Ice At The Lake

I cannot convey strongly enough just how much I enjoy living so close to the lake.

Just up the road.

Five minutes drive.

Close enough for short adventures in the dead of winter.

 Close enough for long adventures in the dog days of summer.

Trails for bike riding and walking, hills for hiking, water for fishing and kayaking..............

There is an elderly lady who lives at the end of our road.

She lives in a dilapidated single wide mobile home - an old, run down, beat up piece of junk with the same beautiful views that LC and I enjoy from OUR home.

The first time I met the lady I was walking with Kory in the middle of summer.

She was standing outside on the rotting front porch and I introduced myself and my dog.

Out of politeness I asked her how old her dog was and she told me that the dog was old - about 9.

The dog was so overweight that its' belly reached almost down to the ground.

I smiled politely and my only thought was "the same age as Kory".

We chatted politely for a few minutes about banal things that I don't remember, but somewhere during the conversation the woman told me that in addition to the dog, she also had a pet pig.

I smiled politely at that and then made ready to move on.

Saying that it was nice to meet her, Kory and I started to walk away but as we turned the woman mentioned something else about the pig.

Suddenly curious I turned back to the elderly lady.

"Did you say that the pig weighed 50 pounds or 150 pounds??"

"No - she weighs 250 pounds".

Having no idea what to say in response to that piece of news I smiled again, said again how nice it was to meet her, turned and headed back towards the house.

I couldn't wrap my head around it.

Couldn't wrap my head around the idea of an old woman, and an old dog, and a 250 pound pig all living inside that beat up mobile home (yes.........it was an indoor pig).

A week later I drove by that same mobile home and saw the pig.

It was huge.  And it's belly almost reached the ground.

And it was standing on the rotting porch, staring at the front door, waiting patiently for the elderly lady to let it back inside.

I love living close to the lake so much, that I would even live in that single wide mobile home just to be that close.

Maybe.......................

The days are freezing cold but are irrevocably getting longer each day.

Kory and I made a brief trip to the lake one late afternoon last week after my business closed, rushing home (as I so often do this time of year) so that we could squeeze in some together time at the lake before dark.

It was cold.

It was silently cold and abandoned.

Kory and I had the entire frozen lake and beach front to ourselves, as we do most days in the winter.

We have had little snow this winter down at 5000 feet, so I had to be content to simply enjoy views of the snow in the surrounding  mountains.

The story of this trip was the frozen lake, and the giant chunks of ice that had broken free.

The entire shore line was covered with large blocks of ice - frozen squares and triangles and hexagons that extended from the South Fork end of the lake all the way around to the North Fork end of the lake.

Endless.  Unexpected.  Beautiful................

We were only at the lake for 30 minutes before the invasive cold and increasing darkness demanded a retreat to the vehicle.

The visit was short, but it was long enough.

Long enough for Kory to run.

Long enough for my head to clear and for me to decompress from a busy day.

Climbing back into the warm Tahoe we turned back onto the gravel road and headed towards the house, careful to watch for the multitude of deer who live in the fields close to Buffalo Bill Reservoir...................

I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals........................Winston S. Churchill

Good Ride In The Winter

Every November Sean used to ask me what I wanted for Christmas.

Every year I would tell him that I wanted bike gloves.

Bicycle gloves.

Full fingered gloves - always.

Insulated or not.

But bike gloves.

He used to roll his eyes, shake his head, implore me to tell him something other than gloves, but gloves were what I always needed.

I was rough on them.

And so every Christmas I would open a package from my oldest boy and find a pair of gloves.

The ones above are the last pair he ever bought me.

Pearl Izumi, full fingered gloves, insulated for cold weather bike riding................

I snapped these pictures last weekend during a bike ride down by Buffalo Bill Reservoir...................

When we first moved out the South Fork the large metal building on the property was full.

Full of boxes and tools and other endless things that belonged in a garage, a yard, a house.

It was a mess.

Filled with all the things we hurriedly crammed into two storage units in Idaho in the fall of 2017.

Somehow my bike got buried deep in the back of the metal building and it took months before we finally were able to dig it out.

In the meantime I hiked and worked out on my spin bike, patiently waiting for my Gary Fisher to escape the crammed confines of our metal building.

Recently (and finally) it saw the light of day.

I didn't bike far. 

It was sunny but also very cold, and so I headed from the house down to the lake (about two miles), picked up a narrow and winding trail that took me from one public entrance to the lake to the second, and then biked another couple of miles home.

It was only a short ride.

 But it was a good ride......................

A good ride in the winter is something you quietly put adjacent to your heart; an unspoken victory filed away for times of weakness and need, to be pulled out when you require a reminder of what you are capable of................Tom Babin, Frostbike: The Joy, Pain and Numbness of Winter Cycling

Walking The Canal Trails

We've been having small snowfalls regularly since August.

It has snowed at least once every couple of weeks since the end of summer.

Sometimes small snowfalls.

Sometimes big snowfalls.

