission...

a new type of ethnic restaurant to deem as my favorite...

and to return to for the rest of my life...

and it will then be on to another type of ethnic restaurant

to savor and to deeply enjoy.

Trying new restaurants is just one of the many small carrots I place before myself...

and that add so much flavor to life.

Yes...

good people treat others well...

but don't forget about yourself  :)