The Mountain Memo

Extra Extra: All sections and every web page of www.larrylane.com has been updated so if you think you've read it all before be sure to check for the updates, the beginning of a new format and some new features to be added soon are just the items needed to keep you coming back for more! So don't forget, EACH page is packed full of new and pretty much useless information! All the new information will be at the top of each page. And if this is your first visit...well where in the hell have you been?

Index to Stories:

Long Time No Update
Snow Out The Wazoo!
Wind!
Living in the Mountains (Spring 2005)

Long Time No Update (Summer 2008)
It has been a long time since we have had the time to sit down and take pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) so we'll try, in a hopefully brief update, catch all the friends and family up to date on all the happening here.
We have two items of big news, the first being that the youngest of the Lane's (daughter Kelly) got married (ALMOST A YEAR AGO). She tied the knot and jumped the broom so to speak with Andrew Ferenc in a small and festive garden ceremony last September 29th. Dad was cautioned not to show up with Cowboy hat, belt buckle or any firearms and Step mom Lezlie was charged with insuring none of the above happened. It was great day! Andrew is a very talented Chef' and some of his Chef' buddies catered the wedding and a splendid time was had by all.

Our other big news is that our granddaughter Maren will soon have a sibling! Casey called recently to share that they would be expecting another little Lane in March. Maren turned three in June and is not entirely sure she wants to give up her perch as the 'only baby" in the household, but the rest of us are thrilled with the prospect of another addition and are so excited for Casey and Supermom Sally!

Lezlie's consulting practice continues to do well and she was home for almost an entire year working out of Boulder. However her next assignment took her back on the road to Michigan and working with our dear friend Yvonne at Spartan Foods. We had a great Visit with Yvonne this spring when she and husband Jerry came out for a visit. It was great to have them at the Rockin' Z for a brief visit and in town for a few days! Larry's sister Terri made good on her threat to visit the ranch. Her and Husband Pat came out for a long weekend and were greeted by a host of friends and neighbors. We had a great time visiting with Super Sis and her husband and showing them the ranch, casinos and actually getting Terri up for a brief horse ride!

Larry's year has been filled with surgeries. A particular hard one was for a hiatal hernia which consisted of having a portion of his esophagus removed and replaced by a portion of the stomach. Not something he wants to do again! Immediately afterwards the perennial kidney stones kicked back in and a cystoscope was required including a stent in the "woo hoo" for about a week (the worst part!) but now everything is back on track and though there are still 7 stones still rolling around they are too small to treat so it is wait and see time!

Finally cleared to go back to "whispering" larry and Lezlie rented a barn and pasture with the intention of running a boarding stable (to pay the rent) and open a "non-profit" (kinda like Larry's horse business!) therapeutic riding center for kids with learning disabilities. This turned out to be a disaster and we quickly lost our lease over disagreements on how and who was going to run things with the landlord. We quickly had to relocate the fourteen horses we had filled the stable and pastures with and move everything out. We have decided to run the therapeutic center from the Rockin' Z and have our first two summer programs in July and August! So despite the set back everything appears it may work out after all!

The other big news from the Rockin' Z is this year we expanded the round pen and created a small arena for the horse programs and had the driveway black topped. Next year..... Indoor Plumbing!

may the horse be with you....

.Snow Out the Wazoo! (March 2007)
If you've ever wondered where your Wazoo is stop by sometime and I'll show you. Because after a mild winter last year we definitely had our wazoo's full of snow this one! We had seven straight weekends of at least a foot each and the 8th and 9th weekend left us with a few inches. Since Christmas (today is March 1) we have have been walking to the barn on an ice path of 2-3 feet thick. One step either way and you wound up up to your thighs (knee now) in Snow. All the challenges of living in the high country. By now the road has melted and we don't have an actual luge run the 1/2 mile of our road to our house. At one point it was scrapping the mirrors on the side of the car if you strayed a few inches either way and was over 4 feet tall. In the midst of all this larry decided to have his little problem and only thanks to some great neighbors and friends were we able to keep going and coming. Before the snow came larry had somewhat tamed a small 4 point buck deer to come by every evening about five for a handful of grain which he would usually eat right out of larry's hand. But once the snow got so deep he couldn't make it in any longer we lost track of him. Now we are looking forward to the spring thaw (and mud!). We should perhaps see a little more snow up at this altitude but hopefully not the dumps we were getting pounded with every weekend. For all its inconvenience there is nothing prettier than to wake up to the trees covered in a silver powder and see the fluffy snow on the rooftops and ground. That's one of the reasons we love it up here!

Wind! (Oct 2006)
Well it's Spring and it looks like we almost missed Winter altogether. Winter usually comes early to the high country but this year it has been a relatively late and easy one. Probably no more than 3 1/2 feet of snow and mild temps to go with it. But we have had wind. I hate wind. I've never liked wind. It messes up your hair, blows things in your yard that have to be raked and picked up.

Now to top it all off, this acupuncture lady I have been going to tells me I may have a wind problem! Now folks I swear, I never once farted in her office, or even within a block of the place, not even a little quiet one. So what's up with that?  Well it seems that face twitch, the one I had brain surgery for a couple of years ago, came back after six months of relative peace and quiet. So, since all conventional therapy seemed unable to help I went to an acupuncturist who specializes in herbal and Chinese medicine.

Last time I was in there she told me it must be a "wind problem". "I don't think that was me",  I answered sheepishly (how else do you confront a cute little hippie lady that pokes pins in you and tries to blame you for one of her little busters, but sheepishly?). She gently smiled and said, "not that kind of wind."

It appears the Chinese think there is wind, fire, glass and metal in your body that can cause things to get out of kilter. I didn't know that. But the more I think of it, it sounds to me that if you've got all those "elements" rattlin' around inside you that would be more of an argument for gas and farts than a face twitch! You do the math!
That's the memo!

Living In the Mountains (spring 2005)
Living in the mountains is the absolute best! I was born and raised near the coast and I love (and miss) the water. I just can't do the heat anymore and need the quiet and coolness of the mountains. To watch the sun rise through the mist and the see the clouds coming up the canyon is a wonderous sight! I miss the South sometimes as I am, and will always be a Southerner. It is important to me. But like so many other Southerners in earlier times I have migrated west and have no inclination to go back.

I miss some of the "Characters" we have in the South and was vividly reminded of it by a visit from a long time friend (Pam) when she would imitate the little old ladies of South Carolina, sitting on the veranda of course, "well my daddy says that back durin' the wawar" (meaning war) also meaning the War for Southern Independence not the Civil War, as there was nothing civil about it (damn Yan-kees!). Anyway it is visits like hers and a movie like 'Fried Green Tomatoes' that reminds me I love the west but I am a Southerner.

The good news is that I have discovered we have characters here too! Like the old guy that lives down the road. Nice man, in a funny kind of way.  I once asked him when was the best time to see mountain lions? He told me, "once you seeum son...it's too late"! That's Mountain Living!