And every time it has quickly melted away.

As I write this close to mid-January, we have no snow on the ground again.

The day I snapped these pictures (sometime in early December) there was still a good deal left, and I walked in town with Kory while LC was at what I knew would be a lengthy doctor's appointment.

We made our way through the snowy and icy sidewalks for a half mile before picking up the Canal Trail................

The Canal Trail is a actually a series of trails that once followed a canal that ran through the town of Cody.

There is no downtown canal now, but the short trail system is still a wonderful and private place to walk in the center of town.

Eventually all trails lead up the hill to the expansive complex that houses the arena, the rec center and the library.

Kory and I walked this trail often last winter, when we were still living in a tiny off-season cottage downtown, when we were still looking for a house to buy, still wondering if we would end up in Cody or some other surrounding town, and still trying to get our feet underneath us after having sold our home in Idaho and moving back to Wyoming to start our life all over again................

In the summer these trails are wide open green spaces filled with walking people walking their walking dogs.

In the winter the trails are frozen and empty spaces ripe for a woman and dog to enjoy alone....................

Climbing higher and looking out over the surrounding hills and mountains................

Along the trails there are multiple information boards.

Information, photographs and maps speaking to the history of the downtown area and the old canal system....................

Reaching the top of the Canal Trail, Kory and i found this.

Leave a book.  Take a book.

No names.  No paperwork.  No log in or log out record.

Just a small thing that appears to be working.

I took a book from here last winter.

And then returned it when I was done, along with another book.

Locals appear to enjoy having this option.................

The arena and adjoining recreation center, across the icy parking lot from where Kory and I stood.

Instead of walking across the ice, we stayed on the snow covered grass, followed along the outer edge of the parking lot and made our way across to the library complex......................

One of my favorite places to walk in town in the summer.

The library is a beautiful building completely surrounded by a man-made lake, small waterfalls, endless green space, picnic tables and wonderful landscaping.
It overlooks Heart Mountain, Cedar Mountain and Rattlesnake Mountain.

You would never guess that a major shopping complex was only two minutes away......................

In winter the lake is drained of course, and at this time of year the green space transitions into a wall of whiteness.

The trails are silent.

The trees are bare.

The place is still beautiful to walk................

Condos at the edge of the Canal Trail.

McCullough Peaks in the background.

When we were still at the cottage we did not discount any possibilities in terms of a permanent place to live.

Looking back now, it is difficult to believe that we even considered condos as a housing option.
But only briefly......................

Snowy Heart Mountain..................

Cedar on the left and Rattlesnake Mountain on the right................

Kory and I slowly wandered the snow-covered perimeter of the library, wandered back across the rec center parking lot and picked up the Canal Trail system again, heading back down to the main level of town.

One more information board found during the walk down..............

Once we arrived back at the main level of Cody my sweet dog and I slowly made our way back the way we had come.

There was no rush.

Although we had been walking for about 90 minutes LC had not called me, so I knew that he was still in with the doctor.

Routine, but time consuming things, and Kory and I headed in the direction of the doctors' office.

A bright red house seen along the way.

I have always loved this house.

Always loved the bold color choice, the historic lines, the large banks of windows, the mature trees.  All of it.

It was a good walk.

A quiet walk on a snowy and cold December day in places that both Kory and I knew well......................

All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.............Friedrich Nietzsche, Twighlight of the Idols

Too Much

              

He was laying on his back on the carpeted floor in the bedroom.

I was kneeling beside him.

His eyes were closed.

He was fully dressed but I could see through his clothes.  Through his chest.

And I watched his lungs expand and contract.

Watched the blood flow through each chamber of his heart.

Watched his heart beating strong and regular.

Heard his breathe.   Strong and regular.

Inhale.  Exhale.  Heart beating.  

And then everything began to slow down.

His breathing slowed.

His heart slowed and I continued to kneel beside him, watching it happen.

It beat slower.  And slower.  And slower.

Face unchanged, I calmly whispered his name.

Sean.............

Sean.........................

Sean.

Slower.  And slower.  And slower.

Sean.

I slowly and calmly extended my hands and reached for his shoulders to shake him awake.

My hands slipped through his body and hit the floor as though he was not even there..

I tried again.

My hands slipped through his body.

I tried again.

My hands slipped through his body.

Sean.

Slower.  And slower.  And slower.

And then it stopped.

I watched it stop beating.

I watched as his heart stopped beating.

I whispered his name.

Sean.

But he was gone.

He was gone forever.

I knelt beside him and calmly watched his face.

Sean.

He was gone.

And then I woke up..........................

Yesterday was his birthday.

He would have been 35.

If he had lived.

If he was alive.

If he had not died.

If he was not dead.

But he didn't.  

He's not.

He did.

He is.

I love you Baby.

I tried hard not to think of you yesterday.

I tried very hard.

Because it hurts and after six and a half years it still hurts.

Too much.

Too much.

It hurts too godamned fucking much...........................